The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-04-08
THE PRESS.
MONDAY MORNING, APRIL 8, 1879.
Life In the New West.
PLAIN, UNvARNIsHED TALE OF rroNr,rn

APLAIN, UNvARNIsHED TALE OF rRoNrrrp
LIFE AND CAPABILITIES,
A correspondent of the Springfield Rep,b-
Rcdn writes from Nebraska:
have received several letters from friends
In Massachusetts, asking me about Nebraska
as State to emigrate to. Allow me to an
swer them. Let me first say, the soil of Ne
braska is very rich over almost its entire area.
remember your correspondent, who accom-
panied the excursion party nearly five years
ago at the opening of the Union Pacific Rail
road, represented the Platte Valley as very
rich, while other parts of the State were COM
paratively poor This is a mistake. The
land 100 miles from the Platte, either North
or South, and 200 miles West from its mouth,
Is the same in its general composition as in
the Platte Valley or the Missouri Valley. The
soil is sand loan, deep, porous, and capable
OF yielding from 80 to 80 bushels of corn per
acre for ten successive years without a single
load of fmanure. The surface is more rolling
than Illinois and Eastern Iowa, just enough,
indeed, to obviate the nesessity of drainage.
There are no swamps, and no rocky, barren
heights till you reach the Western portion.
l doubt if an equal area in any other part of
the country has so little waste land as the 200
miles square on the Eastern end of the State.
As to climate, this country may be subject
to more severe and extreme changes than
Massachusetts. Bnt the average tempera-
ture is several degrees higher here. Our win
tiers usually last from about the 25th of De-
cember to the last of February with fort
night frequently of April weather in Febru-
airy, followed by fortnight of February
weather in March. This Spring weather in
February, followed as above in March, has
hitherto proved the great obstacle to success
ful fruit culture. Still our people are learn
ing to successfully overcome this difficulty,
and there is no doubt that this is yet to be a
great fruit-growing State. Our summers are
two months longer between frosts than in
Massachusetts. July and August are very
warm by day, with cool refreshing breezes at
night. People do not work as hard here as
in Massachusetts,. Everything is done with
machinery. man here takes care of 80
acres of small grain, wheat, oats, and barley,
and 40 acres OF corn, with little help in har-
vesting, with less muscle-wear than in the
East is required to tend one-fourth the
amount.
1t is general opinion at the East that this
country is liable to suffer from drouth.
think there need be very little trouble from
this cause. Our rains are not so abundant as
they are at the East. But we do not need
them. The depth and porous nature of the
soil allow the roots of plants to run very deep,
and to draw moisture from great depth. l
have followed the
ROOTS OF CORN DOWN EIGHTEEN INCHES,
and have found the moisture sucked up from
| nearly as many inches more by the corn hill
1t is only necessary in the dry time to keep
| the cultivator going, so that the surface Of
| the ground will not bake.
Timber is somewhat scarce Still there is
enough for present use, and it is easily and
rapidly grown. Soft wood sells for S4 per
cord, hard for S5. The State is generously
encouraging the growth of timber, and the
farmers are showing commendable energy
in providing for the future.
There is very little if any government land
to be pre-empted or homesteaded within one
hundred miles of the Missouri. Beyond,
there is yet good supply. Railroad lands
are abundant, on ten years credit, ranging
from five to fifteen dollars per acre. Some
homesteads, on which are partial improve
ments, can be purchased for less than the
improvements cost Not few who come
here with glowing anticipations, after weary
year or two, leave, sick of the West.
The question is often asked me,
SHALL 1 GO WEST?
That depends on circumstances If d young
man has $4,000, or even 81 800, so that he can
put 5000 into house and $500 in a team,
and from $3.50 to $500 into secondhand
homestead, and then has patience, industry,
| calculation, docility in hearing advice, and
| economy, he will do well enough, If his wife
can be contented. There is often the great
| est difficulty. Such young man so circum-
| stanced will be sure, in five years, to have
property worth $1,000 or $4,000 1t is for
him to judge whether he can make his 81 800
realize that amount in New England at that
time. If young man has nothing, he can
earn more money at the East than at the
West. The industries here are few, wages
low, money is scarce. A young man coming
here with nothing can do little more than
make living If he has a family he must
ecouomize as few Eastern people do. With
| in ten miles of this place there are families
| living in so-called houses fourteen by sixteen
feet, built of sod, selling their corn at fifteen
cents per bushel, and their pork at four cents
| per pound, going without tea, coffee, sugar.
and other Eastern necessities of life, unable to
raise money enough to pay their taxes. They
hope for better times, and that hope sustains
them. If those times come, and they can
| hang on by the skin of their teeth, till they
do come, they will be better off than if they
had remained East. But some of them won't
hold on, and some will die in the struggle.