If
1S6 S.
PUBLISHED BY THE STATE.
SEND LIST OF NAMES TO
GIRART HEWITT, ST. PA'JL, MINNESOTA,
By whom it will be mailed, free of cha'ge, to each name sent him,
SECOND EDITION.
:R ~AD A      IND'CIIRCUTLATE.
1868.
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NOTICE.
This pamphlet is offered for gratuitous circulation, in order that
persons here and elsewhere, knowing our healthy climate and
prolific soil, may let their friends and others seeking. new
homes, know of Minnesota, before they incur the fearful risk of
plunging themselves and families into the fever-ridden districts
of other States.
For that purpose it is deposited with GIRART HEWITT, ST.
PAUL, MINNESOTA, who will mail it to any names sent him, and
cheerfully answer letters of inquiry as to this State.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by GIRART HEWITT,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
for the District of Minnesota.
REAL ESTATE OFFICE,
iSAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA,
(Established in 1856.)
Sells Farms, Farm Lands, Dwellings, and Business
Property. Makes Investments, Loans and Collects
Money, Examines Titles. Pays Taxes, &c. &c.
(Correspondent for Capitalists.)
GIRART HEWITT,
Atore at Law.
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MINNESOTA:
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
I8 6 8.
BEING A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF
ITS HISTORY AND PROGRESS, CLIMATE, SOIL, AGRICULTURAL
AND MANUFACTURING FACILITIES, COMMERCIAL
CAPACITIES, AND SOCIAL STATUS;
ITS LAKES, RIVERS AND RAILROADS;
HOMESTEAD AND EXEMPTION LAWS;
EMBRACING A OONCISE TREATISE ON ITS
CLIMATOLOGY, IN A HYGIENIC AND SANITARY POINT
OF VIEW;
ITS UNPARALLELED SALUBRITY, GROWTH AND
PRODUCTIVENESS,
AS OOMPARED WITH THE OLDER STATES;
AND THE
ELEMENTS OF ITS FUTURE GREATNESS AND PROSPERITY.
FOR GRATJIT OUS CIRCULrATI ON,
ORDER COPIES TO ANY ADDRESS, FROM
GIRART HEWITT, ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA.
1868. 
STATEMENT.
One year ago my first pamphlet was issued.  It suddenly attained a popular
ity far beyond my expectations   Seven editions were issued, and did not supply
the demand. The flattering endorsement by the press, the Legislature, the
State Board of Immigration, and a generous public, justify me in offering an
edition for 1868. This is issued upon the same plan and same terms; it is sent
by mail, fee of charge, to all whose names are furnished me.  The experience
of twelve months —a correspondence embracing every State and Territory of
our own and many foreign countries-the reception of over one hundred thousand names-have convinced me that Minnesota is scarcely known in the world,
and that reliable information on the subject is eagerly sought
This edition necessarily contains much that was in the others, yet it will be
found enlarged and improved in many respects, and to contain such changes and
additions as the prosperous year 1867 furnished, and brings us down to date.
I have tried to avoid exaggeration, aiming to faithfully and impartially represent the whole State. Upon the important question of health, I have given the
able treatise of Dr. T. Williams, and added thereto the opinion of Dr. D. W.
Hand, of St. Paul, from whom I asked a critical review, because of his experience as a physician in the East, South and Minnesota
Coming here nearly twelve years ago, an invalid, myself a beneficiary of this
climate, I have studied this question with interest, and can say that each year ha
served to confirm rhe in the belief that Minnesota is unsurpassed for heslth.
GIRART HEWITT.
.t. Paul, January, 1868. 
M INNESOITA:
ITS ADVANTAGE'S TO SETTLERS
GEOGRAPHICAL.
The State of Minnesota is one of the youngest in the united sisterhood o
States.  It was admitted into the Union in May, 1858, being the thirty-second
State admitted into the Union. It derives its name from two Indian words,
"Minne" and "Sotah," "sky-tinted water," in reference to its numerous and
beautiful streams and lakes which from their crystal purity reflect the clear, steel blue skies. The State lies between 43~ 30' and 490 north latitude, and 91~
and 97~ 5' west longitude. It is bounded on the north by the British Posses seions; on the south by the State of Iowa; east by Wisconsin and Lake Supe rior, and west by Dakota Territory. Its estimated area is 84,000 square miles,
or about 54,000,000 acres, thus making it one of the largest States in the Union,
being nearly equal to the combined areas of the large and populous States of
Ohio and Pennsylvania, and embracing a larger extent of territory than the
whole of New England, capable of eventually sustaining a population equal to
that of England.
,/dvantageous Geographical Position.-The geographical position of Minnesota is the most favored on the continent.  Its location is central between
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Hudson's Bay on the north, and the Gulf of
Mexico on the south.  It is also midway between the arable limits of the con, tinent, where the products of agriculture attain their most perfect development
Generally speaking, the valleys of the Mississippi, St Lawrence and  Red River
may be said to rise in the form of a huge convex mass, which culminates in the
sand dunes or drift hills in the northern part of Minnesota, where those three
great rivers take their rise and flow north, south and northeast. Minnesota is thus
the actual summit cf the continent, and the pinnacle of the watershed of North
America.  In reference to this fact, the Hon. Wm.  H. Seward, in a speech
delivered at St. Paul in 1860, says, " Here spring up almost side by side, so
that they may kiss each other, the two great rivers of the continent," the
Mississippi and the St. Lawrence, rising almost within a stone's throw of each
other, and running in opposite directions,-the one half way to Europe, the
other bearing our commerce to the Gulf of Mexico, gathering the products of
the cotton plantations of the South and bringing them to the vast water powers
of the Upper Mississippi.
The arable area of the vast territory northwest of usbounded on the north
by the line of arctic temperature, and south by the arid sandy plains-is projected through the valley of the Saskatchewan to the Pacific border; "grimly
guarded by the Itasca summit of the Mississippi, 1680 feet high onthe east,
and the Missouri coteau, 2000 feet high on the west," it forms "the only avenue of
commercial communication between the east and west coasts, the only possible
route of a Pacific railway, and the only theater now remaining for the formation
of new settlements."  Lying exactly across the commercial isthmus thus hemmed
in, and which is the only outlet of this vast region to the Eastern and Southern
States, Minnesota is the gateway between the eastern and western sides of the
continent.  "Through this one pass," says Mr. Wheelock," between the con 
MINNESOTA:
tinental deserts of sand and ice, must flow the great exodus now dashing itself in
vain against their shores, as the tribes of Asia flowed into Europe through the
passes of the Caucasus.  Every advancing wave of population lifts higher and
higher this gathering floodiof American life, which, the moment that it begins
to press upon the means of subsistence, must pour all its vast tide through
this narrow channel into the inland basins of the Northwest-till the Atlantic
and Pacific are united in a living chain of populous States."
This commanding physical position of Minnesota gives it the key and control
of the outlet. of the great mass of the commerce of the imme4se and..produc tive regions of the western aid northwestern portions of the continent-regions as
yet almost a wilderness, but whose incalculably large exports and imports, fol.lowing the inexorable laws of commerce, must find their highway through our
State, when at no distant day those large and feltila districts north and west
of us swarm with the industry of empires, and pour their wealth into our
coffers, giving us a significance second to none in the world. Not only tha,
but, instead of passing by us and -going two thousand miles east to trade, the
workshops and factories which even now are opening up so rapidly..on our wa ter-powers will supply them and enrich us; thus making this vast region tributary
to us as surely as the West ever has heretofore been tributary to the East.  Notic ing thisfact, in the speech already alluded to, Mr. Seward says, "Hereis the plae,
the central place, where the agriculture of the richest region of North America
must pour out its tributes  to the whole world.  On the east, all along the shore
of Lake Superior, and west, stretching in one broad plain, in a belt quite'acrss
the continent, is a country where State after State is yet to arise, and where the
productions for the support of human society in the old, crowded States must
be brought forth."  Then follows the remarkable and far-seeing views, of thi
great statesman and  politician, that Minnesota is yet to exercise a powerful
influence in the political destinies of this continent. " Power is not to reide
permanently on the eastern slope of the Alleghany mountains, nor in the seaportv.
Seaports have always been overrun and controlled by the people of the interior,
and the pQwer that shall communicate and exress the will of men on this conti nent is to be located in the Mississippi Valley, and at the sources of the Missis sippi and St Lawrence." Mr. Seward 0.nly expresses the fact, taught by the
whole past histol-y of the whole world; that empire travels westward, when he
asserts, "I now believe that the ultimate, last seat of government on this great
continent will be found somewhere within a circle or radius not very far from the
spot on which I siand, at the head of navigation on the Mississippi River."
The future destiny of Minnesota therefore is to be a glorious one, and fortu nate the descendants of those who may now obtain an interest and foothold
within her borders.  We  will proceed to speak more specially of the true oe
ments of this future greatness and prosperity, as, already indicated by  the
unerring logic of,facts and unparalleled growth.
HISTORICAL OUTLNE.
Minnesota is what was once the "land of the Dakotas" who inhabited it long
before their existence was known to white men. Their chief council chamber
was in Carver's Cave, near where the present capital of the State now stands.
The honor of discovering Minnesota is divided between Louis Hennepin, a
Franciscan priest, and DuLuth, a French explorer.  Hennepin was sent out in
the spring of 1680 to explore the Upper Mississippi in company with two
traders; he was captured by the Indians and carried to the present site of St.
Paul. On his return in June, he met DuLuth and a party of explorers. He
claims to have discovered the Falls of the Mississippi, and bestowed upon them,
the name of St. Anthony in honor of his patron saint.
In 1689, Perrot, accompanied by LeSueur and others, took formal possession
of the country embracing Minnesota, in the name of France, and established a
fort on the:west shore of Lake Pepin. Although discovered upwards of two
hundred years agoi the settlement of Minnesota did not commence until about
twenty years ago, with the exception of a few scattering pioneer hunters, tradem
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ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
and missionaries, who took up their abode in it at a much-earlier date.  During
the lapse of two centuries the vast northwest, embracing the best lands and
climate on the continent, remained a wilderness, while the Atlantic and Western
States were being settled. Very vague and erroneous notions prevailed in
regard to this region, which was popularly supposed to be toQ cold and inhospitable for agricultural pursuits.  But this regi(,n reproduces the west and north
of Europe, containing the most powerful and enlightened nations on the globe,
with the exceptions caused by vertical configuration only, and gives an immense
and yet unmeasured capacity for occupation and.expansion, containing an area
above the forty-third parallel, perfectly adapted to the fullest occupation by
cultivated nations, not inferior to the whole of the United States east of the
Mississippi.
This region, extending to the Pacific, and of which Minnesota is the "garden
spot," is yet destined to supersede in wealth and agricultural and manufacturing
importance the older part of the United States, lying on the Atlantic coast and
east of the Mississippi, and to become the seat of empire on the American
continent.
"The parallel in regard to the advancement of American States here may be
drawn with the period of the earliest trans-Alpine Roman expansion, when Gaul,
Scandinavia, and Britain were regarded as inhospitable regions, fit only for
barbarian occupation. The enlightened nations then occupied the latitudes near
the Mediterranean, and the richer northern and western countries were unopened
and'unknown."*
In the year 1695, the second post ix Minnesota was established by LeSueur;
and in October, 1700, he explored the Minnesota and Blue Earth rivers and
established another post on the latter. From this period up.to 1746, the history
of Minnesota is nothing more than the history of the adventures of LeSueur
and the traders among the Indians, and the wars of the latter among themselves,
and is full of wild and romantic incidents. At this time France and Englandl
were involved in a war which extended to their colonies in the New World, and
tie French enlisted many savages of the Upper Mississippi on their side.
('i the 8th of September, 1760, the French delivered up their posts in Canada
to the English. By a treaty made at Versailles in 1763, France ceded the
to ritoy comprised within the limits of Minnesota and Wisconsin to England.
)it for a long time the English got no foothold in their newly acquired territory,
O)wing to the greater popularity of the French,:nany of whom  had  married
Indian wives. lint little was known of the country previous to 1766, when
Jonathan Carver of Connecticut explored.it, and a'terwards went to Englaind and
'wrote a book'of his adventures.  Even at this early day, though over a thousand
miles intervened between the Falls of St. Anthony and any white settlemlent, the
'explorer was impressed with the beauty and fertility of the country, a'Id spoke
'of the commercial fitcilities its future inhabitants would enjoy via the Mississippi
and the northern chlain of lakes.  Carver's Cave at St. Paul, in which several
'bands of Indians held an annual'grand council —making it the capital of the
State a hundred y!ai-,s ago- was named after him.
After the peace between the Unite  States and England in 1783, England
ceded her   aim ti  the territory south of the  British Possessions  to the
United States.  Dec,'mber 20, 1803, the province of Louisiana,  embracing that
'portion of Minnesota west of the Mississippi, was ceded to the United States by
Prance, who on the first of the same  month had received it from Spain; the
latter objected to the tranisfer, but withdrew her opposition in 1804.  In 1805,
'en'. Zebulon M.' Pike.  exptored.'this region of country, and his reports, and
those of Long, Fremont,  ",)pe, MIarcy, Stansberry, and  other  military officers
exerted a large influence in first attracting attention to Minnesota as a field for
settlement.  He obtained a grant of land from the Sioux Indians on which Fort
Snelling, five miles above St. Paul, was built in 1820.
The English traders still lingered in Minnesota after its cession to the United
States, and incited by them against the Americans, the Indians became trouble
*" Blodget's Clmatology of the United States," page 529.
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MINNESOTA:
some, and during the war of 1812 generally took sides with the English, After
the peace of 1815 they acknowledged the authority of the United States, but
the Ojibways and Dakotas (or Siouxs) being hereditary enemies continued to
war among themselves. In 1812 a small settlement was formed in the Red
River country, composed principally of Scotchminen, under the auspices of Lord
Selkirk.  They were greatly persecuted by the Hudson Bay Company, who
claimed the sole right of hunting and trading for furs in the northwest. In 1821,
"after years of bloodshed, heart-burnings, fruitless litigation, and vast expense,
the strife was concluded by a compromise between the two companies." In
1822, the first mill in Minnesota was erected where Minneapolis now stands
In 1823, the first steamboat that ever ascended the Mississippi above Rock
Island, arrived at Fort Snelling to the great astonishment of the natives.
In 1820, Missouri was admitted into the Union as a State, leaving the territory
north of it, including Iowa and all of Minnesota west of the river, without any
organized government. In 1834, it was attached to Michigan for judicial pur.
poses. In 1836, Nicollet arrived in Minnesota and spent some time in exploring
the sources of the Mississippi.
JIn 1837; the pine forests of the valley of the St Croix and its tributaries were
ceded to the United States by the Ojibways; and the same year the Dakotas
ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi. These treaties were ratified June
15, 1838.
One of the earliest settlers in St. Paul, the present capital of the State, wa
named Pbalon. Other families from the Red River settlement settling there,
Father Gaultier, a Catholic missionary; built a log chapel, "blessed the new
basilica," and dedicated it to St. Paul, which thus came to be the name of the
city, which previous to that time had been called "Pig's eye."  In 1848 St.
Paul was a &mall settlement, and contained only 840 inhabitants in 1849; in
1855 it had four or five thousand; 10,600 in 1860, and about 14,000 in 1865,
16,000 in 1866, 18,000 in 1867, and sold $8,000,000 worth at wholesale during
the year.
In 1843, the settlement of Stiilwater, on the St. Croix, 18 miles from St. Paul,
was commenced.
Territorial  Organization.-On the 3d of March, 1849, the Territory of
Minnesota was organized, its boundaries including the present Territory of
Dakota, and St. Paul designated as the capital.  Aprl. 28th the first newspaper
was issued in the new capital. Alexander Ramsey was appointed Governor,
and arrived with his family the latter part of May.   On the first of June he
proclaimed the Territorial government organized: The Territory contained
4,680 inhabitants at this time.
After the organization of the Territory, immigration flowed in rapidly, and
both St. Paul and country were seftled very fast. On the 1st of. August, 1849
the first delegate (H. H. Sibley) was elected to Congress, and on the 3d ol
September the first Legislative Assembly met and created nine counties   In
1850 small steamboats commenced to run on the Minnesota river.
In 1851 an important treaty was effted with the Dakotas, by which their
title to the west side of the Mississippi and the valley of the Minnesota river
was extinguished, and this vast tract open to settlement. At a ve.'y early day
Minnesota took the subject of common schools in hand, and the first report of
aSuperintendent of Public Instruction was presented to the third Legislative
Assembly, which met'in January, 1852.
From this time forward immigration flowed into Minnesota at high tide, and
the State filled up with unprecedented rapidity. Villages and towns sprang up
as if by magic.  Land speculation ran high, and during the period of the greatewt
inflation of prices, the financial crash of 1857 fell like a thunderbolt.  Great
distress and stagnation of business was the direct result, and for a year or two
the rapid growth of the State was arrested.  But the remoter consequences of
the crash were periiianently beneficial to the State.  Towns had sprung up like
mushrooms without sufficient tributary agricultural districts to support them.
Rent and living were ruinously high. After the crash, the speculator's occupation was gone; the energies of the inhabitants were directed to manufacture
6 
rIm ADYANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
~sd agriculture-the basis of all true State or National prosperity.  Previous
to that era, breadstuffs had been imported; ill 1854 the number of plowed acres
in the State was only 15,000  in 1860, there were 433,276, and in 1866, 1,000,000, and in 1867, over 1,200,000. Minnesota was suddenly developed as one of
the finest grain growing States in the Union, and in 1865 exported upwards of
8,000,000 bushels of wheat, in 1866 over 10,000,000 bushels, and in 1867 the
aggregate yield was as much.
admitted into the Union.-The State Constitution was framed by a conventionQa
elected for that purpose, which assembled at St. Paul in July, 1857, and it was
voted upon and adopted the ensuing October.  The State was admitted into
the Union in May, 1858, the State government organized, and Hon. H. M.
Rice and Gen. Jas. Shields elected to the U.S. Senate.  In 1861, when the rebellion broke out, our State promptly responded to all the calls made on her for
men and money, though at a greater detriment to her growth and prosperity,
perhaps, than that of any other State. Being a new State, she had no surplus
population, and her quotas were taken from her grain fields, workshops and pineries,.  With a population of about 175,000 at the beginning of the war, she furs
nished about 24,000 men to the Union armies. Few States have such a record.
The Indian Massacre.-In August, 1862, one of the most fiendish and wide
spread massacres recorded in American history took place upon the western
frontier of Minnesota by the Dakota or Sioux Indians. A large military force,
commanded by Gen. Sibley, was at once sent out. which soon laid waste the
whole Indian country belonging to these tribes, killed "Little Crow," their leader,
and utter y routed and subdued their braves. A large number were captured;
some of them tried and sentenced to death-of these 38 were hung, and the
others with their entire tribes, were, under the order of the General Government,
sent clean out of the country to a reservation beyond the Missouri river.
Remarkable Progress of the State.-It will thus be seen that Minnesota has
had extraordinary obstacles to overcome. The financial panic of 1857, the
rebellion of 1861, and Indian war of 1862, have undoubtedly greatly retaded
her growth; yet, notwithstanding those drawbacks, she has grown more rapidly
than any State in the Union. Her percentage of increase from 1860 to 1865
was 45i per cent, while that of Wisconsin was only 12, Illinois 27, Iowa 11,
Michigan 7.  All danger from Indians has long since vanished; perfect securi ty reigns, and homes in the most remote parts of the State are as secure as those
of New-England. In 1865 the population of the State was 250,000, an increase
of 78,000 since 1860; the increase during the year 1866, 60,000, and in 1867,
90,000-making 400,000; and the tide of immigration from our own and foreign
countries seems but beginning towards this State.
