Edwards Plateau, a Combination Ranching Region

Abstract

E ODWARDS PLATEAU is one of the most distinctive cultural and physiographic regions of Texas. It is popularly known as the sheep and goat country of Texas, and is the seat of one of the best developed and most prosperous ranching industries in the United States. The underlying limestone rocks (the Edwards and other formations of Comanchean age) resist erosion so that relatively great elevation and scanty stone-littered soil distinguish it from adjoining plain and hill areas on the southeast, east, and north; and the undulating, scrub-tree and thorn-bush summit areas present a marked contrast to the barren, rugged mountain ranges which border the region on the west. The plateau is separated from adjoining parts of the Gulf Coastal Plain on the southeast and east by sheer precipices and dissected areas (Balcones Escarpment) which are so rugged that they are locally designated as mountains. Lower escarpments separate the plateau from adjoining plain and hill land to the north, and the gorge of the Rio Grande is on the southern boundary of the region. Only on the northwest where Edwards Plateau merges with the Great Plains (Llano Estacado) is the boundary transitional in character. Conditions of the natural environment combine to make Edwards Plateau adaptable to a combination ranching industry. The average annual precipitation varies from about 30 inches in the eastern part of the region to 17 or 18 inches west of the Pecos River. This would probably enable the widespread development of dry-farming notwithstanding the rather high insolation and rapid rate of evaporation of the region if other conditions were favorable, but the residual soil cover of the limestone bed rock is so thin and cluttered with stones that all the slope and hill land and most upland districts are permanently non-agricultural. The drought-resistant vegetation is well suited to pastoral utilization since it contains turf forming and bunch grasses, a variety of herbaceous plants which may be designated as weeds, and many kinds of shrubs and small trees-most of which are thorny. Indeed the vegetation is so varied that its thorough utilization necessitates the maintenance of many goats and sheep as well as cattle upon practically every ranch. This plateau has been a pastoral land throughout the period of American occupation, and is now devoted almost exclusively to ranching. After the Indians were expelled (about 1880), sheepmen residing farther east and northeast began to enter the region with their flocks during periods after heavy rains when succulent forage was abundant. The scarcity of flowing streams and other permanent watering places made the range inhospitable to cattle, but sheep throve since they were able to subsist for weeks or even months without access to a water supply other than dew and moisture obtained by feeding upon succulent grasses and weeds. Permanent settlement began about 1890 when wells were bored and equipped with windmills and tanks