78 EQUUS 498 AUTUMN 2019
This map shows the location of big Texas ranches
of historical significance, along with the state’s
ecological zones. Many of the ranches are located in
the rolling plains zone, which has a high percentage
of arable soil and receives enough rainfall to support
shortgrass prairie species such as Indian grass and
buffalo grass or to grow wheat. The Pérez Ranch sits
below the Edwards Plateau at the junction of desertic
brush country and the more cattle-friendly Blackland
Prairie zone. The King Ranch, whose history will
be told in our next installment, occupies an area of
humid coastal grassland bordering the Coastal Sand
Plain, which settlers called the Wild Horse Desert.
Listed acreages are historically maximum holdings;
most operations are now smaller or are no longer in
existence as ranches.TAMING THE PLAINS
“The plow
that broke the
plains.” This
is a museum
reproduction of
John Deere’s
original
design.A Kansas farmer uses an early Deere plow.
The steel “self-cleaning” plow made it
possible for farm workers to turn over an
acre of soil in less than 100 hours.Three early barbed wire designs: top, Joseph Glidden’s
original 1874 patent; middle, one made by Jacob Haish and
patented in 1875; bottom, Isaac Ellwood’s design utilizing
wire tape with stapled rather than twisted points.