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DAILY NEBRASKA STATE JOURNAL, LINCOLN, SUNDAY 5 JUNE 1887 p19
THE DAIRY.
Its Relations and Advantages to the Nebraska Farmer.
Interesting Facts Regarding This Growing Industry, Compiled From the Annual report of the Nebraska Dairymen's Association - A Subject for Nebraska Farmers to Think Seriously Over - Forty-Seven Creameries in the State and a General Demand for More.
Our farmers have a great duty to perform; that is, to patronize the creamery, or any other legitimate business whose purpose is to concentrate the products of the soil into the least bulky form possible to pay freight on to market, for while we have to pay fully 100 per cent of its original value for freight to market our grain, and by concentrating our energies and grain into dairy pursuits and products, we can get the result , "butter," to market at a cost of only 8 to 10 per cent of its value.
The patrons of the creamery that are the most benefited, are farmers with large families and small farms - they are enabled to use their surplus labor in dairy pursuits - this provides for monthly expenses of family; the children are raised to labor, thrift, economy and independence. From necessity such farmers are continually improving their stock and necessarily bring their land to the highest state of cultivation.
It does not seem possible that this state could be beaten or even equaled in natural resources for diary pursuits; its fine climate and water, prolific soil and nutritious grasses, all bend to make it unparalleled. Peter Henderson, the popular New York Florist, was lately credited with replying to a friend, who asked him how to procure the very best soil, "Go to Nebraska and get out a car load of soil - you can't make a mistake if you get it anywhere in that state."
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LOUIE MEYER (Established 1874) WILLIE MEYER Wholesale and Retail Dealers in GENERAL MERCHANDISE, 108 and 110 North Tenth Street (In their own building, Meyer's block) Highest Price Paid for Choice Butter and Country Produce Money refunded in all cases where goods are not as represented. L. MEYER, Notary Public. W. MEYER, Notary Public. |
While there have so many enterprising parties built and equipped in the most modern and improved manner creamery plants in nearly all of the most eligible sections of our state at large outlays, we are willing to operate them on reasonably fair margins, it only remains now for the farmers to get their eyes open to the true facts of the case, and then Nebraska will certainly become the leading dairy state in the union. In an interview by an exchange reporter, the Hon. W. H. Seymour, ex-president of the New York Mercantile exchange, in describing the states comprising the grand dairy belt of this country, made special reference to Nebraska, and said it was fast coming to the front, and wound up by saying, "Butter has been and always will be a staple article, that this line of business could never be overdone." |
The man who goes intelligently into dairying must go in to stay if he hopes to make a success of it. He must make a life study of it and then he has one of the most stable and permanently remunerative occupations that farming furnishes. While it may not be wise to look for any brilliant results like a fortune in a few years, which after all is only the dream of gamblers, and is as rarely realized as other and less foolish ideas; but if the man is honest and square and consents to live by the sweat of his brow, and live modestly as becomes his station in life, making a happy home and thus gathering about him all the comforts that an honest ambition can desire, then we say make of yourself a good dairyman.
It has been demonstrated over and over again that among our general farmers (especially in the older states) that to raise grain to sell, except to make of it a lucrative business, has proved itself a complete failure.
At the time of the first introduction of creameries into Iowa, their farmers had reached that point of realization that grain growers simply they were becoming; bankrupt, land poor, prematurely aged and in paired in health, and trying to hold their own by annual increase in acreage, which only resulted in reaping a smaller average of crops per acre.
Since the adoption of the creameries, those farmers began at once to reap the rewards, and now, generally where we ten years ago saw a farmer wearing his weary life away trying to earn a living by raising grain on 160 to 249 acres, may now be seen on the same and similar tracts of land as many as two to three thrifty dairy farmers possessing 80 to 100 acres each, who have so far recovered from their former mistakes as to be surrounded by all the necessary and modern conveniences, together with a nice little account to their credit at the bank in their nearest town, all resulting from the benefit of condensing grain crops into a less bulky matter to pay freight on to market, or in other words,occupying and farming a limited number of acres for all there was in the land, instead of spreading themselves over an unlimited number of acres for all there was in their bodies.
