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early nineties should go to Prof. H. H. Nicholson of the University, who was unsparing of time and effort in developing the industry in Nebraska.In 1890 a factory for the manufacture of beet sugar was completed at Grand Island, the second oldest successful beet sugar factory in operation in the United States today. At the Grand Island factory in 1890, 1,400,000 pounds of sugar was manufactured. Enterprising citizens of Grand Island had contributed a subsidy for the sugar factory as well as guaranteeing a certain acreage of beets. A factory was completed at Norfolk in 1891, the citizens there contributing a subsidy toward the factory's erection. In 1893, 1,671 acres were harvested near the Grand Island factory, producing 11,149 tons of beets and 1,835,900 pounds of sugar, and at the Norfolk factory, 2,807 acres, producing 22,625 tons of beets, and 4,107,300 pounds of sugar. Both the State of Nebraska and the Federal Government for a number of years provided a bounty on sugar. S. C. Bassett in his excellent article published in the report of the State Board of Agriculture for 1895 states that the total bounty received by Nebraska sugar producers thru 1894 was $310,791.50 from both state and federal sources.
One of the unique features of the work carried on by the University in behalf of the sugar industry was the Sugar School. It was one of two such schools in the United States. Apparently the first session of this school was held in the school year of 1891-92. The University catalog, published in 1896, conveyed the information that "the objects of the school are to give instruction in the best methods of sugar beet culture and in the details of factory methods of sugar making. Especial attention will be given to the chemical control of sugar factory operation." The school was open to young men sixteen years of age or over, who had had the requisite training for carrying on the work. The catalog of 1896 announced that hereafter the school would open at the beginning of the University year "instead of in the middle of the year as heretofore. The school will
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be in session during the manufacturing season and classes will have the opportunity of visiting the sugar factories while in operation, and the large beet farms during harvest time," the catalog stated. The course included among other things instruction in elementary chemistry, the technology of sugar manufacture, sugar beet culture, steam and electrical machinery, and irrigation engineering. The enrollment of the school was never particularly large. The catalog published in June, 1896, gave the enrollment of the Sugar School as thirty-four. The enrollment in 1898-9 and 1899-1900 was only two each year. In April, 1900, the regents discontinued the school. It was stated that in order to develop the school properly a considerably enlarged equipment would have been necessary for which funds were lacking.In 1899, the Standard Beet Sugar Company started a factory at Leavitt, near Ames, Nebraska. Sugar beet experiments were conducted on the farm of the Standard Cattle Company at Ames, Neb. by the University beginning about 1898. The company provided a well-equipped laboratory for carrying on the analytical work. The laboratory was in charge of C. L. Sovereign, a graduate of the Sugar School. "Summing up the season's work at Ames (1898) shows a production of some five acres of beets as an aggregate of the various experimental plats, giving an average of about eighteen tons to the acre, at the general cost of about thirty-five dollars per acre," Professor Nicholson stated. "In the course of the season between ten and eleven thousand analyses of beets have been made including ten thousand analyses of mother beets to be used in the future for seed production."
To one who today understands the complicated nature of the beet sugar industry and the large staff of experts which the sugar companies themselves have developed, it seems quite a wonderful achievement that sugar factories could be operated successfully in those days. It was not an easy matter to grow beets and develop an industry. The college
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itself was confronted with scores of problems which it endeavored to solve in co-operation with the Department of Agriculture at Washington, the sugar companies, and the farmers themselves. There were investigations as to fertilizers and methods of cropping, experiments with varieties of beets, and chemical experiments in methods of estimating the amount of sugar in beets. Beet seed was distributed to farmers and they were asked to make reports on their work, as well as send in beets for analysis. Back in 1890 a score or more of substations to try out beet growing were established in various parts of the state, and three young men from the chemistry department were detailed to visit the farms. "Each year, with its unfailing change in climatic conditions, adds something to our knowledge of this important industry," says the report of the station for 1896.The beet sugar development of this period apparently reached its peak in the early 1900's. The factory at Norfolk was moved to Lamar, Colo., in 1905, and in 1910 the Leavitt factory was moved to Scottsbluff. In the next ten years the great development of sugar beet growing was to come in the North Platte valley.
