“ Cities are governed in classes according to population.
Except in Omaha there is no great field for social economic legislation; but the record of the state has been normally good in this respect. Railways have given rise to the most notable laws. Regulation has been a burning political question since 1876, the constitution making it the duty of the legislature to “correct abuses and prevent unjust discrimination's and extortions in all charges of express, telegraph and railroad companies” within the state. ”

“ Such rainfall might seem inadequate for an agricultural country: moreover, the eastern half of the state is more favoured than the western, which belongs, indeed, to the semi-arid Great Plains on which the Reclamation Service of the United States Government is active. But aridity is a matter of the efficiency rather than of the mere quantity of rainfall, and in this regard, Nebraska is very fortunately situated. Rain is most plenteous in the critical months of the year. ”

“ Since 1900 Nebraska has become one of the foremost winter wheat states, second only to Kansas. Little spring wheat is now sown except in the northern counties, the state being on the northern edge of the winter wheat belt. From 1880 to 1890 the acreage devoted to wheat greatly diminished, because the spring variety was not relatively remunerative, but the acreage trebled in the next decade as autumn planting increased. The winter varieties have the advantages of larger yield, earlier ripening and lesser loss from insects, and afford protection to the soil. ”

“ It is a widely spread but unfounded belief in Nebraska that the rainfall has been increasing since the settlement of the state. That its storage has very greatly increased as cultivation has been extended (the prairie sod sheds water like a roof) is true; moreover, the spread of scientific principles of farming has increased the advantage derived from the ground-water stored. Efficient rainfall has thus been greatly increased. Intermittent streamlets may well become perennial, and many are probably, as reported, becoming so. ”

“ In 1907 about 11,000 acres were planted to sugar beets. The principal factory for the slicing of the beets is one built at Grand Island, Hall county, in 1890. The dairy interest is rapidly growing, but is still exceeded in other states. Omaha is a great dairy market. Nebraska ranks very high in the production of cattle and hogs. A fourth of all animal products are represented by milk, butter and cheese, eggs and poultry; the rest by animals killed on the farm or sold for slaughter, most of them going to supply the meat-packing industry of South Omaha. ”

“ As the expenses of Territorial government were partly borne by the United States, statehood was voted against in 1860, and again (virtually) in 1864 after Congress had passed an Enabling Act; but in 1866 a constitution framed by the legislature was declared carried by the people by a majority of 100 votes in 7776, and Nebraska was admitted as a state (in spite of President Johnson's veto) in 1867, after her legislature had accepted a fundamental condition imposed by Congress removing the limitation of the suffrage to whites by the new constitution. ”

“ All male persons who are citizens of the United States or have declared their intention to become such at least thirty days before an election have the right of suffrage provided they have attained the age of twenty-one years, have resided in the state six months, are not of unsound mind, and have not been convicted of treason or felony. ”

“ There are almost no Cretaceous outcrops except on the streams, especially the Niobrara, Republican and Platte rivers—and in the Bad Lands. The superficial Miocene and Pliocene deposits in the west, above referred to, are underlaid by the White river groups of the Oligocene, whose outcrops of Brule clay and Chadron formation also have been mentioned. The Bad Lands are essentially nothing but fresh-water mud excessively weathered and eroded. ”

“ Without calling a convention, however, the legislature may, by a three-fifths vote of all the members of each house, adopt an amendment, which is to come into effect only if approved by a majority of electors voting at the next election of senators and representatives—the publication of the proposed amendment in some newspaper in each county once a week for three months before the election being required. ”

“ Between 1885 and 1895 Kansas and Colorado went through much the same expedience, due to a too rapid settlement of their arid areas before the conditions of successful agriculture were properly understood. Many homes, and even small settlements in Nebraska—though not to the same extent as in Colorado and Kansas—were abandoned. Urban population (the population in places having 4000 or more inhabitants) also fell, constituting 25.8% in 1890, and in 1900 only 20.8% of the total population of the state. ”

“ A woman's rights to her property are not affected by marriage, except that it becomes liable for payment of debts contracted for necessaries to the family when a judgment against the husband for the payment of the same cannot be satisfied. ”

“ The real handicap of the western counties would be shown in comparing aggregate yields per given area; for much land is normally inarable. Alfalfa, stock raising and dairying, afforestation, “dry-farming” and irrigation are, however, proving that the West can maintain prosperity by not relying upon ordinary agriculture. Alfalfa is not easily started, however, on the uplands of the extreme western part of the state ”

“ Rivers.—The Missouri skirts the eastern border for perhaps 500 m. It is not navigated, and save at Sioux City and Omaha serves practically no economic purposes, irrigation being unnecessary in the counties on which it borders. Its bluffs, cut for the most part in the loess but at places in the rock, are frequently from 100 to 200 ft. high. At Vermilion, South Dakota, its alluvial plain, 1131 ft. above the sea, is 330 ft. above the mouth of the Nemaha. The current is always rapid and heavily loaded with sediment, [1] and its axis is forever shifting. ”

“ The Dakota formation, though its sand-stones are in general coarse or otherwise inferior, yields some of splendid quality. Its clays, which are of all colours, are the most valuable of the state. The finest building stone is a beautiful green quartzite rock of dense, fine texture and lasting quality. ”

