Click to view
Page  5

      The Union Pacific Railroad, commencing at Omaha on the Missouri River, traverses the State of Nebraska, passes along the north-eastern portion of Colorado, crosses southern Wyoming, and at Union Junction on the northern shore of the Great Salt Lake, in Utah, connects with the Central Pacific Railroad for Sacramento, San Francisco and all points on the Pacific Coast, making an unbroken line of Railway of nearly two thousand miles. In conjunction with its eastern connections it forms the only all rail route between New York and San Francisco, a distance of three thousand four hundred miles, and reduces the time from ocean to ocean to a less period than one week.

      It is now more than twenty years since the grand idea of a trans-continental railway began to agitate the minds of the leading statesmen of America. As early as 1849 a project for the construction of a railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean was reported by a committee of the National House of Representatives. It was not, however, until the 29th of October, 1863, that the "Union Pacific Railroad Company" was organized and the great work formally commenced.

      The building of the Pacific Railroad was a marvel of enterprise, energy and skill. As the work advanced from its base of supplies, the rate of construction was accelerated. The materials for super-structure of each mile of the road weighing not less than three hundred tons, together with the supplies necessary for the grand army of workmen and draught animals, were transported along the entire line from Omaha. These supplies were gathered a thousand miles eastward, accumulated in enormous magazines at eligible points of distribution, and transported to their respective localities without, in the least, interfering with the regularity of the work. In the face of these increasing difficulties, the rate of construction rose to six or eight miles a day, and on the 10th day of May, 1869, the junction of the Union and Central Pacific Roads was effected near the head of Great Salt Lake, in the Territory of Utah.

Click to view
Page  6

      Thus, the grand problem, which for twenty years had perplexed the heart and brain of the American people, was solved, the most stupendous enterprise of the age was accomplished, and a great international steam highway established, over which will be conveyed, with ever increasing volume, the rich commerce of China, Japan, Hindoostan and the East India Islands.

      To aid in the construction of this great National Road, the United States Government conferred upon the Union Pacific Railroad Company, a magnificent Land Grant, amounting to Twelve Million Acres, or nineteen thousand square miles—a domain equal in area to the States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont.

      These lands are contained in alternate sections of one square mile each, within a breadth of twenty miles on either side of the Railroad, and extend along the entire line. They are situated on about the 41st degree of North Latitude, the central line of the great Temperate zone of the American Continent, giving a climate equally removed from the severe cold and long winters of the north, and the hot, relaxing influences of the south. They extend through central Nebraska, southern Wyoming, and northern Colorado and Utah, and include within their limits the splendid agricultural lands of the Platte Valley, the great natural pastures of the Laramie Plains and the valleys of Lodge Pole Creek and Bear River, and the rich iron and coal fields between the Black Hills and the Wahsatch Mountains. The sections which are designated by odd numbers belong to the Railroad Company the even numbered sections within the same limits are reserved by the Government for actual settlement and can only be obtained under the Homestead and Pre-emption Laws, by which wise provision these valuable lands are kept out of the grasp of the speculator, and preserved for the settler and his children.

      A portion of these lands, extending from the Missouri River, westward, twenty miles on each side of the Railroad, have been placed in market by the Company, and are now selling to settlers at low prices, and upon very favorable terms of payment.

      They are located in Nebraska, in the Great Platte Valley, upon the immediate line of the Railroad.

      This remarkable Valley, through which the Pacific Railroad extends for more than three hundred miles, is from ten to fifty miles in width,

Click to view
Page  7

      and is widely celebrated for its picturesque scenery, rich productive soil, and mild and healthful climate. From any point on the Railroad, the traveler beholds, stretching away to the distant horizon, the gently undulating prairie, a flowery meadow of great fertility clothed in nutritious grasses, and watered by numerous streams, the margins of which are skirted with timber. Persons settling in this valley will not find it a "new country." Neighbors are nowhere distant, towns and villages are springing up and rapidly growing in size and importance, extensive and well cultivated farms and thriving communities are found throughout the entire tract. Equal facilities for obtaining pleasant homes, and acquiring competence and independence, have never before been presented to the emigrant and settler.

