is the most common of Texas lizards, except in the western counties where the Texas rock lizards (Sceloporus torquatus; S. clarkii; S. spinosus; S. consobrinus; S. dispar) are numerous. The tree swift, or scaly lizard, is also an inhabitant of western and south-western Texas. The green lizard, the fence lizard and whip-tailed lizard (Cnemidophorus gularis; C. sexlineatus; C. tesselatus, &c.) are quite widely distributed. The Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum), a poisonous lizard, whose bite is injurious but rarely, if ever, fatal to man, also occurs in the desert regions. The blow snake, or spreading adder (Heterodon platyrrhinus), black snake (Bascanion constrictor), coach whip (Bascanion flagellum), and prairie bull snake (Pituophis) are common; the diamond water snake (Natrix fasciata) is found along creeks; the king snake (Lampropeltis getula), in central and southern Texas; and the pilot snake (Callopeltis obsoletus), mostly in the woods of McLennan county. Among venomous snakes the harlequin, or coral snake (Elaps fulvius) is common along the coast; the Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix) along the wooded banks of creeks and rivers; the cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus), in all parts of the state except the more arid districts; the “sidewiper,” or massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus consor, sometimes called Crotalophorus tergeminus) and the ground rattlesnake (Sistrurus miliarius), in all sections. The green rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus) inhabits the valley of the Rio Grande; the plains rattlesnake (Crotalus confluentus), the north-western counties; the diamond rattlesnake (C. adamanteus), the wooded river bottoms; the Texas rattlesnake, western Texas and the southern coast counties; the banded rattlesnake, a few widely separated woodland districts. There are several varieties of the skink (Eumeces). Freshwater fish, consisting mostly of catfish, buffalo fish, bass, sunfish and drum, are common in the lower courses of the rivers. Oysters, clams, and shrimp abound along the coast, and there are more than 500 species of mollusks in the state. The boll-weevil, preying on the cotton, is the most noxious of the insects.
Flora.—The arboreal flora of Louisiana and Arkansas extends into north-eastern Texas, conformable with the Coastal Plain, where, immediately south of the Colorado river, the great pine belt of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts terminates. The flora of the Great Plains region, consisting principally of nutritious grasses, enters the north-western portion of the state and extends south to the Edwards Plateau and east into the Prairie Plains region. The peculiar plants of the Rocky Mountain plateaus penetrate into the Trans-Pecos region, which the north Mexican flora, including the Agave lecheguilla, a valuable commercial fibre, is found along the Rio Grande. The central region is a transition ground where these floras find representation generally in deteriorated and dwarfed species. The long-leaf pine is the dominant forest tree on the uplands of the Coastal Plain, north of the Colorado river, for 100 m. or more from the coast; farther inland and especially in the north-eastern corner of the state, it is succeeded by the short-leaf pine. Between the rising swells of long-leaf pine lands are impenetrable thickets of hawthorn, holly, privet, plane trees and magnolias. Loblolly pine, cypress, oaks, hickory, ash, pecan, maple, beech and a few other deciduous trees are interspersed among both the long-leaf and the short-leaf pines, and the proportion of deciduous trees increases to the westward. In the broad river valleys of the eastern part of the Prairie Plains region are forests and isolated groves consisting principally of pecan, cypress, cottonwood and several species of oak. Farther west two narrow belts of timber, consisting mostly of stunted post oak and black jack, and known as the Eastern and Western Cross Timbers, cross the prairies southward from the Red river, and a low growth of mesquite, other shrubs and vines are common in the eastern half of the Prairie Plains. The western half of these plains has only a few trees along the watercourses and some scraggy bushes of oak, juniper and cedar in the more hilly sections. In the canyons of the Edwards Plateau grow the pecan, live oak, sycamore, elm, walnut and cypress; on the hilly dissected borders of the same plateau are cedars, dwarf and scrubby oak, and higher up are occasional patches of stunted oak, called “shinneries.” The upper slopes of some of the mountains in the Trans-Pecos region are clothed with forests of large pines, cedars and other trees. Smaller trees and shrubs grow farther down the same mountain slopes, but other mountains and the valleys are wholly destitute of trees. The entire valley of the Rio Grande, from El Paso to Brownsville, grows many species of cactus, and other prickly coriaceous shrubs. The low country along the coast is covered chiefly with grasses and rushes, but scattered over it are clumps of live oak, called “mottes.” Grasses representing several species also cover most of the Great Plains, the uplands in the southern portion of the Coastal Plain, and the treeless portions of the Prairie Plains and the Trans-Pecos region.
