The State board of control and the State department of public welfare exercise a general supervision over charitable and penal institutions. The State institutions maintained in 1936 included: Girls' Training school, at Geneva ; Industrial school for Boys, at Kearney; Women's Industrial Home, at Milford; Orthopaedic hospital, at Lincoln ; soldiers' and sailors' homes, at Grand Island and Milford. These institutions in 1936 had 1,975 inmates, 359 employees and their cost for the biennium
was $548,000, all paid for out of State funds.
Of a total of 46,616,00oac. there were, in
24,099,000ac. in actual cultivation, 2,605,000 ac. in wild hay, and 22,385,000ac. devoted to range and pasture purposes. The total crop values, exclusive of fruit, were $54,500,000 in 1935. The total number of farms had increased from 129,458 in 1930 to 133,616 in 1935. Of the total farms in 1935, 67,013 were operated by owners and 65,808 or 49.3%, by tenants. The value of farm-land and buildings was $1,562,813,000 in 1935 as compared with
in 1930; the average acreage per farm in 1935 was 349, as compared with 345 in 193o and 329 in 1925. Improved machinery is the chief cause of the increase in larger farms. Production of principal crops for the year 1935 is shown in the following table : The value of live stock in Nebraska in 1935 was about $125, 772,000, compared to $288,770,000 in 1930. The value of live stock sold in 1935 was about $175,292,000, including government bene fit payments. The number and assessed value of domestic animals in the State in 1936 were : 533,408 horses valued at $24,130,986;
mules valued at $3,208,118;
cattle valued at $67,326,768; 973,491 swine valued at $10,932,050; and 266,684 sheep and goats valued at $986,144. The dairy industry has grown from 68o,000 head of milch cows in 1930, to 720,000 head in 1935; in 1934 were produced 275,837,00o gallons of milk and 104,091,000 pounds of butter. The number of chickens over three months old decreased from 13,318,000 in 1929 to 11,454,00o m
and the number of eggs produced, from 85,555,000doz. to 68,423,000doz. The total of benefit payments made to Nebraska farmers by the Agricultural Adjustment Administration was $70,094,951.
Irrigation and dry-farming have made remarkable increase in the western part of the State. Improved farming methods and favourable rainfall have brought large acreage and crops of winter wheat over the entire high plains region. Motorized machines and "combines" which harvest and thresh in one operation have in creased. Tractor ploughs which run day and night without an operator are used in the fields. In 1936 there were approximately 1,500,00oac. under irrigation. The irrigation projects are mostly in the western or central counties of Scotts Bluff, Morrill, Garden, Keith, Dawson and Lincoln. The Platte is the chief source of water for all the irrigation projects so far developed. The people of the State became more enthusiastic over irrigation following the disastrous droughts of 1934 and 1936. Federal funds were available for new projects, and the old irrigation districts had rec ords of successful production ; the value of irrigated crops in 1929 was
Large new irrigation projects were approved along the branches of the Loup river and the Platte river, cover ing a total area of more than 400,000 acres.
Manufacturing has grown, chiefly in the conversion of raw products of agriculture into com modities for market. The United States census of manufactures for 1933, showed 992 manufacturing establishments in the State, employing 19,483 wage-earners. Nebraska's rank among the States in 1933, according to the amount of raw material manufactured ($138,873,000), was 28th; according to total factory output ($194,310,000), it was twenty-ninth. The chief industries in
ranked according to the value of their products, were : slaughter ing and meat-packing, $83,218,000; the manufacture of butter, cheese and evaporated milk, $20,590,000; flour and grain mills, $14,992,000; printing and publishing, newspapers and periodicals, $10,698,000; steam railway construction and repairs, $5,671,000; bread and bakery products,
Metallic minerals are almost absent from the State. The total value of the mineral output in 1934 was $2,790,571 or .09% of the total production for the United States. The chief products in the order of their importance were cement, sand and gravel, clay products and stone.