TEXAS BUSINESS REVIEW 

Vol. XIX, No. 1 February, 1945 
A MONTHLY SUMMARY OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN TEXAS 

Published by the Bureau of Business Research, The University of Texas 
Austin 12, Texas 


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ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR 

TEXAS BUSINESS REVIEW 

Business Review and Prospect 

TEXAS BUSINESS REVIEW 
Published Monthly by the 
BUREAU OF BUSINESS RESEARCH 
The University of Texas, Austin 12, Texas 

Staff of the Bureau of Business Research 
A. B. Cox, Director 
F. A. Buechel, Statistician Clara H. Lewis Income and Consumption-Editor Editorial Assistant 
E. H. Johnson, Natural Resources Helen Woodcock and Industrial Geography Secretary 
School of Business Administration Staff Co-operating 

Public and official attention continues to be focused upon war activity in both its military and economic aspects almost to the exclusion of everything else and this situation will grow in intensity until Germany collapses. Upon the fall of Germany substantial eco­nomic readjustments are expected to get under way at once but there is a wide range of opinion as to precisely how extensive these transformations will be as long as the war with Japan continues. There also is currently much speculation and divergence of opinion regarding fundamental economic problems upon the termination of war with the defeat of Japan. 
For example, a popular industrial and financial weekly magazine has just pointed out that hints of some major changes in post-war United States economy showed up in the week's news. These changes, it is stated, seem likely to include wider swings-for a period of years at least-in the business cycle and alterations in the geographic distribution of industry. The ac­centuated drain on certain natural resources and over­capacity in certain war expanded industries will force other changes. 
Automobile production, it was pointed out, will serve to illustrate one of the forthcoming new modifying influences on the business cycle. The trend of auto­mobile production may become a cause, rather than an effect, of the swings in the general business cycle. This possibility was raised when the Office of War Informa­tion announced anew that prolongation of the war is creating an increased deferred demand for new cars. The O.W.I. placed this accumulating demand at from 12 million to 15 million units. Automotive and tire manu­facturers will operate at capacity for two or three years following the war, after which replacement buying will fall far short of cushioning the decline. But a renewed rush of purchases will come when the great mass of new postwar cars all become old together some years hence. This concentration of new-car buying in a relatively few years, alternating with sharp declines, will tend to be repeated for a considerable period. That situation will either exaggerate the swings in general business or actually tend to cause them. 
What seems likely to happen in the automobile in· dustry probably will develop also to a greater or less extent in other hard goods industries, including the building trades, where the deferred demand resulting from the government ban on production for civilian use during the past few years has reached huge proportion!!. 
Other war·induced economic factors that might modify the swings of the business cycles in the future both as to frequency and intensity are the technologic develop­ments along many lines and the tremendous growth of mass production of chemical raw materials. Notable among the latter are synthetic rubber, plastics, light metals and the like, the production of which are less subject to price fluctuations and hence will tend to serve as contributing factors in stabilizing industrial activity. These and many other factors resulting from experience in both World War I and World War II, including new types of governmental controls, are likely greatly to influence the pattern of business cycles in the future. 
A problem already well in sight and due to grow larger, is the depletion accelerated by the war of certain of our natural resources. The War Shipping Adminis­tration has disclosed that a fleet of the largest and fastest ore carriers in the world is being built to carry iron ore northward to the United States mainly from Chile. Other materials which it will be necessary to import in greater quantities include most of the non­ferrous metals, although not so very many years ago we were self-sufficient in copper, lead and zinc. 
The war too has greatly modified the location of heavy industry in this country. Plans already under way are designed to retain many of these industries in the newly developed industrial areas. Prominent in these plans of industrial migration are the Far West and Southwest, each of which areas possess significant natural ad­vantages for future growth. Changed market conditions, too, which have been greatly influenced by population shifts during the war, are likely to survive in these regions after the war. 
Governmental policy regarding patents, technical aid to small industry and information to consumers regard­ing quality of products are likely soon to come in for increasing attention. The whole problem of the part the government is to play in assuring full employment is also rapidly becoming a subject of public discussion, and this tendency will be accelerated as the war in Europe and finally in the Orient draws to a close. 
TEXAS INDUSTRY AND TRADE 

As a result of its being a repository of a large propor­tion of many of the world's natural resources most vital to modern industry, and as the locale of many new indus­tries brought into being by the emergency of war be­cause of the presence here of these natural resources in enormous quantities, the Texas and the Gulf Southwest area have become a great industrial region almost over­night. Most of the war industries established in this region during the war are either making, or are readily capable of making, products which fall directly in line with probable new post-war economic trends. Among these are, specifically, such raw materials as synthetic rubber, plastics, and light metals, together with a wide range of other chemical raw materials which can be made available if and when the demand arises. 
An article in this issue of the REVIEW in conjunction with one in the November, 1944, issue by Elmer H. John­son sets forth in broad outline the more basic facts concerning the natural resources of Texas as bases for the economic development of the State. In the January, 1945, issue Mr. Johnson summarizes the recent industrial advance in Texas which was accelerated by the war, thus emphasizing the pre-eminence of this State in many vital materials essential to modern industry. 
To retain the gains made in Texas industry during the past four years will require an intensive program of research and education based upon science and tech­nology and translated into action by dynamic industrial and financial leadership. There is little doubt but that with a sound educational foundation and an aggressive industrial leadership not only can many of the war­induced industries be converted and even expanded for peace-time production, but many new consumer in­dustries can be developed. 
CURRENT BUSINESS IN TEXAS 
Texas began the new year with substantial gains in many lines of retail trade and industry in comparison with the high level which prevailed during January, 1944. Total retail sales were up 17.6 per cent from a year ago and the seasonal decline of 38.1 per cent from December, 1944, to January, 1945, was far below normal. Types of stores showing the greatest year to year gains were shoe stores, 42%; furniture stores, 33 %; dry goods and general merchandise, 26%; women's apparel, 23%; family clothing stores, 20%; and department stores, 19%. A number of other groups showed substantial gains and only the automotive group registered a decline. Whether or not the favorable year to year comparisons which prevailed in January will continue as the year advances will depend largely upon the availability of a sufficient quantity of satisfactory merchandise. 
Petroleum production totalled 2,127,750 barrels daily during January compared with 1,889,750 barrels per day during the corresponding month last year, an increase of nearly 13%. The Texas output represented more than 45% of the total national production. 
Notwithstanding the high level which prevailed a year ago, postal receipts in January were up more than 21 %. 
JANUARY FARM CASH INCOME 
Cash income from agricultural marketings in Texas during January totalled $103 million compared with $67 million in 1944, an increase of more than 54%. The major portion of the increase in income over January last year ll'as the result of deferred cotton ginnings caused largely by labor shortage and a sharp inc~eaae in forwardings of cattle, calves, and sheep. Contnbut· ing also to the increase in income over January~ 1944, was a moderate increase in the prices of cotton hnt and livestock and a sharp increase in tile price of cottonseed. 

INDEXES OF AGRICULTURAL CASH INCOME IN TEXAS 
(Average Month 1928--'32 equals 100) 
Cumulative Cath luceme in Thousand• of Dollan 
f .. ~~.;.. l 

Districts  Jan., 19t5  Dec., 1944  Jan., 1944  19'5  1944  
1-N --------­255.1 1-S --------­596.8 2 --­--­------­677.8 3 ----­-----­-367.6 4 ------------­374.4 5 --­--­-----­425.0  203.4 363.9 205.7 310.2 258.9 338.0  154.1 400.8 220.7 229.8 255.2 224.7  8,093 12,684 18,498 3,955 13,402 5,215  4,890 8,516 6,024 2,473 9,135 2,757  
6  ----­------­ 271.0  361.7  228.5  3,764  3,174  
7  ----­-----­ 358.5  184.0  248.4  3,839  2,660  
8  --­-------­-­ 471.3  219.6  289.6  6,918  4,252  
9  -----­-----­ 642. 7  401.1  574.6  10,392  9,289  
10  ------------­ 755.1  515.6  310.0  3,700  1,519  
10-A  -------­ 618.5  587.9  648.5  12,122  12,712  
STATE  ---­ 468.3  296.7  307.7  102,582  67,401  

NOTE: Farm cash income as computed by the Bureau undentate1 actual farm cash income by from six to ten per cent. This situation reiults from the fact that means of securing complete local marketings, especially by truck, han not yet been fu11y developed. ln addition, means l1ave not yet been developed for compuiing cash income from a11 agricultural specialities of local imponauce in scattered areas throughout the State. This situation, however, doee uot impair the accuracy of the indexes to any appreciable extent. 
Also adding substantially to the favorable year to year comparison of cash income in Texas were the larger cash receipts from wheat, oats, grain sorghums, fruits and vegetables. Hog shipments and income from this source, however, were down sharply, hut this fact was only a minor offset to the increases in income which occurred in the other groups of products mentioned. 
ESTIMATED TEXAS FARM CASH INCOME IN 1944 
Exclusive of government subsidies, farm cash income from marketings in Texas during 1944 as computed by this Bureau, totalled $1,154, 777,000. The actual farm cash income, after allowances are made for federal sub· sidies and the understatement in the computations of approximately 7% because of incomplete data on mar.ket· ings, is approximately $1,300,000,000. This total is almost 150% greater than the comparable figure in 1939. 
Income from cotton and cottonseed totalled $306 million or about 26% of the computed cash income from marketings; grains, including rice, amounted to $192 million or l 7%-t4e computed income from wheat alone for the calendar year being $94 million dollars, the bulk of which was received by growers in the North High Plains; livestock and livestock products accounted for $508 million or 44%; and that from fruits and vegetables nearly $149 million or 13%. 
It should he noted that the understatement ir.1 the computations is confined practically entirely to product. other than cotton and cottonseed, since the data on the marketings of the latter products are practically com· plete. 

The following table breaks the computed cash income crops and crop reporting districts to the desired degree down into the eighteen principal commercial farm prod-of accuracy, with the exception already noted of income ucts by crop reporting districts. Considerable work from cotton and cottonseed for which the computed remains to be done to bring the figures on income by figure is quite close to the actual. 
PRELIMINARY ESTIMATES OF TEXAS FARM CASH INCOME IN 1944 BY PRODUCTS AND CROP REPORTING DISTRICTS 
(JN THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS) 
Product l-N 1-S 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 JOA STATE Cotton ------··---------------------3,510 46,001 45,320 2,456 64,386 18,719 9,862 2,806 22,929 8,739 2,116 16,675 243,529 Cotton Seed ------------------969 12,720 12,395 619 16,117 4,531 2,215 716 5,465 2,107 510 4,012 62,376 Wheat ---------------------------72,002 1,305 10,016 3,356 5,826 1,109 93,614 Rice ----------------------------'-35,095 35,095 
Grain Sorghum -----------9,242 17,003 8,159 309 148 17 212 6,417 11 ll8 41,636 Com -------------------------------212 251 153 301 2,439 1,458 191 1,061 255 806 7,127 
Oats -------------------------------809 2,072 1,616 6,446 833 2,136 %2 14,874 Cattle ----------------------------26,888 21,942 22,227 24,385 12,251 6,145 18,218 17,651 14,520 6,161 9,108 179,4% Calves ------------------------------1,038 885 2,017 6,140 3,949 3,359 1,457 3,350 12,226 7,556 2,752 44,729 Hogs -------------------------------4,578 7,048 2,110 .>,597 9,341 3,871 56 2,077 2,981 .')43 1,266 37,268 Sheep ------------------------------571 535 1,942 556 1,388 35.'> 3,836 13,2% 849 12 22 23,360 Poultry ----------------------------564 916 1,114 l,.'>14 4,726 1,789 807 664 3,797 3,313 465 549 20,018 Wool ----------------------------493 1,096 2,483 1,843 2,.'>93 179 3,905 17,480 868 103 99 30,942 Mohair ----------------------------20 201 804 550 47 606 6,547 607 11 47 9,440 Eggs -------------------------------1,456 2,780 4,000 l,.'>33 29,187 4,415 2,215 1,159 7,220 8,139 1,249 2,105 65,258 Milk Products ----------------6,533 4,563 6,960 3,034 25,729 9,111 2,709 1,782 15,867 15,886 1,906 3,198 97,278 Fruit-Veg. Canning_____ 1,43.'> 48 159 12,611 84 10,398 6,391 92,331 123,455 Peanuts -------------------------1,002 1,980 7,102 2,403 5,074 848 3,195 443 . 3,245 25~292 
TOTAL --------------------------B0,298 118,115 123,149 58,765 187,438 72,512 45,970 72,024 109,362 88,174 30,100 118,870 1,154,787 
Non: Farm cash income as computed by the Bureau understates actual fa1 m cash income by from six lo ten per cent. This situation results from the facl that means of securing complete local marketings, especially by truck, have nol yet been fully developed. In addition, means have not yet been developed for computing ca~h income from all agricultural specialties of local importance in soattered areas throughout the State. 
Since prices of the principal farm products grown costs and as a consequence the gain in net profits of the in Texas are now inclining gradually upward and this individual farm operator has not risen in proportion to trend promises to continue for a time at least, a further his income. A few districts show no gain in total cash small increment of gain in total farm cash income for income during the past two years and in these the net the current year appears likely even if no gain in profits of individual farmers no doubt has actually de· physical production occurs this year. It should be noted, clined. however, that the gain in aggregate cash income during 
F A. BUECHEL.

the past four years has been accompanied by rising 
A Comparative View of the Nat11ral Resources of 
the Texas Region 

PART II 
NATURAL RESOURCES ASSOCIATED WITH 
SUB-SURFACE CONDITIONS 

"The mineral geography of the future has been etched in the earth by recent industrial development." C. K. Leith, Foreign Affairs, July, 1925. 
How Mineral Resources Have Become Important 
Mineral resources did not become important in the modern sense until the earlier part of the 19th century; and it was not until the latter part of the century that mineral resources began to be used in comparatively large amounts, which since then has been continuou.sly increased until at present this vast volume product10n is one of the outstanding features not only of the world's minerals industry, but also of modern industry as a whole. 
To a considerable degree, the growth in the demand for minerals during the 19th century paralleled the growth in the uses of the steam engine, particularly with reference to its applications in industry and in trans­portation. Modern mass-productio.n. industry '_Vhich con· sumes minerals in such vast quantities grew directly out of the revolutionary developments in the production of iron and steel during the last quarter of the 19th century -a movement based upon the successful application first of the Bessemer process together with the associated techniques which were later applied to and which sub­sequently still further revolutionized iron and steel pro­duction. The Bessemer process was invented in 1856. This, it is of significance to note, was the same year Perkin discovered the first of the chemical dyes and only three years before the historic Drake oil well was brought in, and it was also the year after Benjamin Silliman prepared an historic paper dealing with the problem of thermally decomposing the heavier fractions of crude petroleum in order to yield desirable lighter products. 
These widely different types of discoveries were not unrelated; they were part and parcel of the quickening of economic and scientific activity which grew apace during the 19th century, and which was reflected in a constantly widening field of industrial operations espe· cially during the latter part of that century. 
The quickened economic activity that prevailed in the United States prior to World War I was typified, to a considerable degree by the rapid tempo of progress made in the electric industry, which as a modern industry started from rather feeble beginnings in the early 1880's, and which had reached full-fledged industrial status only at the time of the opening of World War I. 
The principal source of mechanical energy during the 19th century was the steam engine, which itself was undergoing continuous improvement; commercial developments in the use of the steam turbine came during the latter part of the century. As long as the energy of the steam engine, or that derived from harnessed water­falls for that matter, could be transmitted only by mechanical means, its applications were sharply limited in scope, and at the same time it made necessary a high degree of concentration of industry. 

