HEREFORE take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek: . . . But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Buddha, second in importance, perhaps, of the world's great moral and religious leaders, anticipated these Christian sentiments in his teachings.
   The vast, and perhaps paramount importance of economic development requires and excuses a little preparatory preaching. The favorite philosophy of earlier civilizations undertook to work from the top, downward. whereas our -- we call it sociology -- reverses the order and works from the bottom, upward. The great teachers and preachers among the ancients thought to bring about social amelioration by inspiring the people with righteous precepts. We seek the same end through appeal to enlightened selfishness by magnifying the importance of physical goods and comforts and putting them within reach of all and by arming all with intelligence enough to enable them to enforce equity and righteousness. In the present sociological philosophy, so-called original moral precept is not superseded by enlightened or intelligent social force but they interact upon each other; the latter, however, doing the primary or principal pushing. The few and far between transcendental idealists of the ancients -- exceptions or sports among natural men -- sought to convert the normal people to their idealism by texts; we work out to the idealistic texts as the best expression of natural development. Our sociology turns the old Adam in people, which, in spite of ages of precept, still abounds, upon itself to convince them that the less they manifest it the better off they will be.
   In short, we are the very Gentiles the greatest of these transcendentalists contemned. And this is why Nebraska's material resources seem so important to us, and why we here seek to disclose, and contribute toward showing how the most may be made of them; and it is the real source of our state pride which this exposition will both illustrate and justify. For to reach these ends of individual and social advantage, which are closely related, there must be union and coöperation of a goodly number of people in a territory of sufficient area and economic resources comfortably to contain and maintain them. These conditions should be such as to afford support, with a minimum burden, to an adequate government, to the best school system, to an ample system of transportation and, in general, to profitably employ and encourage in their development the people who are thus joined in the society we call a state. The contribution of live stock by the grazing section of the state to the eastern section for feeding or slaughter, for example, increases population and builds up large towns which, in turn, encourage the establishment of large stores which carry extensive stocks of goods of all classes for the convenience of people from all parts of the state. The growth of the cities and industrial institutions in the eastern part of the state is stimulated by the development of farming in the western part, and that growth, in turn, tends to increase the value of western farms. These diverse enterprises are mutually dependent upon markets for buying and selling.
   The approximately uniform size of the

states is due to the adjustment of these conditions of means to ends. It is found that in an organization smaller than the general government, involving the whole nation, most of the interests of the people are better subserved and their affairs better managed, because public opinion can be more readily concentrated in the smaller state and is more effectively brought to bear upon a government seated near at hand than upon one at a great distance, like our federal government. On the other hand, defense against foreign aggression, free interstate commercial intercourse, and the construction of great public works, such as waterways and irrigation systems, seem to require the larger political association. Otherwise, we should be better off if our several states were wholly independent of one another. Our habit of patriotism, which chiefly glories in bigness and the prestige it carries, gradually weakens as society becomes more mature and national lines gradually wear away under the feet of increasing intercourse impelled by the impulse of a growing sense of mutuality of interests. Compassing this wider view, George Eliot called patriotism "a virtue of small minds," and Herbert Spencer said: "If anyone should question my truthfulness or my honesty, I should be stung to the quick, but if I should be called unpatriotic, I should remain unmoved." And in the wider nation there is a correspondingly wider scope for patriotism as Dr. Johnson aptly defines it: "The last refuge of scoundrels."
   But the ultimate meaning of our present controlling philosophy, pride in the great material resources of our state and solicitude for their most complete development, may spring from the broadest motive. This is confirmed by a single fact: Omaha is the greatest distributing center for sheep of the "feeder" class in the world. This vast supply of raw material, which is converted into butchers' stock, in part by Nebraska corn and hay, is collected from all the grazing states of the West and Northwest. Again, the meat-packing system of Omaha ranks third in the country -- and so in the world -- in volume of output.
   The skepticism and hesitancy which, from the first, retarded material development of the Nebraska country were not fairly dispelled until about the year 1878 which is marked by the revival, or the beginning on a general local scale, of railroad building. Though the intersection of the state by railroads was begun in the early seventies, it had been abandoned on account of the grasshopper depredations of 1874-1875 and the fear of them, which lasted two years beyond that period. As late as 1877 it was confidently predicted that in twenty years Nebraska would be the great cattle range of America, and as confidently asserted that the Republican valley was a natural grazing ground; but at the close of that year the Burlington & Missouri railroad company gave notice that the prices of its lands would be raised; and the two great railroad companies of the state valued their properties so highly as to begin political strife to prevent their control by the state. But not only were the resources of the state underestimated; there was misapprehension as to their character. About ten years later Nebraska was distinguished as forming an unexcelled part of the unequalled corn belt of the world, and a few years still later stood in the front rank of the general agricultural states.
   A humane federal statute prohibits the continuous transportation of live stock upon railroads for more than twenty-eight hours without being unloaded for rest. By consent of the shipper, the time may be extended, as it usually is in practice, to thirty-six hours. By a state statute, the time is limited to twenty-four hours for transportation wholly within the state. Business interests reënforce the law; and yards for feeding and resting are maintained at convenient points along the main lines. On the Burlington these yards are kept by the company; on the other lines they are owned and operated by independent parties. The yards at Valley on the Union Pacific road are the most extensive in th

