48 The Condition of the Western Farmer. [326 



ment having only once gone above $4. The valuation of the 

 unimproved land has changed little for many years, the range 

 being from $2.74 to $3.08 per acre. To indicate the valua- 

 tion of personal property, the following rates, copied from the 

 assessor's book for 1892, will be of interest: Fat cattle, $5 

 to $7; steers, $4; thoroughbred bulls, $10; heifers, cows and 

 young steers, $2 to $4; calves and yearling heifers and fat 

 sheep, $i ; lambs, 50 cents; hogs, per loolbs., 75 cents; horses 

 and mules and all other personal property at one-fourth the 

 cash value. It may be added, that though there seems to be 

 no particular method of determining what is and what is not 

 improved land, yet on the whole, in late years, all quarter- 

 quarter sections which do not contain buildings have been 

 listed as unimproved, no matter whether they were under 

 regular cultivation or not. Since 1886, less than one-fifth of 

 the land on the average has been assessed as improved, 

 though during the three years '84, '85 and '86, from one-half 

 to two-thirds of the land was so assessed. In 1892 the aver- 

 age quarter section was assessed for about $500, or an eighth 

 of its real value, and probably the proportion of the value of 

 personal property assessed was not more than that; so that, 

 the tax rate being about thirty-six mills, the real tax levied 

 was less than half a cent on the dollar of true valuation. 



MARKETS, PRICES, AND FREIGHT RATES. 



During the years 1872 and '73 all the agricultural produce 

 of Hall county could be readily sold to the new settlers, at* 

 prices so high as to make shipments to outside markets un- 

 profitable. During the three following years it was necessary 

 to bring grain into the country rather than ship it out, on ac- 

 count of the successive crop failures caused by grasshoppers 

 and drouth ; but with '77 a period of fairly good crops began, 

 and during most of the time from then until '84 the markets 

 in the western part of Nebraska, and in the Black Hills and 

 other near regions in which settlement was just beginning, 

 gave better prices for corn and oats than could be realized by 

 shipping them to eastern grain centers. Between '85 and '87 



