The study of the economic development of the Rio Grande Plain has been divided into the following seven chapters: (1) Physical Aspects of the Rio Grande Plain, (2) Grazing, (3) Development of Farming, (4) Development of Transportation, (5) Growth of Major Urban Centers, (6) Development of Natural Resources, and (7) Present Trends. In each chapter except Chapters I and VII, effort has been made to locate the origin of that particular industry and trace its development. In order to understand the development in the raising of livestock, farming, transportation, natural resources, and the growth of major cities of the region, it would be well to understand the physical aspects of the region.

"From the time the first settlers arrived in any region to the present time, numerous changes in their economic life occurred. In the thirty-eight counties of the Texas Panhandle and upper plains, these changes have occurred in rapid order; for in only the past seventy-five years (1875-1950), this region has progressed from one of buffalo hunters to businessmen, through intervening stages of cowboys, "nesters," farmers, and "dust eaters." The purpose of this study is to evaluate each step, thereby enabling the reader to gain a general knowledge as to what the economic situation in the panhandle is based upon today. The area to be studied is composed of the seven northern tiers of counties in the Panhandle and upper plains of Texas. These seven tiers contain thirty-eight counties with an approximate are of 23,491,840 acres. The western part of the Panhandle is located on the Great Plains, or High Plains, while about a third of the area is situated in the North Central Plains. " -- leaf 1.

The purpose of this thesis is to present a history of the founding, operations, services, and growth of the First State Bank of Gladewater,Texas, with special emphasis placed on the economic relationships between the bank and the community. The general problem in this thesis is to gather all the material and data pertaining to the organization, operation, and functions of the bank, with relation to the growth of the community and to present them in a readable coherent manner.

"In the first fifty years of the twentieth century, Denton County's chief asset was the fertility of its land. Today the county's main asset is still its land but for a different reason. As industry decentralizes, as the city populace searches for new areas of settlement, as the county's educational institutions expand, as investors look for new tracts of land, as builders construct large interstate highways, and as digging machines create lakes and recreational areas, the principal asset of the county becomes the non-agrarian utility of its land. Accompanying this land value shift has been an occupational change."-- leaf 103.

"The Tennessee Valley Authority is a world example of the full development of a river basin in soil conservation, flood control, navigation, electric power, afforestation, and recreation... Many river basin areas in the United States have created planning commissions to further develop the advancement of their own watershed problems. The Trinity Improvement Association is the planning commission for the Trinity River watershed area... In Chapter II a factual resume of the Tennessee Valley Authority will be given, and this chapter will be used as a basis of comparison for the development of the Trinity River Basin. Chapter III covers the problem of soil conservation and flood control within the watershed area; Chapter IV deals with the industrial and municipal use of water and the resources of the tributary area; Chapter V contains a brief history of the canal movement on the Trinity, the feasibility of such a canal, and miscellaneous developments; and Chapter VI contains the conclusions that it seems appropriate to draw. " -- leaf 1.

"The problem investigated in this thesis is that of determining the impact of the disestablishment of Camp Edward Gary on the economy of the city of San Marcos, Texas...it is anticipated that this study may contribute two additional outcomes of value: the first is a test of certain ideas in economic theory pertaining to recessions; and the second is an evaluation of the data pertaining to the economy of small communities...the data presented in Chapter II and the summarization of that information in Chapter III lead to the inevitable conclusion that the deactivation of Camp Edward Gary caused a recession in the City of San Marcos, Texas, which was shared in varying degree by virtually every element of the economy...it is further concluded that the impact of the loss of the military community was modified to some degree by the beneficial effects of the growth in its educational institutions and the fact that the loss was shared, although in a lesser degree, by other communities in the general area." --leaves 4, 5, 79