The chief western industries seem now to be verging in two channels - one is the vast grazing interests which are capitalizing vast sums of money and influences which are absorbing the rights which our would-be farmers should possess, and are fast creating such a monopoly as to soon suggest a possibility of the foreign landlord system so disastrous abroad; while the other is farmers content themselves on moderate sized farms, well looked after and managed, to be producing biggest results, with industrious efforts in dairy pursuits. We have one enemy here - bogus lard and tallow butter.
While these manufacturers of the bogus article are few in number, yet they represent large capital, and they consolidate their capital and wits to the very farthest extent in forcing this illegitimate article on the market to be palmed off as "honest butter".
Shall we as honest farmers, engaged in an honorable, healthy and life giving dairy pursuit, be usurped by these glaring frauds.
Let every good citizen of our state make his voice heard before our representatives in congress. Our individual farmers are largely in the majority, and when they realize the necessity of exerting themselves to causing proper legislative measures to be established and enforced, then we will have good reason to look for success in its final suppression.
In the meantime let our manufacturers conserve all measures that have a tendency to raise the quality and merits of their butter above any chance of competition with the spurious article.
The following are a few statistics taken from the returns given by parties patronizing the Sutton, Neb. creamery. The time is for the year ending January 1, 1885:
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Received from nine cows, cash |
$158.13 |
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Have on hand five calves valued at |
150.00 |
|
Total |
308.13 |
|
Received from eleven cows, cash |
$294.47 |
|
Have on hand eleven calves valued at |
165.00 |
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Total |
$459.47 |
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Received from three cows, cash |
$124.96 |
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Have on hand three calves valued at |
42.00 |
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Total |
$166.96 |
In no state can millet, timothy or prairie hay, corn fodder, corn, oats, rye, and roots some to all of which are needed at time to supply in profitable food ration for the dairy cow, be raised at less prime cost to the producer than in Nebraska.
In addition we have an inexhaustible supply of pure water of a uniform temperature the year around of about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, warm enough for drinking purposes, and yet just the temperature required for raising cream by the deep can system.
If dairying pays way back in New York and the New England states, where land is worth $75 per acre, hay $20 a ton and corn gets to a dollar a bushel, why it is as clear as sunlight we can make it pay and pay big here, for it costs but a trifle more if any for us to send our butter to New York or Boston than from farms in those states.
Although we can place our dairy goods on eastern markets at a less expense for freight as compared with their value than any other product of our farms, yet we are not compelled to depend entirely on eastern markets for sale of these goods.
At our very door is one of the best markets for dairy products. The mining regions of Colorado, Wyoming, and adjoining territories are large consumers of these products and Nebraska dairymen should and can if they will, supply their wants in this respect.
Cows cost no more; hay and grain about one-fourth as much, while our dairy products net as much for the same quality of goods as do those of eastern dairymen.
Nebraska is destined to take front rank as a dairy state, and the question for the farmers to determine is whether they will push the business and at once reap the benefits. Look at this industry in its broadest sense, view it from any and all directions and it seems that every effort should be put forth to develop the dairy interests of this state. A dairy farmer means a prosperous farmer. A dairy community a prosperous community. A dairy state a wealthy state. There is the least possible dead capital on a dairy farm. The machinery is not intricate and expensive, but simple and durable. Dairy stock is always salable at a price closely approaching its real value. There is the least possible waste on a well conducted dairy farm. No need to burn straw piles to get them out of the way. There is nothing about the business which tends to impoverish the person engaged in it or the land occupied, but just the reverse. The tendency of exclusive grain raising is to impoverish the soil and likewise the tiller thereof.
DAILY NEBRASKA STATE JOURNAL, LINCOLN, SUNDAY 5 JUNE 1887 p20
LINCOLN'S RAILROADS.
The Great Avenues of Commerce Make the Capital City the Natural Center of the Trans-Missouri Trade - They are Rapidly Building Up a Large Wholesale Interest - The Volume of Business Represented by Each Road - Prospective Lines.
