Central and Western Nebraska and the Experiences of its Stock Growers.

Omaha, NE: Republican Printing House, 1882. 8vo (8.25” x 5.5”), illustrated tan wrappers. 16 pp. Illustrations of livestock on rear wrapper. Purple stamp on rear wrapper: “A. P. Smith Agent, Mascoutah Ill.”.

A Union Pacific Railway Co. pamphlet on Nebraska’s stock growing lands, spelling out the advantages of its grazing regions (“waiting to be occupied”), projecting costs and profits, and discussing markets, etc.

The contents are said to have been obtained from personal interviews “with practical and successful men” of Nebraska, some of whom are named and their properties described, including Hon. W. A. Paxton, the largest single stock grower in Nebraska, Col. J. H. Roe (who “has probably the best arranged ranche in Central or West Nebraska”), and the President of the Agricultural Society of Colfax County. Costs are given for Nebraska hay, beef, lambs, ewes, rams, wool, grain, and other commodities. Subjects covered include cattle growing, breeding, the export trade, profits of cattle feeding, Central and Western Nebraska as a sheep growing country, hogs (“the great demand for American bacon from beyond the sea has led to an enquiry as to where it will be produced, and the answer comes back from the corn lands of the west”), cheap lands for sheep grazing, etc. Regarding “cheap protection,” it is noted that “all our German and Scandinavian farmers understand how to make thatched roofs.” Areas covered include the following counties: Dodge, Colfax, Hall, Buffalo, Dawson, Custer (forty-five miles north of the Union Pacific), Lincoln, Keith, and Cheyenne. Estimates are give for the number of acres available in a range of Nebraska counties.

WorldCat records five copies, at AAS, Yale, NYPL, LC, and BYU.

CONDITION: Good, insect damage to edges of rear wrapper, one-inch tear to rear wrapper along spine; contents largely detached.