USA > Nebraska > Dodge County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume I > Part 5
USA > Nebraska > Washington County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume I > Part 5
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Insoluble (siliceous) matter
63.70
Ferric oxide
2.25
Alumina
7.76
Lime, carbonate
7.99
Lime, phosphate
.85
Magnesia, carbonate
1.45
Potash
.54
Soda
.52
Sulphuric acid
.70
Organic matter
13.45
Loss in analyses
.79
Total
100.00
Soils when taken a few feet apart vary much in their chemical prop- erties, and therefore analysis frequently fail to give a correct idea of their true character. This table shows that chemically alluvium differs from the loess principally in having more organic matter than alumina and less silica. The depth of the alluvium varies greatly. Sometimes sand and drift material predominate in the river bottoms, especially in the subsoils. Often the alluvium is of an unknown depth and again in a few feet the drift pebbles and sand are struck. This is especially true in the western valleys. There was a period of longer or shorter dura- tion when the bottoms were in the condition of swamps and bogs; and
11
DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES
during this period the greater part of that organic matter which is a dis- tinguishing feature of these lands accumulated in the surface soil. It would be easy to select isolated spots where the soil had from 30 to 40 per cent of organic matter; where in fact it is semi-peat. When we reflect that this black soil is often twenty feet thick it is apparent that the period of its formation must have been very long. There are still some few localities where that formative condition has been perpetuated to the present time-as for example the bogs that yet exist at the head waters of the Elkhorn and Logan along Elk Creek on the Dakota bottom and on some of the tributaries of the Republican. All the intermediate stages from perfectly dry bottoms to a bog can yet be found. So much has the volume of water been lessened in the rivers of Nebraska through the influence of geological causes that there are few places where now even in flood-time they overflow their banks. The occurrence of great masses of timber on our bottoms at various depth in a semi-decayed con- dition, illustrates through what changes of level they have passed. The deepening of the river channels now going on still further lessens the dangers of overflow.
SAND CHERRIES
The sand cherries common to this region grow on spreading shrubs, varying in size according to their relatively advantageous situation. The cherry is somewhat smaller than the orchard cherry. It resembles the choke cherry in color though somewhat darker, also in its astringent taste, and its "puckering" the mouth. When fully ripe it is pleasant to the taste, notwithstanding the dictum of long distance authority that it is scarcely edible and is used locally for making jams and marmalade. This sandhill shrub was named "prunus besseyi" for Charles E. Bessey the distinguished botanist, though he himself doubted that it should be regarded as a different species from the "prunus pumila" of the sand district in the region of the Great Lakes.
SOAP WEED
Soap weed, more properly "yucca," is so-called because it yields a substance sometimes used as a substitute for soap. The root of the Nebraska species, "Yucca Glauca," was used by the Ogalala and probably other trans-Missouri Indians as a shampoo. They believed that it stimu- lated the growth of the hair. A decoction of the roots were used in tanning hides also and the leaves for fuel.
While the sandhill region is sparsely settled, the population of its typical counties ranging from about 1,500 to about 2,500, its production of cattle and dairying are very important industries. There was a heavy loss of population from 1900 to 1902; a heavy gain from 1902 to 1904, doubtless due mainly to the so-called Kinkaid act, passed April 28, 1904, which conferred the right to homestead 640 acres in the territory it cov- ered instead of the ordinary quarter section ; a considerable loss again from 1904 to 1906; then an important increase from 1906 to 1908; a small loss from 1908 to 1910; a general increase from 1910 to 1912; and a small general increase from 1912 to 1914. The territory to be affected by the Kinkaid act was evidently determined with reference to the sand- hill region and the degree of aridity. Thus on the northeast this favored land extends to the eastern boundary of the counties of Boyd, Holt and Wheeler, while in the southwest the eastern boundaries of the counties of Hayes and Hitchcock in its eastern limit.