Government. —'he State government is very similar to that of the other Western
States.  The constitution sesures civil and religious rights to all; immigrants
of proper age are allowed to vote after a residence of four months, and foreign ers secure very liberal terms of citizenship. 
The present State Officers are as follows: —WILLIAM R. MARSHALL, Governor;
THOMAS H, ARMSTRONG, Lieutenant Governor; HENRY C. ROGERS, Secretary
of State; CARLES MCILRATH, Auditor; EMIL MUNCH, Treasurer; F. R. Id.
CORNELL, Attorney General
EXEMPTION LAWS OF MINNESOTA.
Humane and Just Provisions.-Too much credit cannot be accorded the men
of our Legislature for the wise and liberal provisions of our State  Homestead
and Exemption Law. When we recall for a moment the statutes of the older
States in that barbarous age when an Exemption Law "of one hundred dollars,"
and  "imnprisonment for debt" disgraced their law-books, and contemplate the
succession of revulsions that we have seen sweeping over the land, prostrating
the business and business men, the energetic, progressive, live men; of our country
almost in a night, thfemselves, and those dependent on them, involved in one com mon ruin, say whether I too much honor those men whose legislation comes
up to the spirit of the age in which we live, who have placed upon the statutes
of Minnesota a Homestead and Exemption Law more liberal tha% tha~t of any
other State!
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MINNESOTA:
I quote from the statutes of 1866, page 498:
"That a homestead consisting of any quantity of land not exceeding eighty
acres and the dwelling house thereon and its appurtenances, to be selected by
the owner thereof, and not included in any incorporated town, city or village, or
instead thereof, at the option of the owner, a quantity of land not exceeding in
amount one lot, being within an incorporated town, city or village, and the
dwellinghouse thereon and its appurtenances, owned and occupied by any resident
of this State, shall not be subject to attachment, levy or sale, upon any execution or any other process issuing out of any court within this State."
Thus it will be seen that we have no limitation as to the value of the farm or
residence thus secured to the family.  It may  be worth one thousand or ten
thousand dollars.  Whatever it is, it remains the shelter, the castle, the home of
the family, to cluster around its hearthstone in the hour of gloom and disaster, as
securely as they were wont to do in the sunshine of prosperity.
While there may be those who prefer ari exemption by value rather than area,
and urge that one so liberal as ours can be taken advantage of by knaves, it
must be remembered that no general law can be framed for the protection of the
helpless and unfortunate, that will not be sometimes taken advantage of by
others We think it may be safely asserted that an exemption law such as ours,
is found a blessing to thousands of worthy men, women and children for every
one unworthily shielded by its provisions.
Personal Property Exempted.-In addition to the home, there is also exempted a proportionately liberal amount of personal property, consisting of
household furniture, library, horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, wagons, farming utensils,
provisions, fuel, grain, &c., &c., and all the tools and instruments of any mechanic, and four hundred dollars' worth of stock in trade; also the library and  implements of any professional man. See State laws, page 489.
UNITED STATES HOMESTEAD LAW.
Large numbers are availing themselves of the liberal Homestead Law passed
by Congress, and now in force.  Minnesota possesses the only domain attractive
to this class of settlers-having nearly forty million acres of public land yet
open to entry and settlement. This law provides that each settler, in five years'
occupation, becomes the owner of" 160 acres by paying the sum of ten dollars
and the fees of the land officer, provided he be a citizen of the United States or
has declared his intention to become such;" and it further provides that "no,
land acquired under the provisions of this act shall in any event become liable
to the satisfaction of any debts contracted prior to the issuance of the patent
therefor." In view of the immense quantity of "broad acres " thus offered without cost, situated as they are all over this new State, in districts well watered
and timbered, where the mails and express are now extended, and railroads and
telegraphs rapidly pushing their way, it is not surprising that thousands are
coming into Minnesota annually to secure good farms for themselves and their
families-farms that will, in a few short years, be in the midst of cultivated
neighborhoods, with churches and schoolhouses arising at every hand, amid all
the surroundings of civilization and progress.
LAND OFFICES.
The land offices for the several land districts of Minnesota are located at the
following places:-St. Peter, Nicollet County;  (reenleat', Meeker  County; 
Winnebago City, Faribault County; St. Cloud, Stearns County; Taylor's Falls,
Chisago County; Duluth, St. Louis County.
DEMAND FOR LABOR IN THE WEST.
It is said a young man  recently wrote Mr. Greeley of the "Tribune," to obtain a situa.
tion and he replied that" New York is just entering upon the interesting process of starving
out 200,000 people whom war and its consequences has driven hither. It is impossible ti
employ more until these are gone."
The journals of Eastern cities are annually filled with complaints that there is
a suplus of laborers and operatives in the East seeking work; that the com
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ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
petition for employment is often such that workmen are willing to accept wages
r below what is just to them and their families; that the offices of European
Consuls are beset with foreigners who have exhausted their means seeking employment in the crowded Eastern cities  This does not and will not in a hundred
years apply to the great West. Labor of all kinds, especially farm labor, must
of necessity continue in demand here. Indeed one can scarcely imagine a condition of things in the West that will make it otherwise Laborers an(d working
men in almost every branch of industry are generally in scant supply and great
demand throughout the West. Those lingering around the crowded seaports of
the East with no hope beyond a mere subsistence, their families growing up in
poverty and vice, having no chance with oth3rs in the world, should turn their
attention to the great West, where a free homestead, rich lands, education for
their children, and a healthy climate invites them. Our pineries alone, give employment to over 3,000 men, to say nothing of other branches of the lumber
interest, and our numerous railroads now under construction
WESTERN PEOPLE.
The citizens of a young State, with "room and verge enough," are naturally
anxious to grow in numbers. All are interested in this; hence a welcome hand
is extended to all who come, and laws are passed, as I have elsewhere said, securing them liberal terms of citizenship. Indeed, the word liberal applies to
Minnesota and her people with more propriety than any I have ever known.
1 say this because it is true, and not in disparagement of others. It is owing,
in some measure, to the fact that the men who take up their march with the star of
empire on its westward way, are either the bold, live men of the older States, or
their hearts and minds expand as they traverse the broad prairies of the fresh
and glorious West  To another cause, can we, to some extent, ascribe much
that is liberal and agreeable in the West, and different from the older States.
Here we have every nation and people represented; they come from the North
and the South, the East and the West. People of the old world meet here,
mingle and marry with the people of the new. The result is an improvement;
a stock is raised mentally and physically more vigorous than in older localities,
where they have married and intermarried until "every one is cousin;." deterioration the consequence, narrow and intolerant sentiments the rule. The difference in these respects is observed by all who have lived long in the West, and
then returned to the old loealities whence they came. Hence it is that few who
have ever lived in the West, are content t) again reside in the East.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STATE.
Physical Districts.-The physical characteristics of a country exert an important influence on its inhabitants.   "Grand scenery, leaping waters, and a
bfcwing atmosphere,"-says Neill in his History of Minnesota,-" produce men
of different cast from those who dwell where the laud is on a dead level, and
where the streams are all sluggards.  We associate heroes like Tell and Bruce
with the mountains of Switzerland and the highlands of Scotland." Although
Minnesota is not a mountainous country by any means, its general elevation gives
it all the advantages of one, without its objectionable features. Being equidistant from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, situated on an elevated plateau,
and with a system of lakes and rivers ample for an empire, it has a peculiar
olimate of its own, possessed by no other State.
The general surface of the greater part of the State is even and undulating,
and pleasantly diversified with rolling prairies, vast l)elts of timber, oak openings,
numerous lakes and streams, with their accompanying' meadows, waterfalls, wooded ravines and lofty bluffs, which impart variety, grandeur and picturesque beauty
to its scenery.
The State may be divided into three principal districts. In the northern and
western part of the State an exception to its general evenness of surface occurs
in an elevated district which may be termed the hig"lands of Minnesota.  This
district, resting on primary rocks, is of. comparatively small  extent-16,000
9
.  ":. I.. 
MI NNESOTA:
square miles-and covered with a dense growth of pine, fir, spruce, &c.; it has
an elevation of about 450 feet above the general level of the country. and is
covered with hills of diluvial sand and drift, from 85 to 100 feet in height, among
which the three great rivers 6f the American Continent-the Mississippi,
St. Lawrence, and Red River-take their rise. The temperature of this district
is from 5 to 8 degrees lower than that of the rest of the State; although posessing some good lan(d, its principle value consists in its immense forests and its
rich mineral deposits of copper, iron and the precious metals.
The valley of the Red River forms another district larger than the highlands,
containing 18,000 square miles, with a deep, black soil composed of alluvial
mould, and rich in organic deposits. This district produces the heaviest crops
of grain, especially wheat, of any section in the United States. It has a subsoil of clay, is but sparsely timbered, with but few rivers or lakes, and is not
therefore so well drained as other parts of the State.
The Mi'sissippi valley comprises the third district; it contains about 50,000
square miles, or about thlee-fifths of the whole State.  It is the "garden spot "
of the Northwest, and comprises one of the finest agricultural districts in the
world. Its general characte, istics are those of a rolling prairie region, resting
-on secondary rocks; it is unusually well drained, both by the nature of the soil,
which is a warm, dark calcareous and sandy loam, and the innumerable lakes and
streams which cover its surface with a perfect network. It is dotted by nimerous and extensive groves and belts of timber.  These main districts are also
subdivided into smaller ones by the valleys of the numerous streams which intersect them; but space does not admit of a detailed description.
Rivers and Streams.-The Mississippi river, 2,400 miles long, which drains a
larger region of country than any stream on the globe, with the exception of the
Amazon, rises in Lake Itasca, in the northern part of Minnesota, and flows
southeasterly through the State 797 miles, 134 of which forms its eastern boundary. It is navigable for large boats to St. Paul, and above the Falls of St.
Anthony for smaller boats for about 150 miles farther. The season of navigation
has opened as early as the 25th of March, but usually opens from the first to the
middle of April, and closes between the middle of November and the first of December. In 1865 and 1866, steamboat excursions took place on the first of
December, from SL Paul, and the river remained open several days longer; in
1867 until December 1st
The principal towns and cities on the Mississippi in Minnesota, are, Winona,
Wabashaw, Lake City, Red Wing, Hastings, St. Paul, Minneapolis, St. Anthiony,
Anoka, Dayton, Monticello, St. Cloud, Sauk Rapids, Little Falls, Watab.
The Minnesota River, the source of which is among the Coteau des Prairies,
in Dacotah Territory, flows from Big Stone Lake, on the western boundary of the
.State, a distance of nearly 500 miles, through the heart of the southwestern pat
-of the State, and empties into the Mississippi at Fort Snelling, 5 miles above St.
Paul. It is navigable as high up as the Yellow Medicine, 238 miles above is
mouth, during good stages of water. Its principal places are Shakopee, Chaska,
Carver, Belle Plaine, Hen(ierson, LeSueur, Traverse des Sioux, St. Peter, Mankato and New Ulm.
Thie St. Croix River, rising in Wisconsin, near Lake Superior, forms about
130 miles of the eastern boundary of the State. It empties into the Mississippi
nearly opposite Hasting, and is navigable to Taylor's Falls, about 50 miles. It
penetrates the pineries antl furnishes immense water power along its course. The
principal places on it are,tillwater and Taylor's Fall&
The Red Ri'ver, rise~ in Lake Traverse, and flows northward, forming the
western boundary of the State from Big Stone Lake to the British Possessions,
a distance of 880 miles.  It is navigable frcan Breckenridge, at the mouth of the
Bois de Sioux River to ltidson's Bay  the Saskatchewan, a tributary of the
Red River, is also said to be a navigable stream, thus promising an active commercial trade from this cast region when it shall have become settled up, via the
St. Paul and Pacific railroad, which connects the navigable waters of the Red
-River with those of the MississippL.
10 
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
Cannon River, dividing Dakota and Goodhue countis, it is.aid can be made
a navigable stream by slack-water improvements, for which purpose a company
with a capital of $50,000 has been formed.
Among the more important of the numerous small streams are Rum Rtiver,
valuable for lumbering; Vermilion River, furnishing extensive water power  and
possessing some of the finest casades in the United States-; the Crow, Blue
Earth, Root  Sank, Le Sueur, Zumbro, Cottonwood, Long Prairie, Red Wood,
Waraju, Pejuta Ziza, Mauja Wakan, Buffalo, Wild Rice, Plumn, Sand Hill, Clear
Water, Red Lake, Thief, Black, Red Cedar, and Des Moines rivers; the St.
Louis River, a large stream flowing into l,ake Superior, navigable for twentyone miles from its lake outlet, and furnishing a water-power at its falls said to be
equal to that of the falls of the Mississippi at St. Anthony, and many others,
besides all the innumerable hosts of first and secondary tributaries to all tIe
larger streams.  The sources of most of these streams being high, their descent
is considerable, furnishing the finest system of water-powers of every grade in
the world. Many of the brooks, with deep cut channels, are full of trout, leap
and dance merrily over the prairies, often taking sudden leaps, forming beautiful
and romantic cascades.  One of these, on the outlet of Lake Minnetonka, has
been immortalized by Longfellow in Hiawatha:
" Here the Falls of Minne-ha-ha
Flasli and gleam among the oak trees,
Laugh and leap into the valley;"
Lakes. —Lake Superior. the largest body of fresh water on the globe, forms a
portion of the eastern boundary of Minnesota, giving it 167 miles of lake
coast, with one of the best natural harbors and breakwaters, at Du Luth, Minne
sota, to be found on any coast. Whien the Superior and Mississippi railroad
is completed, connecting the commercial centre of the State with Lake Superior,
a large lake commerce will spring into existence.
Besides. the whole surface of the State is literally begemmed with innnumera
ble lakes, estimated by Schooleraft at 10,000 They are of all sizes, from 500
yards in diameter to 10 miles.  Their picturesque beauty and loveliness, with
their pebbly bottoms, transparent waters, wooded shores and sylvan associations,
must be seen to be fully appreciated. They all abound in fish, black and rock
bass, pickerel, pike, perch,- cat, sunfish, &c., of superior quality and flavor; and
in the spring and fall they are the haunts of innumerable duck, geese, and other
wild fowl. In some places they are solitary, at others found in groups or chains
Many are without outlets, others give rise to meandering and meadow-bordered
brooks. These lakes act as reservoirs for water, penetrating the soil and by
their exhalations giving rise to summer showers during dry weather.   Prof.
Maury says of MNinnesota, that although far from the sea, "it may be considered
the best watered State in the Union, and it doubtless owes its abundance of
summer rains measurably to this lake system."
Forests.-Among those unacquainted with the State, Minnesota is apt to be
regarded as a prairie country, destitute of timber.  On the contrary, there is no
Western State better supplied with forests.
In  the northren part of the State is an immense forest region estimated to
cover upwards of 21,000 square miles, constituting one of the great sources of
health and industry of the State. The prevailing wood of this region is pine,
with a considerable proportion of ash, birch, maple, elm, poplar, &c.  West of
the Mississippi, lying between it and the Minnesota, and extending south of that
stream, is the Big Woods, about 100 miles in length and 40 miles wide. This
district is full of lakes, and broken by small openings. The prevailing woods
are oak, maple, elm, ash, basswood, butternut, black walnut and hickory.  Besides these two large forests, nearly all the streams are fringed with woodland,
and dense forests of considerable extent cover the valleys.   The extensive bottoms of the Mississippi, Mlinnesota and Blue Earth are covered with a hea7vy
growth of white and black walnut, maple, boxwood, hickory, linden land cottonwood. The valleys of the Zumbro and Root rivers support large tracts of for
11 
MINNESOTA:
ests growth.  They are found more or less in Wabashaw, Dodge, Steele, Fillmole, Mower, Freeborn'and Olmsted and contiguous counties.
But the oak openings, distributed in groves and large parks through the uplands along the margins of the numerous streams, form a large resource of the
prairie population for domestic and mechanical purposes. Towards the western
boundary of the State the timber becomes more scanty, and it assumes more the
character of a vast prairie region, dotted here and there with groves and belts
of timber, fringing the Red River and the minor streams. The choice timbered
lands and oak openings will be first selected by the settler, and the treeless prairies of the western frontier will be covered with timber in a few year,, as soon
as the annual scourge of the prairie fire is checked. Wherever these fires are
arrested the land is soon covered by a dense growth of timber.
THE PINERIES AND LUMBERING INTEREST.
The vast pine forests cover the northern part of the State, extending from
Lake Superior to the outlet of Red Lake, and extending as far south as latitude
46~ in Anoka county. The principal pineries where lumber is obtained are situated upon the headwaters of the Upper Mississippi, and those of the St. Croix,
Kettle, Snake, Rum, Crow Wing and Otter Tail rivers.  The logs are cut in the
dead of winter, and when the ground is covered with snow are conveyed to the
streams, down which they are floated in the spring when the snow and ice melts.
These pine forests being almost inexhaustible, constitute a vast source of wealth
for generations to come.  They give employment to a large number of lumbermen, who constitute a hardy class of industry as distinct as that of railroad or
steamboatmen.
In 1861, the exports of lumber from this State were about 30,000,000 feet.
This trade is constantly increasing; in 1865 upwards of 83,000,000 feet were
manufactured at St. Anthony and St. Croix Falls, besides 15,50'0,000 shingles
and 16,5,00,000 laths.  The products of 111,000,000 logs, of an aggregate value
of $1,662,810 were exported. In 1866, the amount of logs and lumber cut and
manufactured was about 175,000,000 feet; in 1867,.about 276,000,000 feet.
MINERAL RESOURCES.
Copper and Iron.- The mineral deposits of Minnesota are another important
source of wealth. In the northern part of the State copper and iron ore of
superior quality are found. The copper mines are situated on the northern shore
of Lake Superior, and are rich and extensive.  Very pure specimens of copper
ore have also been obtained from Stuart and Knife rivers.  Thick deposits of
iron ore are found on Portage and Pigeon rivers, said to be equal in tenacity
and malleability to the best Swedish and Russia iron.
Coal-Deposits of coal have been discovered on the Big Cottonwood river,
a tributary of the Minnesota, and indications of it have been observed in other
localities. A company has been formed to work the Cottonwood veins, and
some geologists are confident that rich beds will yet be developed. We are not
dependent upon this source, however; our proximity to the immense coal fields
of Iowa, connected by railroads now under construction; and our own inexhaustible deposits of peat, proved by experiments referred to under the head
of " Peat for fuel," to be almost equal to coal, will afford us for the future an
ample and cheap supply of fuel for domestic and manufacturing purposes.
The Precious.etals.-" A geological survey, made  under the auspices of
the State in the summer of 1865, developed the existence of the precious metals
on the shores of Vermilion Lake, 80 miles north of the head of Lake Superior.
Scientific analysis attested the presence of gold and silver, in the quartz surface
rock, in sufficient quantities to warrant the employment of labor and capital in
their extraction, for which object a number of joint stock companies have been
formed and a considerable number of enterprising persons provided with necessary appliances for miling, have repaired to that place in search of gold.  There
is good reifson to believe the search will be successful."-H. C. Rogers, Co
missioner of Emigration.
12 
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
But the richest mines of wealth belonging to any State is a productive soil,
and in this Minnesota is unequalled. There is a mine of gold on every farri of
160 acres, and it requires no capital to work it except industry.
Granite.-A fine bed of granite, equal to the best Quincy granite for building
purposes, crops out at Sauk Rapids.
Limestone of fine quality for building purposes is found in many portions of
the State, (in fact nearly all over it,) and affords ample material for the manufacture of lime.