“ Until well into the sixties freighting across the plains was a great business. The “Oregon Trail,” the “Old California Trail,” and the “Old Salt Lake Trail”—all nearly identical in Nebraska—ran along the Platte across the entire state with various terminal branches near the eastern border, to the Missouri river towns; while branches from St Joseph, Missouri and Leavenworth, Kansas, ran up the valleys of the Big Blue and Little Blue rivers and joined the Nebraska roads near Ft. Kearney. The Oregon and California migration was of large magnitude by 1846. ”

“ The university of Nebraska at Lincoln was established in 1869 by an act of the state legislature, and was opened in 1871. The university is governed by a board of six regents, elected by the electors of the state at large, each for six years, two going out of office each year. The revenue of the university is from the income of Congressional land grants under the Morrill Acts and from a one mill per one dollar tax on the current assessment roll of the state. ”

“ It is commonly believed that of underground water, and generally of artesian water, even the driest counties have an abundance. This is great exaggeration. Though both in central and western Nebraska there are strata that generally yield a considerable flow, the supply is usually limited and the expense is great. Up to 1906 dependence was mainly upon the streams, which it is estimated might furnish 3 or 4 million acre-feet—enough to irrigate between 10 and 15% of the arid section—were all the water available, and the land
irrigable. ”

“ The native prairie grasses have been in considerable part displaced by grasses introduced from more humid regions. Weeds are very numerous (about 125) ; and some, notably the sand-bur (Solanum rostratum) , cockle-bur, and tumble-weeds among indigenous, and the Russian thistle (Salsola tragus) and purslane among non-indigenous species, are agricultural pests. Nothing can surpass in beauty the rank grasses and bright flowers that grow on the lowlands and rolling uplands of a virgin prairie—now hardly to be found in the state. ”

“ Pine Ridge, a picturesque escarpment of the Great Plains, cuts across the N.W. corner of Nebraska from Wyoming into South Dakota. A ridge of low hills and bluffs, often precipitous, marked by buttes and deeply cut in places by canyons, it is the most striking surface feature of the state. The altitude in this region varies from 3500 to 5000 ft. ”

“ Seven-tenths of all precipitation falls in the growing season, giving the state, especially in the east, a greater amount at this time than many other states whose aggregate yearly rainfall is greater; so that Nebraska has an abundance for the safest cultivation. ”

“ Many who had migrated to Pike's Peak in 1859, stopped in Nebraska on their return eastward; and settlement was stimulated by the national Homestead Act of 1862 (one of the first patents granted thereunder, on the 1st of January 1863, was for a claim near Beatrice, Nebraska) , and by the building and land-sales of the Union Pacific and Burlington railways following 1863. Thus in 1861 there were probably 30,000 inhabitants in the Territory, and 3300 men were sent into the field for the Union army in the Civil War. ”

“ This economy has somewhat hampered the growing state. Salaries have been too low to attract the ablest men; and as the constitution forbade the creation of new offices, and no amendment of this clause could be secured, resort was had to the creation of additional “secretaries” and of boards constituted of existing state officials or their secretaries.
The legislature consists of a Senate of 33 members and a House of Representatives of 100 members, and meets in regular session on the first Tuesday in January of every odd-numbered year at Lincoln, the capital. ”

“ The loess is a “salt, fine sandy loam with a large percentage of sand or silt, and considerable calcareous matter, and usually a small amount of clay.” It contains considerable humic matter, discolouring rapidly in the air (when exposed it is characteristically a bright buff) . It is of extraordinary fertility, and its great depth (in Lincoln and Dawson counties bluffs 200 ft. thick are found) is a guarantee of almost inexhaustible resources. ”

“ The first legislature under the constitution of 1875 met in 1877. The following decade was marked by a tremendous growth in population, by a feverish activity in railway construction (the mileage in the state being increased from 1953 to 5407 m. in the ten years) , and by an extraordinary rise in land values, urban and rural. Farm-land prices were raised to a basis of maximum productiveness when the best interests, especially of the western section, demanded steady growth based on average crop results under average conditions. ”

“ Indian corn is grown to some extent all over the state, except in the north-west, but the great bulk of the crop is produced east of the 99th meridian. It is rarely cut, but is left to mature and dry on the stalk in the field. The yearly yield in the decade 1895-1904, according to the most conservative state statistics, varied from 298,599,638 to 72,445,227 bushels, and the average was 178,941,084 bushels, or 190,773,957, omitting the failure of 1901 ”

“ The legislature of 1909 also provided for open election primaries and for the framing of state party platforms by convention before the time of the primary.
The governor is the chief executive officer of the state, but quite independent of him are a lieutenant-governor, a secretary of state, an auditor of public accounts, a treasurer, a superintendent of public instruction, an attorney-general and a commissioner of public lands and buildings, who, as well as the governor, are elected for a term of two years. ”

“ Both senators and representatives are apportioned according to population, and are elected by districts in November of each even-numbered year for a term of two years. They are paid at the rate of five dollars a day during 60 days of a regular session and not exceeding 100 days during their entire term. No bill or joint resolution may be introduced at a regular session after its fortieth day except at the request of the governor. Special legislation of various kinds is expressly prohibited, and in the bill of rights it is declared that “all powers not herein delegated remain with the people.” ”

“ The glacial drift is also a useful deposit, coarse ingredients in it being of small amount (rare boulders, and some gravel) . The superficial soil over most of the state, and everywhere in the E. except rarely where the loess or drift is bare, is a rich, black vegetable mould, 1 to 5 ft. thick on the uplands. The sand-hills are not inherently infertile; the soil never bakes, is always receptive of moisture,
absorbing water like a sponge and holding it well. ”