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DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES
ALKALI LANDS
Every one in Nebraska will sooner or later hear of the so-called alkali lands. They are not confined to anyone geological formation, but are found sometimes on the drift, alluvium or the loess. They increase in number from the eastern to the western portions of the state. Yet one- half of the counties of the state do not have any such lands and often there are only a few in a township or county. When they have been closely examined, they are found to vary a great deal in chemical con- stituents. Generally, however, the alkali is largely composed of soda compounds, with an occasional excess of lime and magnesia or potash. The following analyses of these soils show how variable they are. That showing the Platte bottom land, south of North Platte, is as follows :
Insoluble (siliceous) matter
74.00
Ferric oxide
3.80
Alumina 2.08
Lime, carbonate
6.01
Lime, phosphate
1.70
Magnesia, carbonate
1.89
Potash
1.68
Soda carbonate and bicarbonates
5.17
Sodium sulphate
.70
Moisture
.99
Organic matter
1.20
Loss in analyses.
.78
Total
100.00
The specimens for analyses were not taken from soil crusted over with alkaline matter but from spots where the ground was covered with a sparse vegetation.
Much of the alkali originated by the accumulation of water in low places. The escape of the water by evaporation left the saline matter behind and in the case of salt (sodium chloride) which all waters con- tain in at least minute quantities, the chloride by chemical reactions sepa- rated from the sodium; the latter uniting with oxygen, and carbonic acid formed the soda compounds. The alkali that exists far down in the soil is also brought up during dry weather by the escaping moisture and is left on the surface when the water is evaporated.
In cultivating these alkali spots it is found that wheat rapidly con- sumes it and a few crops with deep plowing prepares the soil for other crops. In this way these lands have often been made the most valuable part of the farm.
MODERN PHYSICAL CHANGES-TIMBER
When the loess epoch was drawing to a close and portions of the area „covered by these deposits' were yet in the condition of a bog, the climate was much more favorable than the present for the growth of timber. Rainfall was then much more abundant. In 1868, says Professor Aughey, I found logs, some of which were 60 feet in length, buried in the peat bogs at the head of the Logan where no timber was then growing within twenty miles. They evidently grew on the shores or banks and after falling into the bog they were protected from decay by the antiseptic qualities of peaty waters. Many other facts exist showing the greater
13
DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES
prevalence of forests within geologically recent times. It is known that at a comparatively recent period pine forests existed eastward to the mouth of the Niobrara along the northern line of the state. What caused the disappearance of these forests cannot perhaps be determined for a certainty. Some geologists hold that the increasing dryness of the climate caused the disappearance of the old forests. Might not the con- verse of this be true here as elsewhere-namely that the destruction of forests inaugurated the dry climate that prevailed when this territory was first explored (?) it is at least conceivable that the primitive forests received their death blow in a dry summer by fire through the vandal acts of Indians in pursuit of game or by acts connected with a war period. An old tradition that I once heard from the Omaha Indians points to this conclusion.
It is wonderful how nature here responds to the efforts of men for reclothing this territory with timber. Man thus becomes an efficient agent for the production of geological changes. As prairie fires are repressed and trees are planted by the million the climate must be further ameliorated. When once there are groves of timber on every section or quarter section of land in the state an approach will be made to some of the best physical conditions of tertiary times. The people of this com- paratively new state have a wonderful inheritance of wealth, beauty and power in their fine climate and their rich lands and as they become con- scious of this they will more and more lend a helping hand to the proc- esses of nature for the development and utilization of the material wealth of Nebraska.
TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL FEATURES
Nebraska occupies a position near the center of the republic and is varied in its topography. There are no elevations approaching anywhere near to mountains, but in the north and western portions there are very lofty hills, though generally they are gentle of ascent. The hills and roll- ing lands of Nebraska are mostly caused by erosion. In fact all of this state emerged so recently geologically from the waters of the Loess age that it still exhibits, as a whole, many of the phenomena of a recently drained lake bed.
No one can gain any correct idea of the number of bottom lands in Nebraska by looking at a map-not even the United States Government maps, In fact, counting in the small tributaries with their narrow bot- toms, not less than 25 per cent of the surface of the state is made up of bottom lands.
Temperature-Much of error has from time to time been written concerning the temperature of Central and Western Nebraska, but from the latest reports compiled from records of weather as found at the signal stations at Omaha and North Platte, with even earlier auxiliary records taken by United States army officers before the weather stations were established at these points, show that the mean temperature of the months of June, July and August is not far from 73 degrees. At the North Platte station it averages a little higher than this. There are, how- ever, some advantages in high summer temperature, for in such locations only do the finest grapes mature. The fine soils and natural drainage of this state would be without avail were it not that these conditions are complemented by a higher mean summer temperature.