Sandstone exists at Fort Snelling, Mendota, and other.points in inexhaustible
quantities..  A fine white sand for the manufacture of flint glass abounds near
St. Paul, said to be equal to any in the world. An extensive quarry of slate
stone is found on the Saint Louis River, and probably exists at other points, A
kind of blue clay, underlying the soil in a large part of the State makes brick of
a good quality. White marl occurs in large beds at Minneapolis, St. Anthony
and other places; it is used for pottery manufacturing, and also makes a hard
durable brick similar to the famous " Milwaukee brick." In Wabashaw county
a bed of the finest porcelain clay has been found.
Salt Springs.-Numerous very pure salt springs, yielding upwards of a
bushel of salt to every twenty-four gallons of water, abound in the Red River
valley   The northwest, which consumes vast quantities of salt for pork and beef
packing, and other purposes, will eventually be supplied from this source. The
value of this source of wealth may be estimated from the fact that two million
bushels are annually imported into Chicago alone, from New York and Pennsylvania.
Tripoli.-An inexhaustible bed of the purest Tripoli, requiring, according to
Prof. Shepard, no preparation to be fit at once for use and commerce, has been
discovered near Stillwater. It is twenty feet thick and at least a half mile long.
"The use of Tripolis in the arts is very great. Wherever a high polish is
required, whether upon metal, stoe, glass. or even wood, their employment is
perfectly indispensable, and in very considerable quantities. The consumption
is constantly increasing; and the demand for the article is destined to know no
limit."-Report of Prof. Shepard.
Tripoli is a deposit of the silicified remains of animalcules, and contains from
66 to 90 per cent of silex; that discovered in Minnesota contains 77.7 per cent.
of silex, the remainder being principally lime, iron, and alumina. As the known
deposits of this earth are rather limited, and the imported article, in no way
superior to that of Minnesota, commands from 25 to 30 cents per pound in New
York, at wholesale, this discovery will increase in importance every year.   A
company for the purpose of mining Tripoli and preparing it for commerce is
now in successful operation.,
PEAT FOR FUEL.
In a northern country a ready and cheap supply of fuel is of the first importance.  If any have imagined Minnesota to be a cold, timberless region, let them
be at once undeceived.  Our pineries are sufficient to supply the whole country
with lumber, while throughout- the State, the proportion of timbered lands and
prairies is about what'it should be to make it a good farming and stock growing
country. Besides nature has made up whatever deficiency there maybe of wood
and coal with immense and inexhaustible deposits of Peat, a cheap and excellent substitutefor both, for ordinary use and manufacturing purposes.  Peat is a
deposit of vegetable matter, principally from a kind of moss, which has collected
for ages in fens and bogs. Vast beds of this material, from twenty to fifty feet
deep exists all over the State, requiring only bio be cut out in square lumps with
a light spade and dried. It burns slowly, and gives off a great quantity of heat.
It is identical with the "turf" taken from the peat bogs of Ireland and Scotland, and so extensively used in those countries. For ordinary heating and
cooking purposes, it is simply cut out in brick-shaped pieces, of any size desired,
and spread around to dry. When dried, it is carted and piled up under a shed
so as to keep dry for use.
13 
MINNESOTA:
Peat is compressed by machinery lately invented for that purpose, until almost
as solid as stonecoal and nearly equal to it for heating purposes, and superior to
wood. Peat is now used instead of wood or coal on the Grand Trunk and
Great Western Railroads of Canada.  By atest of the heating properties of peat
as compared wits coal and wood made by the Boston and Worcester Railroad, in
August, 1866, it was demonstrated that 3~ tons of peat at $4.50, per ton,
worth $15.75, was equal to 4.41 cords of wood, worth $30.87 at $7 per cord, and
to 2.95 tons coal, worth $29.50 at $10 per ton. A company was incorporated in
St. Paul during the summer of 1867 for the manufacture of peat.  They have
brought on machinery for that purpose and are now in full blast on one of the
large peat beds near the city. They assure us that they can furnish peat at $3
per ton, each ton being equal to l i cords wood.
MINNESOTA AS A STOCK-GROWING STATE.
For raising cattle and horses, Minnesota is fully equal to Illinois; and for
sheep growing it is far superior.   According to established laws of nature cold
elimates require a large quantity and finer quality of wool or fur than warm
ones, hence the fur and wool bearing animals are found in perfection only in
northern regions.  The thick coat of the sheep especially identifies it with  a
cold country; the excessive heat to which their wool subjects them in a warm
climate generates disease. The fleece of Minnesota sheep is remarkably fine and
heavy, and they are not subject to the rot and other diseases so disastrous to
sheep in warm and moist localities.  It is asserted by stock growers that sheep
brought here while suffering with the rot speedily become healthy, and the
same has been said of horses with heaves and shortness of breath. The sleek
and velvety appearance of horses here in summer time gives them the appearance of highly kept stallions. The cattle raised here are also remarkably
healthy, the unanimous testimony of.butchers being that they seldom meet with
a diseased liver.
Our fine, rich upland meadows afford excellent facilities for grazing purposes;
and hay in abundance for keeping stock during the winter may be had for the
reaping. The characteristic perfection and nutritious qualities of the grasses in
this State enables the farmer to keep his horses and cattle fat on it all winter
without grain. The valleys and margins of the numerous streams and lakes,
found on almost every farm, furnish an abundance of, a co:.rser grass than that
obtained from  the upland meadows; this is generally fed to cattle, which are
very fond of it both in its green and cured state.
Although the winters in Minnesota are apparently longer, the actual number
of days during which stock has to be fed here is no more than in Ohio and
Southern Illinois.
Hogs also do extremely well here, and the abundance and certainty of the
grain crop enables farmers to raise them as cheaply as elsewhere.
All stock requires shelter during the winter in this climate, but the necessity is
no greater than in Indiana, Ohio and Illinois.  The washing, chilling and debilitating winter rains of those States are far more injurious to out stock than
our severest cold. All the shelter which stock requires here is that readily
furnished by the immense straw piles which accumulate fromnt the threshing of
the annual grain crop. A frame-work of rails or poles is made, and the straw
thrown over it, leaving the south side open.   Under this cattle stand, feed on the
straw in perfect security from the inclemencies of the severest winter.
SOCIAL STATUS.
The condition  of society  in. all  newly  settled  countries is a subject of
interest to the settler. As'a general thing the social status, in point of education, morals and refinement, is inferior to that of the older States. But in Minnesota, although outside the capital and its other principal cities we do not boast
much artificial refinement, the morals of the community,  as shown by our criminal statistics, are at least equal to those of the model States of New-England.
The society throughout the State is good; no prim and retired New-England
14 
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
village could outvie our young and thriving cities with their cleanly, decorous,
and whitewashed appearance. The population iscomposed mainly of American,
Irish and Germans, but almost every nationality is repreented. Most of the
settlers are plain, honest, industrious farmers, attracted to our State by the salubrity of its climate, and the productiveness and cheapness of its lands. A large
proportion of the population is made up of the best classes fi-om the older States,
North and South, who have come to reap the advantages of our fine climate, or
to invest their means in property in our fine agricultural districts and in our rapidly growing towns, where immense fortunes have been realized by their rapid
and solid growth.
We rarely see here any of that ruffianism and lawlessness which in most new
States renders them unpleasant as a permanent residence. It would be as difficit to find a township without its "meeting house" and school house as in Ohio
or Pennsylvania. The various religious denominations are proportioned among
the population in about the same ratio as in the older States
The following table, from the Bureau of Statistics, exhibits the ratio of crime
in several States as compared with Minnesota:
Rati o of Convictions.
I 1 in 1,950
1 in  841
1 in 1,900
I in 3,854
No. of- Indictments.
-  3,571
-  4,248
No. of onviotions.
1,234
1,295
1,842
44
"The comparison is remarkably favorable to Minnesota, but might have bean
expected in a population chiefly agricultural."
EDUCATION ANDY SCHOOLS.
Minnesota took the subject of education in hand at an early stage of her settlement, and she may now justly boast of possessing the most munificent endowment for educational purposes of any State in the Union. Two sections of land,.
1,280 acres, in every township, are set apart for sale or lease in aid of common
schools, amounting in all to three million acres.
Governor Marshall in his message to the Legislature, January 10, 1868, upon
this subject, says:
"The additions to the permanent school fund last year were $253,871.44.
The fund now amounts to $1.587,210.78   246,126 acres of lands had been sold
up to the close of the last fiscal year. The school lands of the State, when all
the public lands are surveyed, will amount to about 3,000,000 acres. The fund
ultimately to be derived from these lands will, with a continuance of the present
prudent and successful management, amount to fifteen million dollars-exceeding
the united school funds of MNassachusetts, New York and Ohio. There is nothing in the past, history or future prospects of the State for which we have so
much reason to rejoice and be thankful, as for this unequaled endowment of
common schools-this munificent provision to endure through all coming time
for the free education for every child of the State."
The following facts taken from the very able report of Hon. M. H. Dunnell,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, show how this fund is now used:
"The increase during the year in number of organized school districts is 209
the total number of districts being 2,207. The number of districts not reporting in 1867, is 172, being 45 less than failed to report in 1866.  The whole
number of children between the ages of five and twenty-one years, as returned, is
114,421, being an increase, of 12,303 on the number in 1866.  The Superintendent estimates that the number of children not returned would make the total
number of the State 125,000.  The whole number attending school in 1867
was 65,807, an increase of 13,054 on the number the year before. The whole
number of teachers employed in 1867, was 2,585, being an increase of 428. The
sum paid teachers in 1867, was $254,986, an increase of $85,840.  The value
of school houses in 1867, was $746,291.  The number of school houses built in
15.
State.
Ohio,
Massachusetts,
New-'York,
Minnesota, -
- 122 
MINNESOTA:
1867 was 337, costing $331,219. Owing to the imperfect returns, these figures
fall short of the facts."
Another land grant of 46,080 acres has been made for the endowment of a
State University. It has been located at St. Anthony and a fine stone edifice
erected for this purpose.  Some pecuniary difficulties formerly surrounded the
Board of Regents, but they are now settled, and the school is in operation,
affording facilities for every youth in the State to obtain a free collegiate education. No State in the Union has ever equaled this, if we consider the age, population and wealth of Minnesota
Private enterprise has also located many excellent private schools, classioal
and commercial, and seminaries in different portions of the State, thus affording
educational facilities equal to those of the older States. The Baptists have a
Universityat Hastings and the Methodists have one at Red Wing.  The St. Paul
Female Seminary at St. Paul, under the superintendence of Rev. J. G. Riheldaffer,
and Bishop Seabury's Mission at Fairbault, under the patronage of the Episcopalians, and embracing a preparatory and collegiate department, are all institutions of a high order of merit.
Bryant, Stratton & Pirkey's Commercial College at St. Paul is equal to any
of the links in this great chain of business colleges, also a Commercial College
at Minneapolis. 
There is also an excellent State Normal School for the training of teachers in
practical operation at Winona. In addition the State has a Congressional grant
of 120,000 acres of land for the establishment of a first class Agricultural
College which is to be erected at Glencoe, and put in operation in a short time.
An excellent Female Seminary, under the auspices of the Catholics, and conducted by the "Sisters of St Joseph," in operation at St. Paul.
And a College has been opened at Northfield under the auspices of the Congregationalists. A Female Seminary at Rochester, and Pike's Normal School,
in the same city.
CH.AITABLE INSTITUTIONS.
Minnesota, although as yet too young to have a system of the noble public
charities perfected, her wants in this line are provided for as soon as felt. An
Asylum for the deaf, dumb and blind is in operation at Faribault; ample land
grants have been made for the erection of an Insane Asylum, as well as for the
support and education of the orphans of soldiers who fell in the late war. The
Insane Asylum has been located at St. Peter, and is now in practical operation,
and contains about 100 patients at this time. A State Reform School has been
located at St. Paul, and is now in operation. There are two Orphan Asylums
in St. Paul, one under the auspices of the Protestants, the other of the Catholics.
BANKS.
The State has fifteen National Banks, with an aggregate paid up capital of
nearly two millions, located as follows:
St. Paul,          3,            Capital,       $900,000
Minneapolis,       3,               "            200,000
Winona,            2,               "             100,000
Hastings,          2,               "            200,000
Red Wing,          1,               "              50,000
Rochester,         1,               "              50,000
Shakopee,          l,               "              50,000
New Ulm,           1,               "              50,000
Stillwater,        1,               "              50,000
These, with numerous private barks located at the principal manufacturing
amd commercial centres, afford ample conveniences for the transaction of business. More banking capital, however, is needed to facilitate the rapidly increasing business of the State, and more than double the present amount would find
active, safe and profitable employment.
16 
ITS ADVANTAGE$ TO SETTLERS.
RIVER TRADE-STEAMBOATS AND BARGES.
The steamboat business of Minnesota is as yet confined to the Mississippi,
,he Minnesota and the St Croix rivers. On the Mississippi the business is
principally done by the " North Western Union Packet Company," although a
large number of independent or "wild" boats, as they are called, engage  in
our trade.
The North Western Union Packet Company, being a union of the "Davidson
Line" and the Minnesota PacketCompany, has within a few years grown to a
large and influential company, starting, it is said with a "Line" consisting of one
boat, they now own eleven first class packets, nineteen stern wheel steamers,
together with one hundred and thirtyvone barges, and employ over 2000 men.
The capital stock of this company is $1,500,000.  Their boats ply between Dubuque and St. Paul. and LaCrosse and St. Paul; two boats leaving St. Paul
daily, connecting with the Ill. Central R R. at Dubuque, Milwaukee R.R. at
Prairie du Chien and LaCrosse.  This line also has boats on the St. Croix, one
boat daily to'J'aylor's Falls, and on the Minnesota a daily packet besides several
freighters.
The Northern Line boats ply between St. Louis and St. Paul, and consist of
nine first.class side-wheel packets, eight stern-wheel steamers, and sixty barges,
-a boat leaving St. Louis and St. Paul daily. I am unable to give statements
of the boats and arrangements of the Savannah Packet Company, plying between Savannah and St. PauL
The Collector of Customs at the Port of St Paul, gives the aggregate tonnage of that port for 1867, at 13,308 22 tors, which falls far short of the
actual amount, because of a large number of the boats being registered at Dubuque and Galena. Were the boats and barges plying to the Port of St. Paul
all registered there, the tonnage would double the amount given above.
THE RAILROAD SYSTEM OF MINNESOTA.
In 1857, Congress made a land grant of four and a half million acres to Minaesota for raili,]asl purposes.   In 1864, an additional grant was made.
These acts grant ten sections, or 6,400 acres of land for each mile of road to
be built under it, and projected the great lines which were intended to benefit all
parts of the State, and provide for its increasing demands. These lines are as
follows:
STILLWATER AND ST. PAUL R. R. CO.
lst.-A  line from Stillwater to St. Paul, 18 miles in length.  It has been
located, and the franchises of the company and its land grant are in the hands of
the business men of Stillwater, who are directly interested in the early completion of the road.
When finished it will bring to St. Paul the heavy lumber trade of the St.
Croix Valley, and will materially assist in the developmenit of a rich agricultural
region.
THE FIRST DIVISION OF THE-ST. PAUL AND PACIFIC R. R. CO.
2d. -From St. Paul, via St. Anthony and Minneapolis, to a point on the
western boundary of the State, near or at Big Stone Lake, with a branch from
St. Anthony to Watab. The main line, from St. Paul to the western boundary
of the State, is 200 miles in length.  It has been located the whole distance;
twenty-five miles of the road is in operation, fifteen miles more is graded and
ready for the iron, and the conlmpany  expect to complete it to the centre of
Meeker County, thro,ugh the " Big WVoods," a distance of 70 miles from St. Paul,
before the close of the year 1868.  An expensive biidge over the Mississippi,
just. above the Falls of St  Anthony, has been completed the past year, and is
now in constant use.
The branch line from St. Anthony up the valley of the MNlississippi, is completed to Sauk Rapids, a distance of 6.5 miles, and is now in operation.  The
remaining section of the branch line will be finished as soon as the business of
the country will justify.
2
17 
MINNESOTA:
TnE ST. PAUL AND PACIFIC R. R. 00.
3d.-A line from Watab, where it connects with the First Division of the St.
Paul and Pacific Rail Road, via Crow Wing, to Pembina, on the great Red
River of the North, abont 320 riles in length, with a branch from some point
between St. Cloud and Crow Wing to Lake Superior, a distance of 120 miles.
The line from Watal) to Crow Wing, has been located, but is not yet in course
of construction. Operations have not commenced on the Lake Superior branch.
THHII MINNESOTA VALLEY R. R. CO.
4th. -A line from St. Paul, up thle.valley of the Minnesota, to Mankato,
thence in a southwesterly direction to the Iowa State line; there to meet a road
from Sioux City, Iowa, to the Mlinnesota State line.  Sioux City is the northeastern terminus of a branch of the Central or Union Pacific Rail Road.
The distance from St. Paul to Iowa State line is 170 miles; from thence to
Sioux C ity 70 miles.
The road is completed and in operation from St. Paul to Le Sueur, 62 miles,
and will be completed to Manlkato, 90 miles from St. Paul, during the year 1868.
THE MILWAUKEE AND ST. PAUL RAILWAY Co.
5th.-A line from St. Paul and Minneapolis (junction at Mendota) via Faribault and Owatouna, to the north line of the State of Iowa.  This line runs
almost due north and south; it intersects the Winona and St. Peter Rail Road
at Owatonua; is about 110 miles long, and connects with the Iowa Division of
the same company, which is complete to McGregor, on the Mississippi, opposite
Prairie du Chien.
This line furnishes an all rail connection East and South, and is now in operation its whole length.
LAKE SUPERIOR AND MISSISSIPPI R. R. CO.
6th.-A line firom St. Paul, which is the head of navigation on the Mississippi
river, to the head of Lake Superior in Minnesota, with authority to connect
with a branch to Superior City, Wisconsin.']'he distance to the navigable
waters of Lake Superior is 133 miles; to the head of Lake Superior, 150 miles.
This line is controlled by the Lake Superior aTid Mississippi R. R. Co.  It has
been graded about 30 miles from St. Paul, and will be p)ushed to completion the
entire distance within two years, or before 1870. This road has also a grant
of seven sections to the mile of State lands in addition to those named.
THE HASTINGS AND DAKOTA R. R. CO.
7th.-A line firom Hasting, througL h the counties of Dakota, Scott, Carver, and
McLeod, to the foot of Big Stoine Lake.
Operations have been conimenlced on this road; a considerable amount of
grading has been done, and the line will probably be finished to Ftirmington,
where it intersects the MNilwaukee and St. I'aul Roodi, a distance of 22 miles,
during the present year.  It is an east and west line across the State.
TIIE WINONA AND ST. PETER R. R. CO.
8th.-A line from Winona, via St Peter, to the western boundary of the State.
This line extends east and west across the entire State. It is completed to
Waseca, 105 miles west of Winona,, and will be finishe(l to the Minnesota River,
140 miles, lty the close of 1868. When completed. the line will be 250 miles
loi'g.  It intersects the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway at Owatonna.
THE SOUTHERN,MINNESOTA R. R. CO.
9th.-A line from La ('rescent up the valley of the -Root River, through the
counties of Houston, Fillmnore, Mower, Freeborn, Faribault, Martin, Jackson,
Noble, and Rock, to the western boundary of the State.
'This line is controlled by the Southern MAlinnesota R. R. Co., is completed to
Rushford, Fillmore county, about 30 miles west of the Mississippi, and is being
energetically pushed forward.  It crosses the entire State, from east to west,
through the southern tier of counties, and is upwards of 250 miles long.
18 
ITS ADYANTAGES TO SETMERS.
THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RI R. CO.
