The following table shows the comparative number and value of live stock in 1928 and 1934: Texas led all States in 1935 in the number of cattle, sheep and mules. Goats in 5930 numbered 3,142,321.
Texas is ideally adapted to live stock raising. There are large areas which produce luxuriant pasture grasses, and the soil readily produces feed-stuffs such as corn, Kafirs, oats, hay, etc. The mild winters and light snows make it unnecessary to pro vide expensive sheltering, or store great quantities of winter feed. Beef cattle are raised primarily in the western and southern areas of the State, while dairying is developing rapidly in north central Texas where a denser population provides good local markets. There were 1,335,000 milch cows in 1934. Butter made in creameries increased from 4,982,000 lb. in 1918 to an average of 25,352,000 lb. annually for 1927-31 and to 36,543,000 lb. in 1934. The total value of dairy products for 1929 amounted to $55,620,703. Large-scale ranching, so prevalent formerly on the Great Plains area of north-western Texas, is fast disappearing in that region, giving way largely to crop growing. Below the cap rock throughout the great expanse of middle west and north-cen tral Texas there remains a large ranching industry, with the large ranch holding its own, particularly in the rougher country. The chief "big ranch" country, however, may be said to begin with Kennedy county on the coast below Corpus Christi and spreads toward Laredo and San Antonio, continuing on across the broad expanse of the Edwards plateau, including the middle and upper sections of the Rio Grande valley and the Trans-Pecos province.
The sheep and goat industry is much more highly localized, be ing confined largely to the Edwards plateau and the hilly regions of west-central Texas. Wool production in 1934 was 60,485,000 lb., valued at about $13,488,000. The Angora goat with its produc tion of fine mohair has been bred up from the common black goat introduced into Texas by the early Mexicans by importing Angora rams. The quantity of mohair produced in 1934 was 10,342,000 lb.
Swine decreased from 2,400,000 in 1920 to 1,561,461 in 1930, increased to 2,033,000 in 1933, and declined to 1,226,000 in 1935. Hog raising is largely an avocation of the cotton growers in the eastern part of the State. Poultry-raising fluctuated markedly during 1925-35. In 1934 29,030,000 chickens and 1,569,000,00o eggs were raised, having a combined value of $27,508,200. In 1929 turkeys raised numbered 3,782,912.
The annual value of all Texas crops has declined drastically since 1919 when war prices accounted for the peak value of $1,071,527,000. The first postwar depression caused the value of
the 1921 crop to decline to $424,776,000, but succeeding harvests increased in value to $729,754,000 in 1927. By 1931 the total had again fallen, to $308,910,000. It was $233,156,000 in 1932, in and in 1934. Of the 1927 total value, $464,053,000 was contributed by the cotton crop alone.
The phenomenal development of cotton-raising above the cap rock between 1920-27 had demonstrated that there was yet much land that could be turned to that use. Of a total farm acreage of about 31,000,000 ac. in 1926, 18,363,000 ac. were devoted to cotton. This was the largest acreage recorded up to 1935 and the resulting crop of 5,628,000 bales was the largest ever produced in the State. As a result of the rapid decline of cotton export prices from 20.4 cents per lb. in 1928 to 7.3 cents in 1932, the State's cotton acreage decreased from 16,887,000 ac. in 1928 to 11,488,000 ac. in 1933. Production showed no marked decline until the Federal crop reduction programme became effective in 1934, but the farm value of the crop fell steadily from $450, 300,000 in 1928 to $140,169,000 in 1932. Crops for the same years were 5,105,00o and 4,500,000 bales, respectively. The 1933 crop was 4,428,000 bales, valued at $208,558,000. In 1934 the production declined to 2,395,000 bales.
The value of other crops in 1933 follows: corn, $46,390,000; grain sorghums, $26,394,640; wheat, $10,365,920; oats, $7,490, 880; rice, $6,224,850; sweet potatoes, $4,056,000; tame hay, $4, 013,200; white potatoes, $3,250,800; wild hay, $1,200,600; barley, $674,000. Wheat and rice are grown for the market and all other grains are primarily for home consumption. Corn is grown throughout the crop-growing areas of the State. Rice is confined to the lower courses of the rivers on the coastal plain. The other grains are principally in the northern and western sections. There was a notable increase in the acreage devoted to barley from 25,000 in 1919 to 221,000 in 1931, but it was confined almost en tirely to the northern Panhandle. This is also the chief wheat belt. In the extreme southern portion of Texas there is a rapidly developing production of sub-tropical fruits and vegetables. There is little canning, as yet, most of the vegetables being shipped for table stock, the early spring permitting them to be marketed at high prices. Citrus fruits, especially oranges and grapefruit are grown increasingly along the Gulf coast and in the lower Rio Grande valley.