state, both because that road covers the widest stock raising area and because the station is about the right distance from Omaha for preparing stock for the great market there.
   These yards are owned and conducted by William G. Whitmore and Frank Whitmore, his brother. During recent years, they have handled on an average, 1,100,000 animals annually, three-fourths of which are sheep. Most of the remainder are cattle; as but few hogs originate west of Nebraska, not many need rest or care at this station. Much the larger part of the sheep come from Wyoming and Idaho, Wyoming largely leading. The rest come from northern Utah, Montana, Oregon, California, and Washington. Since many of these western sheep are originally driven to the northern grazing grounds from the far south, they become very experienced travelers by the time they reach the Omaha or Chicago market; and this phase of sheep life illustrates the marvelous capacity of modern transportation and its important relation to industrial, and general social development. James J. Hill caused the shipment of considerable numbers of live stock from the farther western states across the Pacific ocean to the orient.
   The Messrs. Whitmore use 3,200 acres of land adjacent to Valley in their stock caretaking business. They own 1,100 acres and they have acquired long leases of adjacent farms to make up the remainder, for which they pay a high rental. These lands have a frontage of four miles on the Platte river. The total acreage is divided into thirty-six lots which are required to separately accommodate individual shipments or consignments. The lots are fenced with woven wire, surmounted by several strings of barbed wire for the protection of the sheep from coyotes and dogs. The length of time of detention of the various consignments is governed by the condition of the stock and of the market. The first is improved by feeding and rest, and the second may improve through waiting. All the land is devoted to pasture and meadow; all the needed grains are purchased.
   The various lots are watered by driven wells from which windmills pump the water into troughs which in turn overflow into natural depressions or pockets, thus creating perennial ponds of fresh and wholesome water. A large number of yards and chutes are required for loading and unloading. The re-shipping is mostly done in the night so that the stock may reach Omaha fresh at the opening of the market.
   Upwards of $30,000 is invested in buildings, one of which will house 7,000 sheep, though it is used only in stormy weather, and another contains 500 tons of baled hay in readiness for any emergency of bad weather or an otherwise accidental short supply. The labor pay roll is about $20,000 annually; and, as the work requires the greatest care, high wages are paid to secure responsible men. There are machines for shearing sheep and for various other purposes and gasoline and electric motors.
   About eighty per cent of the cattle and eighty-five per cent of the sheep that stop over at these yards are range fed. A considerable part of this class of stock is in good enough condition for immediate slaughter; the rest are sold as feeders. Chicago packers take the larger part of the fat animals and Omaha the larger part of the feeders. William G. Whitmore's son, Jesse D., manages a similar feeding station at Grand Island; and there are stations also at Sidney and Cheyenne and other points along the Union Pacific road.
   The great plant near Central City, in Merrick county, which was founded, controlled, and conducted by the late T. B. Hord, serves to illustrate the extent of the stock feeding business, in Nebraska, as well as the methods employed.
   Mr. Hord came to Central City from Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1885, and at once began the business which he developed into the largest establishment of its kind in the whole country, and so of the whole world. The first year he fed 235 head of cattle. In 1908 he fed 16,000 cattle and 12,000 hogs. While Central City is the chief feeding point, there

