6. Descriptions of the Collections


The railroads advertised the great wonders of the state but made no mention of the hardships the settlers
might encounter. The vast prairie ocean was well suited to raising cattle and horses, but it could also just
as easily turn into a lake of fire--a constant fear of homestead families. The lack of trees, the depth of the
water table, and the distance to streams were major obstacles. Crude sod houses and dugouts were
common because of the scarcity of wood.

Representative railroad company pamphlets designed to sell farmland and to attract settlers to the new
West will be preserved in the project, including Guide to the Union Pacific Railroad Lands, 1870,
"12,000,000 acres, best farming and mineral lands in America, for sale by the Union Pacific Railroad
Company, in tracts to suit purchasers and at low prices," and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad's
publication, Great Opportunities for Farmers, Business Men and Investors in Nebraska, Northwestern
Kansas, and Eastern Colorado.

The published literature and primary research resources documenting the history of agriculture and rural
life in Nebraska reveal the major concerns of the day--prairie fires, access to water, the lack of trees, the
periodic frightening invasions of grasshoppers and locusts, the battles between farmers and ranchers, and
the constant struggle to learn and adapt to an unknown land. Unknowing pioneer farmers plowed up the
prairie grasses for crops, but often hard rains and winds carried off much of the rich topsoil. The
response to these challenges by Nebraska's people, rural communities, and agricultural economy formed
the character and politics of the region.

Early Settlers had little money to buy clothing or supplies because of limited markets for their
agricultural products. They made do with what they grew or gathered from their immediate
surroundings. The coming of the railroads not only created a market for farming, but also enabled the
establishment of large ranches. Cattle ranching grew quickly with access to eastern markets, "cattle
barons" ruled the range. Cattle raising on a large scale became very profitable since the range was free
and there were no taxes. The literature reveals the conflicts that arose and festered between farmers and
ranchers when livestock invaded fields and ruined crops. The Herd Law of 1871, enacted to protect
farmers, required cattle owners to pay for damages when livestock overran planted fields. The literature
of the day reflects these fierce battles for resources, including the notorious battles of "Old Jules" Sandoz,
a Nebraska homesteader and early leader in horticulture who encouraged and supported the settlement of
land by farmers rather than cattlemen.

The pioneers found Nebraska to be a vast expanse of treeless plains. In 1872, J. Sterling Morton, a
journalist who later became the United States Secretary of Agriculture, presented a resolution to the State
Board of Agriculture..."to urge upon the people of the State, the vital importance of tree planting, hereby
offer a special premium of one hundred dollars to the county agricultural society of that county in
Nebraska, which shall upon that day, plant properly, the largest number of trees; and a farm library of
twenty-five dollars' worth of books to that person who, on that day, shall plant properly, in Nebraska the
greatest number of trees." Literally millions of trees were planted on that first Arbor Day. With seedlings
easily gathered from the belt of timber lining the rivers and from the sandbars, the state began to bring
trees to the prairie, forever altering the landscape and ecology of the region. Partly as a result of this early
conservationist tradition, Nebraska's soil still yields an abundance of crops, although soil erosion and
drought continue to be major concerns.

Historians of the agrarian West and the Gilded Age find rich materials in the writings of J. Sterling
Morton. His published speeches on farming, farm finance, and Arbor Day are found in the Special
Collections at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and will be included in this project--including a speech
delivered at Nebraska City upon the occasion of the First Nebraska Territorial Agricultural Fair,
September 21-23, 1859. It is a measure of his influence that Lincoln, Nebraska, is still home to the
National Arbor Day Foundation. Corn is King!: Corn, its Origins, History, Uses and Abuses, by R.W.