For thousands of years cedar (juniper) had been kept from the lowlands by frequent prairie fires. Fifty years of overgrazing eliminated the three-foot high little bluestem and ended the hottest fires. This began the spread of cedar away from slopes, like Chalk Mountain, and then near the hundreds of acres of apple orchards. Cedar is a carrier of scale, an insect that destroys apple trees. In 1912, Louis J. Tackett arrived from the State Department of Agriculture to examine the dying trees. Various deadly sprays were tried that destroyed the health of many orchard workers but did not stop the scale. Today there are a few varieties of apples that can live in Erath County.

Dan Young, Erath History Calendar, 1985.