10th.-During the past year several corps of engineers have been engaged in
locating the line of this road across the State of Minnesota
Two lines have been run: one commencing at Bayfield, on Lake Superior,
passing about 1U miles south of Superior City, and thence via St Cloud, up the
valley of Sauk River to Breckenridge, on the Red River of the North.  The
other, commencing at Superior City, passes almost due west, crossing the Miss
issippi 10 or 12 miles above Crow Wing, and thence to Breckenridge, on Red
River.
It is not yet known which line will be adopted; but either will cross the State
from east to west, and will add immensely to the development of Northern Minneota.
All the roads named have been endowed by Congress with land grants of ten
sections or 6,400 acres per mile, with the exception of the Northern Pacific
which has a grant of twenty sections or 12,800 acres per mile.
THE CHICAGO AND ST. PAUL RAILWAY CO.
11th.-In addition to the lines named above, the St. Paul and Chicago Railway Company has been authorized to construct a road along the Mississippi
Rjver from  St. Paul to the southern boundary of the State, and has been
endowe(d with a valuable grant of State lands, amounting to fourteen sections or
nearly 10,000 acres of land per mile.  The line has been surveyed as far as
Winona, a distance of 100 miles. A large force is now engaged in construction,
and the company is determined to build and equip the road with the least
poasible delay.
SUMMARY.
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of this system of railroads to
the present and future population of the State. The construction of these lines
now in aci ive progress gives employment to vast numbers of men, and gives as urance that every part of the State in the near future will enjoy the benefits of
a cheap and speedy transportation of passengers and products to and fro. And
when completed, the system will give to the whole State every advantage, so far
as markets are concerned, which now belongs to the favored State of Illinois.
These lines, covering over 2,000 miles wholly within the limits of the State,
are rapidly opening up some of the best lands in the world, by bringing them
within easy reach of good markets The different railroad companies are pursuing a liberal policy towards immigrants offering them inducements as to price
and time or payments, seeing that their own prosperity is identical with that of the
State.  St Paul may be said to form the heart or centre of this network of the
"arteries of trade."
'ihe great facility which Minnesota possesses of sending her produce to market is not the least of her many advantages. The richest lands and the finest
climate in the world are useless in a commercial point of view if not connected
with the great trading emporiums by wide and accessible channels of trade.  The
broad bosom of the Mississippi sweeps our commerce to the Gulf of Mexico,
and brings back the cotton of the South to be manufactured by our numberless
water-powers; our railroads open another channel to the Atlantic coast; while by
way of lake navigation, via Lake Superior and the great Pacific Railroad, connecting us with both the Atlantic and Pacific, afford ample and unequalled commercial facilities.
Navigation on Lake Superior opens the last of April and closes about the 1st
of December. In previous years propellers have left Buffalo as late as the 10th
of December, in 1861 as late as the 21st.
"The navigation of Lake Superior, contrary to the general opinion, is much
eafer than that of the lower lakes. Its waters, being deeper, make easier seas, and
it is navigable as many days in the year as any of them.         *       *     *
It has been predicted by thinking men, who understand the subject, that when
e     communication shall have been effected across the continent from the
Pacific to the Atlantic, a change must take place in the coures of the commerce
19 
MINNESOTA:
between the East and the West. When you can lay down in London and Hamburg
cargoes of tea, silks, &c., from China, within fifty to sixty days after their shipment from there, then the old courses of trade by the way of the Cape of Good
Hope will have to be abandoned-then the commercial sceptre will depart from
England and pass into our keeping.  This all seems as sure as anything in the
future can be."-Report of the Bufalo Board of Trade, for 1866.
MANUFACTURING FACILITIES.
Extract from the Second Report of J. A. Wheelock, State Commissioner of
Statistics:  "Apart from social causes and the general influence of the stimulating and
exacting climates of the North, in developing the forms of skilled industry, it is
owing chiefly to two physical circumstances that New-England has attained her
present eminence ia manufactures, in spite of her deficiency in the useful minerals
and the raw material employed in the arts. These are, first, her abundant water
power; and, second, her favorable commercial position which has enabled her to
obtain ready supplies of raw material from abroad and to distribute the product
through a wide range of dependent markets. These circumstances alone among
the physical conditions of manufacturing power, have raised the little State of
Massachusetts, without internal resources of raw material, without coal or iron; to
the first rank among American States in the manufacture especially of textile
fabrics. And these purely physical conditions of'industrial developement exit in
Minnesota in a greater degree than in New-England, and in addition she possehes
to a large extent essential elements of raw material of which New-England: ie
destitute. 
1. Minnesota possesses a more ample and effective water power than  NewBngland.  The falls and rapids of St. Anthony alone, with a total descent of 64
bet, affords an available hydraulic capacity, according to an experienced and
competent engineer, of 120,000 horse power. This is considerably greater thin
the whole motive power-steam and water-employed in textile manufactnt
in England in 1850, and nearly seven times as great as the water power  so
employed.
"That is to say, the available power created by this magnificent waterfall, is
more than sufficient to drive all the 25,000,000 spindles and 4,000 mills of Englahd
and Scotland combined.  The entire machinery of the English Manchester and
the American Lowell, if they could be transplanted here, would scarcely pi
upon its immense hydraulic capabilities. But as compared with those great
industrial centres, the Falls of St. Anthony possess one decisive advantage, which
is to a great extent illustrative of the functions of the State as a commercial and
manufacturing emporium, this splendid cataract forms the terminus of continuos
navigation on the Mississippi; and the same waters which lavish on the broken
ledges of limestone a strength almost sufficient to weave the garments of the
world, may gather the products of its mills almost at their very doors and distribute
them to every part of the great valley of the Mississippi.
There are now at the Falls of St. Anthony thirteen grist mills, fourteen saw
mills, two woolen mills, two paper mills, one oil mill.  These, with minor
establishments there, produced in 1867, $4,669,358 worth of manufactured
articles.
"The St Croix Falls, which are only second to St. Anthony Falls in hydraulic
power, are similarly, though somewhat less advantageously situated at the head
of navigation upon a tributary ot the Mississippi. Except the Minnesota, nearly
every tributary of the Mississippi, in its rapid and broken descent to the main
stream, affords valuable mill sites. The Mississippi itself in its descent from its
Itasca summit to Fort Snelling, in which it falls 836 feet, or over 16 inches per
mile, is characterized by long steps of slack water, broken at long intervals by
abrupt transitions in the character of the rocks which forms its bed, and formiig a
fine series of falls and rapids available for hydraulic works.  Pokegoma Falls,
Little Falls, Sauk Rapids, and St. Aithony Falls, are the chief of these.   But the
Elk, Rum;, St. Croix, and numberless smaller streams -on the east slope of the
) t J,:.         -.:,~~~~~~~
20 
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
Mississispi, the Sauk, Crow, Vermillion, Cannon, Zumbro, M,inneiska, Root, and
their bramiches, nearly all the tributaries of the Minnesota, and a multi,de of
stres besides, in their abrupt descent over broken beds of limestoneor sandstone; through long and winding valleys or ravines, with a fall of from  three to
eight feet per mile, afford an unlimited abundance of available water power to
nearly every county in the State. This diffusion of hydraulic power throughout
the whole State, is a feature whose value as an element of developement, can
sfarcely be over estimated, as it gives to every neighborhood the means of
manufacturing  its' own flour and  lumber, and affords the basis of all those
numerous local manufactures which enter into the industrial economy of every
northern community.
"02. Passing to the second point of comparison with New-England, already
incidentally touched'apon, the commercial position of Minnesota upon the terraini
of the three great water lines of the continent, not only gives it an immensely
wider capacity of interior trade, but a far easier access to the sources of supply
of raw material.   A region six times as large as all New-England, as yet
uteveloped, but already starting on the swift career of Western growth, and
eapable of supporting many millions of population, is directly dependent upon
Minnesota for all the manufactured commodities it may consume.   Its position
relative to these Northwestern valleys, invests its manufacturing capabilities with
an importance greater than those of any other of the interior districts of the continent. For the future manufacture of cotton and woolen fabrics, it has decided
advantges of position over New-England.  The Mississippi river brings it into
intimate relations with the sources of the cotton supply, and it lies in the midst
ofthe great wool zone of the continent"
The falls of the St. Louis river, at the point where the Lake Superior and
Mississippi R. R. reaches the navagable waters of Lake Superior, said to furnish
a manufacturing power equal to that of the falls of the Mississippi -river at St.
Anthony, must not be omitted firom the above list.
Minnesota is evidently destined to become one of the greatest manufacturing
Sttes in the world, and already manufactories are springing up everywhere.
There were five hundred and eleven establishments in 1860, with an aggregate
capital of two and a half millions, producing annually four and a half million
dollars worth of manufactures. The present number of establishments is estimaed at two thousand, with a capital of ten millions.
Mijnnesota has the further advantage of possessing the raw material for a
luge class of manufactures,-copper, iron, wool, lumber, salt springs, sand for
Kint glass, &c, as already referred to, also coal and peat.
AGRICULTURAL  CAPACITY-THE SOIL AND ITS
PRODUCTS.
Not only are the manufacturing facilities of Minnesota equal to any in the
world, but its agricultural capacities are unsurpassed by the finest agricultural
dstricts of the old States.  This combination of agriculture and manufacture is
Tething very unusual; generally where one feature is present, the other is absit; but here, both features exist with all their advantages.  Persons residing
in the Middle and Western States too often regard Minnesota as an inhospitable region, too cold for agricutural pursuits.  But such will learn with surprise
tiat few of the most productive districts in the world can compete with Minne
toils. —"The prevailing soil of Minnesota is a dark, calcareous, sandy loam,
eontaimning a various intermixture of clay, abounding in mineral salts and in organic ingredients, derived from the accumulation of decomposed vegetable matter for long ages of growth and decay. The sand of which silica is the base,
forms a large proportion of this, as of all good soils. It plays an important part
in the economy of growth, and is an essential constituent in the organism of
all cereala  About sixty-seven per cent of the ash of the stems of wheat, corn,
rye, barley, oats and- sugar-cane, is pure silica, or flint. It is this which gives
the glazed coating to the plants, and gives strength to the stalk.
21 
M.INNESOTA:
"The superiority of sand in giving a high temperature to the soil, is a great
advantage in a climate in which the limited period of vegetation requires the
highest measures of heat."
This species of soil, on account of its penetrability to a great distance, by the
roots of plants, enables them to gather nutriment at a greater distance from
the stalk.  It is porous, and permits free respiration of the soil,-as important
to plants as animals. Owing to capilary attraction, it easily imbibes moisture
from the air, and retains it a long time, enabling it to support vegetation during
drouths, that in less favored localities prove disastrous to crops. The same
quality prevents it from becoming supersaturated with water during wet seasons,
on account of the facility with which it drains.
There is also this further advantage of sandy soils, that the roads are smooth
and hard, easily made and kept in order, and are free from mire and mud, thus
facilitating travel, hauling, &c, as well as farm labor generally.
"Another important feature of the soil of Minnesota is, that its earthy mate
rials are minutely pulverized, and the soil is everywhere light, mellow and
spongy, existing naturally in the condition reached in soils less favorably constituted, by expensive under-drainage. With these uniform characteristics, the
soils of Minnesota are of different grades of fertility, according to local situations, or the character of the underlying rocks from which their elements have
been derived. Distributed according to geological situations, the soils of the
agricultural district of Minnesota may be divided into limestone soils, dhift soils
clay soils, and trap soils."
Products of the Soil.-The following table shows the staple agricultural products of Minnesota, and about the average yield per acre:Crops.         Av. No. bushels per acre.     Crops.        Av. No. bushels per are.
Wheat,      -    -    -    -  22.05        Sweet potatoes,  -  -    -  150.00
Rye,    -    -    -    -    21.56          Besns,  -    -                  1- 5.00
Barley,    -    -    -    -  33.23         Hemp lint, (pounds,) -   -1,140.00
Oats,    -    -    -    -    42.39         Flax lint,       "      -    750.00
Buckwheat,            - -    - 20.00       Sorghum, (gallons syrup)    LO00.00
Corn,         -        -    -  -   35.67   Hay, (tons)    -    -    -    2.12
Potatoes,  -    -208.00
The above table is compiled from  the census of 1860, and various other
sources, and gives only the average yield of the crops mentioned, and may be
taken as a fair sample of the average for the State at large, one year with another.
It must be understood, however, that on the prevailing soil of Minnesota, with
manuring and careful cultivation, the actual yield is often nearly double the above
figures. Potatoes, for instance, set down at 208, on good soil, and ordinary cultivation, will easily yield 300 bushels per acre; wheat 35, corn 40, and other crops
in proportion. In 1865, from 400,000 acres of wheat in Minnesota there was
harvested the enormous crop of 10.000,000 bushels, being an average yield of 25
bushels tothe acre. Nor was that year's crop considered any thing extraordinary for our soil..
Wheat is one of the chief staples of agriculture in Minnesota, and is compare,
tively exempt from the dangers to which it is exposed in other States,-drouth,
rust, smut, insects, &c.  Theaverage per centage of the tilled area of the State in
wheat is over 53 per cent., nearly double that of Ohio, which is 33, or Illinois,
which is 28, from the fact that in those States the uncertainty of the crop, from
the above causes, renders it unsafe to venture so large a proportion of the crop
upon so precarious a product. In Minnesota the whest crop is regarded as a
sure and safe one, and rarely fails of a fine yield.  The farmer sows with an as
surance of reaping a good return, which he could feel in no other State, except
perhaps Wisconsin and Northwe tern Michigan, which belong to the same great
wheat belt as Minnesota.
COMPARISON WITH OTHER STATES.
The wheat crop of Minnesota is not only more certain than that of Ohio;
Illinois, Iowa, and other great wheat growing States, but the yield is greater
22 
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
than the best of them.  The average  wheatyield of Minnesota has been put
down at 22 bushels to the acre; in some counties, the yield was 25.  The average wheat-yield of the rich prairies of Illinois, owing to unctainty of the crop
perhaps, was stated as not over 8 bushels per acre, by Abraham Lincoln, in an
address before the Wisconsin State Fair of 18)9.  the average yield of Iowa
is not over 12 buslels; that.of Ohio and Pennsylvania will not exceed 10.  The
average yield of Iowa in 1859, was 4 bushels; that of Mlinnesota for the same
year was 19. In 1850, the four States producing the largest average yield, were
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Texas and Florida; this did not exceed 15 bushels,
while the other States averaged only from 5 to 12.  The largest known yield of
other States, as compared with the average of Minnlesota, is as follows:
Year. Bush. per acre.                   Year. Bush. peracre.
Minnesota,  -  -  -  1860      22        Michigan,  - -  -  1848          19
Ohio, - -- - - -    1850       17.3      Massachusetts,  -   1849.        16
In the face of these facts, we need have no hesitancy in pronouncing Minnes0ta the banner wheat State of the Union.  Spring wheat  is principally sown
but winter wheat does equally well, I believe.
Cor?.-Many newspapers in States south of us have asserted that Minnesota
is too cold for corn.  But this is not so; though not so much of a staple product as wheat, corn grows well in Minnesota, and the yield compares favorably
with that of the best corn States. When stock, especially hogs, are raised to a
greater extent than at present in the State, the corn crop must eventually becoime
an important one to our farmers.'the average corn yield of Minnesota in 1859,
a bad year, was 26 bushels;  1860, 35i; 1865, 43i; the average may be  set
down at 35 bushels per acre; that of Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky at 20; that
of Iowa, just south of us, 23.  The average yield in 1859, was 26 bushels, 11
per cent. higher than that of Iowa for the same year.
"The following table will show how the corn yield of Minnesota in 1860
compares with that of other Northwestern and Middle States in the Census record of 1860:
Average yield per acre.               Average yield per acre
Minnesota,    -    -    -    35.67           Michigan,      -    -    -     32
Ohio,-..36                                   Wisconsin,       -    -    -  35
Indiana,       -.   -    33              Pennsylvania,       -    -    20
Illinois,    -        -        33            New York,              -      -    -  27
Iowa,                           32 
"These statistics established beyond a cavil the fact, that while Minnesota is far
ahead of aly of these States in its capacity for wheat production, it is inferior to
none of them as a corn State."-2d Rep. Corn. of Statistics.
T'his," adds the Report, "strikingly confirms the law already noticed, that the
oultivated plants yield their greatest products near the northernmost limits of
their respective growth."
Oats.  The  superiority of our climate and soil in the production of the
cereals is nowhere more strikingly manifested than in the inferior classes of these
grains." In 1859, the average yield of this crop was 33 bushels to the acre;
in 1860, it was 42; in 1865, the yield was 51li bushels.  I have no means of
Comparing these results with the yield of other States, but doubt not but that the
comparison would be a favorable as that of wheat and corn.
Rye, Barley and Buckwtvheat, like the other small grains, do exceedingly well
in Minnesota   Mr. Wheelock in the valuable Report so often referred to says
"The climatic influences which give the wheat of Minnesota its recognized
superiority of grain, are especially marked in the quality of our barley.'llhis is
beginning to be so generally recognized, that it is already exported in considerable quantities to supply breweries in the Middle States." The average yield per
acre of these grains for three years were as follows:
1859.      1860,        162.         1865.
Rye,                                   19.4        21.56        24.00
Barley,    -       -       -       -   29.1        33.23        34.00       37.50
,Buckwheat,    -        -       -        6.5       15.73        26.00
23 
MINNESOTA:
1859, it must be remembered, was a poor crop year, and the small yield of'
buckwheat for some years, is owing to the fact that it is generally sown on refuse
land fit for nothing else.
Potatoes.-" The superior flavor and the rich farinaceous quality of the potatoes of Minnesota, afford an apt illustration of the principle maintained by IDr.
Forry, that the cultivated plants come to perfection only near the nothern limits
of their growth.  In the south, the potatoe, in common with other tuberous and
bulbous plants, with beets, turnips, and other garden roots, is scarcely fit for
human food.'A forcing sun,' says Dr. Forry,'brings the potatoe to fructification before the roots have had time to attain their proper size, or ripen into the
qualities proper for nourishment.' Minnesota, at the West, reproduces the best,
northern samples of this delicious esculent, in characteristic perfection. From
their farina and flavor, the potatoes of Minnesota are already held in considerable
esteem as a table delicacy in the States below us, and a market is rapidly growing up for them throughout the States of the Mississippi Valley, as is indicated'
by increasing exports."-J. S. Wheelock.
The potatoe crop of Minnesota is remarkably exempt from the rot which ofte.
affects that of States south of us.  In the fall of 1864, a large proportion of the
potatoes in the St. Louis and Eastern markets were rotten hearted, while Minnesota potatoes were perfectly sound. The average yield of this crop in 1859,
according to the assessors' returns was only 115 bushels to the acre; in 1860, it.
was  138; and in 1865, 164 bushels.  These figures must not be understood as.
giving a fair showing of the actual oapacity of the soil, when it is known that the
crops giving these results were simply plowed in, and overrun with grass, receivingno other attention than one or two plowings When due attention is paid to*
cultivation, the yield will be from 300 to 400 bushels per acre.  I have takers
50 bushels from a patch 70 feet square, which had been properly weeded withi
the hoe.
Sorghum.-But little attention has been paid to this crop in Minnesota. It,
is evidently adapted to a warmer climate, but planted early, on our rich soil it
will grow and produce equal to any place in the world. The average yield from,
very imperfect returns, has been set at down 72i gallons; but "some instances
are reported where a product of 200 and even 300 gallons has been obtained;
from one acre," says Mr. Wheelock: and there is no doubt but that the average
yield may be safely estimated at from 100 to 150 gallons per acre.
Maple Sugar.-The sugar-maple is found plentifully in the timbered part of'
the State. A product of 370,947 pounds of maple sugar, was reported for 1860.
