Cotton farming in Texas

750 word essay is not in the syllabus. I asked for an essay on the impact of cotton farming in Texas within the context of eco-regions. On reflection I realize that this topic is also sensitive to time period, so confine your essay accordingly. Thus, the first big revolution that impacted agriculture/environment was the invention of the steel plow by John Deere in the early 1800’s. Look up the “John Deere effect”. This allowed native prairie sod in black lands and tall grass prairies to be broken up large scale for crops. Drier grasslands further west (as in Texas Panhandle) required wells and irrigation to convert native systems to cotton.
In the 20th century, pesticides to control bowl worm and other insect pests were the main drivers of associated ecological changes. I have started it below!!

In the early 1800s, a blacksmith named John Deere. In order to plow soil, Deere acquired a broken steel saw blade, and from it crafted a new type of moldboard plow. This was the beginning of John Deere that most people are familiar with. Plows became very few in number for they were costly, and the animal power needed to pull them was limited. Deere continued to develop plows to be more cost effective with the help of other inventors.
In 1850, Samuel S. Rembert and Jedidiah Prescott introduced Southern cotton producers to their brand new, patented cotton harvesting machine. The cotton fields of West Texas became covered in these new machines. In 1926, West Texas cotton harvest farmers sold their cotton for approximately $2.75 a bale. This made a major impact on the economy at the time and increased production of cotton plowers. John Deere soon teamed up with students at Texas A&M Universities to create more efficient equipment. In 1852 Texas was in eighth place among the top ten cotton-producing states of the nation.