MANY TYPES OF INVESTIGATION
Dr. Frank S. Billings, who had been associated with the experiment station in the late eighties, again took up his work with animal diseases in 1891, a committee from the live stock association of the state having urged early that year that the investigational work be renewed. Doctor Billings resigned in 1893, and on February 1, 1894, Dr. A. T. Peters took up the work. For several years the experiments looking to the eradication of hog cholera continued, but the work in animal diseases also broadened out. Doctor Peters carried on his work at the college farm. In a little less than a year Doctor Peters was called upon to make 1,841 personal examinations of different animals, and 164 postmortems. Of the examinations 672 were hog
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cholera. Three hundred cases were the cornstalk disease in cattle and 431 were scabies in sheep. Doctor Peters did considerable traveling over the state, besides teaching in the school and college. Many of the outbreaks of animal diseases were attributed to unsanitary conditions.The wide extent of the work of Doctor Peters is shown by the fact that he published a report on the diseases of poultry and also a paper on caponizing. There were cases of anthrax, blackleg, cornstalk disease, keratitis, glanders, rabies, tuberculosis, ergotism, calf cholera, and many other diseases. In 1897 Dr. Charles M. Day was detailed to represent the United States Department of Agriculture in cooperative experiments looking to the eradication of hog cholera. C. H. Walker, a "practical" man, was also detailed to represent the State Swine Breeders' Association in the experiments. Bulletins published by this department from 1890 to 1908 included one on the corn-fodder disease in cattle and one on Texas fever by Doctor Billings, one on serum therapy in hog cholera, published in 1897, one on cornstalk disease, one on blackleg, one on extermination of prairie dogs, one on malarial fever in horses, and one on ergot and ergotism. It will be recalled that Dr. J. H. Gain joined the department in 1901 and a building was erected for the department in 1908.
Another line of work in which a good beginning was made was irrigation. The name of O. V. P. Stout, as irrigation engineer, first appeared on the staff of the experiment station in 1896, altho some work had been done before that time. In fact, Bulletin No. 1 of the experiment station was entitled, "Irrigation in Nebraska." It had been written by Lewis E. Hicks and published in 1888. Mr. Stout in 1895 published a bulletin on the "Water Supply in Nebraska." At this time there had already been considerable work done in irrigating along the North Platte River in Scotts Bluff County. People were beginning to think seriously about the matter. The editor of an irrigation magazine was quoted as saying "at this time Nebraska, in
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the extent of visible public interest, leads the procession among the irrigation states of the Union."The North Platte River was pointed out as being the most important stream in Nebraska for irrigating purposes. The area under the ditch tributary to that river was then believed to be in excess of 200,000 acres, while including that surveyed for irrigation, the total was at least 600,000 acres. The Loup, Republican, and South Platte Rivers were also mentioned, but it was pointed out that in the case of the Loup, there was less need for irrigating lands, while the Republican was not an ideal irrigation stream.
An interesting bulletin was one written by Prof. E. H. Barbour, and published about 1899. It was entitled, "The Homemade Windmills of Nebraska." One would hardly have believed that so many varied types of windmills, made at home, could have been found in Nebraska. This bulletin copiously illustrated with diagrams was one of the unique bulletins of the experiment station. At this time it was thought that the windmill would be quite serviceable for irrigation, and so it proved, for small patches of ground.
This period in the history of Nebraska farming and Nebraska experiment was not without its humorous side. For instance, there was sacaline, which dealers were trying to foist upon the farmers. Even when it was once proved that it was no good as a forage crop, the dealers in seeds and roots hit upon the plan of proclaiming that there were two kinds of sacaline, and the kind that the farmers found so discouraging was of course the kind that was "worse than worthless" and would the farmers please try some of their sacaline, which was the other kind. Doctor Bessey thus disposed of the matter in 1895: "No animal has ever shown the least inclination to eat it in any condition. When old it is very hard and harsh, and nothing but a starving animal would think of getting food from its wire-like twigs. Although our plants grew to but about three feet in height the main stems were nearly three-fourths of an
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inch in diameter, and nearly as hard as gas pipes. Sacaline is a rank fraud.""It will be far better to have nothing to do with this humbug and to make every effort to secure good fields of that tried and reliable forage plant, alfalfa, which, in my judgment, is the coming forage plant for Nebraska," Doctor Bessey remarked in another place. How accurate and far-sighted Dean Bessey was!
There was the boom in chicory, when people evidently thought it would be as popular as coffee. The college published a bulletin on that subject in 1897. "Having demonstrated that the chicory plant is capable of adapting itself to the Nebraska soil and "climate," the station was now making an investigation as to the best methods of cultivation. In fact, there was no limit to what might be tried. Nut culture was even "investigated" in 1893.
