King Cotton
Once more it is harvest time in West Texas. Although Cotton isn't quite the king crop that it once was it is still an intregal part of the farm economy. My father and his father before him were cotton farmers. But the farm economy is pushing towards more and more land being farmed by fewer and fewer people. Seeing these large fields and imagining the homes that once stood upon them; The homes of countless farming families that have been squeezed off the land; one wonders if progress is all that it's cracked up to be.
at 9:12 PM
5 Comments:
so many small towns still honor cotton, with parades, balls with debs, kings and queens..in our little west paper they have a section of what happened 50 years ago or 90 years ago, etc..and they always have articles where they talk about how many lbs were ginned...the record, the first person to bring his crop to be ginned..how many bales, etc..yes, cotton was king..great picture..
I remember when I was a kid, there was a farm house on most 1/4 or 1/2 sections.
Back then you could make a living and raise a family on 160 - 320 acres.
There all gone now.
Corprate farms are the norm now.
The Matador Ranch is located around the little town where I live. 126,000 + acres ( now - it used to be bigger). At one time they employed 40 -50 cowboys. Now, they have 6 cowboys and a couple of bookeepers in the office.
An old Indian man said '' In the old days, there was no crime here, no taxes, and our women did most of the work. Then the white man comes...and he calls this Progress''.
True, but I'd rather see rows of cotton plants than rows of asphalt roads, shingles and new subdivisions and shopping malls covering every square inch of available land.
My grandfather was a farmer in Texas, and we still hold land there, mostly with oil underneath (scarce though) it, and cotton fields on top. I remember how surprised I was when I found out how sharp the cotton stems are, next to the soft cotton. I like the picture.
granny: My granddad was a winner of the first bale many times. I remember in my early youth, one year we picked the first bale by hand. It was an experience that I shall not ever forget.
phred: It is sad but all too true.
dear jane: You are soo right.
terry: It is a dichotomy. That is for certain.
mimi: The work surely isn't.
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