Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-04-15
IIlFAHNESTOCK'S
WHOLE NO. 1859.
Letter from Nebraska.
PLATTE VALLEY, NEBRAsKA, I
March q, 1868.


EDITOR CHRoNIcLE:-As there are
more or less leaving your vicinity for
the west, or should be, at least, as long
as it would be to their interests, pecu-
niarialy, would like to give few adr
vsntages that Nebraska possesses owe
most other States. In the first place,
land is cheap, which is of the first inn
portance to q young man with small
means, and that is the class l would
advise by sll means to come west and
get home, instead of remsining there
and working out by days works"
living ''from hand to mouth" until
old age comes creeping on, and then
town, county, or charity, will have
them to support.
Government land, within the Union
Pacific Railroad limits, which Is twenty
miles each side of it. has been with
drawn from market at present, but it
will be for only month or two, then
it will be open for homestea6s or entry.
A man can homestead eighty acres
within the Railroad limits, or l60 out
side, by paying SIS; and living on il
five years, he can have deed or he
can enter the land and get deed as
soon as he pays the Government $3.50
per acre, within the Railroad limits, or
,25 per acre if his land is twenty
miles from the Union Pacific Railroad.
Platte Valley is from three to six
miles wide and six hundred miles long,
the soil is from eighteen inches to three
feet deep, and is black loan, which
is generally mixed with a very little
sand. The sub-soil is a pure white
sand, which allows the water to soak
entirely away from the surface in few
hours, let it rain as hard and long as it
will, and accomplish all and much
more perfectly than could possibly be
done by under draining in 8 clay sub
soil
Corn here produces from forty to
sigty bushels Of shelled corn per acre;
, wheat, spring. which is generally sowed
! OF old corn stubble, without plowing,
|, and narrowed in, twenty to forty bush
els; oats from forty to sixty bushels,
and barley from thirty to forty bushels.
. Prairie grass produces from one to three
!; tuns per acre. and there is nearly AZ
much nutriment in it as there is in
:. timothy.
Once plowing will bring two crops
Z If corn is well tended, it will bring bet
: ter small grain the year following with
: out blowing, as that leaves the ground
too loose, and it is apt to dry out too
! much during the summer. Small grain
! can be soWed as soon as the frost is oui
: : six inches. as it Is generally dry on the
surface. We seldom have mud, or bui
6 very little. I never have seen it oFel
: felloe-deep any time Of year. Some oi
: the farmers sowPd their wheat this
year the 18th of February, but that j.
. much earlier than it is generally sowed;
but it is usually in before they wish tC
pillow their corn ground. Grain here
seldom falls or lodges, as the straw il
usually very stiff, on the account Of our
having so little rain, and the soil is OF
such a nature it does not require it. II
is nothing unusual for it not to rain for
six weeks or two months, and crops do
not seem to suffer at all for the need OF
: it.
We haYe the advantage of both an
eastern and western market; the gold
mines of Colorado, Montana, Dakotah,
and Wyoming, being our western mar
, kets. In the last named there has
. been new discoveries which bid fair to
8 maks her respectable rival of her
worthy sisters. Thousands of tons Of
all kinds of produce are shipped there
annually from here. The market price
of produce now is, wheat $l.70, corn
soc, Barley 800; Oats 625c, and Pota-
toes $500, per bushel, all good living
prices; especially so, where you are
not more than from two to ten miles
from market.
Respectfully yours
n r Frr1ER