Omaha daily bee., 1882-12-06
NORTHWESTERN NEBRASKA,
It's Agricultural Capabilities,
Sand Hills. and Hay
fields.
The Mimic sdusa-Formation Of
ths Sand Hills.
Town of vaIentins-s q. g. p. n.
H, Etc

N, Ito
Monday, November goth, 1 left
Omaha to visit the northwestern por.
ton of the state as far as il is trayersed
by the Sioux City & Pacific railroad.
OF this region little is known, aud re-
ports concerning it's agricultural
worth are 80 contradictory rs to be
wilder and perplex. The descriptions
given by scientists refer to limited
aress or special features, and leave
unnoticed the material questions as to
the capabilities of this vast region to
encourage settlement and cultivation.
1t has been regarded rs a desert of
sand hills, and nothing more, to be
given up now and forever to it's print.
tive solitude and de~solation, except
for the herds of cattle finding summer
pasturage amongst the table lands,
canons and borders of creeks. With
much of this impressed upon me as
fact, 1 started. With very different
ideas l return, and now propose to
impart without exaggeration or re.
serve the knowledge which justifes
the change.
Of the counties between Douglas
mud un1k Ion ,,,rob "a lr,1rrn - r,-,,s..
more than this comment: that in pop.
ulasion and productiveness they com.
pare favorably with any newly settled
counties of the state. 1t was night
when I crossed Holt, both going and
returning, 80 l must accept In regard
to it the statements of others, who
represent it as a beautiful elevated
tract. well supplied with water and
timber and producing abundantly all
our ordinary crops, as well as furnish.
ing extensive ranges for cattle.
One morning found me at Long
Pine. Here the natural features of
the country changed most perceptibly.
The rolling prairies gave place to
vast stretches of table land, apparent.
ly level and unbroken. The gently
sloping banks of streams became can
ons, and the level line of the horizon
was broken by sand hills. From
Long Pine to Johnstown, on Plum
creek, a distance of twenty miles or
more, the soil is a light.sandy loan,
and its value may be judged of from
the fact that though it extends to the
Niobrara river, fifty miles north of the
railroad, and for ten or twelve miles
south of it, and was all but terra incog.
nitd twelve months ago, new homes
are already dotted all over it, and
claims are now scarce within five or
six miles of towns and stations.
As a matter of course, but little op.
portunity has been given for expert
ments in farming, and time alone can
determine the qualities of the soil and
for what crops it Is best adapted, but
so far as experiments have been con-
Quoted, the result is perfectly satisfac-
torily. At Plum Creek / met Mr..
Harrison johnson, formerly y resident
of Douglas county, and all his life q
farmer. Unable to contend with diff
fculties of a peculiarly trying nature
he resolved to abandon his old home
and seek another. Four years ago he
first set his eyes upon the canon of
Plum Creek and The beautiful lands
upon every side of it. Two years ago
he removed there with his family and
to-day he and his boys are doing we'll,
each having secured homesteads and
timber claims, built houses and broken
land, from which this season they had
crops of corn averaging forty bushels
to the acre, and vegetables of all kinds
that cannot be surpassed. Most of
the turnips were six inches in diane
ter, and l have specimens Of their pota.
toes that measured fifteen and O half
inches round in one direction and
eight and a half inches in the other.
He has no fears in regard tothe future
and is happy in his lot. Others ex.
pressed similar views, and many are
justly enthusiastic over q soil which
gives evidence of fertility, canons fur
nishing pine, cedar and oak, ample for
all purposes, swift streams of pure soft
water whose perpetual sources are in
the hills, and a crystalline atmosphere,
every inspiration of which is defiance
to disease.
From Plum Greek to the Niobrara
river, where it is crossed by the rail.
road, a fine opportunity is afforded for
studying the "Sand Hills" which
have given geological prominence to
this part of the State. They &C.
oupy a large portion of the entire
country in ranges parallel to, or
else at right angles to each
other; in huge %serpentine convolu-
tione; in clusters, or as isolated pro-
Jections from the plain of grass. In
height they vary from a few feet to a
hundred feet or more. and In area
from a few rods to miles. They pre-
sent almost every variety of form
mound, frustrum, cone and pyramid,
and mock almost every form Of archi-
lecture, from the sacred edifce, with
its aspiring gothic, to the s.ern battle.
ments Of feudal times; all these per-
fected or distorted as the case may be
by the carving and scooping of wind
and water. They are not all sand
however. They appear, the larger es.
peeially, to be composed of an indu-
rated mixture of sand, pebbles and
clay-marl, containing ~petrifactions of
trees, and gigantic bones, which are
found at a depth below the surface of
seventy or eighty feet. Some are des.
titute of vegetation, but most are n
tirely covered with grass. Between
the ranges are numerous lakes and
large level stretches of land, watered
by small streams. These are called
hay meadows or flats, and furnish
every year hundreds of thousands of
tons of splendid grass foi hay, which