Dotted here and there with shady groves, the gentle breezes moving their leaf-burdened branches to and fro, and the thousands of tiny songsters which inhabit them, warbling their notes to nature ; the purling stream of the Niobrara, winding its way in a zigzag course through the entire valley; herds of cattle and horses moving about feeding on the nutritious grasses of the seeming boundless fields ; the barns standing like sentinels in an earthly paradise; the endless stock sheds and outhouses ; the magnificent house of Capt. Cook and family, surrounded by immense gardens of growing vegetation, and stately elm trees so artistically arranged about the home ; the miniature lake so close at hand, just to the west of the palatial abode. Passageways and hedges lead all about the premises ; macademized road crosses the valley to the barns -- all these are but a small conception of the grandeur portrayed to the eye of the individual who should happen to be

so fortunate as to view the Agate Springs ranch scenery that abounds in all directions.

The size of this mammoth stock haven is eight thousand acres. More than three-quarters of a mile in width in some places, and a mile and more in other places ; it reaches a distance of more than ten miles up and down the Niobrara valley. Every inch is fertile and productive and grows almost every conceivable vegetable.

Capt. Cook has an irrigation system in operation that is absolutely complete. The flow of water in the Niobrara fills the ditches and one thousand, two hundred acres are therefore made more productive by means of irrigation.