are branches at Belgrade, Chapman, Clarks, Fullerton, Schuyler, and Thummel, on the Union Pacific railroad, and Neligh, Oakdale, and Tilden on the Northwestern railroad. Four year old steers are preferred for feeding because they make the highest class of beef in the least time, which the plant aims to produce. A part of this stock is bought from farmers and ranchers in Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming, but the Hords keep on their ranges in Deuel and Sheridan counties, from six thousand to eight thousand head of steers, mostly bought as two-year-olds. When these arrive at the age of four years, they are brought down to the feeding stations. Some of the young cattle are also kept in Montana. The hogs are bought mainly in Nebraska, but some of them in Wyoming and Colorado, and the sheep come principally from the two states last named.
   About 16,000 acres of land are used in the production of hay and corn and for yards for the animals. Not more than 25,000 bushels of corn are raised on this land annually, but it produces most of the hay which is consumed. The enormous amount of food which is required every year is easily calculated from the fact that about sixty bushels of corn and three-fourths of a ton of hay are fed to each steer. The amount of time taken for feeding a steer is three to six months, an average of about four months. This of course depends upon the condition of the stock and of the market. Nearly all of the Hord cattle are sold in the Chicago market because they have been fed up into the export class and the demand for this grade is in that market. Besides hay and corn, a balance ration of alfalfa meal and molasses is also given to both cattle and sheep. Hogs get their corn mostly from the droppings of the cattle, but they are fed besides, about a pound a day per head of shorts mixed with water. Cottonseed meal is fed more or less to cattle toward the latter part of the fattening period.
   It is not found necessary or profitable to house cattle or sheep, but the yards are protected by high board fences for wind breaks. Houses are provided for hogs.
   From 125 to 150 head of cattle are put into each feeding yard, the tendency being to reduce the numbers so herded together for feeding. The sheep feeding yards contain about 400 head to the pen.
   The Hords own and lease a part of their stock range in Deuel and Sheridan counties and a part of it consists of public lands. Hay cut in the valleys on the ranges is kept ready for use and is fed mainly in the months of January, February, and March. Wells and windmills are quite generally resorted to for supplying the range stock with water and this method is found to be quite practicable. Only steers are corn fed; all cows being sold to the slaughter market from the range.
   Sheep feeding is not always profitable, mainly on account of the high cost of the feeders, owing to the high price of wool. Dear corn also affects the business. Those caught with fattening stock on their hands, bought before the panic of 1907, suffered a great deal of loss. While there is more risk in feeding on a high corn market, yet it is not necessarily less profitable than feeding cheap corn. Mr. Hord's very wide experience and practical observation led him to the same opinion held by Dean Burnett, of our school of agriculture, namely, that the fattening of cattle will come to be done more and more by the farmers themselves or small local feeders.
   Among other large feeders in Nebraska are Edward Burke of Genoa, E. M. Brass and John Reimers & Sons of Grand Island, and E. D. Gould of Kearney. The largest sheep feeders, are in the neighborhood of Gibbon, Shelton, and Wood River.
   While general intelligence and scientific skill are constantly increasing factors in general farming, yet its results will always depend largely upon the uncertain whims of Mother Nature. On the other hand, the stock feeding business, which is an adjunct of farming, depends mainly upon human foresight, judgment, and intense attention to detail. The key which opens to success is buying right, and this requires skill of a high order. And then the feeding is becoming more and more a process of the adaptation of scientific

knowledge as well as general good judgment; and to apply these and to prevent accident and disease also requires the utmost diligence. The exactions of this business are illustrated by the fact that the head of the great enterprise in question did not leisurely reach his office at the banker's or professional hour of nine o'clock or ten o'clock in the morning, but was found there, in the thick of the fight, as early as seven, even in the winter time. If there is any royal road to wealth in Wall street -- and there probably is none -- it is as far in this respect from the western stock feeding establishments as the two industries are separated in character or statute miles.
   The picturesque white faces of the Hereford breed predominate in the yards of the large feeders. This is because they are more hardy and maintain themselves more successfully than the other beef-producing breeds, in the hard struggle for existence on the far western ranges, where many of the feeders' stocks originate and spend the first two or three years of their lives. If the stern vicissitude of cattle experience has raised the same question which not uncommonly troubles their human contemporaries, whether life is worth living at all, the Herefords doubtless lament that they became physically so well favored.
   The Fremont stock yards, of which Lucius D. Richards is president, also carry on a very extensive business similar to that at Valley. These yards have pens for fifty-eight cars of cattle, covered sheds for twenty-four cars of sheep, open pens for 18,000 sheep; a dipping plant with a daily capacity of 5,000 head; ten double deck unloading chutes; set of ten Allen machine shearers, and 1,200 acres of blue grass pasture in the Platte valley. Below is a comprehensive and illuminating statement of the business done at these yards during the years ending January 31, 1907, and January 31, 1908.