It has become a trite remark to refer to a place as a railroad centre, and it not unfrequently requires a vigorous imagination, aided by the mapmaker's art, to realize for aspiring town, what is understood by this title. But it is not necessary to argue this point in Lincoln's favor. It is conceded. That it would be so from the very topography of this country was shrewdly foretold by the first settler, long before any material indication pointed to it as destined to be the future centre of trade and commerce in the west. Lincoln already has enough railroads to place her beyond the reach of all her competitors in facilities for communication and the end is by no means yet. Ten iron highways now radiate from her borders, with the moral certainly that that number will soon be increased. It is laid down to show that Lincoln is the natural center of a trade which is destined to make her the chief commercial center of the west. Paramount in showing this must come the consideration of the railroads, whither they lead and the facilities they furnish of bringing to this point the produce of the state and distributing to the producers the wares of the markets of the world.
It has always been a characteristic of mankind to take the easiest, cheapest and quickest road to market. Along the lines of road radiating from Lincoln there are more than a million people with the state of Nebraska and the boundaries the state by no means marks the limit of the trade that naturally centers at this point. Counting those outside the boundaries of the state, another million must be added to the above and a careful estimate upon the fast increase in population in the whole district covered warrants the assertion that not less than 200 souls are added to the list of permanent settlers during the hours of every day. Now if it can be shown that Lincoln is the natural and most advantageous market place for all this immense population whose wants are increasing at a rate that the mind refuses to grasp, it will be conceded that something has been done to form a basis for the proposition laid down. Here, then, is a point which those who design to assist in supplying the wants of this vast multitude cannot afford to over look. Her the circumstances are bound to build up large whosale (sic) firms and those who come first have an advantage of time that never represented move value than it does in the western country today. From this center can be reached a class of people, who, as consumers of nearly every variety of manufactured articles, as well as producers of a large class of raw materials furnish a rich field for the manufacture.
Not only is Lincoln the present center, but the center of the future as well. Long after the center of population has moved a hundred miles to the west of us the commercial center will still be where it is today. Middle and western Nebraska will be covered with railroads almost as thickly as the eastern part of the state, but the direction in which they will run must be taken into consideration. Enough are already constructed or projected to determine the general course that will be taken by all. Following the western progress of the population, they will move toward the west in nearly parallel lines, converging at no common point and therefore forming no city that will begin to possess the equal of Lincoln's railroad facilities. The roads south of the Platte are now nearly all built, and they radiate from Lincoln. The north Platte roads will run in a generally northwestern direction, following the course of settlement up the streams. To reach Hasting, Grand Island, Kearney, or any of the ambitious towns that are clustered nearer the center of the state, the traveler from northern Nebraska will be obliged to come far to the southeast before he can reach a road to carry him to any of these places. A majority of the pilgrims from the north will be ?? Lincoln than any of the western points before they can take a train moving in that direction, and many will be compelled to actually pass through Lincoln. When these fact are considered it leaves no room for doubt that this will always be the railroad center of the state, even if no more roads are constructed in and out of the city. The lines that are to be built at once will make our position absolutely sure for all time to come.
Among the line that share the traffic of the Capital city, the first to enter and the fist to push out to make a path for our wholesalers and our manufactures, was the
It has steadily pursued it policy of building as many lines in southern Nebraska as the country demands, and at the present time has six arms reaching out from Lincoln to embrace the business of the best and most thickly populated part of the state. From these six lines it has built branches in every direction until there is but one county south of the Platte river that is not or will not in a few months be crossed by the iron tracks of the B. & M. One year ago it began to invade the land north of the stream that was supposedly to mark the boundary between the territory of the B. & M. and the Union Pacific. From Grand Island a branch was constructed one hundred miles to the northwest during one summer, and the work of pushing it to the western boundary of Nebraska and into Wyoming is now being vigorously prosecuted. Solid trains are run from Lincoln to the end of the line, a distance of 140 miles. Two passenger trains a day each way, regular Sunday trains as on the main Chicago-Denver line, and the permanent character of the roadbed are enough to warrant the belief that this is to be a great through road, and may possibly be extended to the Pacific coast. The importance of this movement can scarcely be overstated. The line is operated from Lincoln, the trains are made up here and the time table is so arranged that the business en of this city have an immense advantage over all competitors for the trade of the rich country that this road opens for traffic. Freight trains run directly from Lincoln, carrying goods to the end of the road twenty-four hours earlier than from Omaha, and two days earlier than from any other competing city. The trade of this central Nebraska region is worth or can well be worth, fifteen millions a year to the city that secures it, and Lincoln will have a practical monopoly of the business if her men but show their usual enterprise. During the coming summer the road will tap the fertile Box Butte country and share with the Elkhorn Valley line the traffic of the growing northwest. In another year it will be well on its way across Wyoming, and have its path survey over the crest of the continent. The Lincoln commercial tourist will keep pace with this road and each train will bear goods from Lincoln's wholesale houses for distribution along the entire line.
