Nebraska; Its Advantages, Resources, and Drawbacks (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1875 edition. Excerpt: ...drove them away. These prairie pastures rival the steppes of Asia, and the pampas of South America, in their adaptation to the fattening of cattle, and even without corn or barns, those homesteaders who have depended on stock raising, are but little affected, for the grass is good and the supply of hay not much diminished; and the cattle often winter like the wild animals all winter long, on these upland plains where little or no snow falls. The demand for meat is steadily increasing in the east as population increases in the cities and manufacturing districts; and the largest part of the extra supply must come from the prairies between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountain slope. Texas can only furnish a limited supply of "broad horns" or native cattle, of which Otoe County fattens a large number annually. But they are never equal in market value to the heavy blooded cattle raised on our northern plains. Our farmers realize more money by raising stock and manufacturing their grain into beef and pork than in any other way. The climate of Otoe County may be more changeable than pent-up mountain regions; but the average temperature is several degrees warmer here in the winter months than in New York. The isothermal line runs 300 miles further north, carrying the mild southern current that much further up, on the west side of the Missouri River, than at Chicago; and the annual temperature here is about that of Virginia and Maryland. Our summers are some two months longer between frosts than in Connecticut and Massachusetts. It may be difficult for eastern people to realize that our proximity to the Rocky Mountains, and the absence of great water basins, like the northern lakes, give us ten degrees of heat, yet such is the fact. This...