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STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

45

ways commands a good price. According to Mr. Sanford Howard: "It has been proved that a given quantity of meat can be produced from the sheep at as little, and in some cases less expense, than from any other animal, and so far as ascertained, the meat is fully equal in nutritious qualities to any other. Here then we have from the sheep at least an equal amount of meat, as compared with any other animal, for the food consumed, while we obtain the fleece as clear gain."

     To those who wish detailed information, and from a more practical and experienced source, on the mutton question, the waiter commends Moses Stocking, of Saunders county, and Alex. Baker, of Douglas county, as entirely reliable and wholly unimpeachable authority. Those gentlemen can give you facts and figures on mutton feeding which will convince the discouraged corn grower who declares because of his poverty that he can get neither cattle nor swine to eat up his corn, that there is still a chance for him to make both food and raiment out of that corn by feeding it to sheep, which can be delivered any wherein the State at from $1.50 to $2.25 per head, from Missouri.

whence such corn crops as fifty to seventy-five bushels average yield per acre can be taken with little labor and little chance of failure year in and year out, are still held at nominal figures. There is hardly an eighty acre tract of raw prairie for sale in the State which, with skillful tillage and judicious management of the matured and garnered crop, cannot be made to pay its owner more than its entire cost, the price being reasonable, in two years. Many lands purchased at from five to ten dollars an acre from the Union Pacific and the Burlington & Missouri River Railroads, and from private parties also, have refunded in a single crop their entire cost, and left a balance of cash on hand as profit to the buyer over and above the land itself. The prices of land in Nebraska to-day are very far below real values. The demonstration of their fertility has been completed in nearly every organized county from the L'eau Qui Court on the North, to the lower Nemaha on the South, and from the Missouri on the East to the Loup Fork and Blue Rivers on the West. To sow and reap, to plant and garner is now no matter of uncertainty in Nebraska more than in Iowa, Missouri, Illinois or Ohio.

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46

JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS

      The strong arm of diligent industry directed by the study and thought of a cultivated brain will give results in Nebraska corn culture which no man now dare estimate. The limit of production to the acre, of corn, is as yet unknown. Authenticated eases of extraordinary yield are numerous; from among them, the following are noticeable: the Bruce Brothers in Des Moines County, Iowa, some seasons since, gathered a hundred and seventeen and a half bushels to the acre.

      Mr. Wright, near Auburn, N. Y., for three successive seasons, cribbed more than one hundred bushels average to the acre.

      Mr. Pratt, of Madison county, N. Y., produced by planting in drills, one hundred and seventy bushels to the acre.

      Major Williams, of Bourbon County, Ky., by planting in rows two feet apart, with the stalks twelve inches apart in the row, got one hundred and sixty bushels to the acre.

      Marion county, Iowa, in 1860 produced on the farm Mr. B. Long one hundred and seventy-eight bushels of corn to the acre on three contiguous acres.

      Dr. J. W. Parker, of Columbia, South Carolina, produced from a single acre two hundred bushels and twelve quarts of shelled corn.

      Thus far the largest average crops in this State have been produced in Otoe and Cass counties. Premiums were awarded to them, but neither of them, if my memory serves me correctly, reached one hundred and seventy bushels per acre. This grain being the staple cereal of Nebraska, you can hardly offer too many or too great inducements for its systematic and improved cultivation. To get as much corn from one acre as possible is better than to get half a crop from two acres. In Nebraska the productive power of the soil will, certainly, with careful tillage, make an average yield of seventy-five bushels of corn to the acre all over the State. We cannot raise too much corn. No matter what corn may be worth as corn in the market. It may be worth five cents or nothing at all as corn. But transmuted to beef, pork, or mutton, it will always pay the husbandman a handsome and satisfactory return. This should be, and must be, if it will grow prosperous, a stock-feeding State. Wheat growing for exportation will not pay. It wears out the soil,

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STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

47

the men who till it, and the reputation of the State; the first by taking up and taking away part of its productive power each year; the second by hard work and fretting over poor compensation; and the last by the pronounced and unyielding poverty of its citizens.