     Year ending January 31, 1907:

Sheep	3,908 cars
Cattle	1,051 cars
Horses	81 cars
Hogs	3 cars
Total	5043

   Year ending January 31, 1908:

Sheep	2,695 cars
Cattle	785 cars
Horses	77 cars
Hogs	5 cars
Total	3,562

     Business year ending January 31, 1908:

	Cars	Sheep	Cattle	Horses	Hogs
From Neb.	212	27,820	2,800	...	400
So. Dak.	225	28,600	2,800	375	......
Wyo.	1,550	293,280	10,080	1,550	......
Idaho	800	182,000	21800	......	......
Utah	250	52,000	1,400	......	.....
Ore.	75	13,000	700	......	.....
Nev.	50	13,000	.....	.....	.....
Colo.	400	91,000	1,400	.....	.....
	3,562	200,200	21,980	1,925	400

     Roads bringing in stock.

Northwestern	1,888	333,060	14,840	1,800	400
Union Pacific	1,674	367,640	7,140	125	...

     Destination:

Chicago	1400	312,000	4,900	625	.....
So. Omaha	2,162	388,700	17,080	1,300	400

     Classing stock:

Fat	1,550	279,240	13,188	.....	400
Feeders	2,012	421,460	8,792	1,925	.....

   The business of the not quite completed year of 1908 shows a substantial increase over that of the year ending January 31, 1908.
   The principal feeding and resting station on the Burlington system is at Burnham, adjacent to Lincoln. These yards handle sheep exclusively and have a grazing capacity of 50,000 head, barn space for grain feeding for 18,000, and outside pens for 12,000. The total receipts for the eleven months of the year 1908, ending November 30th, were 555,000 head with a marketable value of $2,200,000. Of these receipts, Colorado and Utah contributed fifty-five per cent; Wyoming, twenty-eight per cent; Montana, eleven per cent; Nebraska, six per cent. The destination of the year's receipts was: South Omaha and Nebraska points, forty-three per cent; St. Joseph and Missouri, twenty-one per cent; Iowa, Illinois, and Chicago, thirty-six per cent. The yards do what is called "feeding in transit." Sheep are kept there for from one day to one hundred days. When left as long as the last named period they are fattened there ready for market. The yards also operate, generally commencing March 1st, a ten machine sheep shearing plant, by which, in 1908, 21,500 sheep were shorn

of a clip of 151,000 pounds of wool, with a selling price of about $23,000. The receipts comprise pea fed sheep from southern Colorado, corn fed lambs from northern Colorado and Nebraska, and range sheep from Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. Fed sheep there fattened on corn, peas, or other cereals, are marketed, usually, from December to July, and range sheep during the balance of the year.
   All interstate shipments of sheep are under the supervision of an inspector of the bureau of animal industry, whose authority is absolute, and in case he finds that the sheep are afflicted with any stipulated infectious or contagious disease, he can order them quarantined and then dipped in recommended solutions and all quarters they may have occupied, cleansed and disinfected before further use.
   These establishments, which rank among the greatest of their kind, very forcibly illustrate the resources of Nebraska and its tributary territory. The Omaha stock yards were founded in 1884, through the business foresight and courage of a group of Omaha men, and they opened the way for the great packing houses which were soon built around them. The total receipts of live stock at the yards during the year 1907 were, cattle, 1,158,716; hogs, 2,253,652; sheep, 2,038,777; horses and mules, 44,020. The increase in receipts of sheep during the five years 1903-1907 was large, that of cattle somewhat less, while hogs showed a slight decrease. The number of cattle received in 1907 was greater than the number for any other year.
   The following table shows the receipts for 1907 of the several kinds of stock from territory west of the Missouri river and the part of the total which was shipped over the several railroads. The figures for the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha road are not exact, as that line operates on both sides of the river, and a proportionate division of the stock originating on either side was not made in the report.
   We are considering here two main questions: what the economic resources of the state are now and what they may become. We get the most intelligent view of these questions by comparison. The state is young politically and very young industrially, and yet it has already won third place in the production of hogs and of corn and fourth place as to cattle and wheat; Illinois and Iowa leading in hogs and corn; Texas and Kansas in cattle; Kansas, Minnesota, and North Dakota in wheat. Illinois and Iowa each contains in round numbers, 56,000 square miles; Kansas, 80,000; Minnesota, 83,000; North Dakota, 70,000; Nebraska, 76,000.
   The section of Nebraska east of the second guide meridian, west, with several southerly counties west of that line added, contains 40,000 square miles, an area considerably greater than that of Indiana, about the same as that of Ohio or Kentucky, and only 9,000 miles less than that of New York. For uniform productiveness of crops that are most uniformly needed and demanded throughout those parts of the world most capable of buying them, this section is scarcely equaled. We have 36,000 square miles (the size of Indiana) of more questionable productiveness to match the 16,000 excess of Illinois and Iowa over our superior 40,000 and to overmatch in size such states as Kentucky, Ohio, and New York.
   In estimating the economic future of Nebraska, it should be noted that the value of its agricultural products is now only about seventy per cent of the like products of New York or Ohio and eighty per cent of those of Pennsylvania. This difference in favor of those naturally ill-favored states is due partly

