USA > Nebraska > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 40
USA > Nebraska > Clay County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 40
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Number of Horses. The report of the State Board of Agriculture showed 910,029 horses and 102,192 mules in the state in 1918. There were 924,656 horses in 1912. showing that the decrease from the maximum number has been comparatively slight. But as compared with 1910 and previous years, there is today an increase in total mimber of horses. The mule population is inereasing. Many horses are shipped in from western states for use on Nebraska farms. More horses are shipped out. however, than are shipped into the state.
Horses on Ranches. The large cattle ranches of the central and western coun- ties require a good many horses for riding and hay-making. Formerly they were used for driving, but the auto has displaced the horse at most places for this purpose. Evidently, the ranches will continue to need horses.
Horses on Farms. Though motor power has come into general use in Nebraska and much of the plowing, harvesting, and hauling is done with machinery pulled or driven by this power, there remain a number of places where horses are the more dependable. We believe, on this account, that it will be many years before horses disappear from Nebraska farms because they are better suited than traetors and trucks on many farms located on many kinds of soils.
Race Horses. The state has produced a number of animals that have made good records, particularly in trotting and pacing. It seems, however, that the number of race horses raised in Nebraska is decreasing.
Horse Markets. There are a number of local sales places in the state and two arge general horse markets. These markets are at Grand Island and Omaha.
Horses reach these markets from Nebraska and several other states. They are
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brought in generally from the northwest, from as far as California, and shipped to the eastern and southern states as well as to eloser points. At times more than twenty states are represented by buyers at these sales which are held twice a week in the winter time and less frequently in the summer time.
The barns at South Omaha and Grand Island are well equipped for handling horses. The animals are received and shaped up for sale. They are classed as broke and unbroke animals. Those sold as "broke" are tested for wind and work and are sorted and graded as to age, size, and soundness. The animals are sold in the stall or from the pen, but more generally from the ring on auction day. The principal grades are pony, southern, farm chunk, draft, and heavy dratt. There are few calls for fancy saddle horses, and the roadster is nearly a thing of the past.
Horse Feeding. Many farmers feed their horses for sale. Companies and indi- viduals fatten horses particularly in the vicinity of the big markets. The animals are fed like cattle. The draft and heavy draft animals are the ones usually handled. The feeding period is thirty to ninety days, averaging about sixty days with a gain of about three pounds per day. Corn, oats, alfalfa and bran are used.
THE POULTRY INDUSTRY
By F. E. Mussehl. Professor of Poultry Husbandry, The University of Nebraska
Poultry raising is an important branch of agriculture in Nebraska. It includes chickens, dueks, geese, turkeys and guinea fowls. These contribute annually more than $50,000,000 to the state's wealth, principally from poultry and eggs. Chickens lead in the value of production. Several varieties are grown, such as the Rocks, Wyandottes, Reds, Coehins, Brahmas, and Leghorns. There is considerable speciali- zation to meet the market conditions, and poultry breeding is carried on generally throughout the state.
Poultry Population. The poultry population of Nebraska is about twelve million birds. Hamilton County leads with one-third million birds. There are about twenty- one thousand incubators and brooders in the state, and it is estimated that 170,000 people raise chickens on farms and ranches or in the back yards of towns and cities. Much of the poultry and many of the eggs are used by the producers or sold on local markets but large quantities become commercial.
Conditions Favorable. Nebraska is very well adapted to poultry raising because of its favorable climate as shown by the sub-humid atmosphere, long periods of sunshine, and because of the abundance of feed and a ready market. There is com- paratively little trouble with poultry diseases and destructive animals. Chickens and one or more forms of other poultry are grown on practically all ranches and farms of the state. The industry is specialized at various points for raising breeding stock and exhibition stock.
Poultry Associations and Exhibits. There are a number of poultry associations in the state, and the poultry department of The University of Nebraska is further- ing the industry, both as to instruction in the Agricultural College and as a part of the extensive work done throughout the state. Poultry exhibits are made at all county fairs and a large and complete exhibit is made each year at the State Fair.
