Editing Round Rock, Texas (section)

====Cotton====

In the first half of the 20th century, the county's wealth came from the cotton fields.<ref>{{cite book |title=Road, River and Good Ol' Boy Politics: A Texas County's Path from Farm to Supersuburb |last=Scarbrough |first=Linda |year=2009 |publisher=Texas State Historical Association |location=Austin, Texas |isbn=978-0-87611-202-1|page=22 }}</ref> [[Cotton]], row crops, grapes, and truck farming were the predominant subsistence east of Interstate 35. West of the Balcones divide, ranchers raised cattle, sheep, and to a lesser extent, goats.<ref>{{cite book |title=Road, River and Good Ol' Boy Politics: A Texas County's Path from Farm to Supersuburb |last=Scarbrough |first=Linda |year=2009 |publisher=Texas State Historical Association |location=Austin, Texas |isbn=978-0-87611-202-1 |page=82 }}</ref> Due to Round Rock's favorable geographic location over the rich, fertile "[[Texas blackland prairies|blackland prairie]]" soils also known locally as the "black waxy"<ref name="Scarbrough 2009">{{cite book |title=Road, River and Good Ol' Boy Politics: A Texas County's Path from Farm to Supersuburb |last=Scarbrough |first=Linda |year=2009 |publisher=Texas State Historical Association |location=Austin, Texas |isbn=978-0-87611-202-1 }}</ref> (due to the soil's high clay content), cotton was the largest economic driver at that time. Because of the soil and climate, this ecoregion is ideally suited to crop agriculture. Nearby [[Taylor, Texas|Taylor]], Texas, east of Round Rock, was the primary cotton center where the crop was hauled for [[cotton gin|ginning]] (its seeds mechanically removed) at the [[cotton gin]], compressed into bales, and shipped by train. Austin was also a cotton center for a time once the railroad arrived there in the 1870s.<ref>{{cite book |title=Road, River and Good Ol' Boy Politics: A Texas County's Path from Farm to Supersuburb |last=Scarbrough |first=Linda |year=2009 |publisher=Texas State Historical Association |location=Austin, Texas |isbn=978-0-87611-202-1 |pages=250–251 }}</ref> Cotton production and cattle raising, on a much smaller scale, continues today, although primarily east of Round Rock.