Text e. The plains

The region of the Plains is made up of those states between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains with the exception of Louisiana and Arkansas. The Northern Plains states are North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota. Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas make up the Southern Plains states.

The first American explorers of the Great Plains thought that this region was a desert. They even called it the "Great American Desert". They noted that there was a lack of trees and an almost endless sea of grass. Today, the region is considered the "Ameri­can breadbasket". It yields great quantities of crops, especially wheat. Wheat is important in the states of Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, and the Dakotas.

Iowa is considered the richest of the farming states of the Northern Plains. Nearly 96 per cent of the land is arable, that is fit for cultivation. "The average size of a farm in Iowa is 114 hectares. Since Iowa is situated in the eastern part of the plains, it receives more rainfall than the states in the west. Corn is grown instead of wheat. In fact, Iowa is the leading state in the USA in corn production. Because of the great amount of corn which is used for fodder, Iowa also leads the nation in the raising of hogs.

The cities of the Northern Plains have developed as markets and food processing centres. The most typical ones are as follows: Minneapolis, St. Paul, Kansas City, and Omaha.

St. Louis, the largest city in the Northern Plains, was founded as a tra­ding centre in the 1700's. But in the last 150 years it became a major in­dustrial city. Today, manufacturing is the most important economic activity. Among its products are metals, chemicals, airplanes and automobiles.

Oil is the most important natural resource in the Southern Plains. The growing demand for oil products brought great wealth to Texas and Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Dallas, and Houston.

In addition to oil, farming is important to the Southern Plains states. The farms in the state of Oklahoma grow wheat, sorghum, cotton, corn, and peanuts. However, the state has a serious problem with soil erosion. In order to overcome this problem much of the cropland has been converted to grass land. This change has given good results: cattle raising has become a major agricultural activity in Oklahoma.

Texas is one of the most important agricultural states in the region and the country. The average size of a farm in Texas is 270 hectares, which means that the farms are quite big. Many farms belong to large corporations. Such farms are much bigger than the usual ones. They have a size of 405 hectares or even more. Vegetables and citrus fruit are grown in south Texas, and wheat and cotton are grown in the north of the state. Texas leads the country in both the number of cattle and sheep.

Though Texas has more individual farmers than any other state, most of the people in the state live in cities of over 50,000 population. In recent years the growth of the population in Texas is rapid. Many people migrate to Texas from other states because of its warm climate and the availability of service jobs in the growing cities.

Houston is among the largest cities of the USA with around 1,5 mil­lion people in the city and about 3 million in the metropolitan area. It is becoming the national centre for techno­logy for space exploration, energy and medicine. Dallas is the second largest city in Texas with about 1 million people. The Dallas-Fort Worth metro­politan area has about 3 million people. Its economy is based on the manufacturing of electrical equipment, airplane parts, clothing, and the processing of food products. San Antonio is the third largest city in the state and among the largest cities of the country. Its population of about 800,000 people is engaged in food processing, manufacturing and government service.