From the standpoint of industry, electricity is a means of effectively transmitting energy. With the advent of the electrical age during the latter part of the 19th cen­tury not only was industry freed from the limitation which made necessary its geographic location in close proximity to the site of the steam engine, or to water­falls, but it also made feasible substantial improvements in the production of energy. The widened scope of industrial developments initiated not only the generation of energy in bigger blocks but it also made possible a certain amount of decentralization of industry. At the same time, it made feasible not only an accentuated growth in "old" industries but it also made possible the development of wholly new industries and their ex­tension on constantly broadening proportions. 
The vast growth of the electrical industry consumed large quantities of iron and steel and at the same time it brought about the rise of the copper industry, together with increased consumption of other non-ferrous heavy metals such as lead and zinc. In time, the application of electrolytic refining to metals not only increased the production of the non-ferrous metals group but it also made possible the large production of these metals in a high state of purity. 
The growth of electro-thermal processes resulted furthermore in the creation of wholly new industries, such as aluminum, on the one hand, and of the broad group of products of the electric furnace on the other. 
All of these developments resulted in an acceleration of industrial requirements for minerals, especially of the metals and coal. 
In the latter part of the 19th century came the in­vention of internal combustion engines, the spectacular growth of which has brought about during the 20th cen­tury the almost insatiable demands for motor fuels. 
If the date of the inception of industrial chemistry is put in the early 1790's with the commercial application of the LeBlanc process for producing alkalies, the chemical industry dates from almost as far back as the steam engine. 
The chemical industry of the 19th century, although characterized by epoch-making discoveries, was little more than a series of industries which were accessory to the established industries of the time; its products were used in processing and finishing operations in such widely different industries as soap and glass, paper and textiles, metal industries, the fertilizer industry, oil re­fining, and so on, all of which were undergoing marked 
expansion. The chemical industry of the 20th century, however, is characterized particularly by the large-scale operations concerned with the synthesis of specific materials. The chemical industry still produces in increasing proportions both processing and finishing materials; but 
it is in the line of chemical synthesis, in which the industry manufactures, by mass-production methods, constantly widening groups of diverse materials, many of which do not occur in nature, and which in themselves serve as bases (intermediates) for whole new industries of large proportions. These newer industries are ex· emplified in an outstanding manner in such things as synthetic rubber, synthetic resins and plastics, synthetic fibers, ingredients for aviation gasoline, and the like. 
The fundamental factors involved in the development of these new types of production cannot be detailed here but it may be emphasized that by and large they grew out of, and to a certain extent were built upon the momentous industrial and scientific achievements which so markedly characterized the 19th century. 
An important fact, however, is that these epoch· making developments which have become so obviously important in affecting production in the present century are all interrelated; another important fact is that for the most part they are dependent, and increasingly so with the passage of time, upon raw materials which can be supplied only from the world's reserves of mineral resources. 
To sum up: We are witnessing in today's world in the widespread displays of vast industry developments, along with the epoch-making advances in science and technology, a constantly increasing dependence upon our mineral reserves which in time will not only force various undeveloped reserves into utilization but will also make necessary a moro elaborate utilization of all our mineral resources. 
Inasmuch as mineral resources are the products of geologic processes that have operated throughout long periods of geologic time, a precise knowledge of the earth history, or the geologic architecture of each of the continents is obviously a prerequisite to an understand· ing of, as well as for the attainment of an economic perspective concerning the distribution, characteristics, and reserves of the world's mineral resources. 

Although mineral resources are widely distributed in the earth's crust, yet commercial deposits and accumula· tions the world over are comparatively few for any individual mineral, and geologic deposits of any con· siderable size for all minerals are very irregularly distributed over the earth. Moreover, with the con· tinuous expansion of modern industry, especially since around 1890, and more particularly since the period of World War I, only the comparatively large deposits or accumulations of minerals are capable of meeting the enormous demands; and production operations as a con· sequence have pretty generally converged upon such large deposits the world over. 
The effective commercial utilization of large accumula· tions has been made possible in virtually all cases by the application of progressive developments in tech· nology which have served to render such deposits eco· nomically avialable. 
Trends Important to Future Industrial Growth 

Developments in technology have by no means run their course, as witnessed, for instance, in recent large production of magnesium, or in the achievements of the synthetic rubber program. It is apparent that advanc· ing technology will continue to revolutionize the uses to which mineral resources are put by making practical their so-called higher and more elaborate utilization, a feature which comprises one of the outstanding promises of modern industrial chemistry. 
As to post-war developments there is little question as to the high position the chemical industry will have in all industrial countries by virtue of its inherent characteristics. A vastly expanding chemical industry will necessarily require larger and larger quantities of mineral raw materials, for the newer phases of this industry are dependent upon mineral resources. 
The possibilities of the chemical industry in Texas cannot be measured in terms of conditions which have held in the past. The Texas chemical industry will produce increasingly for the national market in laqzer and larger volume, and perhaps for the world market as well. There is no valid reason why surplus chemicals made in Texas may not occupy a large and increasing position in post-war international trade. Certainly, complex chemicals constitute one of the industrial specialty groups which the United States will export in large quantities in the coming years. 
Forecasting future developments as to individual min· eral resources, as well as of the industries built upon their utilization, is, of course, attended with considerable risk: This much, however, appears certain­
!) Expanding industrial production will call for con· tinuously increasing supplies of raw materials, especially those furnished by mineral resources. 
2) In some fields of minerals, paralleling accentuated industrial production, the demand in relation to reserves will be much greater than in others; moreover, within another quarter of a century it appears that the reserves of many natural resources will have become critical. 
3) With increased industrial production in the future, certain readjustments as to mineral requirements will inevitably take place. In the case of the light·weight metals, for instance, these will certainly be produced in greater quantities than has been the case in the past and the same statement is applicable to alloy steels. In the heavy chemical industry, synthetic organic chemicals apparently will take on a vastly added importance, and especially is this almost certain to be the case in the aliphatic group of the hydrocarbons, the raw materials for which can be furnished in large volume from petroleum and natural gas. 
For the sake of perspective, it is well to note that although the United States had a sizable oil industry prior to 1900, it was not until oil production had migrated west of the Mississippi River-into the Gulf Southwest and California that truly large production came into being. In fact, it was the then enormous de­mands occasioned by World War I that really caused the first great boom in the widespread search for oil. 
The large growth in recent years of oil and gas pro­duction in the United States-and the same principle is applicable to the rapidly growing chemical industry­is an integral and highly important part of a widely inclusive economic movement which is definitely ex· emplified in vastly increased mineral production the world over. As aptly summarized by Dr. C. K. Leith in a recent address: "The industrial use of minerals began with the Industrial Revolution, but when we realize that the world has used more minerals in the last three or four decades than in all preceding history, we can see that the problems involved are really new in human affairs." 
Modern industrial civilization is based fundamentally upon the utilization of mineral resources. 
Geologic Perspective of the Texas Oil Industry 
First fact of importance in regard to the distribution of oil and gas resources is that commercial accumula­tions of these resources are of scattered occurrence. Like all other minerals, they are very irregularly dis­tributed over the earth's surface. Their present occur­rence is due to the occurrence in advantageous combina­tions of numerous conjunctural factors of a geologic nature that, on the one hand, have led to their accumu­lation, and which, on the other hand, have prevented their dissipation. 
The conditioning aspects of the occurrence and ac· 
cumulation of oil and gas, including of course the prob­
lem of reserves of these vital minerals, are factors of a 
geologic nature. An understanding of the geographic 
distribution of oil and gas accumulations the world over, 
it may again be emphasized, is dependent upon a full 
knowledge of the geologic development of the continents, 
from the pre-Cambrian to the present. Because of the 
broad scope of oil and gas production and of reserves in 
Texas, the following brief survey is given in order to 
present a broader perspective of these important natural 
ret;ources. 
Although studies dealing with the fundamentals of 
Texas geology were begun before oil became of im· 
portance in the State, the rather complete knowledge of 
Texas geology it is now our good fortune to possess has 
come to a large extent as a result of geologic investi­
gations related to oil production. 
As a better, more complete knowledge of the sub­
surface geology of Texas has evolved, the facts and con­
cepts thus made available become applicable not only 
to an understanding of the oil and gas resources but also 
to other important sub·surface resources, such as the non­
metallics and underground waters. 
The progress of geologic knowledge of the State has 
also made possible a better appreciation of the geologic 
setting of Texas in the geologic make-up of the North 
American continent; at the same time, with the advance­
ment of geologic knowledge elsewhere in the world, it 
is possible to deal in a substantial manner with the com­
parative aspects of the world's oil resources and there­
fore to have a clearer perspective of the large place 
Texas oil reserves occupy in the world picture. 
It may be noted, for purposes of comparison, that 
Oklahoma'$ entire oil and gas producing territory lies 
in the Mid.Continent area of the Continental platform, 
and its production (with the exception of one or two 
minor cases where there is some Oklahoma production 
from the Lower Cretaceous) is entirely from the Paleo­
zoic, or the oldest oil-producing section of the geologic 
column. 
In sharp contrast with Oklahoma, California's entire 
production of oil and gas, also with a few minor excep­
tions, comes from the youngest of oil producing forma­
tions of the geologic section, the Tertiary of the Cenozoic, and the later Tertiary at that. California's oil producing districts are in the exceedingly thick sedimentary beds of the Tertiary emhayments and basins, which i!1 Cen?· zoic time were rapidly sinking basins or synclmes; m California, Pliocene production in rather steeply folde~ structures is of outstanding importance. Althou?h C~l~­fornia is a large State, the total extent of Cal~forn~a,s oil producing territory is surprisingly small. Cahforn~a s oil producina districts are limited to the southern portion of the San J~aquin Valley, to the Los Angeles Basin, and to the Coastal fields of the Transverse Ranges, which lie just to the northward of the Los Angeles Basin. 

Texas oil production, from a comparative point of view, is different still. In brief, Texas oil and gas are produced from all three of the major geologic perio~s -from the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic, and the Cenozoic sections of the geologic column, although this situation does not obtain for any one of the major oil producing portions of the State; that is, each major region produces mainlv from the rocks of only one of the major geologic periods. The fact that in Texas all three of these major divisions of geologic formations are large producers of oil is but another illustration of the economic significance resulting from the diversity of geologic conditions that is so characteristic of this State. A map of Texas oil fields shows that oil production is not only widely dis­tributed over the State but also that the regional areas of oil producing territory are large. The late Robert 
T. Hill used to say that Texas bragging is a habit some­times overdone but not so in considering the vast number of the State's geologic formations, the wide range of geologic time they represent, and the number and variety of oil producing horizons which they contain. 
These larger facts of the comparative geologic aspects 
of Oklahoma, California, and Texas are basic to an 
understanding not only of current production but also 
of remaining reserves of oil and gas in these states which 
comprise the Big Three in the United States oil picture. 
With the advent of deep drilling, made possible by 
improved equipment, and applied to exploration for and 
production of oil, together with the wide areal extent of 
such explorations, our knowledge of sub-surface geologic 
conditions and of the natural resources associated there· 
with, particularly oil and gas, has been tremendously 
increased in recent years, and especially since the begin­
ning of World War I. 
No longer is the geologist limited to studies of out­
cropping strata and their projected extensions, however 
important these have been in the past and still are in 
geologic studies; facilities provided from deep drilling 
have revolutionized the geologist's knowledge of sub­
surface structures, both large and small, as well as of 
sub-surface stratigraphy and paleontology. 
The geologist's ability to present to an almost un­canny degree the facts as to sub-surface conditions illustrates in a revolutionary manner the methods now generally available in comprehending the extent and character of natural resources far below the surface of the lands. 
OIL AND GAS RESOURCES OF TEXAS 
The occurrence, volume, and characteristics of the oil and gas resources which are so significant to Texas are genetically tied in with the factors of the past geographic geology of the State, of those features which have been evolving since pre-Cambrian times; for these resources are genetically associated with the numerous types and kinds of geologic formations, the wide range in geologic time the formations represent, the large nwnber and variety of source-beds and oil producing horizons the formations contain, together with geologic structures, major and minor, that are present in the different sections of the State, and which are of determining influence in localizing oil and gas accumulations into pools of commercial extent. 