14
DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES
During the winter months, embracing December, January and Febru- ary, the mean temperature is 20 degrees above zero. The autumns are indeed wonderfully beautiful, and are long and dry. The average tem- perature as shown between 1872 and 1882, for these three months of autumn weather was a fraction less than 50 degrees above zero. The long Indian summers are here, more than elsewhere, characterized by a curious haze which mellows the light of the sun. It has the curious effect on high strung natures of rousing their poetic sensibilities and giv- ing the weird and shadowy experiences of dreamland. At such a season existence to a healthy body is a pleasure and real toil a delight.
YEARLY MEAN TEMPERATURE
Notwithstanding the extreme cold of a few days in winter, the mean temperature is very high. The mean yearly isotherm of 55 degrees passes through Washington, District of Columbia, Cincinnati and South- ern Iowa, strikes the Missouri River near Nebraska City and then mov- ing northwest crosses the Platte near Columbus and then in a north- westerly direction across the state. This mean annual isotherm there- fore embraces over one-half of the state. The mean yearly temperature of 521/2 degrees which passes through Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, crosses the center of Iowa, diagonally, strikes Sioux City on the Missouri, thence following the Missouri some distance, takes in the whole of Nebraska not including the yearly isotherm of 55 degrees. The yearly isotherm of 571/2 degrees passes south of Nebraska. A portion of Southern and Southwestern Nebraska is therefore included between the yearly isotherms of 571/2 degrees and 55 degrees and the balance between 55 degrees and 521/2 degrees.
EXTREMES OF TEMPERATURE
In Doctor Child's record of nineteen years, prior to the '80s, the mer- cury rose to 100 degrees and upward twenty-nine times, or an average to a little more than a day and a half a year. The hottest year was that of 1874 when the thermometer in July and August rose to 100 degrees and upward on twelve different days. On July 13th it rose to 113 degrees, it being the hottest day, according to Doctor Child's record, in nineteen years.
Occasionally the thermometer falls quite low. In North Nebraska the thermometer has been known on a few occasions to descend to at least 35 degrees below zero. South of the Platte River, Doctor Child's lowest record for nineteen years was for December 11, 1869, when the mercury fell to 30 degrees below zero. Almost every winter the mer- cury goes below zero for a few days. The extremes of temperature are therefore great while the mean is high. And yet no acute sufferings or other ill consequences flow from it. The heat of summer is modified by the breezes that fan the land. The severe cold of the extremes of win- ter is made indurable by the dryness of the atmosphere period. The dry- ness is so great that the cold is not felt here more when the thermometer marks 20 degrees below zero than it is in Pennsylvania when it stands only at zero. It is moisture that intensifies the sensation of chilliness. It is the moisture of the atmosphere of the East that makes the sensation of cold so much severer there than here. For the same reason the fruit buds survive a cold here which would be fatal to them in the East.
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DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES
WINDS OF NEBRASKA
One who has made the course of the prevailing winds in this section of Nebraska a study, has this to say relative to this subject, the same being from observations very early in history of the weather service in the State of Nebraska :
"The atmosphere is rarely quiescent in Nebraska. While hurricanes are very rare, storms are more frequent in winter and gentle zephyrs and winds are almost constant. These greatly modify the heat of the summer and the cold of winter. When the thermometer is up among the nineties even a south or southwest wind makes the weather endurable. At this high temperature the atmosphere is almost certain to be in perceptible motion from some direction. The prevailing winds in winter are from the north and northwest.
"With the coming of spring there is a great change in this respect. The winds veer around and a strong current sets in from the south, blowing from the Gulf of Mexico, but entering the interior is deflected by the earth's motion and becomes a southwest wind. This remains the pre- vailing wind -during the entire summer and often until late in autumn."
