%525. The New States.%--Idaho, which had no white inhabitants in 1860, had 32,000 in 1880; Montana had 39,000 in 1880, as against none in 1860. Kansas in twenty years increased her population four fold, and Nebraska eight fold. This was extraordinary; but it was surpassed by Dakota, whose population increased nearly ten fold in ten years (1870-1880), and in 1889 was half a million. The time had now come to form a state government. But as most of the people lived in the south end of the territory, it was cut in two, and North and South Dakota were admitted into the Union as states on the same day (November 2, 1889); Montana followed within a fortnight, and Idaho and Wyoming within a year (July, 1890). The four territories, in which in 1860 there were but 5000 white settlers, had thus by 1890 become the five states of North and South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, with a population of 790,000.[1] [Footnote 1: Colorado was admitted to the Union in 1876, Washington in 1889 (November 11); and Utah, the forty-fifth state, in 1896, under a constitution forever prohibiting polygamy.] %526. Wheat Farms and Cattle Ranches.%--Such a rush of people completely transformed the country. The "Great American Desert" was made productive. The buffaloes were almost exterminated, and one now is as great a curiosity in the West as in the East. More than 7,000,000 were slaughtered in 1871-1872. In lieu of them countless herds of cattle and sheep, and fields of wheat and corn, cover the plains and hills of the Northwest. In 1896 Montana contained 3,000,000 sheep, and Wyoming and Idaho each over 1,000,000. In the two Dakotas 60,000,000 bushels of wheat and 30,000,000 of corn were harvested. Many of the farms are of enormous size. Ten, twenty, thirty thousand acre farms are not unknown. One contains 75,000 acres. [Illustration: A typical prairie sod house] Over this region, the Dakotas, Montana, Kansas, and Nebraska, wander herds of cattle, the slaughtering and packing of which have founded new branches of industry. The stockyards at Chicago make a city.[1] [Footnote 1: Read "Dakota Wheat-Fields," _Harper's Magazine,_ March, 1880. Also a series of papers in _Harper's Magazine _for 1888.] %527. Oklahoma.%--The eagerness of the "cattle kings" to get more land for these herds to graze over had much to do with the opening of Oklahoma for settlement. Originally it was part of Indian Territory, and was sold by the Seminole Indians with the express condition that none but Indians and freedmen should settle there. But the cattle kings, in defiance of the government, went in and inclosed immense tracts. Many were driven out, only to come in again. Their expulsion, with that of small proprietors called "boomers," caused much agitation. Congress bought a release from the condition, and in 1889 opened Oklahoma to settlement.