Very little barley or spelt is marketed.

Fruits, including apples, cherries, and plums, are grown to a small extent. Few orchards receive proper care. Strawberries do well, but are not produced commercially.

Nearly every farm has as much pasture land as cultivated land, and most farms have more. In the region occupied by the Pierre clay, and in the area lying south of the Dawes Table, nearly all of the land is used for grazing.

The value of poultry and eggs produced is $60,000 annually. About one-half of the production was sold. On practically every farm chickens are kept in greater or less number.

The size of farms in Dawes county ranges from a few acres to several sections. Most of the farms are between 300 and 1.500 acres in size, and the average size for the county is 897.8 acres.

Seventy-five per cent of the farms are operated by owners, as compared with 85.6 per cent in 1900, and 95 per cent in 1890. The cash and share rental systems are about evenly divided in favor. Share rent ranges from onefourth to one-third of the crop. Cash rent

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

ranges from 50 cents to $5 an acre, depending on the location and value of the land.

Irrigation is carried on quite generally along /he Niobrara and White rivers and their tributaries. There are no public ditches, but farmers have co-operated in the construction of systems to supply water to small areas of firstbottom and terrace land. In some years, as in the summer of 1915, there is sufficient rainfall to make irrigation unnecessary. A large project for irrigation along the White river was inaugurated near Crawford about twenty years ago, with a capital of $150,000. This