      In natural advantages, the valley of the Platte is unsurpassed. It comprises the central portion of the State of Nebraska, and is in about the same Latitude with the cities of New York and Philadelphia. It is distant, both from the oceans and the great lakes of the interior. As a result, the air is dry, the storms of rain are of short duration, and it is exempt from those long and drizzly seasons of wet weather so annoying to the farmers in many parts of the country, while there is an abundance of rain for useful purposes. The dryness of the atmosphere, and mildness of the climate, render this Valley peculiarly adapted to persons predisposed to pulmonary diseases, many of whom rapidly recover under its influence and become hale and robust.

      Billious complaints, fever and ague, and other disorders resulting from miasmatic influences are much less frequent than in most sections of the west. No portion of the United States is less affected by epidemic diseases. The land is well watered. Numerous streams intersect the Valley, many of which afford excellent water power, and valuable mill sites. Springs abound, and good water can usually be obtained at a depth of from ten to thirty feet. The surface is sufficiently rolling to allow the surplus water to drain off, which would otherwise stagnate and produce disease. The low grounds are not soft, and swamps and marshes are unknown.

      The surface of the country is divided into bottom and table lands and rolling prairie. The soil of the bottom lands is of a rich alluvial

Click to view
Page  8

      character, of great depth and inexhaustible fertility, producing splendid crops of wheat, corn, oats, barley, potatoes, etc. It is light and friable, of easy culture, and may be ploughed to any depth required. From the absence of hard pan and other impervious substances, it possesses the singular property of resisting both unusual wet and continued drouth, so that a failure of crops from either, is an unheard of event. The soil does not bake after rain, and deep mud is never known. The table lands are rolling, consisting of a series of "divides.' Upon some of these divides separating the larger streams, the crests are flattened out into level plains frequently of several miles in area. The soil of the table lands is similar to that of the bottoms but not so deep.

      The climate is exhilarating and healthful, milder than in the same latitude in the eastern states, and the atmosphere is dry and pure. Spring and Fall are the rainy seasons, affording sufficient moisture for the growths of the soil. During the Summer and Winter, the weather is usually dry. The heat of Summer is tempered by the prairie winds, and the nights are cool and comfortable. The Autumns are like a long Indian Summer, extending into the latter part of December, The winters are short, dry and invigorating, with but little snow. Cold weather seldom lasts beyond three months, with frequent intervals of mild, pleasant days. The roads in winter are usually hard, smooth and excellent. The mean temperature is 50°, and annual rain fall 25 inches.

      Nebraska is pre-eminently a wheat growing state. Its soil and climate appear most admirably adapted to the production of this cereal. The average yield per acre is from 25 to 30 bushels, exceeding the average yield of any other state. The grain is of a superior quality, commanding at St. Louis from ten to fifteen cents per bushel more than any other wheat in the market.

      Corn is also a leading production, averaging from fifty to seventy-five bushels to the acre. While for the culture of oats, rye, barley, potatoes, and other crops usually raised in the northern and eastern States, this State is well adapted, and large returns are realized. Sweet potatoes, sorghum, tobacco, etc., are cultivated with success. It is believed, also, that this State by soil and climate is particularly

Click to view
Page  9

      well adapted to the cultivation of the sugar beet, which forms so large and important a product of France and other European countries.

      Of the capacity of this State for fruit culture, there is no longer any question. Apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, grapes, currants, berries, etc., have been sufficiently tested to prove that they can be easily and profitably grown. Wild Fruits—plums, grapes, berries etc., abound in the groves and are a valuable product to the early settler, supplying the place of cultivated fruits. It has been fully demonstrated that Nebraska is destined to take high rank as a fruit growing State.

      In market facilities, Nebraska is peculiarly favored, occupying a central geographical position midway between the two oceans. On the line of the Great Trans-Continental Railroad, it possesses advantages, for the disposal of its surplus grain and stock, unsurpassed by any other western state. To the west are vast mining and pastoral districts, inhabited by a population, who, giving but little attention to agricultural pursuits themselves, must, to a great extent, draw their supplies from this state.

      The Union Pacific Railroad, intersecting these mining and pastoral regions, extends through the entire State of Nebraska, to the Missouri River on the east, at which point four competing Railroads connect it with Chicago, St. Louis, and other great eastern markets. In the early history of other western states, great inconvenience and many hardships resulted from the want of markets where the products of the farm could be sold and the necessary supplies obtained; settlers were compelled to haul their grain many miles over bad roads and unbridged streams, and then to sell at very low prices, until relieved by the construction of railroads. Settlers on the lands of this company, will find a great Railroad already constructed, and long trains conveying the travel and commerce of the world, daily passing within convenient distance from their homes, bringing the advantages of civilization, and furnishing at every station a market for their surplus productions, where the highest prices may be demanded and obtained, and from which grain and stock may be conveyed without breaking bulk to the great markets East and West.