Other extensions that are of the highest importance have been made and are now in progress in northern Kansas. Four years ago a branch was sent from Odell, in Gage county, to Washington, Kas., and later was extended to Concordia, in one of the best counties of the bleeding state. A branch has also been built from Republican, in Harlan county, to tap a tier of the prosperous northern counties of Kansas, and a second line is now building from Orleans to the south and west. All of these roads reach a country of unsurpassed fertility, and all are operated to the great advantage of the business interests of Lincoln.
Of the extensions in the South Platte it is unnecessary to speak. Thirty-three counties are crossed by the tracks of this road, and trains sent out from this city reach every important town in a few hours. The trade of this great region belongs to Lincoln, and a glance at the statistical table giving the number of business houses and volume of trade in a few of the leading towns, will serve to substantiate the estimate made.
Nearly a thousand miles of the Burlington lines are practically operated from Lincoln, and the money paid out here in salaries is not an insignificant sum. Not less that 600 employes (sic) whose wages will average about $60 a month make their headquarters here, and many more spend a part of their time in the city. The number is increasing steadily and rapidly.
Instead of two small switches as in 1876 the road now has over forty miles of side and main tracks in the Lincoln yards. The pay roll of the yardmaster for the month of February bears the names of seventy-five switchmen, yardmen, checkers, flagmen and watchmen. Eleven years ago one man performed all of this labor. Six years ago nineteen men were employed, and the number of names on the books for March 1886, was thirty-seven.
Eight engines are now required to do the switching in the Lincoln yards. Eleven years ago the B. &. M. railway had but sixteen engines work on its entire line. There are now 156 in constant use and several more about leaving the shop. Then the rolling stock of the road consisted of 308 box, flat and coal cars, twelve passenger coaches, and seven baggage cars. The present equipment is 8,300 flat and box cars, seventy-four coaches and fifty-six baggage cars.
An accurate record is kept of all trains arriving and leaving at the Lincoln yards and this enables THE JOURNAL to give exact figures on this important indicator of the business of the city and the state. The average for a long period in February and March is seventy per day. A week or two may be selected in exceptionally busy seasons when the average will exceed eight, but the figure given is a fair one, and will hold good for almost any time of the year. Of those mentioned twenty-four are regular freight trains. Extras are run constantly, experience having demonstrated that it is better to move cars when they are loaded and ready for moving than to send them out over the road at stated intervals. These trains bring to Lincoln and take away a number of cars every day that will startle the man who has not made the subject a study. Allowing six cars to each passenger train - a very reasonable estimate - and figuring the length of a car as sixty feet, we have a solid passenger train nearly a mile in length pulling into the depot every day from the Burlington main line and branches alone. Computing thirty cars to each freight train and the length of a car at thirty feet, we have a total length of about four miles of freight trains arriving or departing from Lincoln every day. These figures are under rather than above the actual fact. They are given merely to aid the reader in comprehending the multitude of the business done by the great Burlington at this the most important city on its line between the lakes and the Rockies.
Nearly forty train crews have their headquarters in this city. In addition to the trainmen, yardmen, switchmen and freight handlers, there are regiments of laborers, engine wipers, machinists, trackmen and all the miscellaneous employes needed to keep a great railroad in operation. Officials and clerks number over one hundred. The figure given for the entire pay roll is the city, 600, is very modest, and the same number of men would be given under the same circumstances by any of our esteemed Omaha contemporaries as 1,000.
