SOIL SURVEY OF KIMBALL COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 9 



AGRICULTURE. 



The first permanent settlements in Kimball County were made 

 about 1868. The Union Pacific Eailroad was extended through the 

 county about this time. The early settlers engaged in ranching, 

 devoting most of their attention to cattle. About 1884 the Union 

 Pacific began to dispose of its land, while some public land was 

 opened to settlement and preemption, and farming began on a small 

 scale. Wheat and corn were the principal crops, but they never 

 proved profitable, because neither the methods of cultivation nor the 

 varieties grown were adapted to the climatic and soil conditions, 

 and in addition prices were low. After several disastrous dry years 

 in the early nineties farming was almost completely abandoned in 

 favor of ranching. Stock raising continued the dominant industry 

 until about 1905, when a Federal law was enacted under which the 

 public land could be homesteaded in tracts of 640 acres, and the lands 

 rapidly passed into private ownership. This had the effect of break- 

 ing up the large cattle ranches and giving an impetus to farming. 

 Many of the homesteaders, however, practiced farming for only a 

 short time, and after acquiring ownership of the land sold their 

 holdings to land speculators, so that at the present time only a very 

 small part, about 6 per cent, of the total area of the county is actually 

 under cultivation. On the cultivated land an extensive system of 

 dry farming is carried on, while adjacent unoccupied sections are 

 leased for pasture and hay land, so that stock raising on a small 

 scale is practiced in conjunction with crop production. 



Farming under irrigation is practiced to some extent. A part of 

 the valley land in the central part of the county lying to the east 

 and to the west of Kim.ball is under irrigation. A dam was con- 

 structed on Lodgepole Creek, 8 miles west of Kimball, in 1912, for 

 the storage of water. The irrigation district comprises 7,000 acres, 

 of which about 4,000 acres are under cultivation at the present time. 

 Irish potatoes, alfalfa, and sugar beets, given in the order of acre- 

 age, are the principal crops. Beans and cabbage are special crops 

 which occupy a relatively small acreage. Wheat, oats, and barley 

 are also gi-own under irrigation, but only to a very small extent.^ 

 There is no practicable source of water for the irrigation of the 

 upland. Water from wells is used in a small way for irrigating home 

 gardens. 



Wheat is the principal crop in acreage and the chief cash crop of 

 the county. The 1910 census reports 2,178 acres in wheat, but there 

 has been a large increase in acreage in the last few years, due to 

 prevailing good prices and fair yields. The latest estimate available 



1 For a description of the crops grown and methods followed on land under irrigation, 

 see Irrigated Field Crops in Western Nebraska, Bui. 141, Nebraska Agr. Expt. Sta. 