Tobacco.-In 1862, 48,137 pounds of tobacco, averaging 1,140 pounds per
acre,were raised in the State.
Hay.-Timothy and clover flourish in Minnesota; in fact, white clover, red
top, and blue grass seem indigenous to the soil, and speedily cover any land
pastured much. The tame grasses are but little cultivated on this account; the
luxuriant growth of the native grasses, which cover the "immense surface of'
natural meadow land formed by the alluvial bottoms of the intricate network of'
teams which every where intersect the country," and which "are as rich and
nutricious in this latitude as the best exotic varieties," render cultivation unnecessary. The average yield of these grasses is 2.12 tons per acre, 60 per cent
greater than that of the great hay State of Ohio, which, according to the Oonm.
of Statistics of that State, is 1 tons per acre.
The lint plants, Flax, Hle'tp, sac., as they come to perfection only in a cool
climate, do extremely well in Minnesota   Their bark, in southern climates, isharsh and brittle, because the plant is forced into maturity so rapidly that the
lint does not acquire either consistency or tenacity. Minnesota is equal for flax
and hemp growth to Northern Europe.  The yield of hemp lint in 1862, ws
1,140 pounds per acre; flax lint, 750 pounds per acre.
Onions, Turnips, Parsnips, Carrots, Beets, and nearly all bulbous plants, do,
equally as well as the potatoe.
Sweet Potatoes.-Our loamy, warm sandy soil is just the thing for it, but our0
seasons are rather short; planted early however, it yields a good crop. The;
average yield of sweet potatoes in 1862, was 150 bushels per acre.
24 
ITS ADVAiTAGEB TO STTLERS.
I1rnips, Rutabagoes,' and Beets often attain a great size.
The Salad Plants.-Cabbages, lettuces, endive, celery, spinach-plants whose.
leaves only are eaten-are not only more tender here than in warm climates,
where the relaxing sun lays open their very buds, and renders their leaves thin
and tough, but are more nutricious, because their growth is slow and theirjuices well digested.
Melons, although they come in rather late, instead of throwing too much of
their growth into the vine, as they do south, attain a large size, and a rich saccharine and aromatic flavor.  This is especially true of the Cantelope melon,
which in warmer climates has its sides baked or rots before it is fully matured.
Pumpkins, Squash, ic., on the same principle, fully mature, and grow very
fine and large.'~he Hubbard variety requires early planting, say first of May.
Beans, Peas, Arc., of every variety, are fine and prolific. Rhubarb, or Pie
Plant, flourishes without cultivation.
The Hop Culture pays well in this State.
Perhaps in no State in the Union does the soil so surely and amply reward labor, or yield larger products for the amount of labor bestowed on it. It is easily
ceared of weeds, and once clean, its warm forcing nature enables the crop to
speedily outstrip all noxious growths. Two good thorough workings usually insures a good growth of almost any cultivated crop.
FRUITS.
Apples, t-c. -An impression seems to prevail abroad that we cannot raise
fruit in Minnesota, —"an extraordinary inference," says Wheelock, "when we
consider that many forms of wild fuit are indigenous to the country."  Our climate is evidently not so well adapted to fruit-raising as that of some other States
south of us. Still, sufficient of most kinds may be raised to supply the home
demand. It has been demonstrated that many varieties of apples do well here,
and there are now several bearing orchards in the vicinity of Minneapolis, Winona, St Paul, Red Wing, Owatona, Rochester, Mankato, and other portions of
the State.  The specimens of Minnesota apples at the State fair of 1866, were
equal in size and flavor to the same varieties elsewhere produced.  It is not the
severity of the winter that kills the tree, but the alternate thawing and freezing
of the south side of the tree in the spring, which is avoided by mulching, and
protecting the stem of the tree when young, by a wrapping of straw. The State
being new, time sufficient for planting and acclimating orchards, has not elapsed;
but there is no longer any doubt of our ability to raise fine apple orchards.
Dwarf cherry and peach trees, which are easily protected in winter, do well, but
the larger varieties are too tender. However, cherries may yet succeed, as the
wild variety is a native of the soil.  Apples grow well in Wisconsin, right along
side of us; in Canada and New-England, north of us. The inference is clear
that by procuring our trees north of us, (not south, as has heretofore been the
prctice) or planting the seeds and thus acclimating them, or by grafJng on to
the stock of the Siberian crab, which is remarkably healthy and hardy, and flourJes here through the coldest winters without  protection, we may raise all the
apples we wish.  There are several flourishing nurseries near Winona, Red
Wing, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and other portions of the State.
Crab Apples.-The wild crab apple tree is indigenous to the soil, improves
much by cultivation, and furnishes-an excellent stock for grafting, but inferior to
the Siberian Crab, which is equally hardy, and furnishes an excellent apple for
preserving.  Some varieties approach a hen's egg in size, and are quite palatable.
Strawberries.-Every variety of this excellent fruit does well here, attaining
a size and flavor unsurpassed. Wild ones fill the woods and prairies every year.
Grapes.-The different varieties succeed well here, and several varieties of the
wild grape vine grow luxuriantly all over the State. The cultivated varieties,
while young, require to be laid down in the fall, and protected by a-light coverig of straw.  The nature of our climate and soil would seem to designate Minnesota as a great grape-growing State. The juices of the grape, says Dr. Forry, are best matured for wine near the northern  limit of their growth.   On the
2& 
MINNESOTA.:
Rhine, in Hungary, the sides of the Alps, and other elevated or northern situations, the vine is strongest, richest, and most esteemed. The grapes of France
are more delicious for the table than those, of Spain or Madeira, south of it
The excess of heat and moisture in the States south and east of us, blights
the grape to such an extent that its culture has been abandoned. The vine,
however, whether wild or cultivated, grows there luxuriantly.  The vinous fer
mentation, as well as the pressing and distillation of the juice, can also be best
conducted in a climate comparatively cool.
Truman M. Smith, Esq., of the "St. Paul Gardens  and Nursery," has suceeded well in a large variety of'fruit. He writes me:-" Grapes have always
done well with me. I have not in any year failed to have my grapes thoroughly
ripe before frost; and in 1867, the coldest one on record, I ripened twenty-seven
varieties, and have now, on this 20th of January,' Delawares' in good condition,
by hanging them up in a cool, dry cellar.'"
Gooseberries, Currants, and Ratspberries, are cultivated etensively throughout the State, unsurpassed in flavor, size, and productiveness. They also grow
wild, in common with blueberries, whortleberries, and both marsh and upright
cranberries.
Fo Wild plums, of a great many different varieties, some of them  very large and;
fine, approximating the peach for domestic purposes, abound in the neighborhood of streams, lakes, and moist localities. They improve so much by being
transplanted and cultivated as to equal any of the tame varieties.  Wild cherrie
are also plenty.
From this list it is apparent that Minnesotians are not likely to suffer for the
want of fruit. And it may be remarked of all fruits generally grown in Minuesota, that, owing to the principle announced by Dr. Forry, they attain a perfetion found only at the northernmost limit of their growth. The pulp is delicate,
saccharine, and of a rich flavor, while they are free from the larvae, gum, knots,
ard acerbity of fruit grown further south.  The dryness of the atmosphere, as
well as the inherent perfection of the fruit, enables us to preserve it for a much
longer time than can be done in warmer localities. Apples keep much better
than in St Louis or Cincinnati.
THE GROWING SEASON IN MINNESOTA.
In Minnesota, during the growing season, we find all those conditions most
favorable to agriculture present in a marked degree. Its mean spring tempers
ture is 45.6 degrees, which is the same as that of Central Wisconsin, Northerti
Illinois, northern Ohio, Central and Southern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 2j
degrees south of it. Its summer temperature is 70.6 degrees, corresponding
with that of Middle Illinois and Ohio, Southern Pennsylvania, Long Island aud
New Jersey, S degrees south of it
The season of vegetation in Minnesota, in common with that of the upper belt
of the temperate zone, is embraced between the first of April and the first 
October. Some idea of the average temperature of this period may be obtaiae
April.    May.      June.     July.   August.      Se1~
St. Paul, Minn.       -    -   46.3        59.0      68.4      73.4      70.1      58.9
Marietta, O.,   -       -   -  52.3        61.4      69.6      73.5      70.7      63.6
Chicago, Ill.,     -     -      46.0       56.3     62.7      70.7      68.5       60.1
Boston, Mas&,        -     -    45.57    57.04    65.57    71.08    69.10    62.78
Pt will be observed that the temperature of the growing months in the above
places is so nearly the same, that the difference can be scarcely appreciable *
"The Aplil of Minnesota is still the April of England, but her May corresponds
in temperature with the English June."
* "Minnesota, from its high northern position, has always had to maintain a certain struggle for
a just appreciation against the ignorant preconceptions of the majority of people of our days, who
were educated in the notion that latitude governs climate.  It is difficult to make the New Hampshire farmer comprehend that St. Anthony Falls, in the latitude of Hanover, has the summer il.mat
. fPhiladelphia-or that wheat, which will scarcely grow in northern New England, thrives on tbe
26 
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
The spring temperature of Ohio, it will be noticed, is greater than that of
Minnesota, while its summer temperature is less. The coolness of the Minnesota
spring, and the rapid increase in temperature as summer approaches, is claimed
as a great advantage, and on this fact the prefection of its grains and other agricultural products in a great measure depends. The fact anonnced by Dr. Forroy,
'that the cultivated plants yield the greatest products near the northernmost
limits at which they will grow," is explained on the principle-that the cool spring
restrains the growth of the trunk and foliage of the plant, and throws the full
development into the ripening period. "The very warm southern spring develops the juices of the plant too rapidly. They run into the stalk, blade, and
leaf, to the neglect of the seed, and dry away before the fructification becomes
complete.  Our cooler springs reverse this process, restrain the undue luxuriance
of the stem and leaf, and concentrate the juices in the development of the fruit
and seed."
The cereals all attain their most perfect development in northern climates.
Potatoes and other cultivated roots follow the same law   The perfection and
strength of the grasses in cool and northern regions, and their power of keeping
horses and cattle fat without grain, is proverbial.   Although the grasses attain
sufficient size south, they are forced to a rapid fructification before they have
time to elaborate their juices, and consequently contain but'i small proportion
of nutriment  These facts depend upon the same general lawv.  At the same
time, the products of grain, flour, &c., are manufactured to better advantage in a
cold climate, as they are preserved from  sourness, mustiness, &c., a longer
time.*
Period of Exemption from Frost.-The period of total exemption from
frost in Minnesota, varies from four to five and a half months, which allows
ample time for the perfection of all the annual crops, The frost is generally entirely out of the ground, which is then ready for planting, the last of April
and first of May.  The first fall of frost takes place with great regularity aboit
the middle of September, though sometimes delayed till the middle of October.
Minnesota is not exposed to late and early frosts more than the Middle and Western States.  The peculiar dryness of the air also enables vegetation to reit
light frosts, which in other localities would prove disastrous. This fact is exempltfied by the frost of June 4th, 1859, which was general nearly all over the
United States.   In Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, it was universally destructive;
ice formed one-third inch thick in Ohio; but in Minnesota no damage whatever
was done to field crops.  On account of this dryness, the temperature may fal
considerably below the fireezing point at times, without producing frost  The
dryness of the atmosphere, notwithstanding the abundance of the summer rains,,
is also very important on account of the protection it gives wheat and oats from
rust, smut, and insects, which often seriously injure the wheat fields of moister
climates.
Advantageous Distribution of Rain.-The mean annual fafl of rain in Minnesota, as set down in. Blodget's hyetal charts, is twenty-five inches.  It is a
remarkable fact that the greater part of this moisture is deposited during the
six growing months, when it is most needed, instead of being wasted in deluging the land and making winter disagreeable, as in New Er,gland and the Western and Middle States. The following, from the report of the Commissioner of
Statistics, shows the contrast between  Minnesota and the above States, in this
respect:
60th parallel, a thousand miles north of St. Paul.  One of the most curious consequences of this a
rupt northern deflection of the isothermal lines around the head of the great lake basins, is that St.
Paul, in latitude 45, is very considerably warmer during the whole six months of the growing season,
than Chicago, in latitude 42.
"It is not a little armusing, upon this showing, to read in the official report of the Illinois Central
Company, and in the Chicago Democrat, that "every spring brings down the frost-bitten and chilled
inhabitants of Minnesota, to the mild and genial clime of Illinois."-Report of Commnissioner of
Bt'ttstics.
*See an article on the "Accllmating Principle of Plants," in the American Journal of Geology, by
Dr. Fory.
2T 
IJNNESOTA:
Minn.   Ils.        Pa.      Man.
The six warm and growing months,    -    19.55        26.30     20.94      23.15
The six cold and non-producing months, -   5.88    15.650       21.40      23.81
The three summer months,         -    -    11.00    13.20    11.93    10.71
The three winter months,      -    -    -   1.92       7.10    10.76    11.86 
.,Now, all the points here brought into comparison have a greater rain fall in
the whole growing season than Minnegota; but the summer fall is nearly the
same, their superfluous spring and autumn rains, which are unnecessary and even
.injurious to vegetation, making up the difference in the whole quantity for the
warm months."
The excessive autumnal rains in the above States are often very destructive to
harvests. Immense amounts of wheat and corn were thus destroyed in Illinois
in 1862.  "The Minnesota farmer reaps as he sows, in the full confidence that
no untimely tempest will defraud him of the fruits of his labors. In these wet
climates, in the reeking summer air, agriculture is a perpetual vigil against conoealed enemies."
CHEAPNESS OF OPENING FARMS.
It is a fact worthyeof note, that in all places whose growth is unsubstantial,
the price of land is disproportionately high, while its products are low. But
in Minnesota, real estate is low, land is extremely cheap, (owing to the large
surplus yet unoccupied,) while its products command the first prices. Wheat,
oats, corn, potatoes, and in fact all that the farmer raises, find a ready market for
osh at home. A curious illustration of the practical working of this principle
is that lands purchased at ten dollars per acre are paid for out of the proceeds
of the first crop. Take this instance: A gentleman having a farm for sale,
offred it, with improvements, for $9 per acre. Failing to sell, he leased it,
receiving one-third of the crop His third netted him more than he would have
realized from the sale of the land. Many such instances could be given. This
illustrates what bargains may be secured where lands are cheap and the products
of the soil high.  A communication in the St.  Paul Press, says:  "It is our
duty to let people read and learn of Minnesota, where a man can buy land,
break and fence it, and pay for the land, breaking, fencing and all expenses, out
of the first crop!"
A man with a small, but high priced farm in the old States can dispose of it
for sufficient to set himself up well in Minnesota, and procure a farm for each of
his children besides; and these farms in a few years will be as valuable as the
one in the old State is now. The fortunes made by farmers here within a few
years, would scarcely be credited in the older States.
THE CLIMATE OF MINIESOTA.
UNIPARALLELED HEALTHFULNESS-EXEMPTION FROM PULMONARY AND MALARIOUS
DISEASES-CAUSES OF ITS SALUBRITY-DRYNESS AND PURITY OF THE AIR   TEMPERATURE AS COMPARED WITH OTHER STATES-AS A RESORT FOR INKALID
aC., &C.
BY A PHYSICIAN.
The assertion that the climate of Minnesota is one of the healthiest in the
world, may be broadly and confidently made.  It is sustained by the almost
unanimous testimony of the thousands of invalids who have sought its pure and
28 
IT8 ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
bracing air, and recovered from consumption and other diseases after they had been
given up as hopeless by their home physicians; it is sustained by the experience
of its inhabitants for twenty years; and it is sustained by the publish     -
tics of mortality in the different States. - The eminent Dr. Horace Bushnell, of
Hartford, Conn., after spending a year in Cuba and another in California, without any permanent benefit, spent a year in Minnesota, and recovered.  After
returning East and submitting to a rigid examination, his physicians said: " ~ou
have had a difficulty in the right lung, but it is healed." In a published letter
he says:-" I have known of very remarkable cases of recovery there which had
seemed to be hopeless. One, of a gentleman who was carried ashore on a litter
and became a hearty, robust man. Another who told me he had even coughed
up bits of his lung of the size of a walnut, was then, seven or eight months
after, a perfectly sound-looking, well-set man, with no cough at all. I fell in
with somebody every few days who had come there and been restored; and with
multitudes of others whose disease has been arrested, so as to allow the prosecution of business, and whose lease of life, as they had no doubt, was much
lengthened by their migration to that region of the country."
Many of our most prominetjt business men, whom no one would now take for
invalids, belong to the above class.  Almost any one who has resided here for
any length of time can refer to numbers, now enjoying ordinary health, who on
first coming here were considered hopelessly gone with consumption, or-ther
chronic disease. It is believed consumption is never generated here, which is a
4trong proof that the climate is a favorable one for those afflicted with the disease.
Minnesota is entirely exempt from  malaria, and consequently the numerous
diseases known to arise from it, such as chills and fever, autumnal fevers, aFre
cake or enlarged spleen, enlargement of the liver, &c., dropsy, diseases of the
kidneys, affections of the eye, and various billious diseases, arnd derangements of
the stomach and bowels, although sometimes arising from other causes, are often
due wholly to malarious agency, and are only temporarily relieved by medicine,
because the patient is constantly exposed to the malarious influence which' generates them. Enlargement of the liver and spleen is very common in Southern
and Southwestern States. We are not only free from those ailments, but by coming to Minnesota, often without any medical treatment at all, patients speedily
recover from this class of diseases; the miasmatic poison being soon eliminated
from the system, and not being exposed to its farther inception, the functions of
health are gradually resumed.
Diarrhlea and dysentery are not so prevalent as in warmer latitudes, and are of
a milder type. Pneumonia and typhoid fever are very seldom met with, and
then merely as sporadic cases.
Diseases of an epidemic character never -have been known to prevail here.
"Even that dreadful scourge, diptheria, which like a destroying angel, aSwept
through portions of the country, leaving desolation in its train, passed  us by
with scarce a grave to mark its course.  The diseases common  to infancy and
childhood, partake of the same mild character, and seldom prove fatal."'This is
the language of Mrs. Colburn, an authoress, and  the experience of physicians
corroborates this opinion.
That dreadful scourge of the human family, the cholera, is alike unknown
here. During the summer of 1866, while hundreds were daily cut down by this
.visitation in New York, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and other places, and it prevailed
to an alarming extent in Chicago,-not a single case made its appearance
in Minnesota.
Another, and a very large class of invalids, which derive  great benefit from
the climate of Minnesota, are those whose systems have become relaxed, debili tated, and broken down, by over-taxation of the mental and physical energies,
dyspepsia, &c.
And these facts, establishing as they do the remarkable salubrity of our cli mate, are borne out by statistics. The following table is copied from the Uni ted States census of 1860. The percentage column exhibits the number of'
deaths in every 100 persons; the last column shows the number, in each State,
out of which one person has died:
29 
NNESOTA:
3.
1.48
1.87
1 11
1.20;
1.27
1 05
47
1.08
1.41
1.Sc
1.36
1 55
1.06
1 40
.92
Il. 69}
1.82
1.39
.92
Deaths. c                                   Ppl a: 
12,760 1.82   7
8,864, 2.03  49
8,705.97  102
6,138 1.88  74
1'346 1.11   90
1,769 1.25   79
12,807 1.21    S2
19,263 1.12   88
7,260 1. ~7  93
15,205 1.12   88
1,443i1.84  74
16,46T 1.44   70
12,829:1.74   57
7.614 1.21   82
7'8701. 07   9;3
21 3,04!1.73  57
7,399   9S  101
1,109   64  155
12,214 1.54   64
Popula tion.