Poultry Feeding. Poultry is a large item in the meat supply of most homes in the state. Farmers sell grown birds to town folk and to large milk feeding plants
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located in about twenty towns and cities. The birds in the feeding plants, as at Omaha, Lincoln, Hastings, Falls City, Crete, and Grand Island, are finished within about two weeks on mashed feed. The gain is rapid ; the birds now in good condi- tion are killed and packed for shipment to the eastern cities or to foreign countries. Many of these large birds go for roasts.
Baby Chicks. The production of baby chicks in hatcheries especially developed for this purpose has become an industry in itself. The manufacture of incubators, brooders, trap nests, and similar appliances has importance. These efficient labor- saving devices aid in conserving the poultry industry which is rapidly extending in importance and as an adjunct to the general agricultural development.
BEES IN NEBRASKA
By Frank G. Odell
(Mr. Odell, formerly an expert bee keeper of Nebraska, has a national reputation as an authority on this subject.)
Bee keeping has been well established in Nebraska since pioneer days. In recent years specialization of this industry has grown considerably in the state with good results. Numerous beekeepers near the cities maintain profitable apiaries. In the Platte Valley, particularly in the alfalfa growing districts in the western part of the state, bees are very profitable and the honey yield is uniformly satisfactory. The state reports show 25,107 stands of bees in Nebraska in 1919.
The principal plants which produce a marketable quality of honey, in the order of their importance are: Alfalfa, white and alsike clover, sweet clover, and hearts- ease, the latter plant yielding the principal autumn crop.
CHAPTER XIV
MANUFACTURING AND COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES
NEBRASKA FACTORIES-MANUFACTURERS OF NEBRASKA ( FRANK I. RINGER) -RAIL- ROADS AND INTERURBAN COMMUNICATION ( H. G. TAYLOR ) -THIE TELEPHONE INDUS- TRY (R. E. MATTISON)-MINERAL RESOURCES (G. E. CONDRA)-SAND, COAL, OIL, CLAY, CEMENT AND POTASH (G. E. CONDRA).
NEBRASKA FACTORIES
Without taking the space to attempt a thorough roster of Nebraska's many manu- facturing enterprises, it is desired to call attention to a few here and there, in order to impress upon the reader the diversity of Nebraska's resources, not altogether dependent upon agriculture. Broom factories have been established in numerous Nebraska towns, notably Omaha, Lincoln, Red Cloud, Burwell, Deshler, Blooming- ton, Seward, and others. Many Nebraska bakeries have branched into the manufac- ture of ice cream and various products. Nebraska has several factories now devoted to manufacture of clothing and shoes. Over seventy towns in the state have cement block mannfactories, and some of these towns are hardly more than villages. Exeter has a factory for the manufacture of metal tags, the product of which has become a nationally advertised article. Harness shops and cigar factories are very common throughout the state. Over twenty-five granite and monument works in the state are turning out this finished product. In support of the statement that the foregoing does not even pretend to be a roster of Nebraska manufactured articles, but simply an indicative list of the scope, extent and diversity of the same, can be cited the fact that recently a contest was conducted in Grand Island, the third city of the state, with a population according to 1920 census of approximately 14,000, to ascertain the number of articles manufactured in that city, and the number finally determined upon was 353. When this fact is considered with the reasonable presumption that the other cities of the same class, and within a few thousand of the same population, such as Hastings, Fremont, North Platte, Beatrice, Norfolk, Scottsbluff, York, Fair- bury, Nebraska City, Falls City and their sister cities add their number, it is promising for the future manufacturing development of Nebraska.
The best posted authority on manufacturing conditions in recent years was Ion. Frank I. Ringer, of Lincoln, who died in 1920, after having spent many years con- tributing to the upbuilding of the success of the Nebraska Manufacturers' Associa- tion and manufacturing conditions generally in Nebraska.
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MANUFACTURERS OF NEBRASKA
By Frank I. Ringer, Commissioner, Nebraska Manufacturers Association
Every person in Nebraska knows that this state is one of the leading agricultura! states of the Union, that in wealth per capita she is one of the first and that her public school system is second to none. Yet how little is known of the manufacturers.
How many people know that the annual output of the state's factories is valued at more than a half billion? Or that shoe strings, suspenders, and spark plugs are made in Omaha, index tags at Exeter, refrigerators minus corners at Fremont. dandelion rakes at Kearney, butter tubs at Ralston, rubber collar> at Lincoln and chewing gum at Fairbury ?
