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careful study of the papers, diaries, letters, etc., of that time. Besides, in the case of a period so recent as even the first years of the history of this State, all matters of politics are best treated merely as facts, without inquiry into motives.1 The turbulent times of 1872, when the acting governor and the legislature were quarreling, were only steps in the departure of the State from disorder to system and law. The business of the public welfare soon became a more serious matter, and the acts of individual men became insignificant, compared with the interests of a great commonwealth.

REVIEW.

Why do people usually prefer a state government to that of a territory?

Name the dates at which constitutions have been adopted.

What number is the session of the legislature in 1899?
On what day does the legislature meet?

Can the legislature meet at any time except at the par-
ticular time mentioned in the constitution?
How many days in a session are the legislators paid for?
Was the session always the same length?

What is the number of senators? How many at first?
How many congressmen? Who are congressmen now?
Who represents your own district?

Compare cost of state and territorial governments.
Where do state revenues come from?

When was the capital removed to Lincoln?

1 House Journal, 1871, pp. 392, 424, etc. Im eachment Trial of David Butler, Omaha, 1871. The impeachment resolutions were offered in the House on Feb. 28, 1871, and the trial by the Senate, sitting as a court, began March 14. The governor was removed from his office, although not found guilty of more than one of the charges.

Development of the Resources of Nebraska. 61

VII.-DEVELOPMENT OF THE RE-
SOURCES OF NEBRASKA.

POPU

The great increase in the population of Nebraska is not surprising, in view of the richness of the soil and the large demand everyLATION where for good agricultural lands. In 1880 little more than 450,000 people were found here, while in 1890 the census showed over a million.' Accurate statistics concerning the growth of a state or nation are very useful and instructive, because they show what parts of the population are increasing most rapidly. The growth in the past reveals something of the future. For example, the city population of the United States now increases much more rapidly than that of the country districts. 1890 there were in this State sixteen cities of more than 2,500 inhabitants. Their total population was 290,000, or about twofifths as many as lived in the country. Ten years earlier these same sixteen cities contained only about one-fifth as many. This opens the question of the cause of so much removal from the

GROWTH
OF
CITIES

In

1 For statistics concerning population, see Report of Sec. of State, Senate Journal, 12th-14th Sess., 879-80; State Agricultural Report, 1891, p. 76. The following are given:

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1

1

VIL

country to the city.' Nearly three hundred smaller cities and villages are scattered over the State, the highest number in any county being nine.2 LAGES Nebraska stands twenty-sixth among the states of the Union in population. It has even less people to the square mile than the nation taken as a whole. Density of population, however, is not desirable for many reasons, not the least among which is the fact that the problems of government grow more difficult as the population increases.

3

Farming, stock-raising and manufactures have kept pace with the rapid development of population. The adaptation of the soil to corn-raising AGRI- was well known to the Indians, and corn became the main crop as soon as farmers from the east began to turn the sod of their Nebraska homesteads. In 1865, 53,000 acres were planted with corn, and 9,000 with wheat.

CUL-
TURE

CORN
AND
WHEAT

4

The

relative amounts of corn and wheat have varied much in the thirty-two years since that time, but on the whole much more land has been devoted to the former. For two seasons, 1871 and 1873, the amount of wheat was greater. Indeed, in the second of those years, the excess of wheat land was 31,000 acres. Since then, however, corn has been more in favor,

1 John Fiske, Civil Gov. of the U. S, 119-120.

2 Saunders and Richardson counties had nine each in the census of 1890.

3 People to the square mile: Nebraska, 13.8; Minnesota, 16.4; United States, 17.94; Texas, 8.5; Rhode Island, 318.2; Nevada, 0.4.

4 The earliest homestead law of the United States was passed in 1862. A Nebraska pioneer by the name of Daniel Freeman secured the first homestead under this act. The place is about four miles west of Beatrice. Hist. of Neb. (Chicago, 1882)896.

the ratio in 1891 being 45 to 12.' Stock-raising and manufactures in Nebraska are intimately connected with farming. The growing industry of RELA- making beet sugar depends wholly upon

TION

INDUS

OF farming, a large part of the stock-raisers TRIES are farmers who feed their own grain, and packing houses look to the stockmen for their raw material. Nebraska is not a mining region at all, so that large industries that have gained a foothold here, such as the smelting works in Omaha, get their ore from beyond the limits of the State. Happily little wealth in Nebraska is spent in mining, and the whole effort of the producer is put into agriculture. Nebraska does not compare favorably with other states in manufactures, because it has been settled so recently. In agriculture, however, the state has a good record. The agricultural product of Nebraska in 1896, including only the principal crops, was of greater value than all the gold mined in Colorado in the fifteen years from 1879 to 1893. A compara

1 The following shows the number of acres of corn and wheat in the State.

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3865158 1642127

4097067 1560021

4097067 1404019

4317682 1026821

4538009 1223787

5572523 1253564 6241226 1228493

1865 53636 9241 1876 850000 376521 1887 1866 71503 9917 1877 1013158 376000 1888 1867 64583 33333 1878 1291000 1050000 1889 1868 139082 36451 1879 1522400 1154300 1890 1869 159952 56179 1880 1919600 1520315 1891 1870 172675 128333 1881 2149200 1958500 1892 1871 174168 177572 1882 2364120 1657000 1893 1872 200767 209836 1883 2813303 1772990 1894 1873 200000 231226 1884 3235298 1950280 1895 7806526 1232252 1874 350000 311983 1885 3526475 1755252

1875 700000 346938 1886 3879123 1579727

2

Agricultural product, 1896, in Nebraska, $64,762,900; Colorado gold, from 1879 to 1893, $63,303,800,

tively small part of land is now under cultivation, yet in the crops of 1890 Nebraska ranked ninth in corn, tenth in oats, and twelfth in wheat. In 1896 the state ranked as follows among the states of the Union: 3d in acres of corn, 7,962,657; 2d in bushels of corn, 298,599,638; 10th in acres of wheat, 1,385,013; 9th in bushels of wheat. 19,390,602; 5th in acres of oats, 1,794,349; 8th in bushels of oats, 34,092,631; 9th in acres of barley, 45,617; 10th in bushels of barley, 907,778; 8th in acres of hay-land, 1,957,835; 5th in tons of hay, 3,250, 006; 8th in acres of potatoes, 126,478; 8th in bushels of potatoes, 11,383,020. Who does not predict that when nearly all the available land of the state shall be tilled, here will be found the greatest yield to the acre and the largest harvests of farm products. Already Nebraska has ranked first in the yield of corn per acre.

With such generous returns from the soil, the people of the state have not been slow to spend large sums upon schools. Among the forty-four states, Nebraska was sixteenth in 1895-96 in the amount spent upon education. In 1870-71 it ranked thirty-first, in 1879-80 seventeenth, and in 1889-90 fifteenth. Since admission into the Union a complete system of schools has been built EDUCA- up, which affords free instruction from TION the primary grades even to special graduate work in the University. Not only were two sections of land out of each township set apart for the maintenance of the common schools, but the

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