510 Transactions of the Amehican Institute. 



very conditions of looseness and -warmth with which a kindlier 

 Providence has blessed the fields of his neighbors in Salem county, 

 New Jersey. 



Mr, T. C. Peters offered the following resolutions, and moved that 

 they lie on the table : 



liesolved, That in the opinion of this club, deep plowing will be 

 considered above five inches in depth, and shallow below five inches. 



J2esolved, That deep culture is advisable in tenacious soils, while 

 shallow culture is advisable in poorer soils. Carried. 



Nebraska. 



Mr. T. C. Peters read the following letter from Mr. R. R, Folsom, 

 Attica, Wyoming county, N. Y. : 



" In your published proceedings of the Farmers' Club of thb 

 American Institute, the State of Nebraska is noticed, and its merits 

 and demerits for emigration are discussed. I feel it a duty to correct 

 some of the erroneous impressions that have gone forth to the world. 

 I went out to Nebraska in September, 1854, after the organic act ot 

 Congress for making Kansas and Nebraska territories became a law, 

 but before the Indians had given up possession of any part ot 

 Nebraska. 



Prom Chicago west 500 miles, to the Missouri river, we traveled a 

 great part of the way without roads as there were then but few settlers 

 in Iowa, more than fifteen or twenty miles west of the Mississippi. 

 We were twelve days in making the trip from , Chicago to Council 

 Bluff's. An early frost had killed vegetation throughout most of 

 the eastern States, and the first green grass I had seen for two weeks 

 was on the west bank of the Missouri, where the beautiful city of 

 Omaha now stands. 



In the spring of 1865 I commenced farming in Burt county, forty- 

 five miles north of Omaha. I settled at Tekamah, where Tekamah 

 creek disembogues from the bluffs, opening into the broad and fertile 

 Missouri valley, four miles from the nearest point on the great river. 



We commenced [plowing on the weed land on Tekamah creek, 

 where one yoke of good oxen could plow an acre a day ; but the 

 prairies, where the grass is predominant, require more strength of 

 team. ^Ye raised a fine crop of corn, some garden vegetables, and a 

 fabulous crop of potatoes ; we buried them as we do in western New 

 York, and found most of them frozen in the spring. But little snow 

 fell, and the ground froze to the depth of about three feet. 