      Instead of an insane blacksmith hammering cold iron in the middle of a wheat field, miles from forge and fire, the coat of arms for Nebraska might better be emblazoned with a corn field, a cattle corral, a hog pen and a sheep fold. These depict the foundation of tht (sic) State's development and material prosperity.

      Add to the above industries an annual awakening in each succeeding April which, upon Arbor Day, shall result in planting out more trees, both for fruit and for timber, and there can be no doubt but that at the next centennial Nebraska will be the first meat producing member of the Union, and likewise the best timbered State in America.

      By some misunderstanding the valuable address delivered at the State Eair (sic), in Omaha last fall by the Hon. Moses Stocking has never been furnished for publication. Let me ask your honorable body to secure a copy of the same, and publish and circulate it at an early day.

      Hoping often to see you personally, and assuring you of my continued interest in and devotion to the noble avocations which you represent and are organized to advance and enlighten.

I remain, gentlemen, Very Faithfully Yours,

J. STERLING MORTON, President.

      ARBOR LODGE, Otoe county, Neb., Jan. 19th, 1876.

      N. B.--In the tables showing price received for corn fed to cattle and hogs, when the latter are at fixed prices, set forth in tables, credit is given for manure and the enrichment of land therefrom.

      The Secretary, D. H. Wheeler, thereupon submitted the following detailed statement of orders drawn upon the Treasurer of the Board for the year ending December 31st, 1875:

      Showing number, amount, and to whom orders have been issued since January 1st, 1875:

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JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS

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STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

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JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS

Sept. 27,	---------	No. 77, premium,	00 00
"	J. T. Griffin,	"  78,  "	8 00
"	Miss M. P. Griffin,	"  79,  "	3 20
"	"   E. C. Griffin.	"  80,  "	1 66
"	Lawrence Bruner;	"  81,  "	28 00
"	Mrs. J. McMahon,	"  82,  "	4 00
"	Louis Sable,	"  83,  "	8 00
"	Mrs. Jane Miller,	"  84,  "	80
"	Miss M. M. Williams,	"  85,  "	80
"	D. P. Barrett,	"  86,  "	1 60
"	Chris Nevis,	"  87,  "	0 8 00
"	R. Daniels,	"  88,  "	101 6
"	T. E. Gladhill,	"  89,  "	4 00
"	R. C. Moore,	"  90,  "	8 00
"	Ella Hascall,	"  91,  "	3 20
"	Elmira Hardy,	"  92,  "	80
"	Belle Allan,	"  93,  "	1 80
"	Jessie C. Allan,	"  94,  "	1 80
"	Mollie P Allen,	"  95,  "	90
"	Mollie P. Allen,	"  98,  "	1 80
"	Jennie M. Allen,	"  97,  "	17 60
"	A. B. Keene,	"  98,  "	10 00
"	Mary Palmer,	"  99,  "	2 40
"	Mrs. M. A. Folger,	"  100,  "	18 40
"	D. H. Wheeler,	"  101, salary,	250 00
"	J. & J. A. Creighton	"  102, premium,	184 00
"	Shugart, Lininger & Weis,	"  103,  "	8 00
"	Mrs. R. B. Kimball,	"  103 1/2,  "	1 60
"	American Express Company,	"  104, account,	47 50
"	George T. Hoagland	"  105,  "	8 64
"	George W. Homan,	"  106,  "	9 00
"	E. L. Eaton,	"  107,  "	8 00
"	J. W. Moore,	"  108,  "	31 60
Sept. 28,	E. T. Duke & Co.,	"  109, account,	9 00
"	W. A. Day,	"  110,  "	80 00
"	H. G. Newcomb.	"  111,  "	5 40
"	N. I. D. Solomon.	"  112,  "	14 10

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