NEBRASKA FARMS
The most successful farmer in the
United States lives in Pawnee county,
Nebraska. So successful is this farmer
that the United States Department of
Agriculture sent one of its agents to
study his system, and later the depart
ment issued one of its most interesting
bulletins with him for the subject. This
farmer, Arnold Martin Dubois, came to
Nebraska a few years ago with a wife and
baby but without a dollar. For two or
three years he worked as a farm hand,
saved his money and finally had a little
stake. He bought thirty acres from his
emphner, paying a part of the purchase
price down and giving a mortgage for the
balance. The thirty acres he purchased
was deemed almost worthless by the orig
inal owner. It was rough, sadly grown in
brush and the soil was clay. It was far
inferior in every way to nine-tenths of
the farm land in that section of the
state. Today it is the most produc
tive farm of its size in the republic.
Every foot of it is utilized, and there is
something growing thereon all the time.
This farmer, with thirty acres, supports a
big family in comfort, educates his chil
dren, and every year adds to his balance
in bank. Today he could buy a half-section
of $100-an-aere land and pay the
cash for it without exhausting his re
sources. And every dollar that he has
made, with the exception of the small sum
he paid down when he bought the thirty
acres, has been made from that same
thirty acres. What this Bohemian emi
grant has done thousands of other men
may do in Nebraska. Nebraska is the agri
cultural empire of the world. Acre for
acre its -soil is the most productive in the
temperature zone. It can assimilate
more water and get along with less than
any other similar area of territory in the
western hemisphere. No other state offers
such splendid opportunities to the home
seeker and homemaker.
NEBRASKA SCENERY.
Do not labor under the mistaken no
tion that Nebraska is a flat, montonous
plain. Quite the contrary. Nebraska
boasts of some of the finest scenery in
America. The Falls of Wauneta in Chase
county are more beautiful by far than the
famed Minnehaha Falls of Minnesota.
The deep canons of Pine creek and the
Niobrara river are the wonders of all be
holders. Chimney Rock and Scotts Bluff
in western Nebraska are quite as remark
able as Pike's Peak, even if not nearly so
high, and the rugged bluffs along the
Missouri river and the rock f6rmations
along the Republican are to be counted
among the beautiful scenes of Scenic
America. Nature in her wildest mood is
to be seen in the famed "Bad Lands" -of
Nebraska, and in her most peaceful
moods in the well tilled and fertile fields
that dot the landscape from one end of
the state to the other. Nebraska has many
lakes teeming with fish and possessed of
shore lines that are a delight to the eye.
Her rivers are numerous, and most of
them rush through rock formation and
over sandy beds, their clear waters full of
trout. O, no ! Nebraska is not a flat,
montonous plain. Every minute of one's
journey through the state is a pleasure to
the observing eye.- What we call "hills"'
and "bluffs" out here are designated as
"mountains" in the eastern portion of the
republic.
CATTLE INDUSTRY
f"2 J
HERBERT T. FOLSOM.
Mr. Folsom is an ex-president of the
Lincoln Ad Club, and one of its charter
members. None is more active than he in
the work of the organization. He is man
ager of the Union Coal Co. and attends
to its advertising himself. The success
of the company is an indication that as
an advertising man and business mana
ger Mr. Folsom is a success. If you meet
him while he is in Boston you are going
to become acquainted with a genial gen
tleman. AN OLD STORY.
In the fall of 1890 a homesteader who
had failed to make good on his home
stead and timber claim in western Ne
braska, camped near Falls City one
night, en route to his wife's folks in Mis
souri. To the endgate of his rickety
wagon was tied a half-starved yearling
heifer.
"Where did you get that heifer?" asked
a curious resident.
"Well, it's this way, stranger," replied
the mover. "A fellow came along and
offered me that heifer for my IGO-acre
homestead, and I took him up. When
we come to make out the papers I dis
covered the fellow couldn't read and
write, so I took advantage of him and
slipped the timber claim into the deed
too."
All of which was a humorous story
when it was first told in the fall of 1890.
But the only man who, is laughing now
is the man who swapped the heifer for
the land. -He has 320 acres that he can
sell any old day for. f 75 an acre. The
heifer died years ago.
. Twenty-five years ago three-fifths of
the area of Nebraska was deemed of use
only as a grazing ground for cattle. In
deed, less than a quarter of a century ago
a governor of Nebraska bluntly told the
first irrigation convention that its mem
bers were impractical visionaries because
they declared that irrigation and intelli
gent farming would convert the western
two-thirds of Nebraska from a cattkv
country into a farming country. Yet
within the last quarter of a century the
great cattle range has practically disap-"
peared. In the old days it was estimat
ed that in the "grazing country an over
age of from ten to twelve steers could be
profitably grazed to the section.
But although the huge cattle range has
disappeared before the invasion -of the
homesteader, the cattle industry in Ne
braska is larger today than ever before.
Instead of- a dozen steers grazing on a
section, a hundred steers are fattened on
the alfalfa and timothy and corn grown
on a half-section. The big rancher has
given way to scores of small feeders. The
feed lot has taken the place of the range.
Instead of one ranchman trying to pre-
nnw n rmTnlfi nf tlinnafirwl etfnT frr 111 i t-
ket, there are a hundred small feeders
preparing from 100 to 250 cattle each
for the market. During the twenty-five
years last past, during which time the
great cattle ranges disappeared, Ne
braska has marketed upward of 15,
000,000 head of cattle at South Omaha
and Chicago vastly more than Nebraska
sent to market during the previous twenty-five
years when the big cattle ranges
flourished and were-in their prime. And
with . the change from the big ranch, to
the feed lot has come the tremendous hog
industry which has, during the past quar
ter of a century put upwards of $400,
000,000 into the pockets of Nebraska
farmers.
ANOTHER RECORD.
There are more typesetting machines
per capita in Nebraska than in any other
state. Nebraska has over 700 daily,
weekly and monthly publications, and
her especial pride is in her virile, progres
sive "country press." The country
weeklies of Nebraska are always leaders
in making political history of the right
sort.
KEARNEY, NEBRASKA.
Kearney, Nebraska, erected the first
cotton mill ever built west of the Missis
sippi river and north of the Yazoo. She
was the first city of 5,000 inhabitants in
the United States to build and operate
an electric car line, and furnish the pow
er from a canal built for power and irri
gation purposes.