Agriculture: Farm Prices Drop During the 1920s, Texas grew 35 to 42 percent of the cotton in the United States and 20 to 30 percent of the world cotton crop. This was due to improvements in irrigation and mechanization (using machines to grow crops). Between 1918 and 1926, the Texas plains increased cotton production from 50,588 bales to more than 1.1 million bales. By the 1930s, overproduction of cotton had dropped prices from 18 cents a pound to six cents a pound and the growth of the cattle industry caused the land to be even more over used.

Abandoned Farm House in Carey, Texas. May 1837. Photographer: Dorothea Lange. Description: Abandoned house in Carey, Texas. Mechanized cotton farming (crops grown using machinery) and displacement of tenant families fast made Carey , Texas a ghost town.

Farming Machinery Photo By Library of Congress Description: 1938, In Childress County, Texas during The Depression plows, tractors and other machinery continued to replace traditional farming that had relied on man and animal power.