In a State as large and as geologically diversified as Texas, it becomes essential to deal first with the major geologic divisions represented, in order to obtain a necessary perspective. When this is done, the various structural regions and the different types of oil fields can be more adequately considered in reference to their individual setting in the larger geologic subdivisions of the State. 
A key fact in the consideration of structural regions 

the world over with reference to the accumulation of 
oil reserves embraces the history and characteristics of 
what geologists have designated as positive areas in the 
earth's crust and of the geosynclines which are com­
plementary of and lie adjacent to, or between these 
positive areas. 
In order to present some of the high points in the 

perspective which embraces both the sheer extensiveness 
of and the wide diversity in the geologic conditions of 
Texas as they pertain particularly to oil and gas re· 
sources, the following brief outline of the three major 
geologic provinces of the State is presented. 
The MUl-Continent Portion of Texas 
The great central portion of Texas southward from 
Red River to the Rio Grande belongs to the Mid­
Continent province, the Texas portion of which is geo­
logically a continuation southward from Oklahoma and 
Kansas. The great Permian basin of West Texas and 

eastern New Mexico is geologically but a modified por· 
tion, although a highly complicated section of the Mid. 
Continent province. The entire area of the Mid­
Continent belongs to the Continental Interior Platform 
of the North American continent; it is characterized as a 
whole by its thick Paleozoic section, together with 
Triassic and Jurassic and Cretaceous overlappings at the 
western and southwestern portions of the province. Con· 
sidered in its larger aspects, the Mid-Continent province 
as a whole is a vast geosyncline, or geologic basin, 
stretching from the Front Ranges of the Western Cordil­
leras eastward to the positive areas represented by the 
Ozark Uplift and the Ouachita Mountains in central 
United States. Southward it extends to the Llano Uplift, 
the Balcones fault and flexure zone, and thence westward 
to the front ranges of the Trans-Pecos country. 
Although the Paleozoic history of the entire area is 
complex, it was a submerged region during a consider· 
able part of Paleozoic time. Its last submergence was 
during the Cretaceous of Mesozoic time. Of importance 
to the preservation through the long periods of geo· 
logic time of oil and gas fields in this vast area is the 
fact that the Mid-Continent area as a whole has not been 
subjected to strong deformational movements of the 
mountain-building type since the end of the Paleozoic, 

which movements in many sections of the earth have resulted in great disturbances of the formations through intensive folding and faulting during the Mesozoic and the Cenozoic. After all, since oil and gas accumulations are evanescent features of the earth's geology, it is to be emphasized that the occurrence of these accumulations in large amounts in the Paleozoic rocks, and particularly in the Early Paleozoic, constitutes exceptions in the bigger picture of the world's oil resources. Wherever oil and gas accumulations do occur in these older geo· logic formations, such areas have been relatively stable, geologically considered, throughout a very long period of time. This means, of course, that for the entire Con· tinental Interior Platform, possibilities for accumula­tions of oil and gas occur particularly where the forma· tions have remained relatively unaffected and therefore undisturbed by major mountain-making forces, and also where exceptional conditions for such accumulations and 
their preservation are present. 
Production of oil from the Paleozoic is not as yet greatly important in foreign fields. As a matter of fact, the production of oil in foreign fields is predominantly from the Tertiary. One of the sections of the world underlain with Paleozoic strata and which may become important in oil production consists of the great Eurasian plains on either side of the Ural Mountains. These plains also overlie the vast Continental Interior Platform of northern Eurasia. The great Russian basin which includes the Moscow region is somewhat comparable to the Mid-Continent province of the United States, and on the basis of known facts the Russian basin should supply fields of the Mid-Continent type. There are also Paleo­zoic basins in the Siberian plains which appear favorable as regards possible oil reserves. 
The district grouping of oil and gas fields in the Mid. 

Continent portion of Texas are of course well known; 
they include North-Central Texas, which embraces the 
fields along the Bend Arch flexure and on the Red River 
Uplift. They also include the broad area of the Permian 
Basin, together with the large gas and oil fields of the 
Texas Panhandle, all of which occur in a great geosyn­
cline lying east of the Cordilleran ranges. Production 
in the Bend Arch and the Red River Uplift is mainly 
from the Pennsylvanian, although there is also produc­
tion from older formations. The K. M. A. field in 
Wichita Country has deep production from the Ellen­
burger formation of the Ordovician. Most of the pro­
duction in West Texas thus far, and from the Panhandle 
also, is from porous limestone of the Permian, but in the 
Panhandle there is also production from the so-called 
"granite wash," and in West Texas, production from the 
Lower Ordovician, including the Ellenburger in partic­
ular, together with the Devonian in some areas, is 

becoming increasingly important. 
Emphasis should be placed on the fact that the Permian 
basin and the Panhandle are districts of large oil pro­
duction, in both the State and national picture. Also 
worthy of emphasis is the fact that the reserves of these 
two districts comprise a prominent place in the picture 
of the oil reserves of the nation, and finally that the 
Panhandle gas field is the largest gas field in the United 
States, and perhaps in the world. Furthermore, it is to 
be kept in mind that should the deep Ordovician in the 
newer fields to the northward in the Permian Basin 

prove highly productive, West Texas reserves will be 
considerably augmented. 
It is appropriate to note in this connection tha~ t~e 
so-called Ural-Volga region of east-central Russia 1s 
comparable to the West Texas Permian basin as to 
general geology, the prevalence of limestone production, 
and also as to the character of the oil. 
The Coastal Plains Portion of Texas 
Another major geologic sub-division of Texas com· 
prises the Coastal Plains portion of the State, in w~ich 
Cretaceous and Tertiary beds of great aggregate thick· 
ness occur; in the main, these beds dip gently Gu~fward. 
These strata comprise what Wallace Pratt has designated 
as the sedimentary fringes on the continental platforms. 
Robert T. Hill called them a recently constructed geo­
logic "lean-to" attached onto the main continental mass. 
The Texas Coastal Plain is a portion of the Gulf 
Coastal Plain, an extensive land-form which borders the 
Gulf of Mexico from western Florida to Texas; to the 
southward the Coastal Plain extends beyond the Rio 
Grande into Mexico, and further southward it comprises 
the Peninsula of Yucatan. The other sector of the 
Coastal Plain at large is the Atlantic Coastal Plain which 
borders the Atlantic coast from Florida to New Jersey 
and which discontinuously includes Long Island and 
Cape Cod. 
The western boundary of the Gulf Coastal Plain in Texas may be considered as approximately the Balcones fault zone, which as a topographic feature was formed relatively recently, geologically speaking, although the roots of which apparently extend far back into geologic history. At its northern boundary, the Gulf Coastal Plain formations overlap Paleozoic rocks-all the way from the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma and Arkansas eastward to the southern extension of the Appalachian geosyncline. 
The Gulfward dip of these Cretaceous and Tertiary beds is interrupted in northeastern Texas and north· western Louisiana by a huge structural high, the Sabine Uplift, as well as by the compl~mentary synclii;ies ~r basins on either side of this uphft; also, occurrmg m rather definite sections of the Gulf Coast country, as well as in the East Texas Basin, are the curious salt dome structures, the interpretations of the origin of which after 40 years of study and observation remain among the most intriguing problems of Texas geology. And, it hardly needs to be added, Texas geology is not char­acterized by paucity as regards either the number or the complexity of problems as scientifically intriguing as they are commercially important. 
The regional dip of the Coastal ~lains bed is Gulf· ward, as is also the case of the reg10nal surface slope, but the geologic beds have a greater rate of inclination than the surface relief has. 

The generally gently sloping dips of the different Coastal Plains formations are not, however, of the same degree of inclination, ~or the inclination of. the younger ones becomes progressively less and less; this means that Gulfward, the dips of the formations of the. surface become progressively gentler, and therefore deviate pro­gressively less and less toward the coast from th?t of the regional slope of the surface. And conversely, 1t means that in the subsurface at any one place the older, that 
is, the deeper formations have progressively increasing 
dips. What happens in the character and to the struc· 
ture of these sub-surface beds as they plunge beneath 
the Coastal Plain, together with the occurrence of buried 
strata which do not outcrop, supplies the key to the 
occurrence of the oil and gas accumulations which make 
the Coastal Plain of Texas and Louisiana-one of the 
great producing regions and at the same ti~1e o•e of.the 
remaining big reserve areas of oil and gas m the Umted 
States. 
As to the pattern of surface relief, the regional surface 
slope of the Coastal Plain bevels across the ontcropping 
edges of the varied gently dipping strata from the most 
recent along the Gulf, across the several Tertiary forma· 
tions, as well as of the Upper Cretaceous beds along the 
interior margin of the Coastal Plain. The more resistant 
of these strata are relief forming materials and are often 
marked by escarpments which face interiorward. Interior 
from these escarpments are a series of lowlands which 
are formed on the weaker, less resistant beds. 
In this connection it may be noted that some of these outcropping belts are important as intake areas which provide sources of underground waters in the subsurface extension of such beds. Lignite deposits occur in ilome of the Tertiary formations and near-surface accumula­tions of iron ores are present in the Tertiary porti0n of northeastern Texas. 
Differences and changes in the stratigraphic charac· teristics which also are of premier importance in making the Western sector of the Gulf Coastal Plains, chiefly in Texas and Louisiana, one of the big reserve oil provinces of the world are certainly of sufficient importance to merit careful attention. The general arrangement of these Tertiary beds is that of a series of sedimentary cycles, the pattern of which is a couplet arrangement consisting of alternating sands and clay formations, but with the latter predominating as to thickness; this is tea say that the bulk of the Tertiary section consists of clays. In origin, this pattern of sedimentary deposition was associated with the regional oscillations of the Gulf at time of deposition, although in part it is also tied in with regional uplifts of lands to the interior, such as those of the southern and southwestern portions of the Continental Interior Platform, and even of the Cor­dilleran mountains, from the erosion and physiographic reduction of which the Coastal Plains sediments were derived in a past geologic period. Curiously, too, the Pleistocene formations, comprising the Lissie formation and the BeaumoRt clays, undoubtedly are related in origin with climatic and other conditions resultant from or at least closely associated with the Glacial peried of 

the Pleistocene. Moreover, changes in the stratigraphy of the strata are evident in the transitions of individual Coastal PlaiD8 formations down-dip, such as, in some instances, the gradation on outcrop of the Tertiary beds from deposits of the continental type into marine sandy beds which still further down the dip sometimes grade into impervious clays or shales, although in the latter sand lensee may also occur. In addition, most of the formations become progressively thicker toward the Gulf; this conditioa, in combination with the Gulfward dip of the formations, renders the older Tertiary beds in the vicinity of the Coast beyond the real'-h of the drill under present condi­tions. 
Locally gentle structures in lensing sands along the so-called trends are now receiving increased attention as regards the accumulation of oil and gas in the coastal country. The importance of these factors in oil and gas deposits is rather self-evident in the light of the general geology of the region. 
As drilling has progressed, other stratigraphic changes have come to be known, such as the occurrence of sub· surface formations which do not outcrop at all and there· fore have to be studied by the methods of sub-surface geology. One of these cases of possible far-reaching importance is the occurrence of the buried Jurassic oil· producing horizons in northwest Louisiana, southwest Arkansas, and their reported occurrence in extreme north· east Texas together with the as yet unsolved question as to whether the Jurassic occurs beneath the Cretaceous in the Texas Gulf Coast country. Another problem of no small importance in the Gulf Coast oil industry is that of Tertiary sub-surface beds as, for instance, in the Oligocene which do not outcrop and which are defined and differentiated on the results of sub-surface work based largely on diagnostic foraminifera through studies in microscopic paleontology. 
Still another problem of the stratigraphy of the Gulf 

Coastal Plains is the occurrence of what are called 
stratigraphic traps, one striking example of which is the 
pinching out of the truncated Woodbine sand in con­
junction with the overlying sealing-off formations of 
other Upper Cretaceous formations in the gigantic East 
Texas oil field. The East Texas field, which lies on the 
western flank of the Sabine Uplift, affords an ideal 
example of the significance of such traps to the accumu­
lation of oil in large quantities. 
Summing up, the distribution of the oil fields of the 

Gulf Coastal Plain is associated with certain structural 
and stratigraphic conditions which characterize the 
various rather broadly defined zones or belts that occur 
in the Coastal Plain. 
The so-called fault-line fields follow trends of the 

Balcones system, as in the Mexia-Powell district where 
the main production is from the Woodbine sand, and to 
the southward, at Luling, Darst Creek, and Salt Flats, 
where production is from the porous upper portion of 
the Edwards lime. Structurally, these southern fields 
occur on a great complementary fault east of, and 
parallel to, the Balcones Escarpment, the latter being 
magnificantly displayed as a topographic feature along 
the southeastern and southern margin of the Edwards 
Plateau. 
In the northeastern portion of Texas most of the fields 

are associated with structures dominated by the Sabine 
Uplift together with those of the complementary basins 
or synclines adjacent to this uplift. The Caddo field, 
located on the northern margin of the Sabine Uplift, 
is one of the oldest fields in Texas. 
The East Texas Basin fields include the tremendously 

large East Texas field, the Van field, which also is ~ 
large field, together with Talco, Sulphur Bluff, and 
Rodessa; the Mexia-Powell fault-line fields lie on the 
western boundary of the East Texas basin. 
The Van field, discovered in 1929, which apparently 

is a deeply buried salt dome in the East Texas or Tyler 
syncline, produces mainly from a thick and rich section 
of the Woodbine sand, the structure of which is a faulted 
anticline. To the north of the Sabine Uplift are Talco 
and Sulphur Bluff which produce from the Paluxy sand of the Comanchean, or Lower Cretaceous, as well as the Texas section of the Rodessa oil field, which produces from the Glen Rose, a formation also belonging in the Lower Cretaceous. Production in all of these fields represents relatively new developments. Then, on the western margin or flank of the Sabine Uplift, and extend· ing fairly well down into the East Texas basin, is the tremendously large East Texas oil field, which produces from the Woodbine sand, of the Upper Cretaceous, from a type of accumulation termed a shoreline structure. East Texas is one of the largest oil fields in the world; the total volume of oil originally contained in this field has been estimated by some to have been as much as 5 billion barrels. 
The Gulf Coastal Belt, lying just interior from the coast line, wherein production is from Cenozoic forma­tions, and mostly from the Late Tertiary, and which in the United States extends from the Mississippi River delta country in Louisiana to the Rio Grande, can be divided into two main districts: (a) the Coastal Louis· iana-Houston portion or district, the production in which has been dominantly associated with the occurrence of salt domes, of both the piercement type, with steep struc­tures which are only local in extent, and the (presum· ably) deeply buried domes, characterized by gentle structures of larger areal extent; and (b) the southern district, which includes the Corpus Christi and Laredo areas, in which production is primarily associated with the so-called trends, the detailed structures of which, singly or in combination, include stratigraphic traps, domal or anticlinal folds, together with faulted struc­tures. 
Summing up: Oil and gas accumulations in the Gulf 

