12 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



tbat coal is restricted to a small portion of tlie State, even if it occur at 

 all, every one will adopt the plan of raising his own fuel. So far as the 

 cultivation of the smaller Iruits is concerned, I am convinced that Ne- 

 braska will not be surpassed by any other State in the Union. The 

 climate seems to be severe for peaches, though Mr. Morton, will have 

 thirty or forty bushels this season. The dwarf fruits seem to do best. 

 A row of forest-trees around the gardens and orchards j)roves a great pro- 

 tection from strong winds and cold in winter. The Osage orange is used 

 very successfully all over the State for hedges. 



I have dwelt on this subject here, from the fact that it is a popular 

 notion at the East that trees cannot be made to grow successfully on the 

 western prairies, and especially that the climate and soil are unfavora- 

 ble to the cultivation of the fruits. I held that opinion until within two 

 years, but I now believe that, within thirty to fifty years, forest- trees 

 may be grown large enough for all economical purposes. 



Mr. Griffen, in ten years' time, is able to supply his own fuel from the 

 limbs and dead trees which w^oukl otherwise go to decay, and within four 

 or five years he will have fuel for sale. 



I will endeavor hereafter to report the results of my labors to you 

 weekly. If you wish to have me elaborate any special point more fully, 

 please give me instructions to that effect. 



The great pest of this country appears to be the grasshopper. This 

 year it seems to be restricted in its distribution. I did not observe any 

 north of the Platte, and very few north of Nebraska City. But at the 

 latter place, and for four or five miles around it, the grasshopper is very 

 abundant and destructive. Mr. Gilmore, one of the wealthiest farmers 

 in the State, has lost seventy acres of wheat and sixty five acres of 

 clover and timothy-grass by the grasshopper, [Galoptenus spretns.) 

 Many other crops have been injured 5 others have suifereclin this vicinity. 

 I am making a collection of them of different ages, and intend to in- 

 vestigate their nature and habits with great care. 



I hope to be at Brownsville, Nemaha County, in a few days, and 

 from that point will report on Otoe County. 



OTOE AND NEMAHA COUNTIES. 



Otoe is one of the most fertile and thickly settled of the counties of 

 Nebraska. The fertility of the soil is shown by the richness and abun- 

 dance of the crops, which are remarkably fine. The winters are so severe 

 and the snow so thin that winter-wheat will not do well, and spring- 

 wheat is raised altogether, and is grown most successfully in ordinary 

 seasons. Thirty andtbrty bushels to the acre is not an uncommon yield 

 throughout the State, and last autumn Nebraska wheat brought from 

 ten to fifteen cents more per bushel in the market at Saint Louis than 

 wheat from any other portion of the West. 



The great fertility of the soil in the river counties of Nebraska is 

 mainly due to the beds of siliceous marl which cover those counties to a 

 greater or less depth. This is usually called Loess, from a similar for- 

 mation which occurs alon^' the Rhine, in Germany. 



The sections which I inclose to you from time to time will reveal the 

 prospect of workable beds of coal in the State, so far as the surface ex- 

 posures are concerned. One outcrop at Nebraska City has been wrought 

 by drifting in a distance of three hundred yards, and several thousand 

 bushels of pretty good coal have been taken therefrom. The seam was 

 about eight inches in thickness. On account of the scarcity of fuel in 

 this region this thin seam has been made somewhat profitable. At Otoe 



