NEBRASKA. 



053 



of claims, the Legislature appropriated the ag- 

 gregate sum of $760,619.88, or $280,629.89 more 

 t. I.-HI the amount to be raised by taxation dur- 

 ing the same two years. 



Among tin- appropriations for educational 

 purposes and the support of charitable institu- 

 tion* are the following: For the State Univer- 

 $50,000 ; State Normal School, $25,800 ; 

 Hospital for the Insane, $67,700; Insti- 

 tute for the Deaf and Dumb, $11,280; Insti- 

 tute for the Blind, $15,000; State Reform 

 School, $10,000. 



The Hospital for the Insane is located about 

 threo miles from Lincoln. The average num- 

 ber of patients in the institution for the year 

 ending November 30, 1878, was 111 ; and the 

 whole number treated during that year was 

 182. 



In the Deaf and Dumb Asylum at Omaha, 

 the pupils under instruction at the end of the 

 year 1879 numbered 64, 12 more than in the 

 preceding year. Of the boys, 8 are learning 

 the art of printing and 12 the carpenter's trade. 

 In the female department, 22 girls receive in- 

 struction in needlework. 



The Nebraska State Prison, situated about 

 the same distance from Lincoln as the Hospital 

 for the Insane, in a different direction, is under 

 excellent management in all respects. The 

 prisoners are kept steadily employed in manual 

 work of various kinds, their labor being under 

 contract for a long term, and the contractor 

 personally superintending the convicts at work 

 in the prison. He furnishes them with cloth- 

 in? and supplies, and pays all the current ex- 

 penses of the prison, and a stipulated yearly 

 sum to the State for each prisoner. This meth- 

 od seems to have been found of mutual advan- 

 tage to the State and the contractor. By act 

 of the Legislature, the contract for the con- 

 victs' labor has been renewed for ten years, till 

 1889. During the year 1879 the number of 

 convicts in the penitentiary was gradually in- 

 creasing. On March loth it was 207; at the 

 end of November, 266 ; and on Christmas day, 

 271. Of the 207 confined there in March, 145 

 were residents of the State of Nebraska, and 

 50 of Wyoming Territory; 7 were United 

 States prisoners, and 5 were county prisoners, 

 detained in the penitentiary for safe-keeping. 

 The classes of gravest crimes for which they 

 had been respectively sentenced, and their 

 proportional numbers, were as follows: Mur- 

 der, 25 ; manslaughter, 3 ; malicious cutting, 

 6; arson, 2; grand larceny, 43; burglary, 18; 

 robbery, 6 ; horse-stealing, 23. 



The grain-crops in Nebraska for 1879 were 

 plentiful and of fine quality. In many coun- 

 ties north and south of Platte River, out to the 

 Republican Valley, the yield for the several 

 crops in bushels per acre ranged as follows : 

 Wheat, 12 to 18; oats, 30, 40, 45, and 60; 

 barley, 25, 30, and 40. The crop of com, which 

 had been very extensively planted, appears to 

 have been better than that of other grain ; the 

 average being 40, 50, and 60 bushels per acre, 



according to localities. In Otoo County alone 

 there were 110,000 acres planted, the aver- 

 age yield being reckoned at 60 bushels per 

 acre; and the same was the case with Hull 

 County. 



Nebraska seems to be more subject to dev- 

 astation from grasshoppers than some other 

 Western States. Active measures have been 

 taken to exterminate them. The Legislature 

 has authorized road supervisors throughout the 

 State to order out all voters in their respective 

 precincts to do twelve days' work each in kill- 

 ing grasshoppers, for which each person is to 

 be paid at the rate of two dollars a day in 

 county warrants. Grasshopper clubs, so called, 

 have also been organized everywhere in the 

 State for their destruction. 



The cattle-drives which pass through the State 

 are a growing source of material prosperiy. 

 The drive of 1879 from Texas and the south- 

 western ranges is reckoned at 250,000 head, and 

 that from Montana and Oregon at 100,000. 

 Kansas used to be the northern limit of the 

 drive, which gave to Kansas City a considerable 

 advantage as a market. For several years be- 

 fore 1879 the proportion of the stock remaining 

 in Kansas has been steadily diminishing, while 

 that remaining in Nebraska and Wyoming has 

 been increasing. The great rendezvous of cat- 

 tle-drovers, which formerly ended at Abilene 

 on the Kansas Pacific road, is now to be found 

 at Ogallala on the Union Pacific road in Nebras- 

 ka, which point, it is predicted, will soon be- 

 come the greatest stock thoroughfare on the 

 continent. 



The internal revenue collections for Nebraska 

 during the year 1879 amounted to $980,105.52, 

 of which sum the Willow Springs distillery at 

 Omaha paid nine tenths. 



The most noteworthy event of the year 1879 

 in Nebraska relntes to the writ of habeas cor- 

 pus issued in behalf of Indians by the Judge of 

 the United States District Court for Nebraska, 

 and by him decided in their favor against the 

 United States Government. It was the first 

 case of that kind ever brought before a judi- 

 cial tribunal in this country. The Ponca In- 

 dians, a peaceful tribe and most friendly to the 

 white man, said also to be to a great extent 

 civilized in their habits, and Christianized, 

 were in the possession and occupancy of their 

 own domain in southern Dakota, when, by a 

 treaty dated March 12, 1858, they ceded to the 

 United States Government all of their lands, 

 excepting a certain tract whose limits are ac- 

 curately described in the treaty, which they 

 reserved for their own use and the permanent 

 place of their homes. In consideration of 

 this cession the United States Government 

 agreed " to protect the Poncas in the posses- 

 sion of the tract of land reserved for their 

 future homes, and their persons and property 

 thereon, during good behavior on their part." 

 Annuities were to be paid them for thirty 

 years, houses to be built, schools to be estab- 

 lished, and other things were to be done for 