THE STORMS OF WINTER
A very mistaken idea used to obtain concerning the severe weather of Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas, but in more enlightened and recent times it has come to be known that Nebraska is not worse in winter than scores . of states in the Union and not nearly so severe as many. During one- half the years, none are experienced of severity, and when they do come the laws that govern their occurrence are so well understood by the older residents of the commonwealth that little damage is suf- fered from them. One of the laws of their occurrence is their periodicity. When the first one of the season comes, whether it is in November, December or January, a similar one is almost sure to occur within a few days or a month from the first. Those whose necessities or business calls them out during the winter season need only the date of the first to know when to guard against the next. It is rare, however, that more than one of these periodical storms is of great severity.
When these commence they are rarely heralded by anything except areas of low barometer, even this warning is sometimes absent. The wind generally blows gently from the north, northeast or northwest. It is often preceded and accompanied by a fall of fine snow. . Sometimes the storm or wind does not commence till the snowfall has ceased. The wind gradually intensifies itself, accompanied by a falling barometer. Its violence increases until the snow is blown into huge drifts and some- times all that fell during several days seems mingled with the atmosphere so that it is impossible to recognize roads or even the points of the com- pass. Progression becomes impossible except in the same direction with the wind. This is an extreme case but a truthful one and fortunately of rare occurrence. Such storms last from one to three days and a few instances are on record where they have lasted five days. When the wind ceases to blow the thermometer reaches its lowest point and the intensest cold that occurs in these latitudes is experienced. In a few days the thermometer rises, the weather becomes moderate and pleasant and all about the storm is apt to be forgotten. So mild does the weather often become in December and January between these storms that men work in the open air in their shirt sleeves. This is what often deceives the
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DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES
unwary and especially newcomers. I have known men starting off in new settlements for loads of wood going in their shirt sleeves with a single coat in reserve in the wagon, to be caught in such storms, and, losing their way, to perish. Proper observation and care as we have seen would avoid such suffering and disaster. Notwithstanding, however, these storms of winter there are many more days here during winter when men can work more comfortably in the open air than in the East.
MOISTURE AND RAINFALL
Eastern Nebraska has an abundance of moisture. This may appear to be an exaggeration to those who are educated to believe that Nebraska was an arid region. And yet there is nothing in the natural history of the state better established than that there is here an abundance of rainfall.
As has been said by an old and well-posted citizen: When the snows of winter disappear the ground is in good condition to be worked. Suf- ficient showers come during early spring to excite the crops of cereal grains, grasses and corn to an active growth. Sometimes it is compara- tively dry between the spring showers and the June rains. These come sometimes earlier than June, in the last of May, and sometimes not till the last of June, and constitute the rainy season of the state. It begins whenever the "big rise" of the Missouri and Platte occur. This rainy season lasts from four to eight weeks. In seventeen years I have not known it to fail. During its continuance it does not indeed rain every day, except occasionally for a short period. Generally during this period it rains from two to three times a week. It is more apt to rain every night than every day. In fact, during the whole of this season three- fourths of the rain falls at night. It is not an unusual occurrence for rain to fall every night for weeks, followed by cloudless days. This rainy season of June occurs at a period when crops most need rain and owing to the regularity of its occurrence droughts sufficiently severe to destroy the crops in eastern Nebraska where there is a proper cultivation have not yet been known. Even in 1874 when the droughts in some parts of the state was damaging there were some fields of corn that produced good crops where the majority were failures. The successful fields were the ones that were well and deeply cultivated. After the wet season of June, which extends sometimes into July, is over, there are rains and showers at longer intervals until and during autumn. During winter it rarely rains. Snow falls in winter, but seldom to a great depth. The snow ranges in depth from 1 to 10 inches and in a few extreme cases it is 15 inches. During the majority of winters no snow falls over 8 inches.
West of the one hundredth meridian the amount of rainfall decreases from the yearly average of thirty inches at or near Kearney Junction, to twenty inches at North Platte.
If exceptional years were taken into account the rainfall should be estimated at thirty inches almost to the west line of the state. The " average for a period of ten years would by no means place it near so high. North of the Platte, in the Loup valleys, abundant rainfall has existed very much farther to the west.
