8 Vbt Conservative *
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PKOSPEKITY IN NICIIKASKA.
W. E. Curtis of the Chicago Record
is uow in Nebraska and , through the
columns of his paper , is telling the truth
about our state. Ho is doing Nebraska
more good than the combined efforts of
populist papers and politicians. This is
what Curtis says about Nebraska :
The manufacturing industries and the
agricultural products will doubtless show
greater gains in volume and in value
since the last census was taken than in
any previous period in our history , but
I have heard it asserted by experts that
the number of cattle in the country is
much smaller today than in 1890 , al
though their value is larger. This fact
was disputed , however , by one of the
best-informed men in the cattle business ,
who has lately made an extended jour
ney among the ranches of the south
west and Wyoming , Idaho and Mon
tana. He declared that there were more
cattle on the ranges today than there
had over been , but the ranchmen would
return a smaller number to escape assess
ment in the states where populist legis
latures had imposed heavy taxes upon
live stock.
Nevertheless , it is the prevailing opin
ion that horned cattle , sheep and horses ,
are scarcer today than for twenty years
previous , which accounts for the high
prices. Five years ago well-broken
horses were selling through this coun
try for $25 to $50 , while ranch horses ,
unbroken , could be bought singly or by
the carload anywhere from $10 to $25.
At Boise City in 1896 I saw a carload of
ranch horses sold at auction for $2 each ,
which did not pay for their transporta
tion. Today the liveryman who drove
us about Aurora said that ordinary
carriage and draft horses cost from $100
to $150 each , and that ranch horses were
selling at the feeding yards all the way
from $40 to $60.
Very little wild laud in Nebraska has
been taken up since 1890 as compared
with the previous ten years. From 1880
to 1890 a large area of the most inviting
soil in the state , which the extension of
the railways made accessible , was open
to settlement. During that period 50-
221 new farms were opened , a number
far in access of any other state except
Texas and they wore mostly homesteads
of 160 acres each. This increase made
the total number of farms in Nebraska
113,608 of an average of 190 acres each.
During that decade 11,648,618 acres were
added to the cultivated area , bringing
the total to 21,593,444 more than that
of all the New England states combined ,
and only n little less than that of New
York.
During the last ton years there have
been hard trials. The failures have
been numerous , and most of the victims
have gone elsewhere. Those who sur
vived the droughts and other causes of
depression are rich , contented and
happy , and have bought the land that
belonged to their less fortunate neigh
bors , for it is the undying ambition of
a Nebraska farmer to add the next farm
to his own. We were told this morning
of a resident of this town who ten or
twelve years ago loaned a lot of money
to farmers in this neighborhood. When
the hard times came and the crops failed
and prices were low , the latter were un
able to pay interest , not to mention the
principal. Most of them pulled np
stakes and went in search of a better
country. He was compelled to buy in
the land at a nominal price , and was
fortunate enough to be able to do it.
He is now selling the same farms for
several times their original value , and
has made an independent fortune.
It will doubtless be found that the
population in the western part of the
state has not increased at all. It is
more likely to have fallen off. It has
been demonstrated by the sad experience
of many people that dry land is not
good for farming , and they left it for
better watered regions. Some of these
abandoned farms are now producing
extraordinary crops under irrigation.
Ditches are being built northward and
southward from all the rivers in the
western fourth of the state , and the
yield per acre under this system is much
greater than in the more favored regions
in the east. But most of the old aban
doned farms are used as ranges.
The towns and villages throughout
the state have nearly all grown rapidly ,
particularly during the lost three years.
There has been no boom , but a solid
gradual growth , which has been neces
sary to accommodate an increasing pop
ulation and the demands of business.
There is very little speculative build
ing in Nebraska since 1898. People
build their own homes and put up busi
ness blocks and factories where they are
needed , but take no chances in getting a
return for their investment. The man
who drove us around today said that
more new buildings had been erected in
Aurora during the last year than in the
previous ten.
The same conditions prevail among
the farmers as among the business men.
Both farming and business have been
concentrated and consolidated in the
hands of the successful operators , while
the incompetents in all lines of activity
have fallen out of the procession. There
are fewer farms and fewer stores in Ne
braska than there were four years ago ,
but both are larger and more profitable.
Farming is no longer carried on in a
desultory way. It has become an exact
science. Business methods have been
introduced by use of which men of in
dustry and intelligence win and the
other kind of farmers lose in the com
petition. This is true not only here but
all over the west. The agricultural col
leges are largely responsible for these
conditions. Nowadays , it is as necessary
for a farmer to be educated for his oc
cupation as for a lawyer or a doctor ,
and the degree of bachelor of agricul
ture is conferred by the universities as
well as arts and medicine.
The State University of Nebraska ,
for example , is a typical institution and
illustrates the demand as well as the
appreciation of the people for learning.
It is situated at Lincoln , was founded in
1869 , and the bricks for the first building
were hauled sixty miles from Nebraska
City before u , railway was opened. A
class of two was graduated in 1878 and
a class of nearly 200 this summer.
There are eighty instructors in the fac
ulty , 2,000 students on the rolls , and an
alumni of several thousand , who are the
solid men of the state. It ranks with
the great institutions of the country ,
and is especially important because it
gives a practical education applicable to
the climate and the soil and other con
ditions of the country that cannot bo
controlled. It turns out every year
botanists and husbandmen , agricultur
ists , irrigation engineers , veterinarians ,
horticulturists , geologists , chemists and
all other classes of culture , who are
needed and scatter over the state de
voting their talents and industry to se
curing the largest returns for the least
labor.
You find these men everywhere in
Nebraska and many of them upon the
farms , where they are engaged in what
may be called concentrated and system
atic farming. Nebraska is divided by
longitudinal lines into different zones.
The eastern half of the state has a heavy
and sufficient rainfall. The western
half is too dry to make agriculture safe
without irrigation. The easternmost
counties are devoted entirely to farm
ing , the next strip to farming and
fattening cattle for the market , the
next to farming and ranching , placing
the most important industry first , the
next to ranching with a little farming
on the side , and the western counties to
ranching , with imported vegetables and
butter.
SENSIBLE TEMPERANCE.
The Outlook welcomes as indications
of a return to sane methods of dealing
with the temperance question two re
cent significant events. At a session of
the Young People's union of the Uni-
versalist church a prohibition resolution
was voted down on the ground that it
violated the legitimate liberty of the
individual. Hitherto in ecclesiastical
conventions those who have not believed
in such resolutions have been too apt to
keep silence , allow the resolution to be
carried without objection and then dis
regard it as quietly as they acquiesced
in it. We are glad to see this indication
that men who believe in temperance ,
and do not believe that prohibition is
the best method of promoting tem
perance , are beginning to get the