The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1874-01-08
Letter from Nebraska.
PLATTsMoUTH, NEBRASKA,
December 80, 1873.

To the Editor of the Standard:
Having resolved several letters from
your region inquiring about Nebraska,
and how to get here, you find me trying
to answer through the STANDARD.
Nebraska is truly a prairie State. as
what little of timber there is in the State
is confined as general thing to the
streams. To be sure, there are few
favored spots where as much as one or
two hundred acres of timber are found,
INIT if one were to call such woods timber
in your country, he would be laughed at
as a city greenhorn. The fact is the
timber of this country, as general thing
10 only fit for firewood, and as the laws
of the State require every man to take
care of lis own stock, which is done
either by a herder Or by tying horses
and cattle to stake wit.H long ropes
that fencing is dispensed with, ana the
timber is only used for frewood. In
your great wooden country, the wood
land land of this country would be called
brush patch, for it is really within the
last ten years that timber has commenced
to grow here, as prior to that time the
fires were not confined any by the
settlers, and consequence each fall or
spring the fire killed the small twigs that,
protected, would have made trees in a
few years, and wherever fires are kept
away, so rapid is the growth of cotton
L -, hoo
berry, white and red elm, plum, ETC.,
| that the old settlers are firm in the belief
the seed of these trees are in the elements
of the earth, and that it produces this
timber without seed. They say there
were no seeds for the squirrel to hide,
and no squirrel to hide even if the seed
had been here, and hence the old theory
of squirrel planting is in your eye Farm
ers, as general thing plant from one to
five acres of timber and cultivate about,
say three years, and you would be aston
ished to see the growth of timber from
that little start that is already seen in
our region. Magnificent and lovely
groves of green in the summer, and ex.
cellent wind breaks in the winter. Why,
l cannot tell, but I know as fact that
trees ten years of age cultivated for three
years will average about ten inches, some
of them as much as Is to l8 inches, ano
about fifty feet high. allude to the
cottonwood, and the soft maple is but
little if any behind, and walnut abou
as fast growers so that as the State get'
, older we have more timber, or rather
more firewood.
The soil is rich beyond conception o
expression. 1t is black loamy mellow
| SOIL both in the valleys and the divides
as the upland here is called. Ihave seel
} but little land in this State that in Ohi'
) would be called level 1t is generally un
dulating, the slopes being gradua
but none too steep for good plowing
2 The average crop of wheat for years il
Nebraska has been over 25 bushels pei
acre, and that being spring wheat. White
, wheat produces more per acre when it ii
, properly put in, and corn, oats, barley
,, potatoes, sweet potatoes, in fact all thu
: different kind of crops grown in Ohi
: yield in proportion to the spring whea
here.
The falls and winters are dry ant
pleasant, though in the winter months