irrigable. As compared with the streams of Colorado, where irrigation
is much more advanced, the streams of Nebraska have a very
constant flow; the relative supply-capacities of the Arkansas and
Poudre in Colorado, and the Loup and North Platte in Nebraska
being about as 1·000, 1·193, 3·347 and 4·632 respectively, according
to the estimates of the state engineer (Nebraska Public Documents
1901–1902, vol. iii. p. 144). An irrigation law was first passed by
Nebraska in 1895. One of the greatest improvement projects undertaken
by the national Reclamation Service is one on the North
Platte, begun in 1903, which contemplates a reservoir in Wyoming of
sufficient capacity to store all the surplus waters of that stream,
about 600 m. of canals, and the reclamation of 107,000 acres in
Nebraska; it was 74% completed in 1909. The work of the national
service began in Nebraska in 1902. Some farmers on the uplands
between the valleys in western Nebraska irrigate by means of
wind-mills, and although the underground water is 175 ft. or more
below the surface one wind-mill often supplies sufficient water to
irrigate ten acres. The extent of irrigated acreage increased about
thirteen-fold from 1889 to 1899. In the latter year there were 1701 m.
of ditch costing about $751·00 per m., irrigating 148,538 acres,
which yielded crops averaging $6·61 per acre in value. The greatest
part of the irrigated acreage is in the valley of the North Platte and
the Upper Platte—probably nine-tenths in 1906—in Scotts Bluff,
Lincoln, Cheyenne, Dawson, Keith and Deuel counties. There is,
however, a large ditch in Platte county—the farthest E. of any large
ditch in the country; and though agriculture is normally quite
“successful” here without irrigation, nevertheless it is more profitable
with it. In fact, in 1899 about a quarter of the irrigated acreage
lay E. of the section classed as arid.
Manufactures.—The rank of Nebraska among the states of the Union in 1900 in population, in value of agricultural products, and in value of manufactured products, was respectively twenty-seventh, tenth and nineteenth. In the decade 1890–1900 the state increased the value of its manufactures somewhat more than half. The per capita product-values for agriculture and manufactures in 1900 were $153 and $135 (as compared with $63 and $88 in 1890). Only 2·3% of the population were engaged in manufacturing in 1900. Of the total factory product (in 1900, $130,302,453; in 1905, $154,918,220), 84·7% were urban (i.e. were for the three cities which in 1900 had a population of at least 8000) in 1900, and 81·7 in 1905; the percentage for these cities being 53·3 in 1900 and 43·5 in 1905 for South Omaha, 29·2 in 1900 and 34·9 in 1905 for Omaha, and 2·1 in 1900 and 3·4 in 1905 for Lincoln; Nebraska City, Fremont, Grand Island, Beatrice, Hastings, Plattsmouth and Kearney were the only other manufacturing centres of any importance. In 1907 there was a beet-sugar factory at Grand Island; at Nebraska City there are several distinctive industries; at South Omaha very important meat-packing houses; and the other cities have interests rather extensive or varied than distinctive. As yet manufactures are insignificant except in lines immediately dependent upon agriculture, the combined output of the packing, flour and grist mill, dairy and malt-liquor establishments constituting in 1900 nine-tenths of the total state output. Meat-packing is by far the most important single interest, South Omaha being the third greatest packing centre of the country, employing in 1900 and in 1905 a quarter of all wage-earners and yielding nearly one-half the total product-value of the state ($71,018,339 in 1900; $69,243,468 in 1905). The malt-liquor industry is favoured by the great production of barley in Iowa; the value of malt liquors manufactured in 1900 was $1,433,501, and in 1905 $1,663,788 Nebraska wheat, like that of Kansas, combines for milling the splendid qualities of winter wheat with those characteristic of grain grown on the edge of the semi-arid West; flour and grist-mill products were valued at $7,794,130 in 1900 and at $12,190,303 in 1905. The first creamery in Nebraska was established in 1881. A creamery at Lincoln is said to be the largest in the United States. Many co-operative dairies have persisted since the early days of farmers' granges. The value of cheese, butter and other dairy products was $2,253,893 in 1900 and $3,326,110 in 1905. Of manufactures not dependent upon agriculture perhaps the most promising is that of brick and tile products (valued at $839,815 in 1900 and at $1,131,913 in 1905), and the largest in 1905 was the manufacture and repair of steam railway cars (valued at $2,624,461 in 1900 and at $4,394,685 in 1905).
