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Title
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Sidney, Banner County, Scotts Bluff, July 30-Aug. 9, 1911
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Date
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July 30-Aug. 9, 1911
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Creator
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Frank Shoemaker
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Description
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Sandhills Narratives
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Identifier
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27161
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Transcription
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37 Agriculturally, this seems to be a region of great disappointments. Twenty years ago there were many efforts to cultivate crops, and wherever we went in the valley the sites of old-time fields were encountered. Such corn as we saw growing presented a poor, half-starved appearance, and everyone we interviewed conceded that it was a hazardous venture to plant crops – simply “a gamble to get back one’s seed,” as one farmer stated. I had occasion at various points in the valley to dig out tunnels of Lycosid spiders, and uniformly the soil was dry and dusty as far as I dug – sometimes fifteen inches at least. Hail is destructive to crops every season. There is not a railroad in the county – not even a projected road, one native advised me, rather boastingly, I thought. There are practically no gardens in the region, and such as there are must be coaxed along with water from wells. Nor does it appear to be much of a stock country; from the heights we could observe with our binoculars the minutest detail in the valley for many miles, and very few cattle or horses were visible. Doubtless, however, we visisted the region at its very worst, for the season was exceptionally dry, and it is not unlikely that observations during a normal summer would lead to a more favorable impression of the country. The general health of the people is good. Dr. Page said that there were very few infections diseases, and that his practices was confined in the main to “heart” cases – for even this trifling altitude affects many – and to trouble with the eyes, etc. There are practically no pulmonary affections. As may be imagined, events and people move very slowly there, and it was not entirely clear how even so limited a population makes a “living” – as it must be called. But they have their excitements. A live horse-thief was captured while we were there. The botanists were absent at the time, and I wondered which they had got; but both showed up at meal-time.
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Rights
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Is Version Of
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