				Horses
Railroad	Cattle	Hogs	Sheep	Mules
U. P. .	266,132	463,299	1,053,796	14,798
"Omaha"	66,494	127,374	74,038	164
C. & N. W	288,727	674,875	371,146	11,282
C. B. & Q	346,691	395443	413,800	8,751
C. R. 1. & P	22,731	17:785	10,570	1,655
M. P .	43,263	31,962	9,758	967
Total	1,034,038	1,710,738	1,933,108	37,617

to more advantageous markets, but chiefly to better cultivation. The yield per acre of wheat and corn is greater in many northeastern and north central states than in Nebraska; but advantageous conditions in the east will not permanently continue; on the contrary, they will be reversed, and the proof of the prophecy lies in the example of what superior cultivation has done there in adverse natural conditions.
   Some of these states have valuable minerals which have not yet been discovered in Nebraska. But our undeveloped wheat crop is already double the value of the principal minerals of Indiana, and such as we do not produce; far greater than the like product of Illinois, greater than that of the great mining state of California, and about equal to that of the still greater mineral state of Colorado. Our undeveloped corn crop is worth more than the mineral production of Ohio, leaving out kinds, such as clays, produced here. Besides, the principal minerals of the eastern states in question -- coal, petroleum, and gas - are destined to decrease greatly; indeed, as a rule, are greatly decreasing, while the crops of this imperfectly cultivated and only partially reclaimed state are destined to vastly increase. In view of this unequaled natural diversity and skill, which science and experience are constantly and rapidly supplying, we shall soon be able to charge off, almost without missing it, from our bounteous agricultural income, enough to offset the total mineral product of any state excepting, perhaps, Pennsylvania. Owing to its advantageous location and somewhat superior soil, Nebraska will easily keep the lead over the Dakotas and, in the long run, will maintain its lead of Minnesota. Kansas is more nearly like Nebraska than any other state but is somewhat inferior agriculturally, though it has valuable minerals which Nebraska lacks. Nebraska need not falter in disputing the supremacy of the now imperial states of Illinois and Iowa. Besides some advantage in area, it is, as has already been illustrated by a striking array of facts, the natural converter into food of the raw material of the great stock range states of the northwest. Its abundant corn and alfalfa and packing facilities are the first to catch the eastward flow of that raw material and assimilate it into condensed form for cheaper and more convenient distribution to the markets of the world.
   Thus Nebraska is distinctly a wholesale state, a very distinct advantage withal. In manufactures Nebraska cuts a small figure, of course, in comparison with northeastern states and such north central states as Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin. But in the vast industry of meat-packing Nebraska ranked third in 1900 and is perhaps second now. The value of the packing product of the three leading states, according to the census of 1900, was, Illinois, $279,842,835; Kansas, $76,829,139; Nebraska, $71,018,399. If Nebraska bad as much influence in the adjustment of transportation rates as Illinois has it would soon lead in this business. It has the advantage of location over Kansas, also, and is likely to lead its southern neighbor some time if indeed it is not already doing so. The present annual output of the Nebraska packing houses approximates $100,000,000; a pretty good start, in view of future prospects, toward overtaking some of the distinctly manufacturing states. Moreover, an output of about $50,000,000 by apparently alien refining and smelting works, conveys more than a hint that not improbable changes in transportation facilities, and in the distribution or availability of motive power and relative increase in population, may very greatly accelerate our manufacturing gain. But in any event, with everything to gain over competitive sections in the manufacturing line, we are always sure of agricultural supremacy.
   So far, however, the conversion of agricultural products by packing houses, butter makers, grist mills, and breweries constitutes about ninety per cent of our manufactures.
   Notwithstanding that our statistics are very