Coast country are associated to a large extent with salt 
domes of the piercement type or with very gently folded 
structures, the latter having been brought about by 
various factors. These gently folded structures may be 
modified by faulting. lnteriorward, the fault line fields 
along the inner margin of the Coastal Plain constitute, 
of course, special types of oil accumulations. In addi· 
tion, the East Texas basin which in the main lies down· 
dip from, and more or less marginal to, the Sabine 
Uplift constitutes another special area of large accumu· 
lations of oil. 
Historically, oil production in the Gulf Coast country 

has been characterized by several waves of exploration 
and resultant production: the first, initiated by the Lucas 
gusher at Spindletop consisted in drilling domes of the 
piercement type, the locations of which were fairly 
obvious from surface indications; a second wave began 
about 1924 with the application of methods of micro­
scopic paleontology and the use of the refraction seismo­
graph to subsurface work; and a third one began about 
1928 with the introduction of the reflection seismograph, 
which is capable of picking up deeper and gentler struc· 
tures. A fourth wave of development may ensue when 
advances in drilling equipment and technology make 
practical exploration and production at depth from 
15,000 to 20,000 feet or deeper, in this region. 
The Gulf Coast country is outstanding both as to oil 

production and oil reserves, not only in Texas but in 
the national picture as well; in addition, this region is 
also a very important producer of natural gas. Of 
particularly great significance are the so-called distillate 
or condensate fields, production from which has been developed and greatly expanded through cycling opera· tions in recent years. This region undoubtedly has large reserves of natural gas. One of the unsolved geologic problems of Texas and it is an economic problem, too, of vast magnitude, concerns the physical state of oc· currence of the oil and gas hydrocarbons, if they do occur in substantial quantities, at depths of 15,000 to 20,000 feet or even greater under the Gulf Coast area. 
The Gulf Coast country, as Wallace Pratt has pointed out is a portion of one of the world's outstanding petroleum-hearing provinces-"the intercontinental de­pression lying between the continents of North and South America, occupied by the land-locked Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. The oil fields of Trinidad, Vene· zuela, Colombia, Mexico, and our own Gulf Coast fall in this province." 
There are three other major oil-bearing provinces of the Tertiary whose importance has been proven: The Tertiary basins of California, generally characterized by steep folding of the beds; the Far East, on the opposite side of the Pacific; and the Tertiary basin regions of the extraordinarily important oil province of the Near East, together with Baku and the Caucasus field of Russia; these latter districts occur in the general region of junc· ture of the three continents of the Old World-Europe, Africa, and Asia. This oil province of ahnost spec· tacular proportions has been called by Pratt "the site of the greatest petroleum resources so far revealed in the earth's crust." 
In conclusion, it should be noted that the increased requirements for crude oil in Texas occasioned by the war have made necessary the stepping up of production of all the Texas districts to their maximum efficient rates of production. 
To quote from Richard J. Gonzales in an article by him on "War Record of the Petroleum Industry in Texas" in The Humble LubricaJ,or, October, 1944: 
"Production in the Gulf Coast and West Texas is cur­rently about twice the daily average in 194°1. Each of these areas is now producing about 500,000 (barrels) compared with slightly more than 250,000 in 1941. Southwest Texas has witnessed an expansion in produc­tion of 150,000 barrels daily during the past three years to an average of 375,000 at the present time. Production in East Central Texas has increased 90 per cent over 1941 to an average of 150,000 (barrels) for the third quarter of this year. In the East Texas field only a slight gain in production has occurred since 1941, as allowables have been restricted in order to maintain reservoir pres­sure. The combined production for North Texas and the Panhandle is now 250,000 (barrels) compared with 210,000 in 1941, an increase of nearly 20 per cent." 
NON-METALLIC RESOURCES IN TEXAS 

The earlier phases of the chemical industry were based upon the utilization of non-metallic resources, especially common salt, which as a substance is, of course, to most people, one of the most non-spectacular of the non­metallics; its manner of occurrence, however, may be highly spectacular as in the salt plugs of the Texas and Louisiana Coastal Plain. This aspect of the chemical industry has increased tremendously during the past 125 years, attended by a constantly growing diversity of products. It now constitutes what is commonly referred to as the heavy chemical industry. 
Still other large-scale industries have arisen which are based upon the non-metallics-industrie~ s~ch as cement, a large volume industry, and glass which is both a large volume and a highly diversified industry, as w~ll as a wide range of industries supplying industrial mm~ . erals of varying types. . · 
The essential fact for emphasis, however, is that smce around 1900 the utilization of non-metallics (other than coal and petroleum) has steadily grown from a position of comparative obscurity to a plane of industrial develop· ment somewhat comparable with that achieved hy the metals. Industrial utilization of the non-metallics is represented by such industries as inorganic chemicals and cement production. 
Texas is especially rich in its large reserves of certain non-metallics. And, because of the magnesium content in limitless ocean waters, Texas may also be considered as rich in those compounds from which one of the im· portant light metals, magnesium, can be extracted ef· fectively. 
One of the first non-metallics (other than coal) to be used industrially was common salt, the large chemical utilization of which came with the successful application of the LeBlanc process for making alkalies, which was developed in the l 790's, but did not come into com· mercial prominence in Europe, and in England in particular, until after the Napoleonic wars. 
The alkali industry of today is based upon the utiliza· tion of common salt, which chemically is made up of sodium and chlorine. With its large production of sodium carbonate, caustic soda, together with chlorine and numerous other products, such as metallic sodium, the alkali industry is, of course, one of large proportions. Future trends in demand for the heavy alkalies will follow those of industrial development as a whole. Demands for chlorine have, however, increased con­siderably in recent years, and paralleling the expansion in certain chemical lines, which use chlorine as a raw material, it seems probable that the demand for chlorine in the postwar years will be a large one. It is to he expected that the demand for metallic sodium will also increase in the postwar period. 
Sulphuric acid made from sulphur has long been another important product used as a process chemical in multitudinous uses in industry. 
The large growth of the commercial fertilizer industry during the latter part of the 19th century brought about large uses of phosphate rock, potash minerals, the Chilean nitrate deposits, and of sulphuric acid as well. 
The expansion of the modern cement industry after 1890 resulted in the large-scale use of cement raw materials-days and limestones. 
In the same way the growth of the glass industry brought into being the large use of glass sands together with various chemicals used in considerable quantities hy the industry. 
Texas, it may he noted, has rather large reserves of Full~r's earth, a filtering and bleaching clay used in oil refinmg. In 1943, Texas led in the production of Fuller's earth, accounting for 35 per cent of the total output for the United States. The State, in general is well supplied with limestones. ' 
As is the case of the oil and gas resources of Texas non-metallics such_ as commo~ salt, gypsum, potash, and sul~hur ar~ _genetically associated with subsurface geo­logic cond1t1ons. The potash deposits of the Permian Basin in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, for example, are the products, through the accumulations of these compounds from chemical precipitation in a desic­cating sea, which became entirely dried up in later Permian time; after their deposition as a result of evaporation of the shallow seas, these deposits which were laid down as evaporites were covered over by Red Beds materials of the continental type, which in this area with its characteristically dry climate have effectively sealed off and thereby protected the soluble non-metallic materials from the surface effects of weathering and solu­tion. 
Inasmuch as the production of potash in the Carlsbad, New Mexico, area during the past few years came to be sufficient to supply most of the domestic demand of the United States, the situation as to potash reserves in the Permian basin merits at least brief mention in this dis­cussion of mineral resources. 
The enormous gypsum deposits which are so charac­teristic of portions of the West Texas Permian formations also were laid down in certain stages through which the desiccating Permian sea progressively passed. 
In the Gulf Coastal Plain, in association with certain 
of the peculiar geologic structures or occurrences known 
as salt domes, occur relatively large deposits of sulphur. 
The quantity of salt reserves from the salt domes in this 
region is of vast magnitude, sufficient to supply all pos­
sible requirements for an indefinitely long time. 
As to sulphur reserves in Texas, in terms of elemental sulphur, the late Dr. Donald C. Barton some years back conservatively placed the estimates for Texas at 35 to 50 million tons, and for Louisiana, around 20 million tons. The Manchester Guardian Commercial, April 14, 1939, carried the following statement: "The world's known reserves of native sulphur are estimated at about 180,000,000 tons, of which about four-fifths are ac­counted for by Texas and Louisiana." 
Magnesium 

Within recent months the magnesium resources of Texas and the Southwest have been expanded on a magnificent scale as a part of the war effort, although the Dow Chemical Company had established a metallic magnesium plant at Freeport prior to Pearl Harbor. It seems appropriate to note in this connection that both aluminum and magnesium are, commercially considered, new metals. The commercial process for producing aluminum was discovered in the late 1880's; with the availability of electric power in large blocks, industrial production of aluminum was begun in a rather small way around 1900. The great growth in aluminum did not come, however, until after World War I. Commercial production of magnesium was but a comparatively small item during the period of World War I, at which time Germany had done more than any other country in developing magnesium production. The Dow Chemical Company produced small amounts of magnesium at Midland, Michigan, during World War I. Dow perse­vered in developing new methods of extracting mag­nesium from brines, processes which later were applied with certain modification to sea water. It is to the tenac­ity of Dow in the development of processes to secure magnesium from brines and sea water that this country's favorable position with reference to magnesium in the war production program is primarily due. 
The war requirements quite naturally have greatly in­creased the demand not only for the light metals for structural purposes, but, also as in the case of mag­nesium, there has been a greatly expanded demand for this material in the production of incendiary bombs and flares. The first production of metallic magnesium in Texas was from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, which may be regarded as having practically an inexhaustible supply of magnesium chloride and magnesium sulphate. The average content of magnesium chloride and mag­nesium sulphate in ocean water as given by F. W. Clarke in "The Data of Geochemistry," U.S.G.S., is as follows: 
Per cent of total salts Short tons per cubic mile 
MgCJ, ----------------­10.878 18,399,000 MgSO, ----------------4,737 8,012,000 
As summarized from the pamphlet, "Dow and Mag­nesium:" "In the Michigan brines, the magnesium exists as a chloride, but in the sea water there is both mag· nesium chloride and magnesium sulphate, and so the procedure could not be the same as at Midland. The sea water is pumped from Freeport Harbor, at a depth of some thirty feet to avoid the possible dilution by rain water, . . . The pumps are capable of delivering three hundred million gallons of water a day-which gives an idea of the immensity of the enterprise. But by no means all of this water is used in the magnesium plant, for, after the water is screened, it passes through a flume and a large part is diverted to the bromine plant. 

"The remaining water goes on to a large tank and there it meets a milk of lime. This lime, only a little while back, was oyster shell debris in the bottom of Galveston Bay. The shells had been dredged, brought to the plant, washed, put through an enormous lime kiln, and then slaked. The contents of the tank, which is called a flocculator, is kept agitated and its acidity is closely controlled. In it the magnesium chloride and magnesium sulphate react with the lime to become mag­nesium hydrate, and this settles to the bottom as a heavy sort of milk of magnesia." After being filtered the magnesium hydrate goes to "rubber-lined, steel tanks and in them the magnesium hydrate is treated with hydro­chloric acid and becomes magnesium chloride-which is the same raw material as used at Midland. This is treated and dried by the Dow method and becomes the feed for the Dow electrolytic cells which extract the pure magnesium. It is in this fashion that "a barrel of sea water becomes a third of a pound of magnesium." As a part of the war program, magnesium for a time was extracted by chemical processes at the Austin, Texas, plant from dolomitic limestones, which contain mag· nesium carbonate, quarried in the Llano-Burnet region of Texas. 
In considering the long-range future of magnesium, which is one of the two important light-weight metals, a broad-gauged perspective of the comparative aspects of metals is necessary. Some very important aspects of this program are outlined in a recent paper, by Dr. Zay Jeffries, then technical director of General Electric's Lamp Department at Nela Park, and vice-chairman of the War Metallurgy Committee, from which the fol­lowing extracts are taken. 
"Iron is by far the most important metal and will remain so for an indefinite period. There is no possi­bility of exhausting the supply because four or five per cent of the earth's crust is iron. The richer ores will be mined out in due course, but ever new series of leaner or less accessible deposits will then be utilized. 
"The situation with respect to the more important heavy non-ferrous metals is quite different from that of iron. It has been estimated that the earth's crust con­tains only about 0.01 per cent copper, 0.004 per cent zinc, and 0.002 per cent lead. Most of the richer ore deposits will be mined out in the course of a few decades, and the use of leaner ores will be reflected in higher prices. Higher prices relatively, will tend to conserve these metals for the uses for which each is best adapted and thus help to maintain our marvelous in­dustrial machine. 
"Copper, zinc and lead before the war were each pro­duced in quantities several times that of aluminum. What has been said about these metals holds also for many others which are normally produced in less quan· tities than aluminum. These comprise nickel, tin, tungsten, molybdenum, cobalt, bismuth and cadmium, among others. In the long future, all of these may be regarded as semi-precious metals. 
"The future of aluminum and magnesium will not be limited by ore supply: it will be what man can make it. The earth's crust contains between 7 and 9 per cent aluminum and between 2 and 3 per cent magnesium. Both metals are available in ultimately usable concen­trations in unlimited quantities in various parts of the world. Knowledge in connection with means of recover­ing these metals from Nature's raw materials, as well as their utilization for Man's needs, is increasing at a rapid rate. 
"For the longer term, therefore, it can be predicted with reasonable certainty that the light metals will take their place second only to iron and steel in both tonnage and value. The time schedule cannot be predicted with such certainty. It will depend on many unknown fac­

tors, including the  nature  of the  World  War  and  the  
rate  of  growth  of  industry gene rally  throughout  the  
world.  

