6. Descriptions of the Collections


legislation to preserve the family farm. Nebraska is also home to the Center for Rural Affairs in Walthill,
a nationally-known ecologically-concerned alternative farming center.

Over the course of the phase 2 project, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in cooperation with other
libraries in the state, will preserve and improve access to 114 titles in 1,125 volumes important to the
study of agriculture and rural life in Nebraska and the plains states. These volumes were selected for
preservation from a comprehensive bibliography of 5,539 volumes identified during the 1996/97 phase 1
project supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The phase 1 project employed a
three-person scholarly review to rank the titles according to their priority as research resources for
humanities studies. Details of Nebraska's phase 2 project staffing and costs are found in Section 5.9 of
the proposal's Plan of Work.


5.10 TEXAS


With 267,339 square miles of land stretching from the High Plains of the Panhandle to the Gulf of
Mexico, Texas is a giant among the states and, along with Hawai'i a state that was first a sovereign nation.
From El Paso on the Rio Grande, to Texarkana on the Arkansas border, is a journey of nearly 800 miles.
Within this vastness are three distinct physical divisions, the Atlantic-Gulf Coastal Plains, the Great Plains
and the Rocky Mountain system. These three can be further divided by soil and climate differences into
nine natural regions, all having different agricultural characteristics and thus a distinct rural history.
Average annual rainfall decreases from fifty-six inches in the extreme eastern part of the state to only
eight inches at El Paso. It is not surprising that Texans are known to boast that everything is bigger,
further, hotter, colder, wetter and dryer in Texas. The documentary record of agriculture and rural life in
Texas confirms that the extreme differences in the land had great influence on the people who settled the
various regions.

At the time the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, Texas had already had contact with Africans and
Europeans for nearly ninety years. When the Anglo-Americans settled in Texas they deluded themselves
into thinking that they were bringing civilization to the frontier. In fact, the Mexicans had an established
culture with social, political, educational and religious institutions and when Mexico became an
independent country in 1821, Texas became an independent state. After the establishment of a colony of
Anglo-Americans by Stephen Fuller Austin in 1821, similar settlers came in increasing numbers. While
the new settlers did not come determined to wrest Texas away from Mexico, they had little or no interest
in adapting to the new culture. Instead they came for land. The rich primary sources of the period such
as The Austin Papers (edited by Eugene C. Barker) bare abundant testimony to the clash of these
cultures.

Despite cultural conflict that would eventually lead to revolution and the raising of the Lone Star flag
over the Republic of Texas in 1836, Anglo-Americans eagerly absorbed the Mexican's concept of
bigness in land. The New England concept of a few acres and a cow had no value in the vastness of
Texas. In fact, the plantation model of the cotton south was too small a notion for land hungry
immigrants. By agreeing to abide by Mexican law and becoming a Roman Catholic one could secure
4,605 acres of land. A successful colonizing impresario could garner upwards of 184,000 bonus acres of
land for himself by bringing in large numbers of colonists. Impresarios like Austin, Haden Edwards and
Green Dewitt, driven by their own self interests, fueled the great land grab by publishing countless tracts
touting the agricultural potential of Texas. Soon land hungry immigrants from both the United States
and Europe began pouring into Texas. Immigrant agents like the Texas Emigration and Land Company
contracted for whole colonies. By the time of the Texas Revolution in 1836, Anglo-Americans already
made up sixty percent of the population. The Republic and later the state continued liberal land policies
to bring in even more settlers.