Communications.—There is no longer any river navigation. There were 6,101·5 m. of railway in the state at the end of 1907; the great period of railway building was 1870–1890, the mileage in 1870 being 705, in 1880, 1953, and in 1890, 5407. The eastern half of the state is much better covered by railways than the western. Six great east and west trunk-lines connecting the Rocky Mountain region and Chicago enter the state at Omaha (q.v.), and two others, giving rather an outlet southward, enter the same city and serve the eastern part of the state. In 1908 all but 5 counties out of 90 had railway outlets. A marked tendency toward north and south railway lines is of great promise to the state, as outlets towards the Gulf of Mexico are important, especially for local freight. Omaha and Lincoln are Federal ports of entry for customs.
Population.—In 1900 the population of the state was 1,066,300 and in 1910, 1,192,214. In 1900 16·6% were foreign-born, and 43·3% natives of other states than Nebraska. The latter came mainly from the north-central states. Of the foreigners, Germans, Scandinavians and British (including English Canadians) made up four-fifths of the total. The most numerous individual races were Germans (65,506), Swedes (24,693), Bohemians (16,138), Danes (12,531), Irish (11,127), English (9757), Russians (8083) and English Canadians (8010). In 1900 three cities had a population above 25,000—Omaha, 102,555; Lincoln, 40,169; South Omaha, 26,001—and seven others had a population between 5000 and 8000—Beatrice, Grand Island, Nebraska City, Fremont, Hastings, Kearney and York. The population of Nebraska was 28,841 in 1860, 122,993 in 1870, 452,402 in 1880 and 1,062,656 in 1890. The increases of population by decades following 1860 were 326·5, 267·8, 134·1, 0·3, and 11·8%. From 1880–1890 the absolute increase was exceeded in only four states, and was greater than in any state W. of the Mississippi except the enormous state of Texas; from 1890–1900 it was less than in any state of the Union except Nevada (whose population decreased). In this decade 35 counties out of 90 in the state showed a decrease: the shrinkage was mainly in the first half of the decade, and was due to the cumulative effects of national hard times, a reaction from an extraordinarily inflated land “boom” of the late ’eighties, and a remarkable succession of drought years, and consequent crop failure in the West. Between 1885 and 1895 Kansas and Colorado went through much the same experience, due to a too rapid settlement of their arid areas before the conditions of successful agriculture were properly understood. Many homes, and even small settlements in Nebraska—though not to the same extent as in Colorado and Kansas—were abandoned. Urban population (the population in places having 4000 or more inhabitants) also fell, constituting 25·8% in 1890, and in 1900 only 20·8% of the total population of the state. In the case of some cities that showed a great decrease (e.g. Lincoln 27·2%, and Omaha 27%) notoriously “padded” censuses in 1890 were in part responsible for the bad showing ten years later.
In 1906 there were in the state 345,803 communicants of various religious denominations; of these 100,763 were Roman Catholics, 64,352 Methodists, 59,485 Lutherans, 23,862 Presbyterians, 19,121 Disciples of Christ, 17,939 Baptists and 15,247 Congregationalists.
In 1890 there were in the state 2893 untaxed and 3538 taxed Indians, the latter being citizens; in 1900 there were 3,322 altogether, all of them taxed; and in 1908 there were 3720, of whom 1270 were Omaha, 1116 Santee Sioux, 1060 Winnebago and 274 Ponca.
Among the Indians who occupied Nebraska immediately before the advent of the whites and thereafter, the only families of much importance in the state’s history were the Caddoan and the Siouan. The Caddoan family was represented by the Middle or Pawnee Confederacy; the Siouan family by its Dakota, Thegiha, Chiwere and Winnebago branches. Included in the Dakota branch were the Santee and Teton tribes, the latter comprising the Brulé, Blackfeet and Oglala Indians; in the Thegiha branch were the Omaha and Ponca tribes; and in the Chiwere branch, the Iowa, Oto and the Missouri tribes. Other tribes were of less importance; and tribes of other families—with the exception of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes of the Algonquian family, whose permanent hunting grounds embraced the foot-hill country of the West—were of negligible importance, being only roamers within the borders of the state. The Pawnees contested the plains against the Sioux with undying enmity. Before the Civil War there were no very general troubles between Indians and whites, despite constant frontier difficulties, except the bloodless “Pawnee War” of 1859–60; but in 1863–64 the Indians rose rather generally along the frontier, and many settlers were killed. In 1890–91 there was another war—with the Sioux—marked by the battle of Wounded Knee, just across the line in South Dakota. In dealings with the Indians there have been in Nebraska the usual discreditable features of administration. The maltreatment of the Poncas, a fine and peaceable tribe, was peculiarly and inexcusably harsh. Segregation on reservations was generally accomplished in 1870–1880. There were in 1900 small reservations for Omahas and Winnebagoes in Thurston county and for the Sioux in Sheridan county, and an agency for the Santees and Poncas near the mouth of the Niobrara; and at Genoa, where the Pawnee agency and reservation had been located, there was in 1908 an Indian school maintained by the United States government with 350 boarding