Columns might be written about the push and enterprise of this company, but enough has been said to give some indication of what it means to the commercial interests of the Capital city.
The road that is of the greatest importance to Lincoln as far as the trade of the great south and northwest, is concerned is the F. E. & M. V., familiarly known as the "Elkhorn line." A part of the Chicago & Northwestern system, it also gives a short connection with Chicago, a direct line to Minneapolis and St. Paul, and an easy communication with the ??? of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. This road was completed to the city last October, and has not as yet become thoroughly acquainted with our people, but it has done enough to convince the city that the expenditure of $50,00 required to bring it here was the best investment that has ever been made by the municipality.
The total length of the road at present is 802 miles. It passes from Blair, a short distance north of Omaha, west to Fremont, and from that flourishing little city in a generally northwestern direction across northern Nebraska to Chadron, where it branches and sends a line into the Black Hills, while the main line goes on toward the setting sun. The present terminus is Douglas, Wyo. Contracts are let for the construction of several hundred miles of additional track beyond Douglas, and it is believed that the managers have planned to reach the Pacific, and are building to the west with that object in view.
Feeders are sent out from the main line at corrr???? points in Nebraska making it possible to reach any important town in the northern part of the state by way of this great railway. From Fremont a solid road bed was built to this city, a distance of nearly fifty miles, and on the 25th day of last October the trains began running into Lincoln. Four passenger trains arrive and depart each day, making close connection at Fremont with the trough trains on the main line. The same number of regular freight trains ply between the city and Fremont, delivering goods from our business houses on board the west bound freight trains far in advance of the goods sent out on the same day from Omaha.
The country tributary to the Elkhorn is in the main of great fertility. The coal fields of Wyoming, the mineral wealth of the Black Hills, the cattle of the western plains and the products of the rich agricultural regions of northern Nebraska have been opened to Lincoln men and to Lincoln enterprise. Already the shipments of stock to West Lincoln have become so heavy that a special train is required to bring down from the main line and branches the daily consignment. The jobbers of this city have begun sending out men to "work the road," and the familiar names of the wholesale houses of Lincoln may be seen on boxes and crates as far west as Deadwood and Rapid City, Dak., and Douglas and other Wyoming towns. The business that in the city can control in this northern region is of immense proportions. In point of time we are ahead of Omaha and every other important competing point, and in the matter freight rates we are on an equally with the best. THE JOURNAL has demonstrated that there is a great field for Lincoln enterprise north of the Platte by going out and building up a large and steady circulation, where a few months ago, it was impossible to secure a handful of readers on account of the unsatisfactory and indirect mail service. THE JOURNAL is now read in the Black Hills, over 500 miles away, in twenty-four hours after it is issued, and in Douglas, Wyo., which is but little short of 600 miles from Lincoln, in twenty-six hours. The train facilities that make this possible will also allow the Lincoln business man to reach this wide territory quickly and advantageously, and actually in advance of his competitors.There is business enough on the Elkhorn lines that may be diverted to this city so support twenty strong wholesale houses. The city should take immediate possession.
The Great Central Short Line between the Missouri River and the Pacific Coast, through Kansas and Nebraska, to all Points in Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Oregon, Washington Territory, Nevada and California
The Grand Scenic Line of AmericaOffering special inducements to tourists who desire the most luxurious traveling en rout to the unrivalled Rocky Mountain resorts in Colorado, to the Yellowstone National Park, to Shoshone Falls, to Salt Lake City, or to the many popular places most frequented by travelers in California and Oregon.
Free Emigrant Sleeping Cars run daily on Overland Express train between Missouri River and Los Angeles.
For pamphlets, information concerning excursions, rates of fare, etc., address,LINCOLN, NEB.
E. B. SLOSSON,
CITY TICKET AGENT,
Corner O and 11th sts.J. T. MASTIN,
DEPOT TICKET AGENT
O and 5th sts.
UNION PACIFIC.
