by Rodger G. McLane
Agriculture has consistently been a vital
part of life for those living in Panola County since the earliest settlers
established their homes in the virgin forest of what was once Coahuila y Tejas.
Panola County was established from part of
Harrison and Shelby counties in 1846, and according to census records by 1850
nearly 2,676 people were residents of the county.
Those earliest settlers got to work, and in
1850 there were 116,000 acres of working farmland. Those pioneers produced
109,000 bushels of corn, along with 887 bales of cotton. Livestock was equally
important to the early settlers, and an estimated 885 sheep, 2,253 milk cows,
and 4,000 other cattle were owned by the earliest pioneers.
Extension Agent Lee Dudley said that Panola
County has stayed true to its rural heritage.
“Agriculture has shaped our county,” he said.
“We have maintained the rural heritage that we receive from active agriculture.
Look at how many of the rural communities we have. Those communities are a link
to our farming heritage, and just to think we still have these communities on
our maps, and we recognize them with signs going down the road and on the
county maps.”
Before the natural gas and oil industry made
the county rich, the local economy depended on agriculture. In 1880, an
estimated 28,500 acres were planted in cotton, and 10,344 bales were produced
throughout the county.
However, the Great Depression devastated the
agriculture based economy, and the county’s cotton production began being
increasingly less productive. In 1929 nearly 98,000 acres were devoted solely
to the cultivation of cotton. That number dropped by 50 percent by 1940, and
after World War II, cotton production completely ceased due to the
mechanization of agriculture.
Statistics prove agriculture is still
important to the economy of the county. According to information provided by
Dudley, local agriculture brought in $103,684,150 to the county. That number is
helped by the 50 local contract chicken growers who roughly brought in
22,000,000 chickens. According to census data, there are an estimated 24,058
people living in Panola County in 2011. The county is comprised of 842 square
miles which translates into 538,880 acres of land, of which nearly 13,000acres
are water. If all the land in the county was equally divided between the citizens
of the county, each individual would receive 22.4 acres.
Wealth has long been tied to land ownership,
and in Panola County five businesses and five individuals own a combined
113,780 acres of land, or 21 percent of all land in the county. The largest
land owner is Red River Nacogdoches, which owns 64,000 acres with a market
value of $75,835,340. That company is incorporated in Delaware with
headquarters in New York City. Locally, five families with last names including
Broome, LaGrone, Wedgeworth, Allison, and Tiller own a combined 8,000 acres.
Dudley says that the large landowners have a responsibility not only to
themselves as businesspeople, but as landowners.
“It depends on what they are doing with the
land,” he said. “TXU Mining is utilizing that land to provide us the
electricity that we use every day. They have a large responsibility to that
land, and it shows in their reclamation projects. When they leave the land, it
is in better shape than when they started.”
Dudley added that individual landowners have
an equally large responsibility for management of their land.
“They have a tremendous responsibility
because they are utilizing and maximizing the lands potential,” he said. “James
and Dorothy Wedgeworth run their cattle operation to maximize their returns.
Look at Clayton LaGrone’s land, his family maximizes their land for the
wildlife management. Every aspect is different for a management strategy.”
Many local agriculture producers have
benefited from government intervention during hard economic times. Government
watchdog group EWG Farm Subsidies publishes a list of recipients of farm
subsidies all over the country. That list may be found at www.farm.ewg.org. The group reports that
from 1995 through 2011, farmers and other agriculture providers in Panola
County received over $3,000,000 from the federal government. Ralph Jordan with
Farm Service Agency said that these programs are essential to agriculture
industry.
“Where ever we have an office, these programs
are available to everyone that qualifies,” he said. “The conservation programs
pay farmers to take land that is highly erodible out of production. The land
may be taken out for 10, 15, or even 20 years, and we give an annual rental
payment because that land is environmentally sensitive. We don’t subsidize at
100 percent, but we can help them out.”
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