Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/622

 570 UNITED STATES : — NEBRASKA

trees in 1914. The raising of sheep, cattle, &c, is a very important industry. Montana has more sheep and produces more wool than any other State in the Union. The wool clip" in 1919 yielded 17,750,000 pounds of wool. On January 1, 1921, there were 2,450,000 sheep ; horses, 520,000 ; milch cows, 185,000 ; other cattle, 918,000 ; swine, 200,000.

Montana has great mineral resources, including coal, copper, lead, gold, silver, zinc, tungsten, grindstones, corundum, mineral waters, and sapphires.

The manufacturing industries of the State are prosperous. In 1909 there were 677 manufacturing establishments. The salaried officials numbered 1,380. Their wage-earners, 11,655. The wages paid amounted to 10,901,000 dollars; the salaries paid, to 2,054,000 dollars ; the cost of materials used, to 49,180,000 dollars; the value of output, to 73,272,000 dollars; value added by manufacture, to 24,092.000 dollars. By far the most important of the industries is the smelting and refining of copper, but details «>f copper and some other works are necessarily withheld. Details of other industries are given in The Statesman's Year-Book for 1916, p. 561.

In 1917 there were 4,953 miles of railway in the State, besides (1919) 798 miles of electric railway. The telegraph lines had a length of 9,556 miles, and the telephone lines 5,384 miles.

In June, 1919, the total resources of all State and national banks doing business in Montana were 222,481,000 dollars, compared with 114,742,763 dollars in 1915. Their combined deposits in June, 1919, were 177,626,894 dollars compared with 85,654,485 dollars in 1915.

Books of Reference.

Report of the Bureau of Agriculture, Labour, and Industry of the State of Montana Helena, 1911-12.

Reports of the various Executive Departments of the State. Montana." Issued by Department of Agriculture and Publicity.

NEBRASKA.

The Nebraska region was first reached by white men from Mexico under the Spanish general Coronado in 1541. It was explored by French for traders in the period 1700-1800, and claimed by France, Spain and England in the early colonial period, ceded by France to Spain in 1763, retroceded to France in 1801, and sold by Napoleon to the United States as part of the Louisiana purchase in 1803. Fort Atkinson on the Missouri River, the farthest western post of the United States, was established in 1819, abandoned in 1827. Bellevue, the present oldest continuous settlement, was established by French fur traders about 1820. The creation of Nebraska territory was part of the programme of the United States government in 1844 as a step in establishing a military highway to hold Oregon, then in controversy with Great Britain. On May 30, 1854, Nebraska became a territory and on March 1, 1867, a State. "Arbor Day," now a world-wide institution observed with planting of trees, originated in Nebraska on January 4, 1872.

Government. — The Legislature consists of a Senate of 33 members and a House of Representatives of 100 members. The Legislators are elected for two years. The franchise extends only to native born citizens, including