White farmers in Arkansas were devastated following the war, and a combination of forces aligned to further depress the agriculture sector. As the Cotton Belt expanded into Oklahoma and Texas, Arkansas farmers faced new competition from outside their region for the first time, depressing prices.vThough railroads had expanded to of track in Arkansas by 1895, farmers were often charged higher rates to serve rural areas. Selling cash crops into expanding (and often oversupplied) commodity markets left farmers with limited financial control of their operations. Many took crop liens, putting up their land as collateral to pay for seeds in spring. Looking for a return on investment, the creditors usually insisted that farmers plant largely cotton, which remained the most valuable cash crop. Many chose to plant cotton willingly, resisting calls from agricultural extension agents and university research recommending crop diversification or conservation methods. Cash-poor farmers in the Arkansas Delta and throughout the South often resorted to tenant farming, where tenants work an owner's land in exchange for a fixed percentage of the crop yield. By the Great Depression, most farmers in Arkansas did not own the land they worked. Owning few assets, many in the farm economy had few ways to climb the economic ladder, leaving many Arkansans behind the prosperity seen in other states during the Gay Nineties.