But these are only a few of the more unusual industries. Besides these we have -ome 4,000 factories engaged in a wide variety of industries and utilizing a large proportion of the raw materials produced within the state.
The four sugar factories located at Grand Island, Scottsbluff. Gering, and Bay- ard will this year convert the beets from more than 50,000 acres of Nebraska's finest land into 1,700,000 sacks of sugar, valued at $20,000,000.
One of the valuable by-products from these factories is the potash which is obtained by evaporating the water used in washing the beets during the sugar season. Thousands of cattle and sheep are fattened annually on the by-products --- beet tops, pulp, and molasses.
We boast of Omaha as being the largest dairy product market in the world and Lincoln claims one of the world's largest creameries, owned and operated by Nebras- kans, the Beatrice Creamery Company. In these huge plants and the smaller plants seattered over the state, the cream and milk from Nebraska's dairy herds is made into butter, cheese, and condensed milk, the value of which is greater than the combined wool and mutton output of any state in the Union.
A large part of our enormous wheat erop never leaves the state except in the form of flour, breakfast foods, erackers, macaroni, etc. Practically every town has its own flour mill, ranging in size from the small one-man mill to some of the largest and most up-to-date plants west of the Mississippi River. From these mills, besides supplying the home demand, flour is shipped to all parts of the world.
Large quantities of wheat are also used to supply the demand of such firms as the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, the Iten Biscuit Company, the Skinner Manu- facturing Company, and the Uncle Sam Breakfast Food Company of Omaha, the Gooch Milling Company of Lincoln, and the multitude of smaller concerns over the state. The Iten Biscuit Company operates the largest exclusive cracker factory west of Chicago, their daily output of crackers exceeding six carloads. The Skinner Manufacturing Company has long since proven that Nebraska and not Italy is the home of macaroni and is now known as the largest macaroni factory in the world. and the product of the Uncle Sam Breakfast Food Company is known across the seas.
Another important branch of the industry is alfalfa milling. There are a mim- ber of plants scattered throughout the state of which M. C. Peters Mills Company of Omaha is perhaps the largest. These mills annually produce thousands of tons of alfalfa meal, valued at over $5,000,000, which is distributed over Nebraska and neighboring states.
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As a live stock market Omaha ranks second, and as a meat market and packing center, third in the world. Seven large packing companies and a number of smaller concerns maintain plants in this city with an output during the year 1918 valued at $288,820,787.
Candy factories, canning factories, dehydrating plants and soda water factories are thriving industries and consume enormous quantities of Nebraska grown fruits, vegetables, and sugar.
Ready-to-wear clothing is made in a dozen factories and Nebraska-made boots, shoes, and hats are known in practically every state.
Farm implements, pumps, mills, and harness are made in quantities and a ready market is found not only in Nebraska and the other states, but in Canada and South America as well. At least three manufacturers of gas engines, trucks, auto bodies, and repairs enjoy a profitable foreign trade.
Although few in number, the brass and iron foundries and sheet metal works of the state, collectively do an extensive business and ship their products over a wide area. The railroads are, perhaps, the largest consumers.
The war seriously affected producers of building material but the present build- ing activity finds them running full blast once more and in difficulties supplying the local demand, for brick, tile, cement and structural steel. Some of the finest and largest deposits of sand and clay in the west are found in Nebraska and her people are well acquainted with the sand dredges and the brick and tile factories.
It is not long since all engraving, lithographing, binding and printing was sent out of the state. There is no further occasion to do so now, for Nebraska plants are equipped with the most modern machinery and the latest methods of produc- tion. Steel plate engraving, lithographing and book binding and publishing are now important industries.
Several well-known incubators are made in the state as at ('lay Center, Lincoln, Wayne, Fremont, and Omaha, and distributed from Cape Town to Hong Kong.
Stock feeds and hog cholera serums are made in Lincoln, Ralston, Red Cloud and a half-dozen other places.
Boxes and bags for the shipping of Nebraska products are made at home and our Nebraska soldiers were sheltered by tents from their own state.