"It is even possible that Man will exhibit sufficient wisdom in long-term planning to begin the conservation of the scarcer metals in the not distant future. Such a move would not only insure a long and rich life to industry, but it would inevitably lead to an accelerated rate of production and use of the light metals. 
"Whether this change comes from the inexorable law of supply and demand or whether it is tempered by cautious guidance, the result will be the same-the only difference will be in the time factor. 
"But the change may come much sooner than many people look for. Man has consumed more metal so far in the twentieth century than in all previous history. With only about 5 per cent of the world's population, we in the United States have used nearly 50 per cent of the metals in the past generation. Has the United States reached its peak of metal consumption? I prefer to believe that it has not. But how about the rest of the world? It is unthinkable that their living standards will not rise substantially in the future and with this rise will come large increases in metal consumption. 
"Even if we should stand still and the rest of the world should reach a per capita metal consumption of one-fifth of ours, there soon would be an acute shortage of most of the common metals. Their change to a semi-precious classification would then be upon us. .A;ny failure to achieve a higher world standard of h~mg cannot be blamed on the metal industry, because iron and steel and the liuht metals can be made available in quantities sufficient for any increase now conceivable." 

In the light of this far-reaching perspective, it is reasonable to look for a steady increase in the consump­tion of magnesium in the future. And, with the ex­perience gained particularly in the war program, it is also reasonable to believe that advantages possessed by Texas for magnesium production are such as to place this State easily in the forefront as regards the economic production of magnesium metal. 
The point of emphasis here is that the minerals prob­lem in the future will necessarily evolve patterns more or less different than has been the case in the past. New and increasing requirements will have to be met and the necessary shifts will have to be made. This situation as to mineral resources is somewhat comparable, for instance, to the patterns of American foreign trade. With respect to the latter, the pattern in our foreign trade which had prevailed down to World War I was considerably modified during the two decades between World War I and World War II. The pattern which is now evolving in response to dominant world conditions of an economic nature, and which apparently will be predominant in the post-war period, is because of in­herent fundamental factors basically different from the one that had prevailed down to some three decades ago. 
As new industrial techniques became available, result­ing in greatly increased volume of production at con· stantly lowered costs, together with more economic utilization of the products, there can be little question but that the more plentiful minerals will assume greater and greater importance in world economy at large and in industrial production in particular. 
Still another product extracted commercially from Gulf waters in Texas is bromine. Even though the bromine content of sea water is only 67 parts per million a cubic mile of sea water contains about 600,000,000 pounds of bromine, as bromides. The chief use of bromine is in the preparation of ethylene bromide which is an ingredient for the manufacture of ethyl gasoline. 
Summing us the potentialities of Texas industry from 

the standpoint of mineral raw materials essential to 
modern industry, it may be emphasized that such raw 
materials must possess in effective combination four pri­
mary essent~als. These essentials are: adequate supply, 
proper quality, and maximum adaptability, together with 
an economical price. To these, must be added the factor 
of ready accessibility, which, of course, involves transport 
facilities and the costs thereof. 
Ground-W mer Reservoirs 
The .proble~s of commercial water supplies involve 

such widely different features as climatic factors, particu­
larly the amount and type of rainfall, the irnbibition con­
ditions prevailing on the surface, together with run-off 
as well as the flow of water in streams and the move­
ments of water underground. 
Like surface water supplies, ground-water reservoirs 

bear .a. direct rel~tionsh~p, on the one hand, to climatic 
condih~ns, especially ramfall, and, on the other hand to 
the entire complex of geologic conditions that pre' ·1 
. h . d "d va1
m t e region un er cons1 eration. 

That geologic studies concerning ground-water supplies in Texas antedated the vast numbers @f geologic studies and investigations which, since World War I, have been so largely devoted to oil, is evident from even a cursory examination of geologic literature. 
For instance, the full title of Hill's classic Black and Grand Prairies, published by the U.S.G.S. in 1901, was: "Geography and Geology of the Black and Grand Prairies, Texas with Detailed Descriptions of the Cretaceous Formations and Special Reference to Artesian Waters." 
Charles N. Gould's studies in the Texas Panhandle, published in 1906 and 1907 respectively, were issued as Water Supply and Irrigation Paper No. 154 and No. 191, of the U .S.G.S. 
C. H. Gordon's "Geology and Underground Waters of Northeastern Texas" was is1med by the U.S.G.S. in 1911, as Water-Supply Paper 276. A later paper by Gordon, entitled, "Geology and Underground Waters of the Wichita region, north-central Texas," was issued by the U.S.G.S. in 1913, as Water-Supply Paper 317. 
Alexander Deussen's Water-Supply Paper 335, 1914, of the U.S.G.S., bears the title: "Geology and Under­ground Waters of the Southeastern Part of Texas Coastal Plain." 

The historical significance of the scarcity of surface waters in the western portions of the State cannot be considered here in detail. It was not, however, until the 1880's, with the extension of railways across western Texas, that the great wealth of underground waters in these areas came to be realized. The discovery of these resources and the development of means of utilizing them constitutes an important chapter in the economic development of Western Texas as well as of the farther Southwest. Water resources for Texas farmers and ranchmen have long been and will continue to be neces­sities. 
In recent years, however, owing to the rapidly growing demands for water supplies for both municipal and industrial purposes, the subject has come to command increased attention from a scientific as well as from an industrial and public point of view. Information used in the following brief outline of some of the essential aspects of ground-water reservoirs in Texas has been taken largely from publications of the United States Geological Survey, and more particularly from papers by Walter N. White. 
The Edwards Plateau. The ground-water reservoirs in the Edwards limestone and associated limestones of the Edwards Plateau are accorded first rank in the State by the Geological Survey. These reservoirs supply large quantities of water in the springs which issue from them, as well as from wells drilled into outwash deposits, in front of the Balcones Escarpment, which border the southeastern and southern portions of the Edwards Plateau. Theae springs, such as occur at Austin, San Marcos, New Braunfels, San Antonio, and Del Rio and from which flow the numerous spring rivers, are among the largest in the United States. 
The Coastal Plain. Tertiary and Pleistocene sands and sandstones of the Coastal Plain are tentatively ranked second among ground-water reservoirs of Texas by the United States Geological Survey. 
The principal aquifers of this group include the Car· rizo and Goliad sands, together with sand members of the Lissie formation and basal beds of the Beaumont clays; also important are other sandy members of the Tertiary such as the Wilcox group, the Queen City sand in the Mount Selman formation, the Sparta sand, and sand members of the Catahoula and Oakville formations. The Carrizo sand, for instance, supplies water for ir· rigation in the Winter Garden district. 
In the Houston area, including the Ship Channel dis­trict, large quantities of ground water are obtained from basal portions of the Beaumont clays, from the Lissie formation and perhaps from the Goliad. 
Water for the pulp and paper mill of Southland Paper Mills, Inc., at Lufkin, is obtained from the Carrizo sand at depths of around 1,000 feet. 
The Trinity Group and the Woodbine sands. The Trinity sands constitute the basal formation of the Lower Cretaceous. The outcropping beds of these formations in north-central Texas form large intake areas from which the water is distributed underground to con· siderable distances, following the down-dip extension of these formations eastward. 
Much of the water consumed in industrial plants in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Waco area is supplied from wells producing from the Trinity and the Woodbine, the latter being the basal formation of the Upper Cretaceous. The Trinity sands furnish a part of the public water supply of Dallas. 
The High Plains. Sands and gravels of later Tertiary beds yield considerable supplies of water on the High Plai~s. Th:se supplies, besides being used for municipal and mdustnal purposes, are also used for irrigation in local areas. A few springs, although relatively small ones, iss~e from sandstones along the cap-rock escarp· ment which forms the eastern border of the High Plains. 
The Central Denuded Region. Between the eastern cap-rock of the High Plains and the outcrops of the Trinity sands, somewhat variable ground water condi­tions obtain. 
Wells from Pennsylvanian strata supply water in the eastern portion of the Central Denuded region; much of the water from the Pennsylvanian beds however is rather highly mineralized. Some areas in'the Red Beds Plains obtain a water supply from Pleistocene sands and gravels of the Seymour formation; recourse is had also to surface water supplies in streams or to impounded surface reservoirs, as the water supplies of these Permian beds are very limited. 
The Trans-Pecos. Varying sets of features condition the vital water supplies of the Trans-Pecos district but in general, the geologic features and factors gove~nin~ the accumulation of water supplies in the Trans-Pecos are similar for those obtaining throughout the extent of the Southwest Border Zone, from the Eastern Sierra Madre and its northern extension into the United States to the coast~l cou~try of California. The water supply of EI Paso is obtamed from deep wells in the thick fills of unconsolidated materials of recent geologic age which underlie that area. 
Large springs issue from reservoirs in the Lower Cretaceous at Fort Stockton and Balmorhea. Somewhat limited water supplies also occur in certain outwash gravels at the base of the Davis Mountains. 
Water requirements for industrial purposes are al­ready larf?e; further growth in in.dustry will expand these reqmrements. As a concrete illustration of water requirements for industrial purposes, the following state­ments concerning demands for the synthetic rubber in­dustry at Port Neches are taken from the March, 1944, issue of the Petroleum Refiner "Boiler feed water is conditioned in a heating plant . . . designed to process 8,000,000 gallons per day. Of this, 6,000,000 gallons are for boiler-plant use, 1,500,000 gallons represent loss in treating. 
"Cooling-water requirements are in keeping with the steam provision. This system is designed to handle 308,­000,000 gallons of water daily. This is picked up from the Neches River a mile distant, put through the con­densers and cooling equipment and returned to the stream. The magnitude of the cooling requirements can be appreciated when it is realized that the water require­ments for Port Neches are equal to that of the City of Cleveland and a third of that essential to New York City." 
Conservation 
Ai! is true of the other topics considered in this brief article, the subject of conservation of natural resources is also worthy of a much more extended treatment than can be given here. 
In view, however, of the sweep of industrial growth, the pattern of which in Texas has now become rather fully apparent, together with consideration of the poten­tialities that without question will become even more obvious in the future-as demands arise for more pro· duction in point of volume, for higher quality products, and even for products as yet unknown-there can be little question but that the conservation of its natural resources must necessarily become one of the most out­standing and vital of Texas' problems, involving as it does the material welfare of the entire citizenship of the State. 
Certainly much has already been accomplished in the conservation of oil and gas and water supplies, and of soils and natural vegetation, but as time goes on, as shortages of one kind or another develop, the essential problems associated with the further conservation of these natural resources will grow more complicated and at the same time the demands for adequate consideration of them will become more and more insistent. 
Oil and natural gas are obviously key factors in Texas industry today. That these natural resources will become increasingly important and even more fundamental in Texas economy in years to come cannot be questioned. Another group of natural resources which will assume critical importance with further industrialization in Texas are water supplies, which have already been mentioned. 
The extent of future requirements of these natural resources must be seen in relation to the advancing economy of the State. Texas agriculture and range live­stock industries have, of course, been commercially important since the 1870's. World War I crystallized the needs for oil in large quantities and that industry, with emphasis upon bulk production of conventional products, such as gasoline, began its spectacular ex­pansion in Texas in the later 1920's, a development which was parelleled also by the provision of adequate facilities for long-distance transportation of natural gas. World War II has reemphasized the key positions of Texas oil and gas, and at the same time, it has brought into fuller perspective the vast potentialities for the growth of full-fledged chemical industries in the State. 
There is, however, another feature in the minerals situation in general to which serious thought may well be given-that of the vast drain on mineral resources occasioned by the war-for as C. K. Leith has written recently: "Neither the United States nor the world can afford the appalling waste of minerals in another world war." 
In this article, it is possible only to point out the fact that the chemical industry as a whole will be one which apparently is destined to have a tremendous expansion in the United States in the postwar years, and in Texas, several lines of this rapidly advancing industry already constitute the bases for new and larger production for expanding industrial needs. 
In brief, the Texas phase of the American chemical industry will center particularly around the manu· facture of diverse synthetic organic chemicals which can be derived through a more elaborate utilization of those hydrocarbons supplied as raw materials in large amounts from petroleum and natural gas. 
It is appropriate at this place to call attention to newer developments in the physical sciences and their applica· tion through engineering practices to a more efficient utilization which particularly is characteristic of the oil and natural gas industries. These practices apply partic­ularly to advances made in petroleum and natural gas production engineering as well as to the continuous advances of chemical methods in oil refining. The latter have made available large quantities of refinery gases; these are hydrocarbon gases, which are being utilized on a large scale for the mass production of several lines of synthetic organic chemicals. 
Nowhere are these newer developments of greater im· portance than in their applications to natural gas. Natural gas has long been recognized as the perfect fuel; as an industrial fuel in certain uses it has no equal. 
More recently, however, it has come to be recognized that the heavier hydrocarbon components of natural gas can be advantageously utilized as bases for the rapidly growing organic chemical industry, and particularly, of course, by the newer aliphatic organic chemicals, in contrast to the aromatics, which served as the bases for the older organic chemical industry whose raw ma· terials were supplied by the by-products coal-tar industry. 
Still other momentous developments appear in the offin&. The great hulk of natural gas is methane, chemically the simplest of the paraffin hydrocarbons. Methane is the component chiefly used in heating pur­poses. It is possible, however, that methane can be ?tilized effe~tively for other purposes. One possibility ~s embraced m the manufacture of acetylene; still another is contemplated in developing commercial methods for the manufacture of gasoline by the chemical conversion of methane to liquefied products. 
Concluding Statement 
In conclusion, it must be emphasized that these brief articles set forth only some of the bigger features con· cerning Texas natural resources as a whole. The object has been to present t?ese bases of the e~onomic develop· ment of the ~tate m broad perspective, in order to emphasize particularly the major aspects of these prob­lems as they appear in the bigger picture of Texas and in a mam~er t~at w:m make possible amplified' and extended d1scuss10ns m later publications. 
ELMER H. JOHNSON. 

