[DGHoodini]

Thanks al for the replies...Somehow I got it in my head that cotton, pre-Civil War, was mostly a South Eastern and South Central U.S. crop.

[centurion316]

That was true, ante-bellum when cotton had to move to market via the southern river systems and required slave labor. However, post Civil War, Texas discovered this little thing called the Ogalalla Acquifer out in West Texas. They growed alot of cotton with that water

[Deaf Smith]

When Major General Gordon Granger landed in Galveston, Texas to take over reconstruction his first order was that all cotton was to be turned over to US troops.

[mamelukesabre]

Probably because the Ewings only dealt in oil and misbehavior.