Although the activities of our many potash factories were somewhat deranged with the end of the war, they are rapidly returning to normal and will soon, as before the war, be producing sixty per cent of the potash output of the states. There are eighteen small potash plants and nine large plants in Nebraska. There is a large Portland cement plant in successful operation at Superior, Nebraska.
Nebraska has one of the largest smelting and refining plants in the United States with an output in 1918 valued at $48,000,000.
Although there is very little broom corn raised in the state, the largest broom manufacturers in the states, the Lee Broom and Duster Company, is located at Lincoln and another huge plant is at Deshler.
The only floor tile manufactured west of Indiana is made in Lincoln.
Nebraska-made cigars find their way into practically every state and Nebraska- made toilet preparations can be found in shops on Fifth Avenue.
Although Nebraska may never equal some of her eastern sisters in the manufac- tures, she is only beginning. The past ten years has seen a phenomenal growth and with our unlimited production of raw material and excellent transportation
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Derities the coming your- will bring even greater advancement in this line of devel- opment.
COMMUNICATION AND MARKETS
RAILROADS AND INTERURBANS
By 11. G. Taylor, State Railway Commissioner
Mileage and Distribution. Nebraska is comparatively well served with rail- roads. having 6,242 miles of main line and approximately five hundred miles of double track. This is equivalent to a mile of road for every 200 people. Unlike lowa, the Nebraska railroads are unequally distributed geographically, due to the greater density of population in the eastern part, 22 per cent of the population being in a territory in the eastern end comprising only 29 per cent of the total square miles. In this 29 per cent territory there are 3,255 miles of road, which is almost 52 per cent of the entire state mileage. In an area comprising 42 per cent of the square miles, there are 4,392 miles, or 66 per cent of the total road, and in an area in the western end of the state comprising 58 per cent of the total square miles there are 1.472 miles of road, or less than 24 per cent. In the 29 per cent territory, the average distance from a railroad station is seven miles. In the remaining 21 per cent of the area, the average distance is fourteen miles.
Railroad Systems. Seven railroad systems operate in the state, namely. Chicago & Northwestern : Union Pacific: Chicago, Burlington & Quincy : Missouri Pacific; Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific : Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha, and the St. Joseph & Grand Island. The latter road is now a subsidiary of and operated under the Union Pacific management. The C., St. P., M. & O. has a close relation- -hip with the C. & N. W. Other railroads have terminals in Omaha.
New Lines. There are territories in the state, notably in the middle-western and northwestern part, capable of great development, that are not reached by rail- road. Construction of new lines and extension of existing lines has been very lim- ited in the past ten years. The extension of the Union Pacific from O'Fallons up the valley of the North Platte to Gering and later to the Nebraska line is the longest tension constructed in recent years. When the Union Pacific acquired control of the St. J. & G. I. it built a connecting line from Gibbon to Hastings, over which it has diverted a large amount of freight traffic to and from Kansas City and the the south, A Burlington cut-off recently built from the Ashland-Sioux City line of the Burlington to the main line at Chalco shortens the distance between Omaha and Sioux City.
Tonnage and Rovenne A hasty survey of statistics filed by the railroads with the State Railway Commission presents graphically the extent of the transportation business in Nebraska, and at the same time offers concrete evidence of the rapid development of the state. For the purpose of comparison, the figures for the Nogrs 1908 and 1916 are used. In 1908. the total revenue tons carried aggregated 17.029,311 while in 1916, the tonnage had increased to 26,521.203 tons, or over 75 per cent. The gross revenue from all sources in 1908 was $30.639,859,00 but A 1916 it had doubled, being $62.121.163.00. The total expense in 1908 was $19,333,180.00 and $32,066.115,00 in 1916, this leaving a net income in 1908 of -11,335,814.00, which grew to $25,356,090.00 in 1916.
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Livestock and Grain Shipment-In 1908 the railroads forwarded 58,967 cars of livestock in the state. In 1916 they forwarded 28,158 cars, or a gain of about 33 per cent. The shipment of grain and grain products forwarded reflect the same satisfactory increase. In 1908 41,147 cars were shipped while in 1916 the number reached 52,041, or a 26 per cent increase. These figures indicate a greatly increased production of agricultural products in the nine years covered. Comparison of other commodities would disclose the same rapid progress in the development of the state's great resources.
