610 



OTOE COUNTY, NEBKASKA. 



face to be lost by evaporation, and yet near enough to be ap- 

 propriated. Thus we are enabled to endure a long season of 

 drouth, with but slight injury to crops. 



COEN. 



In the Summer of 1864, we had but one rain after corn 

 planting that amounted to more than a heavy dew. It came 

 on the fourth of July, and soaked the ground completely. 

 This rain made the corn crop. Fields well tilled yielded thirty- 

 five to forty bushels per acre. In more favorable seasons we 

 get fifty to sixty bushels on upland, and seventy to eighty on 

 the best bottom lands. 



Corn is regarded as our most profitable crop. Deep plow- 

 ing, early planting, and thorough cultivation, here, as else- 

 where, secure the best results. The first crop of weeds is de- 

 stroyed with the harrow, and the ground pulverizing readily 

 under this kind of cultivation, much time is saved by the use 

 of the implement immediately after planting. One team and 

 hand Avill do the raising and cribbing of sixty to seventy acres. 



GRAIN. 



Spring wheat, oats, barley and rye are raised to a con- 

 siderable^ extent, and recent experiments indicate that in this 

 region Winter wheat may also be cultivated with profit. The 

 harvesting of small grain is mostly done with heading machines, 

 saving much of the hard work and expense of former methods. 



HERDING. 



One peculiar advantage which the farming interest has 

 here is derived from the herd and stock law. In other new 

 countries a vast amount of capital is employed in fencing. 

 Here, where stock is collected in herds, and guarded at small 

 expense, this capital finds more profitable investment in cattle, 

 sheep and hogs. There has been very little damage done to 

 crops, under the herding system, and farming without fences, 

 in a new country, may be pronounced a great economy, and a 

 complete success. But as the country grows older, and the 