Click to view
Page  10

      Nebraska is almost exclusively a prairie state, with no dense forests, nor vast bodies of timber requiring the toil of a lifetime to remove, in order to open a farm. Her beautiful valleys and undulating plains are ready at once for the plow, and to award the first labors of the husbandman with abundant crops, yet there is no scarcity of timber for immediate use. In the towns of the interior, and along the line of the Railroad, wood for fuel is sold at prices often lower than in many towns of the same size in the older and timbered states. Along the margin of nearly every stream, on the bluffs and in the ravines, more or less timber is found, often expanding into extensive groves. Among the settlements where the fires are kept out, trees spring up spontaneously and grow with great rapidity. Large tracts which but a few years since contained not a single shrub, have thus become thickly covered with a thrifty growth of young timber.

      The principal indigenous trees are the cottonwood, elm, ash, box-elder, soft maple; the different varieties of oak, black walnut, hackberry, hickory, willow and cedar. Hackberry is a half hard wood unknown at the east. Cottonwood is a light, porous, yellowish white wood, of remarkably quick growth. It is to the Missouri Valley, what the pine is to North Carolina. It grows everywhere, and under all circumstances; it is much used for building purposes, and as a fuel, makes a quick hot fire. It should be the first care of the settler in this State, to set apart a portion of his farm for the growing of trees. Ten acres of cottonwood, hackberry and black walnut, planted eight feet apart each way, and cultivated five years, will thereafter supply all the fence posts and fuel required for an ordinary farm. Many farmers in different parts of the State, are now reaping the fruits of their foresight and care in this respect, and are abundantly supplied with timber, from groves of their own planting. Prof. Hayden gives, in his report to the Commissioner of the General Land Office upon the geology of Nebraska, the following results of his measurement of forest trees grown by farmers in different parts of the State:

Click to view
Page  11

      Efficient herd laws have been enacted, rendering fencing unnecessary. Most farmers, however, are turning their attention to the cultivation of the osage orange hedge, and have met with great success. This plant is easily cultivated, grows very rapidly, and will, in three years, form a hedge sufficient to turn stock. These hedges form a shade and shelter for the stock, and give a most delightful appearance to the farm.

      The native lumber is chiefly cottonwood. It can be obtained at low figures, and answers a very useful purpose in building. Pine and other prepared lumber are shipped directly from the great lumber markets of the east without breaking bulk, and are sold at convenient points on the line of the Union Pacific Railroad, at prices but little in advance of Chicago rates. Quarries of excellent building stone have been opened at different points, and good brick material is found in every portion of the state.

Click to view
Page  12

      Several enterprising firms in Chicago are doing an extensive business in the manufacturing of ready-made houses. Their agents are located at convenient points, and to settlers desiring comfortable buildings for immediate use, houses are furnished complete in all their parts, at reasonable prices and without delay. These buildings are made of good material, each part so fitted and marked, that any settler can readily put them together. They are furnished at the cars in Chicago, at but a small expense above the original cost of the material. These houses can be delivered at the nearest station in from ten to fifteen days after the order is received, and range in prices from $200 upwards.

      In no State in the Union has more ample provision been made to meet the educational wants of the people than in Nebraska. While in Illinois, Iowa and the older Western States, but one section—six hundred and forty acres—in each township, was set apart for school purposes. In Nebraska, the General Government, with a wise liberality, has donated to this State two sections—twelve hundred and eighty acres in each Township—or one eighteenth part of its entire area, as a permanent endowment of the Public Schools. The Legislature has already passed an act designed to save this beneficent gift, and make it of inestimable value to the children of this and future generations. In addition to the public school lands, a grant of about one hundred and thirty thousand acres has been made to the State, to establish and endow a University and Agricultural College, the buildings for which are now in process of erection, and when completed will be opened to all the children of the State.

      The common schools are free, and in a flourishing condition. A State Normal School is in successful operation, and Academies and Seminaries, of a high order, have been located in various parts of the State, and are well sustained.

      Agents for the sale of agricultural implements—reapers, mowers, plows, wagons, and all other kinds of farming tools, are located at the principal stations on the line of the Railroad, and at convenient points in the interior, where all the supplies needed by the farmer can be readily obtained at fair prices.

