The Red Cloud Chief

Nebraska as it Is.
[From the Prairie Farmer.]

During the last two years my travels
and examinations of farming lands
have extended from the Mississippi
river to the Rocky Mountains, and
from Texas to Nebraska, and my im-
pression is that southern Nebraska is
the best agricultural country in the
region mentioned, because it has not
only the three indispensables to the
luxuriant growth of vegetation, viz:
good soil, sufficient moisture and plen-
ty of sunshine; but the surface is
comparatively level, and like all the
best farming countries, it slopes south
and east. From a few miles south of
the Platte river there is a perfect net-
work of almost innumerable small
streams of pure, clear water which
flow south and east, forming the
Weeping Water, Nebraska, Big Blue
and the Republican rivers, altogether
affording more rich valley land than
can be found in any country of the
same area.

These rapid streams furnish excel-
lent water powers for mills and fac-
tories. While many portions of the
Great West are dead, southern Ne-
braska is all life and activity in all de-
partments. Hundreds of new dwell-
ings, school houses and churches are
being built both in the towns and
country, and the builder's hatchet and
the blacksmith's hammer are heard on
all sides, and while traveling hundreds
of miles on the Burlington & Missouri
River railroad during the last few days
farmers plowing and drilling, from
early morn till dusky eve, were seen
in every direction.

All kinds of grasses, grains, vegeta-
bles and fruits do well here, and the
soil and climate are especially adapted
to the great staples, wheat and corn,
which are produced in large quantities.