1,182,012
826,078
672,035
8,880,,85
992,622
2,339,511
52,465
2,906,1,15
174,62)
708,708
1,109,801
604,215
815,098
1,596,318
775,831
75,080
28,841
93,516
40'273
Missouri,. -
New Hampshire,
New Jersey,   -
New York,  -
North Carolina,
Ohio,  -
Oregon, -   -
Pennsylvania, -
Rhode Island,
South Carolina,
Tennessee,
Texas   -   -
Vermont, -    -
Virginia,     -
Wisconsin,      -
Dist. of Columbia,
Nebraska, -     -
New Mexico,
Utah,     -    -
It will be observed that Minnesota has the smallest mortality of any State in
the Union, except Oregon. Oregon, though a very healthy clime, is not a resort
for invalids. Lying on the Pacific coast, its climate, like that of New England,
is too humid to attract invalids.  On the contrary, Minnesota is a great resort
for consumptive invalids, and those laboring under various chronic diseases.
Of course, some come too late, and die here-probably living a year or so
longer than they would at home. This swells our mortality list, and taking it
out, Minnesota would hold a higher place than even Oregon.
As additional evidence of our healthy climate, I wili give the per centage of
mortality in the City of St. Paul for the year 1867. This is ascertained from the
burial records of the different cemeteries, which are kept with much  care, as
required by law, and are entirely reliable. In the City of St. Paul, containing
eighteen thousand people, according to the report of Dr.  Mattocks,  health
officer, there were in the year 1867 272 deaths, being one in 66 or 1.51 per cent.,
a ratio less than that of any city in the universe!  The  St. Paul Pioneer, in
publishing the mortality of the year, says:-" When we consider that our city is
a hospital for invalids, even these figures rob it of its real meed of praise. A
very large proportion of the persons dying in this city are strangers, who have
tome here sick and almost dying, to receive the benefits of our salubrious climate,
but only to linger a few months and then cease the struggle.  The city is constantly filled with them in all stages of disease.  Excluding these (and they should
be excluded) from our table of mortality, and counting only the deaths in our
regular residents, would reduce the deaths to l( ss than 1 per cent. of the population."
CAUSES OF THE HEALTHFUILNESS OF MINNESOTA.
However interesting it might be to go into a scientific exposition of the
causes and theories of the exemption of Minnesota from many of the diseases
which annually carry off thousands in the older States of America and Eurcpe,
space will not permit, and I must confine myself to such facts as are already established beyond cavil or dispute.
a.bsence of Malaria.-A large proportion of the diseases which afflict mankind have their origin in the poisonous and unhealthy emanations which arise
from the earth.  These emanations embody a subtle principle termed  malaria,
which is constantly rising, like an imperceptible gas, poisoning the air, and generating disease, chills and fever, different kinds of fever, pneumonia, diarrhea,
dysentery, debility, biliousness, diseases of the liver,. spleen, kidneys, &c. The
L
I
I
go
1..
12
p t
0
OT
72
go,
82,
76,
94209P
96
70
T2
73
64
98.
71
108
58
76
71
107
Popula tion.
964,201
435,450
879,994
460,147
112 1 216
144,425
1,057,286
1,711,951
674,918
1,350,438
107,806
1,155,684
708,002
628,379
687,0491,231,063
749,113
172,128
791,805
Deaths.
ll,.'%T
4,469
7'625
46,881
12,607
24,724
251
80,214
2,479
9.745
15,176
9,369
8,95
22,474
7 1129
112T5
381
1,806
374
Alab
Airkansas,
California,
(knnecticut,
Delaware,
FlorldN
(korgia,
Iowa,
Indiana,
Kansas,
. entucky,
Louisiana,
Maine, -
Maryland,
ifassachusette,
ichigan,
Innesota, 
IT8 ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
low temperature of our winters, continuing as they do for four months, effectually
destroys any malaria that might lurk in the soil, ready to spring forth in warm
weather.
We are thus entirely free from malaria, and the faet is well established that
ehiis andfever, and diseases generally, of a malarious origip, are entirely unknown in Minnesota, and those who come here suffering these ailments speedily
recover.
Perturbation of the Air.-The atmosphere, like large bodies of water, requires perturbation to preserve its purity; otherwise it becomes heavy and
stagnant, loaded with impurities and unhealthy, depressing the spirits by its monotony, and inducing a torpid condition of the whole system. The waters of
the ocean, and of large lakes, are kept pure by the agitation of the winds and
tides. All healthy countries are windy, but all windy countries are not healthy.
Winds blowing for many days in succession from one quarter, become pregnant
with moisture and other impurities. The winds in Minnesota are not persistent
and severe, but constitute rather a-lively agitation of the air, which constantly
changes it, carrying off noxious vapors and effluvia, conducing to its clearness
and purity, and imparting to it those qualities which give tone to the system
and invigorate the nutritive functions.
The prevailing direction of our winds is from the sonth, according to obser.
vations, extending over twelve years, recorded in the U. S. Army meteorologieal register   "This fact," says Mr. Wheelock, "goes far toward accounting for
the exceptional warmth of the spring and summer months in Minnesota, and
serves to show that the direction of currents of air exerts an influence only less
than the position in latitude in forming the measure of heat and cold."  Our
winds, instead of passing over the ocean, laden, like those dreaded "east winds"
of New England and the Atlantic coast generally, with saline moisture, come to
us only after traversing half a continent of land, pure and invigorating.
A comparison of the meanforce of the wind for ten years, at different place.
gives the following result: Fort Snelling, Minnesota, 1.87; New London, Connecticut,'2.67; New  York  city, 2.96;  Eastport, Maine, 2.63; Portsmouth,
N.  H., 2.50; Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 2.20; Detroit, Michigan, 2.26; Fort
Atkinson, Iowa, 2.48; Fort Leavenworth, t' ansas, 2.09. We thus perceive that
the mean force of the wind in Minnesota is less than at either of the other places,
representing, as they do, all sections of the Union excpt the South, and confirms the statement previously made, that our winds are lively agitations of the
air, rather than strong, continuous currents. As a consequence, the snows drift
less than in the East, and usually lie without material disturbance.
The following table, from the report of the Commissioner of Statistics, gives
a synopsis of the climate of Minnesota for the whole year, from which it will be
seen that a more perfect harmony between the three great fundamental coitions of climate than is here displayed, could be found no where on eairth:  w
0    z A
Mean Temp'tureegs.  13.7 17.6 31.4 46.3 59.0 68.4  73.4 70.1  58.9 47.1  81.7 16.*
Rai. -inches,    -     0.7  0.5. 1.8  2.1  8 2  8.6  4.1  8.2  8.3  1.4  1.3  0.7
Prevailing Winds      N.E. N.W. N.W. N.W. B.. S.E.    S.E. 8.B. S.E.       N.  N.E.
Courses,    -.    to  to  to  to  to   to  to  to  to  8.  to  to
N.W. S.w. S.W. S.W. S.W. S.W. S.W. S.W. S.W.       N.W. N.W.
Dryness of the.ir.-Another great cause of the salubrity of our climate is
the marked dryness of the air.  Moisture is a powerful agent in generating disease. It is the main vehicle of malaria and other atmospheric poisons. They
cling to it, or it holds them in solution.  It is through the watery vapor of the
atmosphere that most morbific agents reach the human body.   While an atmosphere which is too dry, like that of arid plains and sandy deserts, is unhealthy,
engendering over-action, fever, and debility, that which contains an excess of
moisture is still more so. A humid climate rapidly abstracts the natural warmth
of the body, and lowers the vitality of the system, producang feeble action and
oor nutrition as a consequence, thus rendering the system open to attacks of
iflammations, colds, coughs and consumption, as well as neuralgic and rhuematic
31 
XINNESOTA:
affections. (,'old, however intense, is not so perceptible if the air is dry. For
example: wet one hand; hold it and the dry one in tei cold for a few minutes.
A  damp air penetrates and chills, drives the blood inwards, and shrinks and
inkles up the  skin.  A  cold, dry air, like ours, is tonic, exhilarating, and
Strengthening. It has not the feverish heat of the desert, nor yet the humid
chilliness of the coast  This dryness further conduces to its purity.  It is pure
air, such as God intended to be breathed, oxygenating and purifying the blood,
and exerting a tonic influence on the whole organismn. It is free from the thou.sand and one impurities held in suspension by the excess of moisture prevalent
in the wet climates of southern and western States, and in New England. It is
full of electricity, and rich in the life-giving principle termed ozone, never found
in impure air.
I'EMPERATURE OF MINNESOTA- Compared with other States-Error-s repect.ing our Winters-Secret of the Salubrity of our Climate.-The popular impression that the further north you go the colder it gets, is an erroneous one.
The rule is open to many exceptions. The configuration of the earth is such,
that owing to mountain ranges, vast sandy plains, large inland bodies of water,
&c., the isothermal, or heat lines, are deflected several degrees north or south,
thus giving places a thousand miles apart the same temperature.  Thus places
in the same latitude of the Saskatchewan river, (latitude 51~ N.) enjoy the
same annual mean temperature as places in the latitade of F6rt Union (latitude
.37~ N.) a thousand miles south of it.  Minnesota, owing to the large lakes east
and north of it, and the vast arid plains, extending from latitude 35~ to latitude
47~ west of it, enjoys a mean spring temperature of 45~, warmer than Chicago
20~ south of it, and equal to Southern Michigan, Central New York, and Massachusetts; a summer mean of 700, equal to Central New York, Central Wisconsin,
Northern Pennsylvania, and Northern Ohio, four degrees south of us; an autumnal mean of 450, equal to New Hampshire, Central Wisconsin and Central Michigan, 2i~ south of us; a winter mean of 16?~, similar to Northern Wisconsin,
Nothern Michigan, Central Vermont and New Hampshire, on the same line of
latitude, but nearer the ocean; while its climate, for the entire year, being a mean
.of 45~, is similar to that of Central Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Central New
York, two degrees south of it.  We thus have aa annual range of temperature
from the summer of Southern Ohio to the winter of Montreal.
Referring to the above contrasts of climate, Mr. J. Disturnell, in a paper read.
before the American Geographical and Statistical Society of New York, says
This remarkable fact can only be accounted for on the presumption that Minnesota receives its favorable climatic inflence as regards health and growth, of
vegetation, from secret laws of nature, yet to be discovered."
But the veil which covers these natural laws is easily drawn aside. The luxuriant growth of her vegetation, large yields of cereals, &c., as we have seen, are
accounted for by her warm, rich soil, forcing suminer sun and timely rains, while
e secret of the salubrity of her climate is found in the dryness and consequent
trity of our atmosphere, combined with all the advantages of a rugged, deli*tful land, charming seasons, lovely and magnificent scenery. 
That the dryness of our air is real, we have many evidences. Meat hung up,
even in moderately warni weather, dries up before it spoils. Wagons, barrels,
&c., if left idle a short time, drop to pieces. The hygi ometer, an instrument for
determining the moisture in the air, shows our air to be very dry, generally, The
hyetal, or rain charts, in Blodget's "Climatology of the United States," shows the
remarkable fact that MinnesoLa is the dryest State in the Union, and at the same
time the best watered, on account of its many lakes and streams, and free from
drouths. Lying, as it does, between a vast arid belt on its west side, extending
through twenty-five degrees, and a large humid belt of equal length on its east
side, it'enjoys a happy medium.  The mean annual deposit of moisture il' Minnesota is 25 inches; Wisconsin 30 to 40; Iowa 25 to 42; Indiana, Illinois,
Ohio, Missouri, 42 to 48; Kentucky, Tennessee, 50; Cannada, 34 to 36  New
England and New York, 32 to 45; Pennsylvania, 36; Arkansas, Louisiana,
Alabama, and Mississippi, 55. to 63; Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, 40 to 42.
S2 
ITS ADVANTAGE8 TO SETTLERS.
Errors respecting our Winters.-No region which  at' present  engages the
public mind, as a field for settlement, has -been so grossly misrepresented, in re
gard to peculiarities of climate, as Minnesota. Fabulous accounts of its arctic
temperature, piercing winds, and accompanying snows of enormous depth, embelish the columns of the eastern press.-Neill's History of Minnesota.
WVe have seen that such impressions are erroneous-that our climate compares favorably in all respects with that of many other densely populated States.
Disinterested authorities, that cannot be questioned, have set this matter at rest
long since, and it only remains to enlighten tb+.public respecting the truth.
However repugnant to popular prejudice it may seem, our winter fall of snow
and rain is only one fifth that of New York and New England; the average deposit.of moisture in those planes for the winter being ten inches-that of Minne.ota two inches.-See Blodget's Climatology, Tc. page 342.
The great bulk of our water falls during the six growing months, in the form
of refreshing showers, which cool the air and encourag,e vegetation, leaving our
winters dry, crisp, and bracing-much easier to endure than the same amount of
cold in a damp climate.
MINNESOTA AS A RESORT FOR INVALIDS.
Ever since consumption has been known, a change of climate has been'
commended by physicians as a means of arresting a disease which medicine oan -not cure. Until within the past few years, it has been customary to send con sumptives to southern latitudes.  But medical opinion, influenced no doubt, by
the poor success attending this plan, has undergone a change, and as usual, gone
from one extreme to another.  Climates of a mild, equable temperature are no
longer sought; patients are now sent almost invariably to dry, cool, northern
climates, where the air is subject to considerable perturbation.
There are many places which are, or have once been celebrated resorts for con sumptive invalids -aderia, Ventnor,'Torquay, Cuba,. Florida, Algiers, Upper
Ey apt, &c.  Mans'' of these are now known to be positively injurious to this
i,s  of patients,'ad have been abandoned.  Among them all, there are very
few, even if harmless, that possesses any advantage.   So unsatisfactory has been
the result of change of climate that many eminent physicians no longer advise
their patients to try it, beliving that they stand about as good a chance to
recover at home. The fact that the disease is quite common in all of these places
of refuge, leads us to the conclusion that the benefit derived from them in such
cases, ifany, is due to the mere change of climate rather than to any special
influence arising from the localities themselves* The supposition that a warm.
,climate, or even a cold one possessing an equable temperature, free from sudden
,changes, is required by consumptives, is evidently an erroneous one   Dr. Law son, the author of one of the ablest works on this disease which has ever been
published in any language, says: "In order to promote health,, the atmdsphere
should be subject to sonie degree of perturbation, and even rapid cantgea, pro vided those variations are not great or extreme. The steppe of Kirghis, where
consumption is almost unknown, is remarkable for its rapid changes, and even
severe winds." Again: "In these early stages of phthisis, patients are already
beginning to feel the depressing effects of disease, and therefore, require all those
influences, hygienic and medicinal, which impart tone to the system, and thereby
invigorate the nutritive functions. It cannot be presumed, however, that a mild
and equable atmosphere will produce this result; on the contary, the very mo nototy of. the atmosphere must lead to depresion, and thereby increase the de bility.'  Of warm climates, he says: "A very warm, stagnant and moist atmos phere, with but little elevation, would manifestly prove injurious, and there is
suffidient ground to justify the conclusion that where the disease is far advanced,
troncal regions are unfavorable."  "We  have abundant testimony to prove
that when the disease has become established, and the system debilitated, but
* A Praetlcal Treatise on Phthihs Pumonalls,1" by L. M. Lawson, Oinoinnati, 11.
3
ag 
NNEBOTA:'
little good can be derived from warm regions, while, on the contrary, great 
Pry till often result."  M. Rochard, another medical writer, refers to the fa
that "tuberculosis marches with greater rapidity in the toirid zone than in
Europe."
I have searched through a vast amount of medical authority, and digested numerous tables of statistics  The conclusion I arrive at is, that the only cla ssof
consumptives benefitted at all by warm, equable regions, are those in the ve7
incipient stages; that the benefit in such cases is due more to the change than,
anything else; and that the same class of patients would be benefitted to a stfi,
greater degree by a dry, cool, elastic atmosphere, such as we have in Minnesota,
and in parts of New Mexico: ad California.
Dr. Chas. A. Leas, United States consul at Madeira, who has resided in Russia, Sweden, Central America, and Madeira, in the service of the government.
under date-of September 10th, 1866, writes:  "I have made  the subject of climate, as a curative agent in consumption, a special study, and in connection wit
my annual report to the State I)epartment at Washington-just now sent onI have entered somewhat into detail upon that subject, and have endeavored to
show, from observation, that consumption, in its earlier stages, is best relieved!
by a visit to, and residence of greater or less extent in, high northern latitudes,
instead of warm climates, as is the usual custom. I have further suggested Minnesota as one of the finest climates for that purpose."
In the report above alluded to, Dr. Leas accounts for the superior advantage
of a high, dry, 6ool latitude, in tubercular diseases, on the theory that the lungs
in health, are only sufficiently capacious to "admit air enough to purify, through
its oxygen, the whole of the blood; in proportion as the air thus breathed is
contaminated, or mixed with moisture and other impurities, so will the amount
of oxygen admitted into the lungs at any time, be diminished in quantity, and to
the same extent, a portion of the vital fluid unoxygenized," giving rise. to a diminished vitality, and thus laying the groundwork "for the development of consumption, under causes favorable to such a result." The atmosphere in high
northern latitudes, is much purer than that of warm countries, on account of the
precipitation of its excess of moisture by the cold, "thus giving a larger amount
of oxygen, which is the great vivifying element in a giv(en amount of air, and
thus again enabling the lungs to more thoroughly purify the entire volume of
blood. And more particularly are the lungs thus aided when a portion of their
substance is thrown out of action fromn the actual deposition of tubercular matter. Besides all that, the frequence of such a large amount of pure atmosphere
to the circulating fluid, has a decidedly tonic and invigorating effect upon that
element, and through it the whole system.     *       *        *     *      And
for such an atmosphere as is here indicated, I would suggest to invalids affected
with pulmonary disease, that they are most likely to find it in Minnesota."
The fact is worthy of note, that this communication comes from Madeira, a,
island which has been termed "the city of refuge" for consumptives.  But the
testimony of D)r. Mason, and the statistics of DI)r. Renton, prove that it is only
those'in the very incipient stages that have been benefitted there. Of forty-even
confirmed consnmptives who landed there, not one lived six months I And yet
Madeira has  the  most  equable  climate  in  the  world,-the  temperature
never varying over eleven degrees the year around,-never higher than 74 de grees, nor lower than 63 degrees.  With a warm, basaltic soil, protection from
winds, perennial summer, and tropical luxuriance, it would seem to be the con sumptive's paradise; but such is not the case.  The reason is simply that the air
is too stagnant, and wants life and perturbation; and the air is too moist, expe rience proving that consumptives require an air sufficiently moist to prevent ir ritation of the air passages, but at the same time dry, elastic, pure, and invigora ting.  A little wind, therefore, does no harm, while the experience of ages has
at length established the fact, beyond peradventure, that those countries most
favorable to consumptives, as the steppe of Kirghis,  New  Mexico, Minnesota
a;':l Californa, are remarkable for the dryness and pa.rity of their air, and ax
~ubject to ooeasioan changes of temperature,  as well as winds.  Another act
34 
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
worthy of special mention is, that the disease is seldom ever generated in those
eountries.
As compared with the other places mentioned, Minnesota takes the palm from
them all.  Whil  some portions of California, and of the Pacific cast generally, are favorable retreats, others are less so. The mountains are rather cold and
harsh-the valleys too stagnant and moist   The country about Sacramento aud
the interior of the State is the most fav'orable; but even here, according to Dr.
