136 Sioux City Academy of Science and Letters. 
ity to Sioux City, Iowa, a city of over 40,000 inhabitants, 
has precluded the growth of any large cities within the 
county, although the prospects for considerable manufac- 
turing development are good in the case of Suuth Sioux 
City, owing to the abundance of level land for factory 
sites adjacent to the railways—a condition not shared by 
the larger city across the river—and to the demands of 
the great agricultural territory tributary to this natural 
distributing point. 
Two railroads cross the county from Sioux City 
southwestward, the Northwestern Line and the Great 
Northern, and the Northwestern Line branches near the 
center of the county, one branch going northeast to New- 
castle, the other southward to Omaha. Along these rail- 
roads are several small settlements each of a few hun- 
dred inhabitants, important as trading posts, points for 
the shipment of cattle, grain, etc., and as postoffices. 
Chief among these are Dakota City, the county seat, 
Jackson, Hubbard, and Emerson. 
The soil is of three varieties, that of the upland, a 
loess deposit, that of the river bottoms, a black alluvium 
or “gumbo” and that immediately bordering the river or 
filling recent channels, a sand or silt. All of the soil 
except the sand is of extreme fertility. The average 
rainfall being 24.75 inches, and the heaviest fall occur- 
ring during the crop season, the region is well watered 
and large crops of corn and wheat are raised in the 
uplands, and corn, oats, hay, sugar beets, potatoes, and 
small vegetables are raised in the bottom land. Stock 
feeding is an important industry, especially in the up- 
lands immediately bordering the river valley where the 
surface is too intricately dissected to admit of cultiva- 
tion but well adapted for grazing purposes. 
PHYSIOGRAPHY. 
General statement—In mapping and describing the 
topography of this area it has been sought from a study 
of the outward forms to interpret the reasons for their 
existence and the processes by which they have been 
produced. If the present conditions are understood the 
questions concerning earlier stages of geologic history 
may be approached with greater assurance. 
