men began to wane.  A new era began to dawn in Frontier County, and with the balmy springtime of 1884 came grangers of all races and previous conditions.  They come in all conceivable conveyances, by ones and twos and in large flocks.  They brought with them cows, pigs, farming implements, and their merry, joyous children, to help subdue the soil, to fill our schools and become useful citizens to our county and State.  The granger had come to stay - God had made this land for him.  Uncle Sam said he could have it, in 160 acre lots; and in the summer of 1885, when free range and herd law were voted for, by his vote he placed his seal on this county, making it henceforth an agricultural county.
     He who has pushed out on the frontier, and has reclaimed the wilderness or the desert, has added to his county, his State, and his nation's wealth.  He has also helped fill the world's storehouse with provisions, from the abundance of which its starving millions could be fed.  The hope of the agricultural element of this county has been more than realized during the last decade.  True, there have been two partial failures in crops; but in the remaining eight years we have raised such crops that, taking the ten years on an average, we would be able to compete with any county in the State, on an acreage yield.
     The soil of Frontier County is deep and exceedingly rich.  Wheat,  corn, oats, barley, flax and potatoes, in fact all the principal crops, grow here and make a large yield.  Receiving such large crops has caused our farmers to become reckless about the preparation of the land and the care of the crop.  I will make out a bill of expense showing the amount of labor required by the average farmer for seeding eighteen acres to spring wheat; sowing, one-half day, man and team; cultivating, three days; dragging, one day.  We have seen land that received about this amount of work yield from twenty to thirty bushels of wheat per acre.
     The following is about a fair sample of planting and cultivating seven acres of corn; one day's listing, two days' cultivating; giving two and one-third acres of corn ready for shucking, for one day's work for a man and a team.  We have seen a field that had received just this, and no more, yield sixty-three bushels of corn per acre.  This was an exceptional crop, and probably twenty bushels above the average of that year.
     The above were given to show how large a crop can be grown in good seasons with a very small outlay of labor.
     We believe that Nebraska is destined to outstrip its neighboring States, owing to its diversity of resources in agriculture.  The sugar beet industry, with or without legislative aid, will sooner or later become a leading industry of the State.  The soil seems especially rich in those elements necessary for the growth of the sugar beet; and beets grown in this State have been tested, both in this country and in Germany, and have shown that Nebraska can produce beets as rich in saccharine matter as any country on the globe.  In 1891  the State Agricultural Society offered a premium of $90.00 for the greatest number of tons of beets, showing the largest per cent of sugar, grown on one-fourth of an acre.  Mrs. J.W. Gates of this county received the award.
     Alfalfa is another crop that is rapidly gaining in favor in this county.  It seems to be the forage plant we have so long needed --capable to stand drought  The number of crops cut from it yearly, the largest yield per acre, and the excellent quality of the hay, bespeak for it a place on every farm in the county.  East of us cattlemen fat their cattle on corn, West of us cattle are fatted on alfalfa hay.  The feeders of this county will soon be able to fat their cattle on corn and alfalfa hay, both grown in the county.  Shall we not then be able to compete with any locality on cheaply fed stock?

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