Bases for Evaluation of the Cotton Industry 

The cotton industry is confronted with serious prob­lems, so much so that some predict a strongly declining role of usefulness for it in the years ahead. It is wise, therefore, first of all to make a critical evaluation of the industry as a whole, especially in the economy of the South and the nation, before setting up a program to solve its problems. 
The data presented below will aid in making this evaluation. 
SOME MAJOR vALUES OF COTTON 
1. 
Cotton is oriented on the globe by its requirement of a long growing season and warm climate. These center its production in and around the subtropical high pressure belts on either side of the equator. In this type of climate, which prevails in the cotton-growing region of the United States, no other major crop pro­duces as large value per acre or has as little variability in yield as cotton. Cotton then gives to the southern region a major crop fo rthe production of which it has maximum advantage. 

2. 
Cotton is two crops in one-a fiber crop and a seed crop. 

3. 
Cotton's production capacity in terms of value per acre is the highest of any of the five major crops of the nation which together occupy 80 per cent of all cultivated land. During the ten years, 1932-41, cotton and cottonseed produced an average farm value per acre of $27.97; corn, $14.79; wheat, $10.32; oats, $8.65; and all hay an average of about $10.77. 

4. 
Cotton draws less fertility from the soil than any major crop. According to Dr. G. S. Frapps, Texas State Chemist and Chemist for the Texas Agricultural Experi­ment Station, 250 pounds of lint cotton, the approxi­mate national average yield per acre, removes only 21 cents worth of plant food from an acre, 500 pounds of cottonseed, $4.10 worth, or a total of $4.31 for 750 pounds of cotton and cottonseed; $40 bushels of corn on the cob removes $9.52 worth; 25 bushels of wheat, $7.06; 40 bushels of oats, $6.02. 

5. 
Most of the fertility drawn from the soil by the cotton plant and removed from the land is in the meal and hulls. When these are fed to livestock and the droppings returned to the soil as fertilizer, the net amount of soil fertility removed by cotton itself becomes almost negligible. 

6. 
The cottonseed crop is a cash crop as well as a feed crop. When cottonseeds are crushed they furnish four major products; oil, }inters, cake or meal, and hulls. The first two of these become industrial raw materials sold for cash for further manufacture. The meal is a high protein feed essential to the dairy industry of the South, and the hulls are a roughage equal to good prairie hay. These constitute the most reliable feed crop of the South. 

7. 
Cotton is non-perishable and not as a subject to market gluts as are most other farm crops because it is 



two crops in one and the lint has a very wide range of luxury as well as essential uses. 
8. 
Cotton requires relatively little capital to produce, and is thus capable of offering easy access to independent employment. 

9. 
The people in the cotton belt have the "know·how" and millions of dollars worth of specialized equipment which are the accumulation of many years. 

10. 
Cotton is the base product of one of the nation's most distinctive and important economic regions, and lends great strength to the nation's system of specialized regional production, in that cotton is a cash product and the cotton dollars constitute a cash market for products of other regions. 

11. 
Cotton and its products are the sources of raw materials for industries and trades all over the nation which provide employment for well over a million people in addition to those engaged in raw cotton pro­duction and handling. According to the Census of 1940, there were 525,000 engaged in manufacture of cotton into yarn and cloth in 1939. Cotton yarn and cloth are the raw materials for a wide range of other industries such as knitting, garment manufacturing, canvas prod­ucts, bags and a whole host of other products which employ at least 600,000 people, not counting merchants and handlers. 

12. 
Cotton is one of the world's greatest and most ardently sought after raw materials and because of natural forces is produced in comparatively few of the countries which use it most. The United States has over 50 per cent of the world's best cotton lands, and prior to World War I exports from this country exceeded world production outside the United States. In spite of high prices in the 1920's and of the United States programs of restriction of marketing and production of cotton, this country's exports continued to exceed exports of all foreign countries down to 1935. Thus, the United States has natural advantages and capacity in the production of some of the most desiTed qualities of one of the world's greatest crops and has great opportunities to supply the needs of many countries with large quantities of a product which can be produced on a permanent basis. 

13. 
Cotton, unlike our basic food products, has a greatly expansible market both in the necessity and luxury fields. The average consumption of cotton in the world is only about 6 pounds per capita. Consumption in the United States is at a greater rate than 30 pounds. The trend of world demand for cotton over the years 1921-38 has been up at the rate of over 400,000 bales per year. 

14. 
Foreign countries have greatly increased produc­tion since 1921, or from 7,921,000 to 16,394,000 bales in 1939--40. Most of this increase has been absorbed either in the countries of production or is of qualities not directly competitive with United States cotton. 

15. 
The accumulated trend in world consumption of all cotton from 1933-34 to 1939-40 amounted to about 



TEXAS BUSINESS REVIEW 
2,500,000 bales; whereas, the accumulated trend of world exports outside the United States was up less than a million bales and including the United States was actually down. 
SOME DISADVANTAGES OF COTTON 

1. 
Cotton now requires an excessive amount of hand labor. 


2. 
The cost of cotton production per acre is higher than that of any of the major crops. In 1939 the total cost per acre of producing cotton and cottonseed ex­cluding land rent was $23.64; corn excluding rent and credit for by-products of 87 cents, $15.30; wheat ex­cluding rent and credit of 50 cents for by-products, $9.91 ; and oats exduding rent and credits of $1.04 for by·products, $10.33. 

3. 
Cotton is a clean culture, row crop, and it has a sparse root system. These conditions are conducive t.o soil erosion where land is continuously cropped with cotton. 

4. 
The peak labor loads required in cotton chopping and especially cotton picking interfere seriously with the development of other farm enterprises. 

5. 
The case with which cotton rents may he collected leads to unbusinesslike, slip-shod methods of farm man· agement, makes for a high rate of farm tenancy and excessive cotton acreage. 

6. 
Cotton's competitive strength against synthetic fibers is declining. Since 1931 the price of rayon staple fiber has declined in price from 61 cents per pound to 2·1. cents, and it is predicted will reach 16 cents after the war. ln pounds of raw cotton this would be the equivalent of from 12 to 14 cents for middling cotton. Rayon staple fiber can be substituted for cotton in a cotton mill. 

7. 
The capacity of the South to produce cotton most efficiently requires a large foreign market. The heavy 


creditor nation status of the United Stales after the war will make it increasingly difficult for foreign spinners to get dollar exchange with which to buy cotton. 
8. 
Cotton has been the victim of a short-sighted, antiquated, nationalistic policy which forced cotton growers to buy in a highly tariff-protected market and to sell their cotton at world prices. 

9. 
The severe limitations of imports into the United States limit exports of cotton because of scarcity of dollar exchange, and as a result foreigners buy cotton where they can more readily pay for it in goods. 

10. 
The full utilization of cottonseed oil as a food product is prevented by excise taxes and other legislation designed to discourage the use of oleomargarine. 

11. 
Costs of manufacturing cotton in many mills are far too high due in large measure to old antiquated machinery and mill layout. 

12. 
Cotton is a raw material, the market for which is in industrial nations, which must pay for the cotton by the export of manufactured goods which compete more or less with similar goods made in the United States. 

13. 
Substitution of synthetic fibers for cotton will do more to crowd American cotton out of foreign markets than competition of foreign growths of cotton. Between the years 1928-29 and 1938-39 the consumption of foreign cotton in Europe outside of Russia increased 1,506,000 bales. During that same time the increase in consumption of synthetic fibers amounted to the equiva· lent of about 2,000,000 bales of cotton, and consump· tion of United States grown cotton in Europe decreased 3,493,000 hales. 


The next article will discuss solutions of cotton's major problems. 
A. B. Cox. 

COTTON BALANCE SHEET FOR THE UNITED STATES AS OF FEBRUARY l, 1945 
Un Thousands of Running Bales Except as Noted) 

Year  Carryo•er Aa1. l  Import• to Go• 't. E1t.• Feb. 1• A1 of Dee. 1  Total  Con1umption to Feb. I  Exporl8 t.o Feb. 1•  Total  Balance t o F 0h . 1  
19~1936...·-····-····---···········------­1936--1937····----­---··-····--·-····-·····-···­1937-1938_________________________________ 1938-1939._.,____________________
______ 1939-1940____________________________________ l 94{).-1941....______________________________________ 1941-1942..._____________________________ 1942-1943 ····-----­-····-··--------------­---1943-1944..____
__________________________ __ _ 1944-1945____________________________  7,138 5,397 4,498 11,533 13,033 10,596 12,367 10,590 10,687 10,727  56 72 46 77 66 58 t t j· 70t  10,734 12,407 18,746 12,008 11,792 12,686 l0,976 12,982 12,120 12,359  17,928 17,876 23,290 23,618 24,891 23,340 23,343 23,572 22,807 23,156  3,014 3,435 3,078 3,397 4,042 4.,423 5,391 5,628 5.144 4,877  4,004 3.848 3,832 2,192 4·,l70 654 793 i' i' 850t  7,018 7,283 6,910 5,589 8,212 5,077 6,184 5,628 5,144 5,727  10,910 10,593 16,380 18,029 16,679 18,263 17,159 17,944 17,663 17,424  
The  co tton  year  begiu  Aaguat  1.  
• Figu re•  are  in  500-pound  bile..  
tNot anilable.  
ffigure a to  Decelllber 31­Source: N.  Y.  Cetton  Exchan1s.  

EMPLOYMENT AND PAY ROLLS IN TEXAS 
January, 1945 
Estimated Number of Percenta1e Chanse Estimated Amount of Percentsce Chenae' Workers Employed• from from Weekly Pay Roll from from Dec., Jan .. Dec., Jan., Dec., Jan., Dec .• Jan., 1944(1) 1945<2> 1944 1944 1944(l) 1945<2> 1944 1944 
MANUFACTURING 
All Manufacturing lnduatriea 171,519t 169,414t 1.2 + 2.2 $6,133,822 $5,961,108 2.8 + 11.1 
Food Products 

Baking --------------------------10,551 10,140 3.9 +19.1 420,843 393,110 6.6 +52.6 Carbonated Beverages -----------------3,443 3,251 5.6 7.6 102,765 97,636 5.0 -3.3 Confectionery -------------------------1,910 1,829 4.2 + 8.8 27,469 24,948 9.2 + 9.8 Flour Milling -----------------------------2,407 2,517 + 4.6 + 7.8 83,823 83,729 0.1 + 17.8 Ice Cream -----------------------------------1,348 1,280 5.0 + 1.3 39,902 38,219 4.2 + 11.6 Meat Packing ----------------------------6,458 6,279 2.8 2.3 222,874 201,739 9.5 -10.2 
Textiles 

Cotton Textile Mills -------------------5,188 5,490 + 5.8 0.7 123,863 135,629 + 9.5 + 14.3 Men's Work Clothing ---------------3,990 3,854 3.4 8.0 69,781 68,244 2.2 -6.5 
Forest Products 

Furniture ---------------------------1,332 1,090 -18.2 -39.4 39,314 34,779 -11.5 -21.8 Planing Mills --------------------1,747 1,762 + 0.8 9.4 53,528 54,536 + 1.9 +10.8 Saw Mills -----------------------------14,634 14,158 3.3 .7.9 253,684 247,797 2.3 0.3 Paper Boxes ---------···----------------958 993 + 3.6 + 5.0 23,549 23,315 1.0 + 6.6 
Printing and Publishing 
Commercial Printing 2,422 2,373 
Newspaper Publishing 3,835 ----------------2.1 1.7 95,400 90,463 5.2 + 7.7 

----------------3,862 + ·0.1 1.8 120,581 112,274 6.9 + 6.0 Chemical Products 
Cotton Oil Mills ...... -----------------3,306 3,239 2.0 -16.7 61,947 59,608 3.8 4.9 Petroleum Refining ·--------------------25,381 25,614 + 0.9 + 10.2 1,474,519 1,452,480 1.5 + lQ.4 
Stone and Clay Products 

Brick and Tile ------------------1,723 1,791 + 3.9 -1.0 
30,282 31,466 + 3.9 + 22.3 

Cement --------------------------724 727 + 0.5 -25.4 29,700 29,569 0.4 -13.5 
Iron and Steel Products 

Structural and Ornamental Iron ____ 2,416 2,406 0.4 -10.7 87,433 87,698 + 0.3 
+ 3.1 

NONMANUFACTURING Crude Petroleum'Production ____ 27,983 27,809 
0.6 + 5.2 1,597,756 1,618,652 + 1.3 +15.7 Quarrying ------------------------------(3) (3) + 2.3 + 6.3 (3) (3) + 3.3 + 17.5 Public Utilities --------------------------(3) (3) 0.1 + 1.6 (3) (3) + 0.6 + 3.7
Retail Trade _____________________________259,932 

222,799 -14.3 + 4.1 6,393,747 5,593,919 . -12.5 + 9.2
Wholesale Trade 

----------------------62,947 61,934 1.6 0.4 2,538,895 2,439,948 3.9 + 6.0Dyeing and Cleaning ----------------2,890 2,782 3.7 + 2.0 70,374 72,774 + 3.4. + 17.3 Hotels 
----------------------------------------19,872 20,114 + 1.2 + 3.9 376,714 372,946 1.0 + 17-1
Power Laundries ---------------------13,505 13,596 + 0.7 3.3 252,064 254,559 + 1.0 + 6.1 
CHANGES IN EMPLOYMENT AND PAY ROLLS IN SELECTED CITIESm Employment 
Pay Rollo Employment Pay Rollo 
J>erccntagc Change P ercentage Change Percentage Change Percentage Chanie

Dec., 1944 Jan., 1944 Dec., 1944 Jan., 1944 Dec., 1944 Jan., 1944 Dec., 1944 Jan., 1944to to to 
to to to to to

Jan., 1915 Jan., 1945 Jun., 1945 Jan., 1945 Jan., 194·5 Jan., 1945 Jnn., 1945 Jan., 1945Abi leue 3.3 0.8
---------6.4 + 11.6 Galveston --------+ 10.7 12.7 + 19.6 + 21.6
Amarillo 6.6

----------+ 10.0 + 1.3 3.1 Houston ----------3.4 9.0 6.2 + 18.8
Austin 7.1 + 2.2 0.9 + 8.1 Port Arthur ----+ 0.2 + 13.2 1.7 +

Beaumont ________ 12.3
+ 6.9 + 16.2 .+ 17.0 + 36.3 San Antonio --8.7 2.1 1.2 + 8.9
Dallas 1.9 9.4 6.3 

10.9 Sherman 3.4 + 26.7
-------+ 7.5 + 69.9
El Paso + 0.6 + 6.6 

3.3 + 13.1 Waco ---------------· 7.4 + 0.8 5.4 + 8.3
Ft. Worth 1.5 16.4 

3.8 6.8 Wichita Falls.. 0.5 + 2.4 + 0.1 +. .5.0 
Corpus Christi + 0.3 + 12.0 + 1.4 + 26.7 STATE 
----------1.3 4,.3 0.1 + -5.8 

ESTIMATED NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN NONAGRICULTURAL BUSINESS 
AND GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHMENTs<•> 

1942(l) . 1943<•> 1944<2) 1942(1) 
19'3 19'4

January -------------------1,170,000 1,385,000 1,429,\)()() 1,450,000<ll 1448000(1)
July ---·-----------------------1,317,000

February ------------------1,199,000 1,397,ooO 1,433,000 l,446'obo<2)
August ----------------------1,352,000 1,441,000(2)March -----------------------1,226,000 1,415,000 1,433,000 
September ------------------1,373,000 1,448,ooo<•> 1:432:-000°>

·April -------------------------1,222,000 1,433,000 1,435,000 October ...................... 1,384,000 1,455,ooo<•> 1,420,000(2)May ------------------------·-1,251,000 1,458,000 
1,435,000 November ------------------1,389,000 1,461,ooo<•> 1,434,000(2)June --------------------------1,291,000 1,478,000 1,448,000 December ------------1,413,700 1,470,()()()<ll 
• Doe• not i_nclude proprietor•, firm mcmben, oSicen of corporation1, or other p rincipal exccutivc1. Factory employment excludes also office, aale1, tech11.ical and 
profeH1onal personnel. 
tDoea not include strictly war induatriea. 
O>ft.evieed. 
<»>Subject to revision. 

