Jerry,

That's all well and good, but it still misses the point. Kansas, California, Missouri, Nebraska, etc. were all still growing very rapidly during the times I mentioned regardless, same as Texas. Arkansas was not. Why? It looks like the devastation of Arkansas during the war was as bad as has been described.

It doesn't sound like you've been to Kansas if you think all those windmills are for wheat. The ones I recall were for horses and cattle, but I haven't lived there in three decades. I do have some distant relations still raising beef herds there. Others were raising various crops. (I'm pretty sure they are using a lot of irrigation from deep wells since the area is rather arid.)