Passenger Traffic-The general prosperity of the state during this period is further reflected by the statistics with reference to passenger traffic. In 1908, 8,622,627 passengers were carried in the state, paying a total revenue of $5,078,999. In 1916, 10,460,663 passengers paid $6,024,075. This represents a gain of twenty- one per cent in passengers carried and eighteen per cent in revenue received.
Rate Situation-The rate situation in the state, as elsewhere in the United States, has been somewhat chaotie since the railroads were taken over by the Federal Government. The final disposition of the roads, should, however, correct this condition. Prior to 1914, the rate structure rather favored certain specific jobbing points, but in that year the Railway Commission promulgated a schedule of class rates that served to equalize conditions. Subsequently, this was somewhat interfered with by an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission, but on the whole, the situation, as it stood at the time the United States entered the war. permitted a free and unrestricted development of any community so far as freight rates constituted a factor in that development. As industries develop, of course rates must be adjusted to meet their changing needs. The rate structure normally is sufficiently elastic to permit of growth.
From the foregoing facts, it would appear that Nebraska is well favored and that the development of the state's tremendous resources will not be seriously limited in any way by a lack of transportation.
STREET AND INTERURBAN RAILWAYS
There are approximately 220 miles of street and interurban railway in Nebraska, operated by seven companies. Of this mileage, 129 is operated by the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Company and 58 by the Lincoln Traction Company. The other companies, largely interurban in their charac- ter, are as follows: Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice; Omaha & Southern Interurban Railway ; Lincoln, Capital Beach & Milford: Omaha & Lincoln Railway & Light ; and the Bethany Traction. The seven systems carried 88,395,179 passengers in 1916, of which 68,432,670 were passengers paying fare, the remaining being non- paying passengers. It is interesting to compare these figures with the showing for 1908. In that year the total number of passengers carried was 51,182,212, of which 50,680,499 paid fare and 501,243 were non-paying. The gross revenue in 1908 amounted to $2,211,238.00. In 1916 it had increased to $3,931,235.00. These figures indicate the growth of the state's two largest cities and their environs. They show that the number of passengers per mile of road has practically doubled.
The development of interurbans has been somewhat slow, but the next few years will probably witness considerable building of that kind. Lines have been
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surveyed to connect the principal cities in the eastern part of the state, the Omaha, Lincoln & Beatrice being one of these.
THIE TELEPHONE INDUSTRY
By R. E. Mattison, of the Lincoln Telephone Company.
There are more than two hundred and fifty thousand telephones in Nebraska or one to a little less than five persons: 290 companies maintain exchanges and 20 or 80 rural lines are built, owned, and operated by farmers. Between twenty-five million and forty million dollars of capital is invested in the tele- phone business. The telephone industry is important because the network of wires with their universal connection serve to weld the state into an economic and social unit whose solidity would be otherwise impossible.
The Nebraska ( Bell) Telephone Company, the pioneer company, is the largest. It operates about 88,000 telephones. The Lincoln Telephone and Telegraph Com- pany oprates close to sixty-six thousand phones. Six other companies operate over fifteen thousand telephones. These are the Monroe, the Hamilton County, the Farmers of Dodge County, the Glenwood, the Kearney, the Platte County, the Southeast Nebraska, the Platte Valley, and the Wyoming and Nebraska companies. Dozens of companies operate several exchanges.
Of the 290 companies in the state, 218 are stock companies or mutuals which sell exchange service and are, therefore, required to make annual reports to the State Railway Commission and are under jurisdiction with respect to rates and service. The number under supervision is 230,000. To this number, at least twenty-five thousand should be added to cover those connected with the mutual and switching lines.
The better quality of telephone apparatus now in use in the state has made possible the complete linking up of practically all exchanges by toll lines that do a tremendous yearly business, and which connect not only all Nebraska towns with each other, but give a nation-wide service to every phone user.
Rural Lines-Development of rural lines has been greater and the point of saturation nearer reached in some vicinities than in the cities. Many of the original lines built in 1900 were first made up of wires strung on fence posts or on two-by- fours nailed to the tops of fence posts. Most of these have disappeared and through co-operative effort in hauling poles, digging holes for them and helping put them in place, a much higher grade of rural service is given.
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