Cattle in the cotton fields: a history of cattle raising in Alabama

491 Pages·1998·1.78 MB·English

by  Brooks Blevins

Cattle in the Cotton Fields : A History of
title:
Cattle Raising in Alabama
author: Blevins, Brooks.
publisher: University of Alabama Press
isbn10 | asin: 0817309403
print isbn13: 9780817309404
ebook isbn13: 9780585323305
language: English
subject Cattle--Alabama--History.
publication date: 1998
lcc: SF196.U5B58 1998eb
ddc: 636.2/009761
subject: Cattle--Alabama--History.
Page iii
Cattle in the Cotton Fields
A History of Cattle Raising in Alabama
Brooks Blevins
Page iv
Copyright © 1998
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Portions of Chapter 2 have been published in the October 1998 issue
of The Alabama Review © 1998 The University of Alabama Press.
¥
The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum
requirements of American National Standard for Information Science-
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-
1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Blevins, Brooks, 1969
Cattle in the cotton fields : a history of cattle raising in
Alabama / Brooks Blevins.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
1. CattleAlabamaHistory. I. Title.
SF196.U5 B58 1998
636.2¢009761ddc21
9819778
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data available
ISBN 0-8173-0940-3
Page v
To the Memory of
Bryan and Alverda Blevins
Page vii
Contents
Preface ix
1. The Melding of Traditions 1
2. Piney Woods and Plantations 13
3. Agricultural Progressivism and the South 43
4. The Midwestern Model Meets the South 76
5. Cattle in the Cotton Fields 114
6. New Farmers in the New South 143
Appendix 167
Notes 175
Bibliography 197
Index 207
Page viii
Maps and Tables
Maps
Alabama Counties xiii
Physiographic Regions of Alabama xiv
Tables
Alabama Cattle and Human Populations, 18401990 167
Effects of the Boll Weevil in the Black Belt, 19101920 168
Cattle and Cotton Prices, Selected Years 169
Presidents of the Alabama Cattlemen's Association 170
Cattle Numbers in Selected Counties, 19591992 172
Cattle-Raising Statistics, Selected Counties, 1992 173
Page ix
Preface
In 1994 cattlemen's groups in Alabama and across the nation
celebrated the 500th anniversary of the arrival of cattle in the
Americas. Undoubtedly, cattle raisers of the fifteenth century, or piney
woods herders of the early twentieth century for that matter, would
find familiar little if anything in the modern cattle industry. Larger,
meatier animals roam pastured fields enclosed by barbed-wire fences.
Roundups and brands are as rare in Alabama today as purebred
Herefords were in the nineteenth century. The forces of government
and science have cooperated to control diseases and parasites, and
American wealth and affluence have created an unimaginable demand
for beef.
In Alabama the cattle raisers of the late twentieth century bear little
resemblance to those of the early twentieth century, and much less to
the native American and French herders of the eighteenth century.
Open-range
Page x
herding continued throughout the state until Reconstruction.
Beginning in the plantation districts and spreading into the less fertile
regions, planters and large farmers accomplished a steady
encroachment upon the range and its herders. Simultaneously, federal
and state governments laid the foundation for the development of
scientific agriculture, research, and extension. The southern economic
morass after the Civil War reinforced the dependency on cotton and
the development of the system of tenancy and sharecropping. Only
with the arrival of the boll weevil and Roosevelt's New Deal did King
Cotton find itself threatened by other agricultural commodities.
Planters of the Black Belt, a long fertile stretch of western and central
Alabama, because of the region's unique geological characteristics,
first abandoned cotton in significant numbers upon the arrival of the
boll weevil. In the three decades after World War I many Black Belt
planters adopted a midwestern model of cattle raising consisting of
purebred British breeds, improved and enclosed pastures, scientific
breeding and feeding practices, and intimate cooperation between
cattlemen, government agents, and business interests. These modern
cattle raisers and their practices differed strikingly from those of the
open-range herding tradition, which slowly disappeared before the
closing of the state range in 1951. Nonetheless, these twentieth-
century cattlemen inherited the practices and values of their planter
forefathers, and their combination of midwestern methods with
traditional southern labor practices reflected the continuity of the
planter spirit.
In the past half century the Alabama cattle industry has witnessed
tremendous growth, and revenue generated by the state's cattle raisers
is surpassed only by that of the poultry industry among Alabama's
agricultural commodities. The cattle-raising industry has played an
integral role in agricultural transformation and social change and has
reflected the important position of such government agencies as the
cooperative extension service and agricultural experiment station.
Cattle raising has also undergone demographic changes. Since the
1960s other regions of the state, most notably the Appalachian
counties, have equaled and often surpassed the once dominant Black
Belt in cattle production. A key part of this phenomenon has been the
increasing importance of part-time farmers in the cattle-raising
business. The absence of federal price controls and subsidies for cattle
raisers has made the business a precarious pursuit, one especially
suited
Page xi
to individuals obtaining their primary sources of income elsewhere.
As a result commercial cattle raising, dominated by plantation-belt
planters in the mid-twentieth century, has in the past three decades
increasingly regained the egalitarian characteristics of the antebellum
era and has become the state's most popularly practiced agricultural
pursuit.
The work that follows grew out of a research project first started in
the summer of 1994. In August of that year I began the task of
collecting historical information on the Alabama cattle industry and
organizing this information for the Alabama Cattlemen's Association's
historical museum. In the process the story of the Alabama cattle
industry began to unfold, offering both familiar themes and
unexpected developments. This study is agricultural history set within
the context of southern history, and therefore I attempt to accomplish
some balance and interconnectedness between the popular themes
associated with each field. This is not an economic history, though in
places statistics and percentages abound. Because this is the first
lengthy study of the development of the cattle industry in a southern
stateand possibly in any stateI present the history of Alabama cattle
raising in a chronological narrative and interject historiographical
interpretations and themes when pertinent. Perhaps this method will
best provide an introduction to an overlooked and underworked topic
in agriculture and in the development of the South.
Over the course of this project I have received invaluable aid and
advice from numerous people. For first alerting me to the project in
the spring of 1994, I owe a debt of gratitude to Marty Olliff. For their
useful critiques of chapters or sections of the book, I thank Tony
Carey, Larry Gerber, Steve Murray, Carol Ann Vaughn, and Gordon
Harvey. Chuck Simon enthusiastically lent his vast knowledge of
antebellum cattle herding in the early stages of my work. The
Alabama Cattlemen's Association provided generous financial support