Hatch, of Sacramento, although the atmosphere is quite dry, it is very subject to
abrupt changes, and extreme vicissitudes of temperature.  The same is true of
that portion of New Mexico and Texas, best adapted to comsumptives-those
fierce "northers," to which they are subject, often causing a change of - temperature of 50 or 60 degrees in a few hours, and rendereng winter clotChing very acceptable. And yet Dr. Lawson says:  "It is extremely probable, if not positively certain, that the territory known as New  Mexico,.embraeing Santa Fe, is
more favorable to consumptives than any point on the American continent, if
not in the civilized world."  Minnesota, at the time this was written, although
even then a great resort for consumptives had not become known to the slow
Pegasus of the medical muse.' Drs. Gregg and Hammond, in their accounts of
the climate, show it to be'very similar to, but inferior to that of Minnesota.  It
is dryer-rather too dry-increasing the bronchial irritation and dyspepsia, arising from inflammatory action of the mucous membrance of the stomach, and inflammation of the lungs. The climate is more changeable than ours, and subject
to severer currents of wind. With these exceptions, the climate is very similar
to our   The air is dry and pure, and "persons withered almost to mummies
are to be occasionally encountered, whose extraordinary age is only to be inferred from their recollection of certain notable events, which had taken place in
times far remote."
Yet we have in Minnesota a climate superior as a resort for invalids, to even
New Mexico. We have never had any epidemic of typhoid or other fevers,
but owing to its warmer climate (its yearly mean being 50~ 6) New Mexico is
somewhat subject to this class of disease. The typhoid fever raged there as an
epidemic from 183. to 1839.  Our winds, instead being strong, cold, and continued currents, constitute rather a lively agitation, or perturbation of the air;
and finally, Minnesota is as accessible by railroad and steamers as Chicago, while
in New  Mexico, Dr. Lawson says that "the difficulty of access, as well as the
want of accommodations, and the character of the population, (Indians and
hunters, or "rangers,") will for a longlperiod, deter even those who have sufficient physical ability, from visiting the country."
The conclusion is thus forcibly impressed upon us, that for invalids, as well as
for every class of inhabitants required to populate a State, Minnesota is superior
aW a place of settlement to any region in the world.";
Without asserting that all persons afflicted with pulmonary disease wil invariable recover in Minnesota, it may be safely claimed that no climate under
heaven offers equal advantages to this class of invalids. "While it is undoubtddly true that a larger percentage of those in the early stages of the disease will
reeover, there can be no doubt but that those in the second and third stages often
get well here.  No physician can foretell the result of a trial.  The only method
of deciding the question is by actual residence. There are those here, whom no
one would take to be consumptives, who  have had but one lung fo'r over t
years.   ~lany come too late, or coming in time, continue here the over-taxation
of mind or body, or other unhealthy habits, which first broke them down. Their
friends blame the climate, if they fail to recover; but the fact is well established,
that any case within the reach of climatic influence, will get well here, if anywhere. Another fact equally well established, is that a permanent residence
here is better, in order to render the cure permanent. Many instances might be
cited, where invalids, after spending a year or so here, and apparently got well,
have gone East and died of the disease; of others, experiencing a return of the
oeld symptoms, and making a second recovery after returning to Minnesota.
Mangy cases, however, are cured, or greatly benefitted, by a sojourn of a few
35 
MINNESOTA:
months.  Sometimes years are required to effect a complete'cuore.  It is bet.*
for all desiring to secure the benefits of our clirflate, to cut loose from all.bus:ness relations where they.eside, take up their abode,' and go into business here,
as a resideni  has much better chances of recovery  than'a visitor, who is. deprived of home comforts and associations.  Seasons  vary, more or less,  every
where.  Some are more fatVcrable than others', but taken one year with another
Minnesota, as a-sanitarium, will be found all that it is represented to be.
; ~:.:    St. Paul, Minn., Feb. 4, 1868.,,
DEAR SIR:-Y.our letter of February Sd, 1868, has been received.  Au  obey
vation of nearly eleven years enables me to assure you that in your pamphlet
you have not over-estimated the wonderful salubrity of this climate.
In many pulnmonary affections the air seems directly curative, and dyspeptie
will most certainly be.benefitted by a residence in this State. The dry, bracing
atmosphere acts as a stimulant to the digestive organs; while the great changes
in temperature encourage circulation, and thus carry the rich blood to all parts
of the,body.
Digestion is that process by which supplies are taken into the blood from the
alimentary canal: and it has been well said that when you have plenty of good
air, and a good digestion, scrofula and consumption will be unknown. T'he pure
air we have — and it is now well understood by physicians, that our citizens eat
and digest the rich, animal food so abundant here, with much less call for high
seasoninug and for stimulating sauce, than they have been used to require elsewhere.
The effect -of the dry, cold air in relieving congestion of the liver is also remark&r
ble; and hundreds here who came from the South and  West broken down by
malsrial fevers, can testify to the rapidity with which they have recovered their
health and strength.                   Y cOuis respectfully, 
D. W. HAND, M. D.
G. HEwrrr, ET.
M —E,SO(TA SCENERY-R.ESORTS FOR TOURISTS.
-The scenery of Minnesota has attracted the attention of many writers, painters and poets, and elicited eulogies in prose and verse, ever since the first white
man stood on the brink of St. Anthony's Falls, or listened to the gleeful splashings of Mlinnehaha. The brilliant purity, dryness and elasticity of the air, bringiDg every object out with bold, distinct outlines, lends a peculiar charm to the
lovely scenery which everywhere abounds.   The nights, particularly, are sere
and beautiful beyond description. Prof Mbaury, author of the "Physical GeQgraphy of the Sea," says:  "At the small hours of night, at dewy eve and early
morn, I have looked out with wonder, love and admiration, upon the steel blue
s.ky of Minnesota, set with diamond. and sparkling with brilliants of purest ry.
Herscbell has said, that in Europe, the astronomer might consider himself highly
favored, if by watching the skies for one year, he shall, during that period, find,
all told, one hundred hours suitable for satisfactory observation. A telescope
mounted here, in this atmosphere, urider the skies of Mianesota,  would hav  ie
powers increased many times over what they would be, under  canopies  leo
brilliant and lovely," and many hundred such hours could be found here within
that period.
The  State is encircled by lakes and rivers, like the garden of Eden, as piotured by the imagination  In fact, the numerous streams and lakes of Miunnesota, form one of its characteristic charms, and when it was the habitation of the
Indians, they showed their appreciation of them by erecting their rude lodge on
their shady, pebbly shores. The larger lakes, with outlets, are from one to thirty miles in diameter.  The smaller class, however, are much more numerous, ad
"generally distinguished, also, for their clear, white, sandy shores, set in geotl,
gravy slopes, or rimmed with walls of rock, their pebbliy bea  es sparklin. wh
cornmielians and agates, while the oak grove or the denser wood, which  skirts its
36 
ITS AD    V NTAGE TO) SETTLER.S.
margin, completes the graceful and pictaeesque  outline."  Prof..laUry  says
'There is in this terr'itory a gater number of th'le lovely' sheets of laug'hing
water, than in nil the coutntiy besides.  They  give  variety and beauty  to the
laidscape; they sotten'the air,' aund leind all their thousand charms  and atra~
tions to make this goo(dly lan(d a lovely place of residince. WVe see that, with
these beautifl siheets of water, ataue has done for the upper missisj.sippi what
Fllett proposes  hould bi done by the goveromeut for th  ohio, aud what Napoleon lI is do'ingr or the river  of France."
Three lah-kes all abo..ad in  h, superiior in flavor antd qullity to those of the
slugish etred,ans of the WYesterii States.  Maavny leaping brooks, fed' by springs,
are pure and c )l3 a,s tn )atii tia4 strea4ns, and abo'und in sppecklea  trout.'Iuo the
disciples of Izak w a1ton, Miniiesota is a prtfect paradise.   To one fonr of the
sport, nothing could be more delightful than to drive out to one of these lvely
sheets of water, spending  the heat of the day on their shady shores, and the
morning and evening in a small boat, with.rod( and tackle   [an the spring  and
fall these la' es are all covered with ducks'and other water fow'l, affording rare
arAiement for the sportsman.
So the tourist who seeks respite from hot pavements, brick walls, and sultry
cities- relaxation of mind from the cares of business, recreation and recuperation'
coulld take'up his abode in no more favored spot.   Unlike the cramped' quarters,
artificial enjoyinents and tiresome exc.itement of fashionable places of resort,
like Sar;atoga or Newport, where the heat, dust, and annoyance of city  life, is
found, without any of its comforts, here the broad fields of primitive nature opens
wide to' view, and invites him to invale her precincts, invigorating body  and
minid.
From the first of Nlay until the first of August, fishing is the principal spoit.
S'6metimes wildl pigeons, which often br'eed in our woods,  may be shot in great
numnbers in'June.  After the first of August till frost, fowling commences, and
the gun and dog take the place of hook and tackle.  The first of August  in
Minnesota is what the first of Septeniber  is in Enlandl, when the game law permiits ~e shoo~tin,o
mheits t   The shogtin     of prairie chickens, pheasants grouse, &c., which abound  eve rywhere.  The larger game, such as deer, elk, and occasionally a bear or buffalo,
come in with col(l weather,  and continue till spring,.  In the fall and spring,
duckNaoid geese are fou,id plontifully inu"every little lake.
Not only to the m're sportsman does Niinnesota offer superior attractions,
but to the tourist generally, and all who would seek rest, natural repose,  and
quiet enjoyment, in a cool, bracing and healthful climate, surrounded by all the
pleasant associations of natlre, "unmarred by the  rude hand of art."  Railroads
and stage coaches mayl be taken, and the remnlotest parts of the State reached by
easy or rapid stages, as may be preferred. 
Every variety of' scenery will be met with on these excursions; now rugged,
bold, grand, and imposing;.now lovely, beautiful and picturesque.  The pecu liar properties of the air impart a softened brilliancy to the landscape, similar to
what is seen under the skies of Italy..l hen clothed in the slyvan garments of'
summer, decked with the floral gems of a thousand fragran, prairies, and lighted
by the goi'geous tints of its'sunshinep or mellowed and softened by the dreamy
haze of the "Indian summer" of the autumn mnonths, nothing could surpass the
scenery of Minnesota, diversified as it is with rock-ribbed hills and slumbering
. valleys, woodland and prairie, lofty and rugged bluffs, ravines, gorges, cataracts,
es,des, eternal springs of limpid purity, and leaping streams which. never dry.
GENERAL INFORMIATION.
ANSWE,R TO A FEW OF THE: THOUSAND QUh''rIO.NS ASKI?D MY, WILL BE FOUND IN THR
F)LLOWING  O(MaINATION OF DISJOINTED ITEMS. 
Persons with.families should not co).;e here ent;rely destit'.te to brave the
trials and privalious of pioneer life.
MAen with means at their command possess, of cotn e, here as elsewhere, great
ad vantages.  There is, perhaps, no question that money can, on an average, be
A. 7 
handled to better advantage in a new and thriving,W  stern country, than'in the
old settlements of the East and Europe. There are opened here a thousand
avenues into which capital can be profitably turned, and as it promotes the
growth and development of the State, it adds each day to the security of the inyestment.  Those familiar with the commercial, manufacturing and financial
affairs of Minnesota, assure me that there has not been a time since the flush
period of 1857, when half the field for safe and profitable investments of capital
was occupied.   Until the last year this want has been a source of great inconvenience and delay to the enterprise of the State,; but now that we have entered
upon a career of solid progress, and our population rapidly increasing, we find
capitalists seeking investments here tor their money, and giving new life and vigor
to many useful enterprises that else would have lingered and languished.
Our reputation as a healthy country brings many invalids here, who come to
regain their health, and do not wish to settle down permanently, or engage in
business until they have tested the climate. They do not want to be idle, or
desire to make expenses while here, and therefore many seek positions as teaohers, clerks, &c.  The consequence is here, as indeed everywhere, these positions
Are always crowded. Many young men in good health come expecting employmnent of this character, and are disappointed.  They then wish themselves back,
or wish they had learned a good trade, or understood and inclined to farm life.
They see around them here,men prosperous and contented on farms; some making fortunes, and but little exposed to the vicissitudes attending many other pursuits; while our merchants and professional men do reasonably well, it is an undeniable fact that our farmers are more uniformly successful than any other clams.
Indeed, the portion of farm work now done by machinery, leaves but little that
is irksome or forbidding in the life of a farmer So different is the business now
from what it used to be, and-so light is the work of a farmer here, as compared
with the East, that it is not surprising so many are disposed to engage in
the business. A vocation at once so honorable and independent will each year
commend itself more and more to sensible men, and instead of rearing their sons
to the uncertainties of the professions and mercantile life, they will devote them
to work that is blessed, because it makes two blades of grass grow where only
one grew before-bringing wealth out of the earth, enriching and ennobling
themselves, and adding to the material wealth of the country.
TIME TO COME-WAY TO GET HERE-PRICE OF LAND —ASON FOR OPHN1NG FARMS     COST OF SAME-PRICE OF LUMBER-MECHANICS WAGES-FARM HELP-HOTEI
COST OF LIVING-PRICE OF STOCK, &C., &C. 
Invalids come at all seasons, and this is, perhaps, right; yet the months of
March and April generally furnish more disagreeable weather than the other ten
months of the year.
Those who intend to take farms that are opened and in use, should be here in
time to do fall plowing, which is done in the months of October and November.
Those who intend to open farms should be here in the spring, so as to have their
breaking done before the first of August. Ground broken after that time had
far better not have been touched.  C(rops are put in from the first of April to
the 10th of June, and gathered in the months of August and September.
Government land can be had with land warrants or money, at from $1.00 to
$1.25 per acre, and in portions of the State at $2.50. Good wild land can be.
had from second hands at from $1.00 to $15.00 per acre, according to the di
tance from good trading towns, steamboat landings, and railroads.' T''e different Land Grant Railroads own inmmense quantities, located in odd sections, along
the line of their roads, and sell at from $2.00 to $8.00 per acre, on long time
and at reasonable rates of interest The prices of good farms must be estimated
by the reader from these figures, and the prices of materials and labor herewith
furnished It should be understood that free homesteads under the act of Congress are not found within sight of cities, affording good land, hay, wood and
water, but must be looked for in the,more remote and legs thickly settled district&
In giving the following estimates, some allowance should be made for the fact
that prices have not yet entirely receded from those of war times, but are getting
38
KINNEBOTA: 
ITS ADVANTAGIS TO SETTLBRS,
down gradually to a reasonable figure. The way to get here will be found in
the pages devoted to "Railroads and Steamboats."   We open the year 1868
with all rail from the East and South, to many remote localities in this Stateour lines being completed to St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids, nearly 80 miles above
,St Paul, on the Mississippi River, and to Minnetonka Lake, about thirty miles
south-west of St. Paul; to Le Sueur, 60 miles up the Minnesota River; to
Waseca, 105 miles above Winona, towards St. Peter. All our railroads are now
in the hands of active men, who are pushing them forward as rapidly as possible.
Those preferring to travel by river can have first-class side-wheel steamers, daily,
from any point on the Mississippi River to St. PauL Fare from Chicago $20;
from St. Louis by boat the same.
Having given the prices of land, I will give estimates for putting it to use.
To break prairie land costs from $2.50 to $4.00 per acre; timber land of course
much higher. Lumber costs from $14.00 to $17.00 per thousand feet for fencing,
according to the distance from the mills. Posts are made of cedar, tamrack, oak,
pine and locust Machinery does a large part of the farm work. We have
gang-plows, seed sowers, cultivators, reapers and harvesters, mowers, threshers
by horse power and steam. Men engage exclusively in these branches-have
their own machinery, and going from farm to farm, gathering a man's crop and
putting it in market in a few days. Hired men are procured with but little
trouble for farm work, and at prices ranging from $16 to $30 per month; hi'ed
girls at from $7 to $10. The expense of building houses must be gathered by
the reader from the price of lumber and mechanics' wages. Lumber for dwellings costs from $15 to $22 per thousand, and carpenters get from $2.00 to $3.50
per day; brick and stone masons from $2.00 to $4.00 per day.  Large barns
are not required-or, at least, are seldom found.  When the threshing is done in
the fall, the straw is thrown upon the timbers constructed with "crotch and
rider," which affords a warm and secure shelter for stock in all weather. Farm
horses here are worth from $80 to $180; cows from $30 to $45. Abundance
of good hay grows wild on our marshes and meadows, is considered equal to
the Kentucky blue grass, and by many superior to clover and timothy.  The expense of living here can be estimated by the prices charged for board at hotels
and private boarding houses. The prices range from $1.00 to $3.00 per day at
hotels, and from $1.00 to $2.00 at private boarding houses. These are the
prices in the larger cities of the State, but good accommodations are procured
in thrifty towns, and on the shores of attractive lakes, at more moderate prices.
The quality of the fare and the charges are to some extent under the control of
the travelling public. Where a man feeds low and charges high, it should be
your pleasure, as it certainly is you duty, to exercise the "traveller's privilege,'
and speak out;-let the fact be known as you pass around.  It is the only cor rective of this abuse-the only protection against the most disagreeable imposi tion known among men. The public pay their money and take their choice. If
they commend what is commendable, and censure the opposite, exercising a
cheerful discrimination, it will work a cure.  The man who  can keep a hotel
knows that an appeal to the stomach and the pocket never failed in a verdict!
I am the more particular on this point, because of the great interests of the State
in this matter. The man who first visits a place in bad weather, gets to a mean
hotel, is badly fed and over-charged, will carry the disagreeable impressions of
that place to his dyig day.
TEN YEARS AGO.
In contrasting the present of Minnesota with the past, it may not be unprofitable to recur for a moment to the " flush times" of 1857. The wonderful speculative fever that pervaded the West ten years ago, found its culmination in Minnesota   Young, attractive, with domain enough for an empire, it was not strange
that thousands came here from the older States, and other countries, in search of
fame and fortune. In the multitudes who came here in those excited and exciting times, were many of the best men of the localities from which they came,
39 
4MINNESOTA.
and, on au average, perhaps as good a class of people as ever,flocked to a new
country.
There however seemed this difference between the tide that poured into Minnesota, and that which drifted to the gold fields of the Pacific coast: While the
latter, as a rule, expected to get wealth even if they had to dig for it, the formner
seemed to think they could readily obtain it here, and without any special wear
and tear of muscle.  The result was, a population made up mainly of specula
tors;-nobodyvto work, nobody to develope the resources of the Territory; all
these rich, broad acres-all these immense water-powers-all our great wilderness
of lumber, as undisturbed as when the Indians controlled them.  Cities and
towns built, with no productive country or agricultural community around to
support them, filled with men who came here, some with mon-jey and some without, but all engaged in the all-absorbing whirl of wild speculation, dealing in
corner lots and sections of moonshine, with money at from three to ten per cent
a month-raising nothing from the earth-living upon the flour and meat, and
even vegetables, brought up the river on the boats that carried them here!
Such was the condition of Minnesota when overtaken by the memorable financial crash of 1857.  The reader ueed not be told that the shrinkage of value
was-terrific! nor that they resembled Wirt's blind preacher, whose  "descent
was,beautiful and sublime, as his elevation had been rapid andl enthlsiastic.0'
There are certain dangerous diseases that attack in childhood, from which, if
the patient recovers, he can safely claim immunity henceforth.  Ours was of that
sort, and so well defined as to not mistake its type. From that time we date our
rim and solid growth, and while to-day we look back with amazemnent upon those
times, we recall men of that period to whom  we are indebted for much of our
present prosperity.
MINNESOTA TO-DAY.
No account has been given in these pages of the difficulties through which
this State has had to struggle.  Their recital would serve to show a progress
under difficulties, such as no other State has ever attained; and it would seem
that we have indeed, like the fabled spectre ship, " sailed the faster in the very
teeth of the wind."