Click to view
Page  13

      The advantages of settling in communities are many and important. By moving in large numbers reduced rates of fare and freight can be secured from Railroad and Transportation Companies. Teams and expensive farming implements can be purchased jointly, and mutual aid rendered in erecting buildings, opening farms, etc. A neighborhood grows up at once, a certain and rapid enhancement in the value of the land purchased is secured. Good society, schools, churches, post offices, mills, stores, good roads, and all other conveniences of life enjoyed in older communities, are created far earlier than is possible where one settler is located at a time, and the growth of population is slow and precarious.

      Particular attention is invited to the superior advantages by the Lands of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, to parties desiring to locate in Colonies. Heretofore it has been impossible to obtain lands in a compact body, within accessible distances from rail-road communications. Half the lands were withheld from the market for the benefit of the road, and the remainder were subject to entry under the Homestead and Pre-emption Laws only, and could be obtained in but limited quantities, and then only by actual settlement upon the identical tract. This difficulty is now obviated. The offering for sale of the Railroad Land, opens for occupancy one of the most desirable and inviting sections of country on the continent. This region, lying upon the Great Trans-Continental Railroad, in easy communication with all parts of the world, intersected by numerous streams, whose margins are skirted by timber, where mill-sites can be found, and all the various forms of industry, successfully pursued, offers inducements never before presented to any people. Excellent selections can be made where the even-numbered sections may be obtained under the Homestead and Pre-emption Laws, and the odd-numbered sections purchased from the Company at low rates and upon favorable terms of payment, enabling communities to lay out town-sites, erect mills, build churches and school houses, and make other improvements in the most eligible locations.

      No portion of the United States furnishes facilities for grazing and stock raising superior to Eastern Nebraska, and the lands on the line

Click to view
Page  14

      of the Union Pacific Railroad. The rich bottom lands of the valleys of the Platte, Elkhorn, Loup Fork, Papillion, Maple, Shell, Logan, and Pebble creeks, Wood River; the Wahoo and Big Blue, are included within these limits, and present vast tracts of the finest meadow lands in America. The boundless unfenced prairies covered with nutritious grasses, with abundance of sweet, pure running water, and groves to shelter from heat and storms, will for years to come, furnish extensive ranges of free pasturage. The mildness of the climate, dryness and purity of the atmosphere and the excellent market advantages offered by the Railroad, render this region peculiarly adapted to this branch of business. The grasses of the bottom and table lands are extremely nutritious. They consist of the varieties known as blue joint, red stem, bunch and buffalo grasses, and are fully equal for hay and grazing purposes to the timothy, clover and other cultivated grasses of the older states, and for winter grazing far excel any grasses grown at the East. The wild grasses out from one and a half to three tons per acre. The following statement was received from Moses Stocking, Esq., of Saunders County, one of the oldest and most successful agriculturalists in the West:

      "Steers between two and three years of age, grazing on the Wahoo Valley have been known to gain at the rate of three pounds per day during a long period, as shown by stated weighing on a Fairbank's Scale. For instance: a thrifty two year old steer worth in the Spring $30.00, run him six months on grass exclusively, then six months on grass, hay and corn. At the end of the year he will weigh 1600 pounds, which at six cents amounts to $96.00. For milk cows the grasses are also well adapted, producing a full flow of very rich milk. Sheep do remarkably well, always healthy, wool strong, soft and lustrous, with a steady increase in the weight of fleece."

      The winters are dry, and the fall of snows usually light, very little shelter is required for stock, and the diseases so common and troublesome in the Eastern States are almost entirely unknown. The raising of horses, mules, cattle, sheep and swine has already engaged the attention of our leading Agriculturalists, many of whom are giving special care to the introduction of superior breeds and meeting with eminent success. With its wide ranges of rich pasturage clothed in luxuriant grasses, its numberless streams and springs of clear, pure water, its mild, dry, and healthful climate, and its unsurpassed market facilities, Nebraska is destined to become one of the finest stock countries in the world.

Click to view
Page  15

      Through a distance of more than four hundred miles, the Union Pacific Railroad crosses a region remarkably rich in coal and iron and other mineral deposits. Immense beds of excellent coal and deposits of iron ore of great thickness are found in the Laramie Plains and the mountains at the West. These mineral lands are included in the Land Grant of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and are of inestimable value both to the Company and to the entire country along the line of the Road. The Union Pacific Railroad extending through these vast fields of coal and ore, affords a ready means of transportation for the products of the mines both East and West, and offers facilities for building up an extensive and profitable mining interest unsurpassed by those of any other section of this Continent.