The years 1892 to 1896 were characterized by serious injury to the grain crops of Nebraska by chinch-bugs. In 1865 it had been discovered in Illinois that the chinch-bug was susceptible to epidemic diseases produced by certain parasitic fungi. In 1888 an effort was made in Minnesota to spread those diseases artificially, and the idea was taken tip energetically in Kansas during the years 1889 to 1896. Professor Bruner secured infected bugs from Kansas in 1893 and the Nebraska station began sending out "inoculated" bugs to Nebraska farmers upon request. In order to do this, farmers sent in perfectly healthy bugs, which were given the disease and sent back to spread it among their neighbors in the field. "In order to carry out this plan," said Professor Bruner, "the authorities of the University have found it necessary to have a large number of live, healthy bugs from time to time; and, as it is impossible to send representatives into the field whenever bugs are needed, they have found it necessary to require the farmers who want aid to send in these live bugs. These can be placed in a tight tin box along with sufficient green food to last them on the road. . . . There will be sent
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in return as soon as possible a package containing 'sick' bugs that can be used in communicating the disease to the bugs in the field."Nearly 1,000 lots of infected bugs were sent out to 600 individuals in a campaign ending in 1894, and in spite of unfavorable weather for the development of disease among the bugs, the farmers receiving them in many cases noted the presence of diseased bugs in their fields and attributed this to a successful introduction of the disease thru the shipment of "inoculated" bugs. The next year some 400 lots of the bugs were sent out, and the results were reported as not being satisfactory in some cases, while in others it was indicated that with favorable weather conditions large numbers of the insects would have been killed off. This work was given up after some years, for investigations showed that the spores of the fungus producing the disease among the chinch-bugs were generally distributed thru the soil of the infested region, and, whenever the conditions were right, the disease would break out of itself without the introduction of "inoculated" bugs. In recent outbreaks of the chinch-bug in Nebraska and other states, misplaced faith in the efficiency of distributing "inoculated" bugs has been something of a handicap in securing the adoption of more laborious but more practical and dependable methods of control.
In recent years one has heard now and then about the possibility of farmers burning corn for fuel. Back in the nineties that was quite an important question. Press Bulletin No. 8, of the Agricultural Experiment Station, dealt with this question. An actual test was made at the University, yellow dent corn being burned in comparison with Rock Springs nut coal, careful records being taken. It was found that one and nine-tenths times as: much heat was liberated in burning one pound of coal as in burning one pound of corn. With corn at 9 cents a bushel, coal was worth $4.87 a ton, and when corn was 15 cents, coal was worth $8.11.
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THE NORTH PLATTE STATION
An important feature of this period was the establishment of the first substation by the University. Altho there had occasionally been some work done by the experiment station at various points in the state, these stations and experimental plots had not been permanent. In most cases the property belonged to someone else and the work was usually of small magnitude. The Legislature of 1903 appropriated $15,000 for the establishment of a substation west of the 100th meridian "to determine the adaptability of the arid and semiarid portions of Nebraska to agriculture, horticulture, and forest tree growing, such as the production of grain, grasses, root crops and fruits of kinds commonly grown in the same latitude in other states; also the most economical methods of producing such crops without irrigation."
A committee of citizens at North Platte subscribed about $8,000 toward the purchase of a tract of land of 1,920 acres four miles south of the town. The farm comprised about 270 acres of bench land under an irrigation ditch, about 150 acres of level table-land, and 1,500 acres of rough pasture. W. P. Snyder, who had been associated with the station at Lincoln, became superintendent of the North Platte Substation. Experimental work was begun in 1904. Almost immediately after its acquisition feeding and crop experiments were undertaken on the farm. During the next couple of years $10,000 was expended for a superintendent's house, horse barn, moving and enlarging the foreman's house, the construction of sheds for cattle and hogs, and the construction of about five miles of fence on the farm. The work at this substation consisted especially in developing better methods of stock raising and farming for the western country. In 1908, W. W. Burr, later to become agronomist and assistant director of the Agricultural Experiment Station, was made assistant in soils and crops at North Platte.
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EXPANDING WORK
It would not be possible within the brief limits of this history to describe every line of work in which the experiment station was engaged. Many of them were enumerated briefly at the beginning of this section. The experiment station found itself becoming responsible for more and more special work. By an act of the Legislature in 1893 the professor of botany was made the acting state botanist, the professor of chemistry the acting state chemist, the professor of geology the acting state geologist, and the professor of entomology the acting state entomologist. In 1911 the regents of the University were empowered to appoint a member of the teaching staff as state entomologist and another member as state geologist. Their duties were to furnish information requested by any official and to arrange and exhibit collections in their departments to show the varied resources of the state. Another line of work which was taken up by the University was that of seed testing. The laboratory in the department of agricultural botany for the testing of seeds was established about 1908 in co-operation with the United States Department of Agriculture. Some work along this line had occasionally been done before. For the most part the seed testing consisted in determining the percentage of weed seeds or adulterants. Later this work was carried on at the state capitol.
By the latter part of this period the station had achieved a permanent and lasting place in Nebraska agriculture. The extent of the inquiry and bulletin work is evident from the fact that in 1907 25,285 first-class letters and 14,868 postals were sent out as well as nine tons of bulletins.
The fourth annual report of the experiment station giving a statement of the work accomplished in 1890 listed just nine members of its working staff, besides the director and treasurer. The report for 1909 listed twenty-seven members of the staff besides the director and executive clerk. Out of those who were listed on the staff of the
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