After treaties with the American Indians and federal legislation opened up Oklahoma lands for settlement between 1889 and 1906, agriculture developed very rapidly. Although the Indians in eastern Oklahoma had done some farming, mainly by leasing their lands to white tenants, farming in Oklahoma did not become very important until after 1889. Following the Land Run of April 22, 1889, when thousands of people rushed into the Unassigned Lands, agriculture moved swiftly toward becoming the basis of the Oklahoma economy. As the president of the State Board of Agriculture wrote in 1907, "agriculture is, and will be for years to come if not forever, the leading industry in our State." His prediction was partially correct, because agriculture was the state's leading industry well into the twentieth century.
The pioneer settlers who pushed quickly into Oklahoma Territory to establish farms on free or cheap land did not have an easy time. Confronted by periodic droughts, low prices for crops and livestock, lack of capital, and other problems, they struggled to get a firm foothold on the land. Many of them initially lived in sod houses or dugouts and provided most of their own subsistence by growing garden vegetables, milking a few cows, butchering their own meat, and raising a few acres of corn. Times were so difficult and farmers so desperate in 1891, because of the severe drought in parts of the territory, that the railroads provided some seed grain so farmers could plant a crop.