      The existence of these large deposits of mineral fuel in connection with vast quantities of iron ore in close proximity to this great national thoroughfare, is destined to exert a most powerful influence in the development of the resources of this region and of the entire West.

      At Carbon Station, a vein of coal sixteen feet in thickness is being worked, and from one hundred to two hundred tons of excellent coal taken out per day. At Evanston, a vein of thirty feet has been opened of a superior quality. This coal is used in the locomotives of the Union Pacific, Central Pacific, and Utah Central Railroads, and is universally conceded by the Railroad Master Mechanics and Engineers, to be the best and most economical coal for steam purposes in America. It is semi-bituminous, burns readily with a bright flame, is clean, with no disagreeable odor or smoke, and forms no clinker. It is easily lighted, generates heat freely, and is very popular as a fuel. From the coal fields to the Missouri River the grade is descending rendering transportation comparatively easy. A special tariff of freight for coal has been established by the Union Pacific Railroad Company, by which coal is delivered at the stations on the road at reduced rates.

      The fuel question is one which it was feared it would be hard to meet in the far west where timber is comparatively scarce, but the opening of these vast coal fields upon the immediate line of the Great Union Pacific Railroad has solved the problem in a manner as satisfactory as it is valuable.

Click to view
Page  16

      Western Nebraska and south-eastern Wyoming are watered by the North Fork of the Platte and its affluents, among which are Laramie and Sweetwater rivers and Lodge Pole Creek. The valleys of these streams are among the most remarkable grazing grounds in the world.

      The Laramie Plains, an extensive plateau, with an altitude of seven thousand feet above the tide, are situated in southern Wyoming, west of the Black Hills, and cover an area of several thousand square miles. The healthfulness of the climate, the dryness and purity of the atmosphere, and the nutritous quality of the grasses upon which stock will subsist in excellent condition during the entire year, are destined to render these plains the pasture grounds of innumerable flocks and herds, and the source of untold wealth. The grasses of these high plains, when ripe, dry upon the stock, forming hay superior to that prepared by the most careful curing in the Eastern States. The canons and bluffs form abundant shelter during occasional storms. Upon these lands, formerly the favorite grazing grounds of the buffalo, for several years past, large herds of cattle and flocks of sheep have been kept and fattened, and it has been found by experiment that the per cent. of the annual loss of stock herded upon these plains without hay, grain or shelter, is less than among the carefully fed and sheltered herds in the Eastern States.

      The following letters addressed to Dr. H. Latham, Surgeon of U. P. R. R., are from gentlemen well known throughout the west who have been for several years past extensively engaged in stock business in western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming, and are familiar with all the facts connected with the growth and development of that region:

      DEAR SIR:

      I have been engaged in the stock business in Colorado and Wyoming, for the past eight years; during all that time I have grazed stock in nearly all the valleys of these Territories, both summer and winter. The cost of both summering and wintering is simply the cost of herding, as no feeding or shelter is required. I consider the summer cured grasses of these plains and valleys as superior to any hay. My cattle have not only kept in good order on this grass through all of the eight winters, but many of them thin in the fall, have become fine beef in the spring; during this time I have owned twenty thousand head

Click to view
Page  17

     of cattle. The per cent. of loss in wintering here, is much less than in the States where cattle are stabled, and fed on corn and hay.

      I am confident that this Trans-Missouri Country can defy all competition in the production of wool, beef and horses.

      Truly Yours, I. W. ILIFF.

      SODA SPRINGS, Utah, May 1, 1869.

      DEAR SIR:

      I have been grazing cattle on the plains and in the valleys of the mountains for twenty years. I have, during that time, never had less than 500 head of work cattle and for two winters, those of 1857 and 1858, I have wintered 15,000 head of heavy work oxen on the plains each winter. Our stock is worked hard during the summer, and come to the winter herding ground thin. Then it is grazed without shelter, hay and grain being unknown. By spring, the cattle are all in good working order, and many of them fat enough for beef. I have often sold as high as thirty-three and one-third per cent. of a drove of work oxen for beef that were thin the fall before, and had fattened on the winter grass. From my twenty years experience, I say without hesitation that all the Country west of the Missouri River is one vast pasture where sheep, horses and cattle can be raised with only the cost of herding. Truly Yours,

      ALEX. MAJORS,

      Late of the freighting firm of Majors Russell & Waddell

      CHEYENNE, W. T., April 6, 1870.