Upon the possession of traffic over this great continental line Omaha has long prided herself. This condition of affairs is, however, being rapidly changed. This great company has shown itself very friendly to the Capital city. The O. & B. V. branch has been in operation to this place for six years and has built a large and permanent business. It is supposed to be eventually an Omaha road, but in fact it favors that city only incidentally as is made necessary for convenience in operating. As an evidence of its disposition toward this city it may be mention that the entire Union Pacific system has been opened to the packers of West Lincoln upon equal terms with those of Omaha, and the jobbers of this city are able to send out goods ever on the main line as quickly and upon as favorable terms as their brethren in the metropolis. The Stromsburg branch, about eight miles in length and passing through the richest part of the state, is practically a branch running out of Lincoln. A passenger train does daily duty between the terminus and this city, and the whole arrangement of trains is such that the territory is controlled by our wholesale merchants very easily. Three years ago a branch was built to the south, making connection with the Kansas division of the Union Pacific system, and opening up a good section of northern Kansas to our trade. This part of the road can be reached much more easily from Lincoln than from Omaha, and it traverses a very tempting field for our jobbers.
The regular trains on the main line are intercepted at Valley by the freight and passenger trains from Lincoln and the goods and mail from this city go to the west and northwest in company with goods sent out by Omaha. There is no reason why a generous share of the business of the country tributary to the Union Pacific should not be done by Lincoln and the business men who have had their hands full supplying the demands made upon them from the districts that already belong to the city will go out and take possession at their first opportunity.
The trains in and out of Lincoln every day on this line will average about twenty. Six passenger trains are run, making close connections with the Kansas trains of the Union Pacific and with the trains on the main line and all of the branches. The freight trains are run as the business demands, and it is a dull day when a dozen do not arrive and depart from Lincoln
This road has been operated into Lincoln since August of last year. Since that time a large and profitable business has been built up. This road is especially important as a route into the city by which jobbers can most directly receive their goods from the eastern seaboard. As an outlet it also traverses some of the oldest and richest countries of the state. The policy of the company in regard to the projected lines for the present season seems to indicate that another avenue is to be furnished Lincoln dealers to the west, and the rapidly developing northwest, Over the trade along this line, Lincoln will have an advantage that no competitor can wrest from her.
A number of other companies are looking toward this growing city with more than ordinary interest. They desire to share the large and increasing traffic centering within her borders. Among these is the Rock Island, one of the giant lines that cross Iowa, and invading Nebraska to fight for a share of the traffic of this new empire. The officers have announced that the Capital city is the objective point for one or more of the new lines, and that the work of construction will e begun in a few months. It is probable that a branch will be built from the south, uniting here with the extension of the main line that is expected to diverge east of Council Bluffs, cross the Missouri below Plattsmouth, and enter Lincoln from the northeast.
The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul is also figuring on going out into the west with its competitor, the Rock Island to bid for Nebraska trade. THE JOURNAL regrets that it cannot announce under authority that this extension will be built, but there is a strong feeling in railroad circles that the completion of a Milwaukee connection is but a question of time. Negotiations are also now being made which look toward an extension of the Santa Fe system to this city.
Another project, which if carried out will cut an important figure in Lincoln's future, is the Lincoln, Hartland and Gulf railway. A company has been organized to build this road, and the projectors have the assurance of backing from eastern capitalists that will enable them to complete the road to the gulf within three years. The course that has been mapped out is southwest from Lincoln through the western part of Kansas to Hartland, thence south through No Man's land into Texas and on to El Paso or the gulf. The men composing the company are substantial citizens of the states of Nebraska and Kansas and they are not asking any aid until the road is actually built. It is needless to dilate upon the benefit of such a line to this city. It will make Lincoln more than ever a great terminal point, and will draw to us all of the trunk lines extending from Chicago to the Missouri river.
Such is the present condition and some of the future prospects of Lincoln on the railroad question for other lines than those mentioned include this city in their plans for future operation. That several of them will come is a moral certainty. A careful study of the situation will be enough to convince the most skeptical that as a distribution point Lincoln has no equal in the great west. Over one million people can be reached more easily and quickly from Lincoln than from any other point. One million of the most desirable customers to be found anywhere on the continent. One million today, two millions tomorrow and three millions in the near future - Lincoln the chief market for them all. Does any one doubt that in twenty years Lincoln will be a city of one hundred thousand people.
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