Historic Scotts Bluffs, Overlooking North Platte River

chased as artificial fertilizer would cost $9.59, while each ton of corn sold has removed constituents worth $8.60.
     Dairying will do much to increase the agricultural prosperity of Nebraska. Every dairyman buys some feed, and the fertility it contains accumulates from year to year, building up the productivity of his farm. Dairy farming was taken up by bankrupt Denmark a generation ago. Today the country is prosperous and her impoverished soil has been built up to a high state of productivity with fertility derived from American feeds. There is no reason why Nebraska farms can not profit by a similar system of farming. In portions of Nebraska live stock is the one sure crop. For men on small farms, with limited capital, and for those who have a surplus of labor, dairying is undoubtedly the safest form of live stock farming. The monthly cream check will tide the farmer over with some degree of complacency. Even the drouth stricken corn devoid of grain can be converted into money. The farmer is enabled to meet many of his obligations as they arise and is saved much of the embarrassment of borrowing funds upon uncertain prospects. By a better distribution of labor, this industry also furnishes the farmer a means of reaping returns upon his time in winter and thus increasing his income.
     Nebraska is rapidly growing in importance as a dairy state. More butter is manufactured in the metropolis of Nebraska than in any other place in the world. There were manufactured in the state creameries in 1915

42,076,000 pounds of butter. Nebraska farms produced and sold 10,444,920 gallons of cream and 1,271,632 gallons of market milk. The sale of these products is increasing annually. There were 650,000 cows on Nebraska farms in 1915, valued at $29,000,000. The principal markets for sweet cream, sour cream and market milk are Lincoln and Omaha, together with many rapidly growing cities in various parts of the state. The demand for good market milk is strong. Transportation is well provided for by a network of railways.
     The dairy industry in Nebraska is broadening rapidly. Creameries, cream stations, condenseries and milk depots are being established in various sections of the state. Dairy breeds of cattle, particularly Holsteins, are in strong demand. High prices have been paid for grade animals shipped into the state and sold at auction. The farmers are beginning to realize the opportunities for them, and if they will but avail themselves of the state's possibilities along dairy lines, Nebraska will surely in the near future take rank among the nation's leading dairy states.

Potash Products Co., Hoffland, Nebr.

NEBRASKA'S POTASH INDUSTRY

     So rapid and so marvelous has been the development of the potash industry in Nebraska that it is not possible to give its full particulars within the limit of this publication. The Department of Publicity has published a separate bulletin dealing with the industry, which will be furnished to interested parties upon application. Four years ago not a pound of potash was produced in Nebraska, and the potash production of the entire republic represented less than 5 per cent of its consumption. Nearly 90 per cent of the potash consumed in the United States prior to the beginning of the war was imported from Germany. With the outbreak of the war and the consequent stoppage of potash importations, American consumers cast about for a local supply, and investigators were set to work all over the country. Then it was that potash was discovered in paying quantities in the waters of certain alkali lakes of northwestern Nebraska, notably in Sheridan and Box Butte counties. Others are located in Cherry, Garden and Morrill counties. The potash is extracted from the water of these alkali lakes by reduction. In homely phrase it is "boiled down," much after the manner of making maple sugar. The alkali water is pumped from the lakes to reduction plants located upon the railroad. There are now four huge reduction plants in operation, with three more building and several others planned. The four going plants are producing an average of 100 tons per day each. One plant now under con-