The year 1867, although not in every respect what we could have wished, has
been in the aggregate the best year we have ever known.  Al ore men have taken
to the plough; there have been more acres of land broken; more grain produced; more minerals developed; more lumber made; more houses built;
more manufactories started; more railroads constructed; more boats employed;
more freight carried; more people added to the State, than in any year of its
history. This has not been done under any sud(den influence of flush times and
wild speculative mania, such as all new western States must have, but the result
of causes naturally producing these results-and that through a year not generally
regarded as a prosperous one, or in any Aspect calculated to give unusual stimulus to progress.  Indeed, o6ur people have been wisely held in check by reason of
the gloom and disasters of other sections, and the apprehension that the year
was to bring us anqther of those financial revulsions for which the sevens had
become so painfully noted.
We have now entered upon 1868 with a prospect for the future which the
most favored periods of the past bear no comparison. Mitiuesotians all seem
full of confidence in the future of this State, and there are ab)undant reasons for
the faith that is in them. Every city, town and district shoos life and piogress
Our Tarmers-that strong arm of our destiny —all cheerful aflt( thrifty, with their
numbers rapidly increasing; our manufactoies multiplying; our railroads on a
sound basis, and stretching to every portion of the State; iilmigiation gr-eatly
on the increase; eastern capital seekiiug investments in our mids,,t; our reputation established as a Sanitarium for the world!  With such a State, and such a
start, may we not confide,ntly look forward to the time when Nininesota shall
stand among States, as Napoleon among warriors-the Ilimwlaya among imountaias I
THE END.
40
I 
1868..        1868.
Lake Superior & Mississippi
The line of this road is from St. Paul, the head of navigation on the Missssippi river, to the head of Lake Superior, a distance of 140 miles.  It connects at St. Paul, with each of the long lines of railroad.traversing the vast
and fertile regions of Minnesota, in all directions, and converging at St. Paul.
It-connects the commerce and business of the. Mississippi and Minnesota
rivers, the California Central Railroad, and the Northern Pacific Railroad,
with Lake Superior and the commercial system of the great lakes, and makes
the outlet or commercial track to the lakes, over which must pass the commerce of a region of country, second to none on the American continent in
capacity for production.
The land grant made by the government' of the United States and by the
State of Minnesota, in aid of the construction of this road, is the largest in
quantity and most valuable in kind ever made in aid of any railway in either
of the American States.
This grant amounts to seventeen square miles or sections (10,880 acres)
of land for each mile of the road, and in the aggregate to one million six
hundred and thirty-two thousand acres of land.
These lands are'for the most part well timbered with pine, butternut, white
oak, sugar maple and other valuable timber, and are perhaps better adapted
to the raising of stock, winter wheat, corn, oats, and most kinds of agricultural products, than any equal quantity of land in the Northwest.
These lands are well watered with running streams and innumerable lakes,
and within the limits of the land belonging to the Company, there is an abundance of water-power for manufacturing purposes.
A glance at the map, and an intelligent comprehension of the course of
trade, and way to the markets of the eastern cities and to Europe, for the products of this section of the Northwest, will at once satisfy any one who examines the question, that the lands of this Company, by reason of the low freights
at.which their products reach market, have a value-independent of that
which arises from their superior quality-which can hardly be over-estimated.
Twenty cents saved in sending a bushel of wheat to market, adds four
dollars to the yearly product of an acre of wheat land, and what is true of
this will apply to all other articles of farm produce transported to market,.
and demonstrates that the yalue of lands depends largely on the price at
which their products can be carried to market.
TERR LA,NDS: OF TR[$, PQ M@AM Y
ARE NOW OFFERED
IMMIGRANTS AND SETTLERS
At the most favorable rates, s to time and terms of payment.
W.  L. BANNING,
President.
R.A ILRO]D. 
Minnesota Stage Company.
This Company runs stages in connection with all the Railroads and over the principal thoroughfares in the State.
FROM WASECA,
Terminus of the Winona and St. Peter Railroad, to WiltoRa,
Winnebago Agency, Mankato and New Ulm.
FROM LE SUEUR,
Terminus of the Minnesota Valley Railroad, to St. Peter,
Mankato, Garden City, Winnebago City, and Blue Earth,
City.
FROM SAINT CLOUD,
Terminus of the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad, to Saint
Jo, Cold Spring, Sauk Centre, Alexandira, and Fort Abercrombie.  Also, to Little Falls, Fort Ripley, and Crow Wing.
FROM RUSHFORD,
Terminus of the Southern Minnesota Railroad, to Preston,
Spring Valley, and Austin.
FROM WINONA,
To Fountain City, Wis., Wamandee Valley, Gilmanton, and
Eau Claire.
FROM SAINT PAUL,
To Wyoming, Suniirise, Chengwatana, and Superior. Also,
to Stillwater, Marine and Taylor's Falls. Also, to Hudson,
Wis.
BLAKELEY & CARPENTER,
Proprietors.
ST. PAUL, 1868.
IS(IS.
IS(3s. 
WINONA ANfD ST. PETER
RAILROAD COMIPANY.
iso'S.
GREAT INDUCEMENTS TO SETTLERS.
400,000 Acres of Superior Farming
Lands for Sale.
TDe Winona and St. Peter Railroad, for the construction of which a grant
of lands was made by act of Congress in 1857, extends from Winona, on the
Mississippi river, westerly, via St. Peter across the fertile valley of the Minnesota river and through the great wheat producing district of Minnesota
to the western boundary of the State.
The Railroad is now in operation for a distance of 105
miles from Winona,
will be rapidly extended westward, and with an eastern connection now
nearly completed, will form a part of the great trunk line from the east to
the northwest.
The lands offered for sale by this company are within twenty miles on
each side of the road, the larger portion of which being located in the most
.densely populated district in the State, have all the advantages of the older
States in regard to markets, schools, &c., &c.
SPECIAL NOTICE.
150,000 A CRES OF THESE LANDS,
IN THE COUNTIES OF NICOLLET, SIBLEY, RED
WOOD AND COTTONWOOD,         It
Are now for the FIRST TIME offered for Sale.
To ehable persons who wish to secure homes in the west, the Railroad
Company have decided to offer, during the present season, a portion of these
lands, in tracts not exceeding 160 acres each, on the following liberal terms,
viz: Parties purchasing to pay interest, at rate of seven per cent. per annum, annually in advance on amount of purchase money for first three years,
and principal and interest at same rate, payable in four annual payments
thereafter.
No lands will be sold to any but actual settlers for occupancy; and under
no circumstances for speculative purposes.
Maps showing the exact location of the lands can be seen at this office,
and pamphlets relating to the lands, climate and productions of the State,
will be furnished on application at the office of the Land Department, or by
letter to
H. W. LAMBERTON,
Land Commissioner, Winona & St. Peter R. R. Co.,
Winona, Minn.
ISGS.
-.,D. 
MILWIAUKEE ANI  SAINrT Pl:[L RAILIrAY,
EMBRACING THE PRINCIPAL RAILWAY LINES IN
Wisconsin, MIinnesota and Northern
-.Iowa, viz:
MILBS                               WILZO
Milwaukee to LaCrosse......... 200 Horicon to Berlin and Omro,..... 52
Milwaukee to Prairie du Chien,.. 196 Watertown to Sun Prairie....... 26
Milwauke to Portage,.......... 96 Milton to Monroe,............ 42
McGregor  (opposite Prairie du 
Chien) to St. Paul & Minneapolis, 212    Total,..................825
Alex. Mitchell, President. W. S. Gurnee, Vice President. S. S. Merrill,
General Manager. J. P. Whaling, Auditor. A. Cary, Sec. and Treas. O. E.
Britt, Gen. Freight Agent. A. V. H Carpenter, Gen. Pass. Agent, Milwaukee, Wis.  J. W. Prince, Gen. Eastern Agent, No. 2 Astor House, New York.
TWO THROUGH EXPRESS TRAINS TQ
MINiYEA POLS & ST. PA -4UL, ~ron MIL WA UKEE,
Daily (except Sundays.)
MAGNIFICENT PALACE CARS ON DAY TRAINS.
Splendid  new'  Sleeping  Cars ot Night'1?ains, with a full
night's re.st, vi?a i][ilwa?ikee.
PURCHASE TICKIETS VIA "MILWAUKEE."
This is the only All Rail Route to Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
. NOTE.-Passengers via Miltoaukee have ample time for meals at Fox's
new Depot Hotel at that placethe best Railway Eating-House in the country.
Bagg,age Checked Through only by this Route, and via Milwaukee alone,
The same advantages apply to passengers going East from Minnesota, Northern Iowa and Wisconsin, by this route.
Passengers for any point in WisCONSIN, MINNESOTA AND NORTH.ER
IOWA, by purchasing Tickets via Milwaukee secure the following advantages,
viz: the most direct route, and the only one by which connections are sure:
No Night changes of cars: Clean Coaches, with ample accommodations, are
always provided at Milwaukee. Palace Sleeping Cars are attached to night
trains from Milwaukee alone, which insures a full night's rest-facilities not
attainable by any other route. This is the only route by which baggage is
checked through to St, Paul, Minneapolis, or Owatonna. 
SPECIAL NOT ICE!-Passengers destined for any place in Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Northern Iowa, either on or off the Lines of thi;; Coinpa.iny, who
can not procure through tickets to destination should purchase their tickets
to Milwaukee, as this is the great distributing point for these States, and by
so doing they avoid tihe liability of getting out of their direct way.
Du in    hoSrig  Smerad al,eigatsfr o...aul....n
During the Spring, Summer and Fall, emigrants for St. Paul, Minneapolis and  intermediate points, via PGraire dl  Chien, will go through from
MILWAUKEE tithout change of cars. 
North Western Union Packet Co.
The splendid steamers of this Comipany will run during the
season of navigation, between St. Paul and St, Louis, forming
a daily line, and making close connections at St. Louis with
the Mississippi and New Orleans Packet Companies.
with trains of Illinois Central R. R.
s"UE     Dubuque Sioux City R. R.
PR. D  C & "Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien &
"O       McGregor W. Railways.
"ARsE    Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway.
WNN"     Winona &  St. Peter Railway.
St. Paul & Pacific Railroad.
S" PL    Minnesota Valley Railroad.
Minnesota Central Railroad.
These steamers ate unsurpassed by any on the Upper Mirsissippi, for speed, safety'and confort. They are elegantly
fitted for the accommodation of passengers, and are commanded
by experienced Captains.
The traveler or tourist on this route sees the many young
cities and villages that have grown up, as if by magic, along
the shores of the Mississippi river, from St. Louis to St. Paul,
among which are,-cGregor, Prairie du: Chien, LaCrosse, LaCrescent, Winona, Wabashaw,  Lake City, Red Wing, Prescott, Hastings, &c.  He also passess through Lake Pepin, a.
beautiful sheet of water, thirty miles in length, embellished on
either-side with grand and interesting scenery.  Indeed, all
along the river are found spectacles of a very romantic and
picturesque character, unequalled in the new world, if in('!eed
in the old. The art-embl)ellished shores of the Hudson do not
compare with the grand, wild, natural scenery, with which
nature has festooned the. shores of the Father of Waters in
Minnesota; and cultivated travelers from abroad have again
and again asserted, that there is nothing in the old world to
equal it-not even in Italy, Switzerland, or the Rhiue,-mid
the vine-clad hills of old France!
Passengers can purchase through tickets to all principal
points East and South, at the offices of the (Qompany. Westward bound passengers can also procure tickets over this
route, at all Eastern Railroad offices.
W. F. DAVIDSON, President.
ST. PAUL, MNN   OTA- Office cor. Third and Jackson Sts.
1868#
18681's
rIp 11 IF-,
DU3,'L —IITH,
DUBUQUE,
PR. DU CHIEN &'
McGREGOlt,
LACROSSF,,
WINONA,
ST. PAUL, 
i868.
THE NORTHERN LINE.
THIS WELL KNOWN STEAMBOAT COMPANY
CONTINUE THEIR LINE OF
Daily Packets from St. Louis to St. Paul,
Through the Season of Navigation.
THEIR LINE EMBRACES, AMONG OTHERS,
Nine First- Class Side- Wheel Steamers,
Commanded by careful and experienced officers, and thoroughly fitted up for the accommodation of Passengers.
A Boat leaves St. Paul and St. Louis each day, touching at
the cities and towns along the Mississippi River in
Missouri,  Ilinois, lowa, Wisconsin  and Minnesota,
Passengers by this line have the comforts of a home-like
mansion or first-class hotel, while they traverse five States,
see the principal cities on the river, and enjoy the picturesque
and romantic scenery along the route; making it a journey
or pleasure excursion of the most delightful and satisfactory
character to the tourist and pleasure seeker.
i868.
-.O 
Saint Anthony Falls Water-Power
Owning and controlling two-thirds of the Magnificent Water
Power at the Falls of Saint Anthony, embracing a river front
of
Over One and a quarter Miles,
On which there is a well distributed fall in the Mississippi
River,'and in the heart of the city, of over Seventy Feet, with
Sawmnills having a capacity to cut Twenty-Five Million Feet
of Lumber per annum; together with
One Thousand City Lots,
And much other valuable property, all controlled by a
charter with perpetual franchise, representing a
Capital Stock of $640,000,
Is now  offered for sale ON VERY  FAVORABLE
TERMS.
This is the Great Water Power of the Northwest, and is
susceptible of almost unlimited development.
The pdpulation at the Falls is 13,000. Church and school
privileges equal to any in the Northwest.
The richly endowcd University and Agricultural College of
Minnesota, now in operation, adjoins this property.
For pamphlets containing full particulars, address
RICHARD CHUTE, Agent,
St. Anthony Falls, Minnesota.
.,..,:.*:
* t                   -  
Ad ~ AIYI TAI I $T$,
IJI:          -1
4C0ovp~Y, 
1868.
THE
RAIL ROAD COMPANY,
Saint Paul,
FROM ST. PAUL, via MANKATO, TO SIOUX CITY.
COMPLETED TO LE SUEUR-64 MILES.
A Land Grant of 1,200,000 Acres.
The Company now offer for sale and settlement 450,000 acres of their
lands, comprising some of the very finest and most productive arming land
in the West, at prices from $5 to $10 per acre..
These lands were odd sections, withdrawn from sale in 1857, the even
sections being mostly sold to actual settlers. The country is consequently
well settled and improved, with roads, school houses, churches, and numerous towns and villages.
The lands consist of both timber and prairie, with rich soil and finely watered, with a climate superior to that of any of the Western States.
The lands now offered are situate in the counties of Dakota, Hennepin,
Carver, Scott, Sibley, LeSueur, McLeod, Nicollet, Blue Earth, Brown, Watonwan, Martin and Cottonwood.
GENERAL TERMS OF SALE:
One-fifth cash, balance in five annual payments, with interest at the rate
of seven per cent. per annum, or a discount of ten per cent., on four-fiftlhs
of purchase money for cash sales.
All applications for the purchase of lands, or any information regarding
them may be addressed to the
"LAND DEPARTMENT,"
Minnesota Valley Railroad Company, St. Paul.
O RS OF THB.COMPANY:
I LG.A.  HA.  LTON, Ac r,
H. THOAMON, TeatUrer.
.               -.:
I, -. i..,                  i   ~
1868.
I I q
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IV IV
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Minne8otEL9
-.,D.
E. F. D
J. L. UK, vice preet. 
THE SAINT PAUL PIONEER,
THE OLDEST AND BEST NEWSPAPER IN THE STATE.
A DEMOCRATIC DAILY, TRI-WEEKLY, & WEEKLY JOURNAL
As an advertising medium the Saint Paul Pioneer is unsurpassed by any
paper in the Northwest.
TERMS.
Tri-weekly, 1 year, $6.00    Weekly, 1 year, $2.00
s"      6 mo's   3.00        "    6 mo's,  1.00
PIONEER PRINTING COMPANY,
SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA.
THE SAINT PAUL PRESS.
DAIELY,, TIWEKY, AND WEEKY.
THE LEADING REPUBLICAN PAPER OF THE STATE.
Advertisers are assured that its Total Circulation is Three-Fold
that of any other Paper published in Minnesota.
Especial Attention paid to Statisties of the Development and Growth of the State.
TERMS:
DAILY —One Year, $10.00; Three Months, $2.50
TRI-WEEKILY "   6.00;                             "             1.50
"THE WEEKLY PRESS" is the LARGEST PAPER published west of Chicago.
Rates of Subscription-One Year, $2.00
Address,                  "Press Printing Co., St. Paul, Minn."
THE SAINT PAUL DISPATCH.
jA   Repul-le    J'mew -pp~
PUBLISHED DADLY, SEMI-WEEKLY & WEEKLY.
TERMS.
DAILY L per year,    -         -        -       $5 00
SEMI-WEEKLY,.-._                    2 00
WEEKLY,       i       -        -        -         1 50
RAMALEY, HALL & CO.
ALSO
STEAM BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS AND BOOKBINDERS,
MINNESOTA STREET, between Third and Fourth, ST. PAUL, MINN.
THE ONLY
Representative Catholic Journal in the
I~ORTH-WE:ST.
Published with the approval of Rt. Rev. Bishop of St. Paul.
By JOHN C. DEVEREUX,
Catholic Block, Third street, St. Paul, Minn.
~
i
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Daily, 1 year, $10.00
" 6 months, 5.00
Address
II
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THE FIRST DIVISION OF THE
ST. PAUL & PACIFIC R. R. COMPANY.
1868. LAND DEPARTMENT.  1868.
FARMS AND HOMES IN MINNESOTA.
This Company now offers for sale
500,000 ACRES 0F LA2ND,
Located along their two Railroad lines, viz: from St. Paul via St. Antho   ny, Anoka, St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids to Watab, and from St.
Anthony via Minneapolis, Wayzetta, Crow River,
Waverly and Forest City to the Western
Boundary of the State.
For Grain Growing,
The lands in the counties of Hennepin, Wright, Stearns, Benton and Meekcr, present unsurpassed advantages. Farmers firom the Eastern States are
selecting these lands in preference over all others forthe purpose of raising
wheat, the great staple article of Western Commerce.  These counties also
contain an abundance of fine hardwood timber, which is in great demand
for various purposes, and finds a ready market along the Railroads and
pays not only for the clearing of the land, but for the land itself.
For Stock Raising,
The counties of Anoka, Isanti and Slherburnc, are particularly well adapted.
The soil is a rich, sandy loam, partly prairie, brush and lilght timber, somewhat rolling, with innumerable fresh water lakes, and traversed by fine
ruiling streams, which are bordered by an abundance of good meadow
lands. afiording an unlimited supply of grass and hay.  They are easy of
access to the mines on Lake Superior, and the great Pineries of tlire northerr part of the State, which affords the best and principal markets for
cattle in the country.  In connection with stock raising it is necessary to
call attention to the fact, that the Daci)ry Business is as yet in its infancy,
which is shown by the high prices of butter anmlieesc, and the large ilnportations of those articles every season from the Eastern States.
Wool Raising
Is also becolingi very profitable in Minnesota, and, besides the lands in
the counties of Anoka, Isanti and Slherburne, described above, the prairie
lands in the counties of Meeker, Kandlyohi andl Monon.galia, are particullarly sought after for that purpose.
Terms of Payment:
These lands arc offered in tracts of 40, 80 and 160 acres and upwards, at
prices v?arying firom $5 to $10 per acre (with some few tracts at higher
figures) rated according to the quality and nearness to the Railroad.  They
are sold for cash or on long credit (ten years if desired) with 7 per cent.
annual interest, thus enabling persons of small means to acquire, on easy
terms, a home in a healthy and productive region. Those who have already
settled along the lines of these Railroads have found their lands increase
in value at the rate of 50 per cent. per annum.
These lands have been reserved from sale silnce 1857; they are in the
midst of considerable settlements, and convenient to Churches, Schools
and established roads and markets.
For further information apply to
GEORGE L. BECKER,
Land Commissioner, St. Paul, Minn.
HERMIANN TROTT, Secretary.
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