The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-01-30
For Tie Cecil Wig
LETTER FROM OMAHA.
OMAHA, June Is, 1869.


\ short time since had sleigh ride
of sixty miles to Lincoln, the capital of
Nebraska. The trip, though not an
agreeable one to make in the dead of
winter, put me in possession of many
valuable facts in relation to the agricul-
tural resources of this State, and | will
lay before your readers the result of my
observations and inquiries.
The State of Nebraska is estimated
to contain about 50,000,000 acres of
land, which may be divided as follows !:
LIST class cultivatable 1900, 900
I'd s. IS 10000, 900
Fair grazing lands 1000, 900
Sandy, alkaline, and dad lands 1000, 600
The surface of the State is divided
into bottom lands, table lands, and des-
crts The first lie between the margins
of the streams and the bluffs. These
bluffs skirt all the large streams, at va
riablc distances. The bottoms are frc-
qucntlv ten or twelve miles wide, and
are seldom less than mile. Sometimes
they are flooded by freshcts, but so
rarely that it does not interfere with
their settlement or cultivation.
The beds Of the streams, except the
Platte, run deep. That of Tie Little
Ncmaha, for instance, will average
twenty feet to the ordinary surface of
the water below the surface of the bot
tom The soil is rich black vegetable
mould from two to ten feet in depth
1t is slightly impre@natcd with lime,
contains just enough of sand to keep
it pliab!c, and is entirely free from
stones and gravel. 1t has the singular
property of resisting both unusual wet
and continued drouth. 1t does not
cake after rain, is easily plowcd to any
depth required, and has proven itself
adapted to the profitable growth of all
the cereals, and nearly every other crop
cultivated north of the mouth Of the
Ohio River
Leaving the bottoms, the next are
the table Or prairie lands. From the
Missouri, for one hundred and fifty
miles west, the prairics are rolling and
are intcrspcrscd by many streams, but
furthc west there is little more than an
unbroken ocean of fiat prairics, unin-
habitcd except by indians. The soil of
the table lands is simiar-to that Of the
bottoms, except that it is not so deep,
being seldom more than four feet. Cc-
reals and root crops do we'll, apples and
pears are successful, but peaches lave
La. Ca f,r l., ,1,-
moderately well. Plums will not grow
at all. Gooseberrics, raspbcrrics, and
Strawberries thrive luXuriantly. Hops
do well, and for grapes Nebraska is
supposed to be equal to any place in
the world
The great want Of Nebraska is tim.
Der, and SO scarce is it that the settle,
ment of the prairics Is seriously delayed
The fires that for hundreds of Years
swept over the country, destroyed every
sprig of wood that appeared above the
ground. Wood is but rarely found eX
ccpt on the margins of large streams,
and the only thing an Immigrant can
do at present, who lives away from q
stream, is to buy his fuel and wait fol
his own to grow. Timber properly
protected will grow two feet in diameter
in ten Years In Richardson and Paw
nee counties the timber covers many
square miles of the prairics These
timber lands have probably all beer
settled years ago, and now command
prices varying from twenty to fifty dol
lars an acre The streams are wavward
not unfrequently having a channel of a
mile in and out of all conceivable crooks
while only making a few yards of actua
course. The corrals, or bends, formed
! by this twisting, are sometimes thirty
or forty acres in extent and covered
with forest growth. The native trees
arc cottonwood,-a light, porous, vel
lowish white wood, of most rapiC
growth {; the red and white elm, black
red and burr oak, black walnut, hack
berry, hickory, willow and cedar Th,
Missouri River Valley has no cedar
but cottonwood is largely in excess
1t grows everywhere, and under all cir
cumstances and is the meanest WOO,
in the world for building purposes.
The grasses of the bottoms and tabl,
lands are very nutritious. Stock thrive
upon them even better than upon timo
thy, clover &c The buffalo grass re
mains sweet and juicy under the snow
all winters The eastern grasses trans
: planted here grow luXuriantlv.
The desert lands " lie away from
the streams, and are for the most par
barren wastes of sand North of tn
L'Eau qui Court River the desert sud
denly breaks off into the bad lands,
region supposed to be about IS miles il