Climate.—In the region of Galveston, along the northern section of the coast, where southerly or south-easterly winds from the Gulf prevail throughout the year, the climate is warm, moist and equable, but the moisture decreases westward and south-westward, and the equability, partly because of northerly winds during the winter months, decreases in all directions inland. The mean annual temperature decreases to the north-westward with an increase of both altitude and latitude, and ranges from 73° F. in the lower Rio Grande Valley to 55° F. in the northern portion of the Panhandle. The range between the mean of the maxima of the summer months (June, July and August) and the mean of the minima of the winter months (December, January and February) is only from 88° to 50° at Galveston, but at Mount Blanco, Crosby county, on the eastern border of the Llano Estacado, it is from 90° to 26°. During a period of twenty-six years (from January 1882 to December 1908) the greatest extremes that were recorded in the state by the United States Weather Bureau were 113° at El Paso in June 1883 and -16° at Amarillo, Potter county, in the Panhandle, in February 1899; within the same period the extremes at Galveston ranged only from 98° to 8°. Along the coast the average number of days during a year in which the temperature falls below freezing-point is only 3 or 4, but in the Panhandle this average is 111. January is the coldest month in nearly all parts of the state and July is the warmest. The mean temperature for January decreases from 59° at Brownsville, at the southern extremity of the state, to 36° at Amarillo in the Panhandle. The mean temperature for July is 85° both at Beeville, Bee county, in the southern coast region, and at Waco, much farther north but also farther inland; at Amarillo it falls to 76°. The average annual rainfall decreases quite regularly westward and south-westward from 47.6 in. at Galveston to 9.3 in. at El Paso. Along the coast the autumn months are the wettest and the spring months are the driest; for example, at Galveston the rainfall amounts to 5.7 in. in September and only 2.9 in. in April. In the middle, eastern and north-eastern parts of Texas the spring months are the wettest and the winter months are the driest; for example, at Waco the rainfall amounts to 4.5 in. in May and only 1.9 in. in December. In the western and south-western parts the summer months are the wettest and the spring months are the driest; thus, at El Paso the rainfall amounts to 2.2 in. in July and only 0.2 in. in April. The average annual snowfall for the state is about 5 in., ranging from 19 in. in the northern portion of the Panhandle to scarcely any along the coast and in the lower Rio Grande Valley. The prevailing winds are southerly or south-easterly throughout most of the state in spring and summer. Along the coast they continue in the same direction throughout the year, but inland they usually shift to the north or north-west either in autumn or winter.
Soils.—The Coastal Plain has for the most part a light sandy soil, but there is a fertile alluvium in the river bottoms and good clay soils on some of the uplands. The eastern part of the Prairie Plains is a belt known as the Black Prairie, and it has a rich black soil derived from Upper Cretaceous limestone; immediately west of this is another belt with a thinner soil derived from Lower Cretaceous rocks; a southern part of the same plains has a soil derived from granite; in a large area in the north-west the plains have a reddish clay soil derived from Permian rocks and a variety of soils—good black soils and inferior sandy and clay soils—derived from Carboniferous rocks. A very thin soil covers the Edwards Plateau, but on the Llano Estacado are brownish and reddish loams derived from the sediments of a Neocene lake.
Agriculture.—The total farm acreage was 125,807,017 acres in 1900, the total number of farms[1] being 351,085, their average acreage 358.3 acres, 84.9 per cent. being operated by white farmers. There were 11,220 farms of 1000 acres and more; 10,183 between 500 and 1000 acres; 115,393 between 100 and 500 acres; and 88,537 between 50 and 100 acres.
The production of Indian corn was 122,250,000 bu. in 1909 (valued at $92,910,000); the wheat crop, 5,050,000 bu. (valued at $5,959,000); the oat crop, 11,500,000 bu. (valued at $7,130,000); the rice crop, 9,894,000 bu. (valued at $7,717,000)§ the acreage under hay was 618,000, the crop being 587,000 tons and its value $6,985,000 Texas ranked first in 1899 among the states in the production and value of cotton, the acreage of which increased from 2,178,435 acres in 1879 to 6,960,367 acres in 1899, and the number of commercial bales from 805,284 in 1879 to 2,506,212 in 1899, when the total crop was valued at $96,729,304. The estimates for 1909 were 9,334,000 acres and 2,570,000 bales.
In the value of live stock on farms and ranges, Texas ranked seventh among the states in 1880 and second in 1900, with a value of $240,576,955 The value of all domestic animals on farms and ranges in 1900 was $236,227,934, Texas ranking second in this respect among the states. The censuses from 1860 to 1900 showed a far greater number of neat cattle on farms and ranges in Texas than in an other state or Territory; in 1900 the number was 7,279,935 excluding spring calves); and in 1910 there were 8,308,000 neat cattle including 1,137,000 milch cows. In the number of horses the state ranked third in 1900, with 1,174,003 head—excluding colts—and in 1910 with 1,369,000 head. In the number of mules the state ranked first by a wide margin in 1900, with 474,737 head, and in 1910 with 702,000 head. In the number of swine the state ranked eighth in 1900 with 2,665,61 head, and third in 1910 with 3,205,000 head. In the number of sheep the state rose from fourth rank in 1880 to first in 1890, but dropped to tenth rank in 1900, when there were 1,439,940 head; in 1910
- ↑ Not including farms of less than three acres and of small productive capacity.
