It went the rounds that way, and the man to whom it belonged considered it a community chain. He therefore kept it handy on a post so that the neighbor who wanted to borrow it could take and was welcome if he returned it to the post as soon as through with it. One day it was gone and never came back and he considered it stolen as soon as it failed to be returned in a day or two. At the following round-up, which was about the last round-up in Nebraska, a% range steer was found with the log chain on its horn. It had evidently been rubbing on the post and by accident one of the links slipped over its horn and the steer had carried it for several months. It was identified by the homemade link which was large enough to slip over the horn.

Tree Claims

Many of the beautiful groves to be found in the valley were the initiation of first settlers under the timber claim act. That law required the claimant to plant and cultivate ten acres of trees upon an 160-acre claim. Probably ninety per cent of the tree planting was later neglected and the groves died. Many trees were not good varieties, but the man who planted Ash, Box Elder and Cottonwood and attended to them, made satisfactory groves. In Scotts Bluff county will be found a number of the successful timber culture shady nooks on the valley's broad expanse.

The Schumacher boys, Matt and John, who came here about 1885, were among the successful growers of trees. There is also the fine grove of W. M. Barbour northwest of Scottsbluff. Joe Emery was also a successful grower of trees, and fruit trees as well. When Mrs. Emery was a little girl, she planted a lot of small trees that her father had brought up from the river ; and the people who attend the Scotts Bluff County Fair, at Mitchell, year after year, should know and realize whose hand it was that planted those magnificent shade trees upon the fair grounds.