      DR. LATHAM:

      In reply to your inquiries as to my experience in grazing on the plains and in the mountains, I have to say that I have been familiar with grazing for eleven years. I have grazed stock each and every summer and winter during that time. I have had experience with horses, sheep and cattle. I have found no difficulty in wintering stock without shelter, other than is afforded by the bluffs and in the canons. My loss in winter has been less than during my experience in stock raising in Ohio. I have now 8,000 sheep which have wintered well on the native grasses. Since bringing them to this cool and elevated country, they have increased in quantity as well as in the quality of the wool. I know of no disease which prevails among sheep in this country. I think this country peculiarly the home of the sheep. I can raise wool here for one-half what it can be raised for in Ohio or other Eastern States.

      J. A. MOORE.

Click to view
Page  18

      NEBRASKA CITY, Neb., Aug. 30, 1869.

      DEAR SIR:

      Yours of the 23d inst. desiring information in regard to the grazing capabilities of the Great Trans-Missouri Country is received; and in reply, I have to state that from an experience of over thirty years, I am convinced that no country in the same latitude, or even far south of it, is comparable to it as a grazing and stock raising country . Cattle and stock generally are healthy, and require no feeding the year round, the rich bunch and gramma grasses of the plains and mountains keeping them ordinarily fat enough for beef during the entire winter. From my long experience, and the success that I have had with stock in all that country, I have no hesitation in recommending it as an excellent grazing and stock raising country.

      Very Respectfully Yours,

      S. E. WARD.

      HEADQUARTERS DEP'T OF THE PLATTE, CHIEF QUARTERMASTER'S OFFICE, OMAHA, Neb., Mar. 1869.

      DEAR SIR:

      I have had experience with stock on the plains and in the mountains, for the past four winters. Quartermaster's animals, horses and mules have grazed more or less at the following posts each of the winters of 1866, '67, '68 and '69:

      Forts Kearney, McPherson and Sidney Barracks in Nebraska; Forts Sedgwick and Morgan, Colorado; Forts Laramie, Fetterman, Reno, Phil. Kearney, Sanders, D. A. Russell, Fred. Steele and Bridger, Wyoming; Camp Douglas in Utah, and Fort C. F. Smith in Montana.

      I am of the opinion that in consequence of the peculiar nutritious grasses, and the lightness of snow falls in all this extent of country, herds of sheep, cattle and horses can be grazed the year round with perfect safety from storms in the winter and with great profit. Very Respectfully,

      WM. MYERS,

      Brv't Brig. Gen'l and Chief Quartermaster.

      OMAHA, Neb., April 15, 1870.

      DEAR SIR:

      I cheerfully give you for publication the result of my experience in grazing in the country west of the Missouri River.

      My first grazing in that country was the winter of 1859. Since then, for eleven winters, I have grazed more or less stock, including horses,

Click to view
Page  19

      sheep and cattle in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Montana. The first seven winters I grazed work-oxen mostly. Large work cattle winter on the grasses in the valleys and on the plains exceedingly well, and are in good condition for summer work by the first of May. The last four winters I have been raising stock, and have had large herds of cows and calves. The present winter, I have wintered about eight thousand head. They have done exceedingly well. We have lost very few through the whole winter, and those lost were very thin when winter commenced.

      We have no shelter but the bluffs and hills, and no feed but the wild grasses of the country. We have had three thousand sheep the past winter, and they are in the best of order. Many are being sold daily for mutton. Like the cattle, they require no feed or shelter. The high rolling character of the country, and the dry climate and short sweet grasses of the numerous hillsides are extremely favorable to sheep raising and wool growing. I have been interested in stock raising in the States for a number of years where we had tame grass pastures and tame grass hay and fenced fields and good shelter for the stock and good American and blooded cattle, and an experienced stock raiser to attend to them; and after a full trial, I have found that with the disadvantage of the vastly inferior Texas cattle, and no hay nor grain, nor shelter, nothing but the wild grass, there is three times the profit grazing on the plains, and I have as a consequence determined to transfer my interest in stock raising in the States to the plains.

      There Is no prospective limit to the pasturage west of the Missouri River.

      All the wool, mutton, beef and horses that the commerce and population of our great country will require a hundred years hence, when the population is as dense as that of Europe, can be produced in this country and at half of the present prices.

      Truly Yours,

      EDWARD CREIGHTON,

      Pres't First Nat'l Bank of Omaha.