(3)Not available. 
<~Baaed on unweighted figures. 
<&>Less than 1/10 of one percent. 


Not including 1elf-employ_ed. persona, cuual worken, or domestic 1enanti. and es:clusive o{ 111ilitary and maritime penonnel. Theee 6aure1 are furnished by th• 
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. 

Prepared from !eport1 from repreeen~ati":e Tes:a11 eetabliehmente t• the Bureau of Busine91 Reaearch co·operating with the Bureau of Labor Statiatica. Due lo the national emergency, pubheatlon of data for certain fnduetrlea hein1 withheld until further notice.
t1 

JANUARY RETAIL SALES OF INDEPENDENT STORES lN TEXAS 
Number of 
Estab­
li11hmcnts 
Deporting 
894

TOTAL TEXAS -----------------------------------_______ --------------------------------------------------------------------­STORES GROUPED BY LINE OF GOODS CARRIED: 102
APPAREL --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------­22Family Oothing Stores...-----------------------------------~--------------------------------------------­31Men's and Boys' Oothing Stores-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------­15
Shoe Stores -------------------·-------------~---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------­
34Women's Specialty Shops ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------­70AUTOMOTIVE* ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------·­61Motor Vehicle. Dealers...-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------·-­

COUNTRY GENERAL ________________ 
:___________________________________________________ -------------------88 57
DEPARTMENT STORES -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------­103DRUG STORES --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------­
DRY GOODS AND GENERAL MERCHANDISE..__________________________________________________________ __ _ 	25 20
FILLING STATIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------­19FLORISTS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------­117FOOD* --------------------------------------·---------------------------------------------------­30Grocery Stores ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------­
Grocery and Meat Stores_____________ 
:______________________________________________________________ ____ _ 	81 67
FURNITURE AND HOUSEHOLD* -------------------------------------~--------------------------------· --------­60Furniture Stores --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------·-·-----------­23JEWELRY ------------------------------------------· ----------------------------------------------------------·------------------­154LUMBER, BUILDING, AND HARDWARE•-----------------------------------------------------------------­13Farm Implement Dealers ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------·----­45Hardware Stores -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------­94Lumber and Building Material Dealers ----------------------------------------------------------------------------­32
RESTAURANTS -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------­
ALL OTHER STORES --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------·--·------------­
10 TEXAS STORES GROUPED ACCORDING TO POPULATION OF CITY: All Stores in Cities of-Over 100,000 Population ----------------------------------------------------------------------------134 
50,000-100,000 Population ----------------------------------------------__:___________________________ _ 114 2,500--50,000 Population --------------------------------------------------------------------------------­438 Less than 2,500 PopulatioIL...------------------------------------------------------------------------208 
•Group total includes kinds of busincee other than the classification listed. 
Prepared from reports of independent retail storc11 to the Burcnu of Bueinee11flceearch, coOpcrating with the U.S. Bureau gf ilJe 

COMMODITY PRICES 
Percentage Changes V in Dollar Sales 
Jan ., 1945 Jan., 1945 
fromfrom 
J an ., 1944 Dec., 1944 
+ 
17.6 -38.1 

+ 
19.7 -46.0 

+ 
20.4 -52.7 

+ 
6.5 -61.0 

+ 
42.0 -27.3 

+ 
23.0 -35.6 


-5.4 + 5.8 
-8.6 + 15.9 
+ 
14.1 -21.9 

+ 
19.2 -49.8 

+ 
8.7 -25.7 

+ 
26.2 -50.2 

+ 
8.2 -32.3 

+ 
12.3 -42.9 

+ 
7.3 -15.4 + 5.3 -8.7 + 7.4 -15.8 + 32.5 --29.4 +32.9 -30.2 + 9.2 -73.8 + 38.6 +28.3 +21.6 +18.5 + 28.2 +15.5 + 47.4 +39.4 + 11.0 + 10.4 

+ 
0.2 -14.5 

+ 
18.2 -41.9 

+ 
19.0 -37.9 

+ 
15.3 -37.6 

+ 
17.8 + 0.6 


Census, 

Jan., 1945 Jan., 1944 Dec., 1944 PERCENTAGE CHANGES IN CONSUMPTION 
Wholesale Prices : 
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 
(1926=100) ---------------------------------­Farm Prices: 
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1926= 100) ---------------------------------­Retail Prices : Food (U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta­tistics (1935-1939=100) _____ -----­Cost of Living Index (1935-1939 = 100) -------------------------------------------­
Department 	Stores (Fairchild's P11blications January, 1931=100) -------------------­
104.9 103.8 104.7 
Commercial 121.8 125.5 
Residential All Others 

126.2 	Industrial 
137.3 136.1 137.4 
OF ELECTRIC POWER 
-----------------------------­------------------------------­-------------------------------­
'fOTAL -----------------------------------­

127.1 124.1 127.0 Prepared from reports of 9 electric Research. 
113.4 113.3 113.4 
Jan., 1945 Jan., 19~ 
from from 
Jan., 1944 Dec., 1944 
+39.2 + 3.3 

+ 
23.0 -10.4 

+ 
27.8 + 7.9 

+ 
5.8 + 49.0 

+ 
21.6 + 3.4 


power companies to the Bureau of Bu1ine11 

JANUARY RETAIL SALES OF INDEPENDENT STORES 

IN TEXAS  PETROLEUM  
(By Districts)  Daily Average Production (In Barrels)  
Number of Estab·  Percenta1e Chaugea Jao., 1945 Jan., 1945  Coastal  Texas  . ·Jao. ; 1945" . .................. . 5S2,600  Jan. , 1944 520,800  Dec., 1944 553,050  
Ji1bment1 Reportinc TOT AL TEXAS ..................... : .... 894 TEXAS STORES GROUPED BY PRODUCING AREAS  · from Jan., 1944 . + i7.6  from Dec., 1944 -38.1  East Central Texas "········ East Texas ·······-··············· North Texas ··········----~--­Panhandle ··················-~·-· Southwest Texas -············  144,050 378,300 143,150 88,700 342,350  116,400 366,200 140,200 97,900 293,550  142,250 370,250 143,250 90,100 345,850  
District 1-N  ..........................  63  + 33.5  -22.8  West  Texas  ·················':···  478,600  364,700  472,000  
Amarillo ··················-­······· Plainview ····-··············--­All Others ........................  21 12 30  + 31.0 +27.1 +38.0  -31.5 -19.2 -13.4  STATE ···········-················ 2,127,750 UNITED STATES ..... _.:_ 4,715,500  1,899,750 4,384,000  2,116,750 4,710,500  
District 1-S .......................... Lubbock ············-·············· All Others ........................ District 2 ············-·-············  23 13 10 78  + 19.2 + 22.7 + 4.1 +15.0  -42.9 -28.4 -72.0 -33.0  •hicl~de1 Conroe. Non : From American P etroleum Institute. the oil producing districts of Texas.  See  accompanyinc  map  1bewill1  
Abilene .............................. All Others ........................ District 3 .............................. District 4 ..............................  21 57 28 209  + 17.2 + 13.7 +27.7 + 17.3  -33.9 -32.4 -30.3 -38.6  Gasoline sales as indicated by taxes collected by the State Comptroller were: December, 1944, 105,073,427; December, 1943, 98,803,951; November, 1944, 103,241,404.  
Dallas ··-·····-·······-······-··­Fort Worth ........................  28 · 28  +20.5 + 12.9  -39.2 -44.8  December sales to the United States Government as recorded by motor fuel diRtributors in Texas were 263,419,592 gallons.  
Waco  ···········-·····················  28  + 22.3  -41.0  

All Others ····-·················· 125 + 13.6 -22.8 
Qistrict 5 -······················-···· 107 +17.6 -43.0 
District 6 -·············-···--······ 27 . + 16.2 -32.4 
District 7 ····················-········ 43 +24.5 -37.6 

PANMA.NO\.l 
District 8 .............................. 157 +21.8 -38.2 
Austin -·················:............ 16 +25.3 -48.0 
Corpus Christi .................. 19 + 13.6 -33.0 
San Antonio ...................... 42 + 24.4 -38.8 
All Others -······················ 79 +15.5 -24.5 

District 9 .............................. 93 + 13.4 -43.4 
Houston ............................ 36 · + 12.2 -46.5 
All Others .......................... 57 + 15.4 -36.8 

The percentace change of January, 1944, from January, 1943 ,in the February, 1944, R&VIEW bu been revised to +34. for District JOA. Non: Prepared bom -reporta of i..Ddepeadent retail atorea to the lh1.tea\l of Bu1la.Nt ReHarch, coOperatina: with the U.S. Banau ef the Ce•n1. 
TEXAS CHARTERS 
Jao., 1945 Jan.; 1944 . Dee., 1944 

Domestic Corporations: Capitalization* ········---·· $531 $ 564 $1,072 Number ·········-··-·········-···· 24 44 67 
Classification of new cor­porations: Banking-Finance 2 3 2 
LUMBER

Manufacturing ············-···· 3 6 8 
Merchandising ······--·-····· 4 8 27 
Oil ···························-··-···· 4 1 7 <In Board Feet) 
Public Service ····-····---­l 2 4 
Real Estate Building ····­6 13 10 

Jan., 1945 Jan. , 1944 Dec., 1944 Transportation ·······-··-···· 2 1 3 Southern Pine Mills: All Others ···········-·········-·· 2 10 6 Average Weekly Production Number capitalized at less 
per unit ···················-······· 153,172 189;601 184,643 than $5,000 ···············-······· 8 14 34 Avei:age Weekly Shipments N u m b e r capitalized at per unit ···············-··········· 154,644 196,600 179,927­tl00,000 or more ........... . 0 2 3 Average Unfiilled Orders Foreign Corporations 
per unit, end of month .... 1,577,7% · 1,545,060 ·l ,513,360·· (Number) ....................... . 20 15 16 
Nen: Fr•~ SoutAerD. Piae A1~1ation. 
•1.D tbeu11ud1. 
Nen : Compiled from record• of the Secl'Ctary of State~ 



-==am:================-====-= AS



TEX_-==B=U=SINES-===i1S~RE==VI=E=W:=:>'""'""''""""""""""'"""""'================ 
BUILDING PERMITS
POSTAL RECEIPTS 

Dec., 194' Jan., 1945 Jan., 1944 Dec., 194-4 Abilene .................. $ 12,935 s 130,200 $ 20,440 
Jan., 1945 Jau., 1944 

Abilene .................. $ 46,757 45,707 s 63,701 

47,342

Amarillo ................ 151,788 73,900

Amarillo ................ 65,047 57,799 83,629 

Austin .................... 164,223 31,528 53,181

Austin .................... 118,172 84,605 139,018 

Beaumont .............. 74,867 18,920 33,925

Beaumont .............. 55,426 46,546 67,545 

8,865 12,750

Big Spring ............ 21,815

Big Spring ............ 16,354 11,340 18,881 

Brownsville ............ 14,952 2,925 4,235

Brownsville ............ 14,783 11,707 17,876 

5,002•

Oeburne ................ 1,800•

Brownwood .......... 34,759 22,721 42,919 

Coleman ................ 0 0 0 

Childres ................ 7,464 5,467 10,322 

Corpus Christi ...... 177,632 101,675 167,169
Cleburne ................ 6,803 5,869 9,448 

Dallas .................... 497,720 1,367,372 339,639

Coleman ......... ...... 5,347 5,440 16,509 

Denton .................. 1,861 1,400 1,450

Corpus Christi ...... 80,031 61,743 110,817 
Edinburg .............. 870 1,714 1,880

Dallas .................... 626,188 492,763 744,252 

El Paso .................. 100,469 37,830 34,975

Del Rio .................. 8,159 6,942 11,870 

Fort Worth .......... 361,047 264,456 156,935

Denison .................. 12,376 9,023 16,263 

Galveston .............. 53,192 117,016 225,686

Denton ........ -....... 17,534 12,229 16,103 

Gladewater ............ 2,000 530 200

Edinburg .............. 5,641 4,514 6,418 

Graham .................. 2,320 3,300 2,200

El Paso .................. 114,732 92,483 141,586 

Harlingen .............. 15,844 4,000 422,510

Fort Worth .......... 300,130 193,171 336,847 

Houston ................ 622,503 488,200 501,510

Galveston .............. 55,260 46,949 75,635 

Jacksonville .......... 4,150 4,600 3,912

Gladewater ........-. 5,840 4,731 5,693 

Kerrville ................ 15,605 1,675 9,200

Graham .................. 4,408 3,729 5,182 

Lubbock ................ 146,128 18,008 131,116

Harlingen _....... ... 18,220 13,337 24,623 

McAllen ................ 21,280 6,125 13,350

Houston ................ 448,109 340.809 586,050 


Marsha)! ................ 43,072 8,619 6,557

Jacksonville .......... 6,425 5,256 7,584 

Midi.and ................ 32,113 20,550 47,970

Kenedy .................. 2,506 2,491 2,785 

New Braunfels ...... 10,054 2,051 1,883
Kerrville ............ _. 4,913 4,437 7,209 

