Strain Farm-Strain, W.A., House (Boundary Increase)

The William A. Strain and Ellis W. Strain Farm (hereafter the Strain Farm) is a well-preserved example of an early- to mid-20th-century blackland prairie farm in Dallas County, Texas. The district contains historical field configurations and important landscape engineering elements which played an important role in the demonstration of new agricultural techniques under the Texas Agricultural Extension Service's county farm program, under which Ellis Strain demonstrated soil terracing, planted new crop varieties and raised special livestock breeds. The Strain Farm retains most of the important landscaping features from the Depression era. The terraces stand out visually as engineered vestiges of an earlier period when soil conservation measures were being introduced to farmers in the Lancaster area. The district is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places in the areas of Agriculture and Conservation, at the local level of significance.

The early 20th century brought significant changes in local agricultural practices and rural population in Dallas County, as cotton growing and tenant farming were replaced by other endeavors and the combustion tractor displaced older methods of using draft animals for labor. Decades of land-use abuses under the harsh system of cotton agriculture and tenant farming brought soil exhaustion and soil erosion to a climax in the early 20th century. The Strain Farm participated in tenant farming and cotton growing in the 1920s, and Ellis Strain's search for more productive and better land management practices was partly in response to these conditions and market declines. The 163 acres featured in this boundary increase, combined with the two acres already listed on the National Register, retain good examples of engineered landscaping and common agricultural outbuildings and improvements representative of a 1930-1950 farm experiencing the shift to modern agricultural approaches.

The fields and landscape features on the Strain Farm played an important role in the demonstration of new agricultural techniques under the Texas Agricultural Extension Service's county farm program in the Lancaster area. The most noticeable and well-maintained features are terrace ridges used to prevent soil erosion and redirect rainwater runoff, as well as both contour-plowed and cultivated fields and rectangular fields where erosion was not a major problem. The age and importance of these engineered landscape elements have been verified from aerial photographs as well as identified in daily journals and family records kept by Ellis Strain. They were constructed as early as 1930, and by 1942 had achieved their present configuration. Today, the terraces remain as engineered vestiges of early soil conservation measures were being introduced to farmers in the area.

The history and historical associations of the Strain Farm relate to a period when tractors began to replace draft animals and conservation practices were introduced to repair some of the damage caused by tenant farming and years of growing cotton. The Strain Farm was one of only a few known demonstration farms in Dallas County between 1930 and 1950, and extensive family records reveal insights into both the kinds of extension projects implemented and the daily management and operation of the farm as a whole. Handwritten notes by Ellis document some of the practices and experiments he implemented under Dallas County Extension agent A.B. Jolley. Under various Extension Service programs, Ellis cultivated experimental crops (e.g., Ellis' hybrid corn won awards), raised selected livestock (Poland- China pigs, special breed milk cows), and put special soil conservation methods put into practice for other local farmers to see first-hand. Ellis Strain also frequently attended County Extension Service meetings and hosted some meetings on his property.