Even the relative amount of the moisture in the atmosphere is high. This is evident from the Omaha signal service reports, and North Platte. It reports as much vapor on an average in the atmosphere at Omaha as exists in the states in the Mississippi Valley. At North Platte, which represents western Nebraska, the atmosphere contains comparatively a
.18
120
22
KET
24
28
16
28
OUX
CHERIOAN
to
DOX
BUTIE
30
GRANTHOOKER
SCOTT'S BLUFF
IN PHERFONINOBAN
BANNER
CHEYE
KEITH
HUKIBUTLER
16
PERKHH
Hitt
BY G.A.LOVELAND U.S WEATHER BUREAU
32
CHAE HAYES
NOW TER
ADAME
COC
18
20
22
24
26
28
30
32
Scale of Shades in Inches,
UNDER 10
16 to 201
120 to 24
.24 to 28'
OVER 28
NORMAL ANNUAL PRECIPITATION
KIMBALL
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DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES
large amount of vapor. The following table taken from the report of the signal office for the year ending June, 1878-forty-two years ago- gives the vapor in the atmosphere for each month.
Per Cent North Platte
Per Cent
Omaha
July, 1877
47.02
62.04
August, 1877
57.05
67.04
September, 1877
52.09
69.00
October, 1877
64.08
73.06
November, 1877
64.03
73.07
December, 1877
68.04
77.08
January, 1878
68.04
78.06
February, 1878
66.03
73.01
March, 1878
61.04
64.08
April, 1878
54.05
59.08
May, 1878
64.04
63.07
June, 1878
69.07
71.01
Annual means
61.06
69.06
The amount of rainfall during the year ended November 30, 1877, at Plattsmouth, Nebraska, was forty and sixty-two hundredths inches.
The rainfall in British Islands is 32 inches; in western France, 25 inches ; in eastern France, 22 inches; in Sweden, 21 inches ; central Ger- many, 20 inches ; in Hungary, 17 inches ; in eastern Russia, 14 inches ; in Portugal, 11 inches; in Madrid, 10 inches. Paris has only 20 inches of rainfall.
At North Platte the average amount of rainfall is twenty-two inches, or was thirty years ago, but has materially increased since that date.
It should be ever remembered that the rainfall is increasing with the absorptive power of the soil, wrought by cultivation, largely, and in a smaller degree by the increase in timber of artificial planting. A square foot of virgin prairie soil will only absorb one-tenth as much water as will a square foot of cultivated soil. Thus the latter finally sends back to the clouds ten times the moisture that the tough sod does.
NEBRASKA'S RANK AMONG OTHER STATES
The statistics of the Bureau of Labor for this state in 1904 gave out the following statistics :
Nebraska has the largest creamery in the world.
Nebraska has the largest broom factory in the world.
Nebraska has the largest cattle-feeding station in the world.
Nebraska has the largest beet-sugar syrup and refining plant in the world.
Nebraska has the second largest smelting works in the world.
Nebraska has the third largest meat packing plant in the world.
Nebraska is the third state in corn production.
Nebraska stands fourth in the production of wheat.
Nebraska stands fourth in the production of oats.
Nebraska stands fifth in the production of beet sugar.
Nebraska stands first in the production of rye.
Nebraska stands fourth in the production of cattle.
Nebraska stands fourth in the production of hogs.
Nebraska stands seventh in the production of horses.
Nebraska stands tenth in the production of milch cows.
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DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES
Nebraska stands first in the production of vine seeds and sugar corn for seed purposes, growing more than all other parts of the United States. Nebraska has the greatest number of distinct varieties of native pas- ture and hay grasses of any state in the Union.
LOCATION AND AREA
Nebraska is situated between 40 and 43 degrees of latitude north, and between 95 degrees and 25 minutes and 104 degrees of west longitude. Its width from north to south is 208 miles, length from east to west 412 miles and an area of about 77,000 square miles. Nebraska is larger than all of the New England States combined, and has eight counties that are each larger than the State of Rhode Island; it is seven times as large as Belgium, has 18,000 more square miles than England and Wales and is 14,000 square miles larger than Scotland and Ireland combined.
The prairies are dotted with towns, having every modern convenience in the way of churches, schools, libraries, public halls, moving picture houses, parks, water and light plants, railway, postal, telegraph and tele- phone facilities; and with cheerful homesteads surrounded by groves and orchards, looking out on a beautiful expanse of cereal fields as meadows. In no other commonwealth are the urban and rural popula- tion more in touch with each other, and both fully share the best things in life together.
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