Palestine ................ 3,270 1,000 2,l;l05

Longview .............. 17,416 14,675 20,148 

Pampa .................... 25,000 150 400

Lubbock ................ 44,483 33,197 50,126 

Paris ...................... 6,920 9,350 17,882

Lufkin ................... 9,892 7,377 10,273 

Plainview .............. 11,141 150 4,900

McAllen ................ 10,341 8,379 12,620 

Port Arthur .......... 26,804 41,798 39,535

Marshall ................ 13,703 10,810 16,163 

San Antonio ........ 415,979 269,989 647,731

Palestine ........ ···-10,152 7,614 11,436 


Seguin .................... 1,825 400 2,330

Pampa ................. -14-,713 10,379 18,572 


Sherman ................ 8,935 7,448 16,795

Paris ...................... 30,372 19,071 33;923 

Snyder .................. 1,000 0 0

Plainview .............. 7,164 6,028 9,432 

Sweetwater ............ 4,175 10,155 4,575

Port Arthur .......... 31,113 26,503 44,454 


Texarkana ............ 22,210 5,115 15,195

San Angelo .......... 28,328 20,626 37,716 

Tyler ...................... 21,947 8,284 19,487

San Antonio ........ 284,591 243,825 372,172 


Waco ...................... 37,189 17,527 32,707

Sherman ................ 15,159 11,602 21,088 

Wichita Falls........ 24,600 18,790 9,175

Snyder .................... 3,351 2,278 3,515 
Sweetwater ............ 8,379 7,696 13,322 

TOTAL ................ $3,159,435 $3,105,615 $3,053,532 

Temple .................. 18,558 15,850 27,498 Tyler ...................... 33,502 29,484 45,456 • Not included in total. Waco ...................... 62,524 46,248 79,025 Non : Compiled frem. report• from Te:su chamben of cemmerce to 1be Bureau of Bu1ha•11 Re1e.1rch. 
Wichita Falls ........ 50,821 42,262 67,685 TOTAL .. _ .... -.... -2,775,946 $2,155,712 $3,463,396 
Nern : Compiled from reportl from Te:su cbambeu ~f commerce to th B 

ef ButiD... Reseerch. • UIM\l 
Ua ThOUMnda of Barrels) 

Dec., 1944 Dec., 194-S Nov., 19"
TEXAS COMMERClAL FAILURES 

Texas Plants Production ........................ 501 534 523
Jan., 19'5 Jan., 19« Dec., 1944 
Shipments .......................... 385 409 

471J
Number .......................... _... 1 0 0 

Stocks .................................. 1,010 1,135 893

Liabilities• ..................... -.. $10 0 0 
Assets• ................................ S 9 0 0 


United States 
Average Liabilities Production ........................ 7,387 8,318 8,304 
per failure• ............. -.... $10 0 0 Shipments .......................... 4,595 5,603 7,380
Stocks .................................. 19,785 23,134 

16,973 

•lo t11ou..odt. Capacity Operated .......... 36.0% 

40.0% 42.0%
N•n : Fr9qa Pu .., lk<ld.treet, lac . 
Nen : Frea U.!. D9Part111.ent ef l~tedor, Bureav of Minea. 

DAIRY PRODUCTS MANUFACTURED IN PLANTS IN TEXAS 
Predaet and Year Jta. r.i.. Wueh April ..., Jue Jaly A.as. s.,t. Oet. N.... Dee. Total 
CREAMERY BUTTER 
(1000 lb.) 

1945* --------------------------------1,561 1944' --------------------------------2,043 2,126 2,765 3,535 4,008 3,527 3,569 2,792 2,535 2,138 1,549 1,717 32,304 1930-39 average -------------2,074 2,109 2,392 3,138 3,556 3,166 4,113 2,867 2,513 2,608 2,301 2,211 .33,048 
ICE CREAM (1000 gal.) :I: 
1945* --------------------------------1,361 1944' ------------------------------1,115 1,211 1,520 1,687 2,491 2,944 3,200 2,997 2,193 1,897 1,680 1,076 24,0ll 1930--39 average --------------215 262 434 570 752 893 9o4 845 686 460 259 205 6,485 
AMERICAN CHEESE 
(1000 lbs.) 
1945' --------------------------------922 


1944* 902 956 1,229 1,884 2,273 2,159 2,076 1,621 1,372 1,148
-----------------------------869 708 17,197 
1930-39 average --------------554 590 737 1,050 1,215 1,129 1,119 1,025 866 852 718 641 10,496 
MILK EQUIVALENT OF DAIRY PRODUCTSt 
(1000 lbs.) 
_______________________________ 61,341

1945* 
__________________ ____________ 
67,873

1944* 71,519 92,663 ll9,889 144,977 137,502 l'f0,357 115,184 97,137 82,777 63,531 57,455 1,190,8641930--39 average ______________54,675 57,139 67,456 89,641 104,323 97,562 97,075 89,185 76,165 73,444 60,119 55,872 922,656 
•!1timatee of production made by the Bure•u of Bu1lne91 Betearch. 
tMllk Equlnlent of Dairy product1 wao calculated from production date lty the Bureaa ef llaoill-lteOMrcli. 
U11chulti1 Ice cream, 1herbet1, icH, ete. 
Non: 10-year avera11 production o• creamery butter, ice cream aad Amerlea• ehee11 l>H•• •• 4ata frem the Apiealtural M1tk1tin1 Seniee, U.S.D..A. 

JANUARY, 1945, CARLOAD MOVEMENT OF POULTRY AND EGGS 
Shipments from Texas Stations 
Can of Poultry Can of Egge 
Shell Chickena Turkeyt Shell Frozen Dried Equivalent+ 
•Destination 19-lS 1944 19-lS 1944 1945 1944 19-lS 1944 1945 1944 1945 1944 
34 19 13 18 14 34 88 Intrastate 5 2 2 2 3 11 14 14 17 1 167 47 Interstate 29 17 11 16 13 3 11 20 65 87 555 738 Receipts at Texas Stations TOTAL -------------------------------5 6 0 0 53 68 35 26 17 0 259 120 3 1 
TOTAL ---------------------------------------------------16 25 82 722 785 
Intrastate ------------------------------------------­0 0 2 13 17 14 17 0 170 41 
Interstate ---------------------------------------------------2 5 0 0 51 55 18 12 0 0 89 79 

•The destination above is the first destination l\• shown by the original waybilt. ChaDgH in destination brou1ht about by diversion factors are not shown. 
tDried eggs and frozen eggs are converted to a 1hell·e1g equivalent on the fol lowing huie : 1 riil Carload of dried e;:g1= 8 carloads .of shell e11s, and I carload of frozen egge = 2 carloads of shell eggs. 
NOTE: These data furnished to the Division of Agricultural Statistics, B.A.E., by railroad o&i:ciah thrOu1h agents at all stations which originate and receive carload ehipments of poultry and eggs. The data are compiled by the Bureau of Busine1111 Research. 
JANUARY SHIPMENTS OF LIVE STOCK CONVERTED TO A RAiL-CAR BASIS* 
Cattlo Caln1 Hoga Sheep Total 1945 1944 19-lS 19'4 19-lS 1944 19% 1944 1945 1944 
Total Interstate Plus Fort Worth ----------------· 4,198 2,853 843 765 649 1,447 573 315 6,263 S,380Total Intrastate Omitting Fort Worth._________ 633 514 125 111 32 91 81 73 871 789 
TOTAL SHIPMENTS___ _
__ ---------------------------' 4,831 3,367 968 876 681 1,538 654 388 7,134 6,169. 
•Rail-cu B11i1: Cattle. 30 bead per car; cd..ee, 60; ewine, 80; and 1heep, 250. 
Fort Worth shipments are combined with interstate forwardings in order that the bulk of market dieappearance for the month may be 1hewn. 
NOTE: Thcee data are furnished the United Statea Bureau of Agricultural Economice by railway officials throu&h more than 1,500 1tation aientt, repreteittins 

every livestock shippine point in the State. The data. are compiled by the Bureau of Busine11 Research. 
JANUARY CREDIT RATIOS IN TEXAS DEPARTMENT AND APPAREL STORES 
(ExpreMed in Per Cent) 
Ratio of' of Credit Sales Col l ection8 to 
Number Ratio of R11.tio of 
Credit Salarie1 Storee to Net Salce 
Ouostanding to Credit Sale• Reporting 1945 1944 1945 1944 
1945 19« 

1.4 1.7 v42.4 42.1" 66.5 63.5" 

Stores Grouped by Cities: 
Austin ------------------------------------------6 

All. Stores -----------.-------------------··-----------------~-------------------57 
38.7 42.5 65.2 67.6 1.7 1.6 Bryan -----------------------------------------·-··-··-····------·-··-·· 3 
44.4 37.4 55.2 52.5 l.3 1.4 Dallas ----------------------------5 
50.9 50.7 72.3 69.5 1.0 1.1 El Paso -------------------· -----3 
37.3 35.9 60.0 64.4 1.5 1.8 Fort Worth -----------------------------------6 
-~--'----­

42.1 39.7 65.1 58.4 1.4 .2.0 Houston -----------7 
45.2 41.2 64.1 59.2 1.8 2.1 

San Antonio ---------------------------------------5 36.0 39.0 67.4 64.5 1.5 1.7 Waco ----------------------------------------------5 
49.4 48.7 68.5 61.9 0.8 1.4 All .Others -'··------------~----'-------~-----~--· 17 38.5 41.2 69.5 67.8 1.3 1.6 Stores Grouped·According to Type of Store: 
Department Stores (Annual Volume Over $500,000) ........-------·-······-17 44.6 42.9 65.8 63.1 1.4 1.7 Department Stores (Annual Volume under $500,000) __________________ 9 36.4 37.9 68.7 65.8 1.8 2.3 Dry-Goods-Apparel Stores ----------------------------------------3 37.2 42.7 65.0 66.0 1.7 2.1 
Women's Specialty Shops ···---------------------------------16 36.3 38.9 69.6 64.3 1.1 1.3 Men's .Oothing Stores --------------------------·-····------------12 40.0 43.6 67.0 64.2 1.5 1.7 , Stores Grouped According to Volume of Net Sales During 1943: .. Over $2,500,000 -···-········-····-------------------16 48.4 42.6 64.5 64.8 1.1 1.4 
$2,500,000 down to $1,000,000...___________________________ 11 68.8 67.1 1.1 1.8
38.0 47.2 $1,000,000 down to $500,000_________________
__________ 11 35.4 36.6 67.1 66.1 0.8 1.9 
Lese than $500,000 ··-··------------------------------------------------------------19 30.6 29.l 64.0 61.8 2.9 3.7 
Non: The rati01 thowo for eAch yea?. in the order in which they appear froa loft to ri1ht ue oDt.tned .,,. the followin1 compatation1: (I) Credit 5alea dh·tde• "° Net Salee. (2) Col1eetion1 durin1 the month tli•lded by the total account• ua11atd en the Int of the month. (I) Salariet of the credit de,artment dh·ided by n••lt ..1... The data u e reported to the Bure.au of Bu1lne11 Research by Te•H r.tall ttH••· 
CONTENTS 
Business Review and Prospect, F. A. Buechel..___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3 
A Comparative View of the Natural Resources of the Tex!M RegionJ, Elmer H. Johnson --------------------------------------6 
Bases for Evaluation of the Cotton Industry, A. B. Cox ·-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------17 
LIST OF CHARTS 

Indexes of Building Permits................................·-······························--·-··········--···········-·-········-····----------------······-----------------..·-····-····--·-·-------1 
Indexes of Business Activities in Texas..........----··-·······-------······ -----·-···-·-·····-·-············--··-·-----·-········-···········---·-······-····--·····------------·····--·-2 

LIST OF TABLES 

Building Permits ······-············-----------········-···--------·-····--·-·-···--·················-················-·············----······--·········------······-······-············-22 Carload Movement of Poultry and Eggs.....·--············-·······--·-····-···-···························· -··········-·······--·-----·-············-·--··-·······-···-······ ... 23 Cement ·······----··············-······---·········-···-·················-----------------································-··--·-·············-······················································ 22 Charters ---------·······-------···········-·-·-·············-··----·------------------···· -·-··-······-················-·······-·····--·······-·········---·.. ··············-----------········· 21 Commercial Failures ···················--··-··········-···---------····--------·-················--···············-·······--·-·········-·························-·--··········-······ 22 Commodity Prices ..····-···..... .......... ······-···-····-····-·····-·-···---------···············....······-········-················· ···········································--···· 20 Cotton Balance Sheet ....... ........ ····--·-···-.........·-············--·--····.............................-----·-·····················-················-..--...................... 18 
~~~;tp~::i~~tsi~:::;:ct~;:~ilins~{::t~-;-~·T~~~~------_-_-_-_-_-_·:_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_~-~------::::::.:_·_·:::::.::::=::::::=:::::::::::::::::.::::=::::=::::.-:::::::::::::::::::.-:::.-:=:::::..~---------= ;: Employment and Pay Rolls in Texas......·-·-···-·····-············-------____ -···················-······-·······-··-··-··············---·········.. ·········---------------·-···----19 Lumber 21 
Percenta~~-c"b;~-~~--i~--c~~~~;;;~~i~~--~£-ii~~~ri~--P~;~;=:::::::=::::::::::::::::::::::::=:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::=::~=::=:=:::::::: 20 
Petroleum ······--------·······················----------------------------............................. --··········-········-----·-·····················---------------------------·-21 

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