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YALE UNIVERSITY
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THE

EMPIRE STATE

OF THE

IIW HDBIH-IRST

THE

Commercial, Mannfacturing and Geographical Centre

OF THE

AMERICAN CONTINENT.

ISSUED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE STATE BOARD OF
IMMIGRATION.
JOHN W. BOND, Secretary,
Authok of "Minnesota and its Resources," in 1853.

1878.

ST. PAUL, MINN.
H. M. SMYTH & CO. PRINTERS. C. H. PERRY, STEREOTYPER.

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THE

EMPIRE STATE

OF THE

THE
Commercial, Manufacturing and Geographical- Centre
OF THE
AMERICAN CONTINENT.

PUBLISHED BY THE

BOARD OF MIGRATION FOR THE STATE OF MINNESOTA.
PRESIDENT :
GOVERNOR JOHN S. PILLSBURY.

Albert Knight,
E. C. Huntington,
August Peterson,
Frederick Von Baumback,
Dr. J. P. Corcoran, -
Theodore Holton,

board of directors: St. Peter, Nicollet County.
Windom, Cottonwood County.
Albert Lea, Freeborn County
Alexandria, Douglas County.
DeGraff, Swift County.
Lake Park, Becker County.

secretary :
JOHN W. BOND.

1878.

ST. PAUL, MINN.
H. M. SMYTH & CO. PRINTERS. C. H. PERRY, STEREOTYPES.

TO LABORING- MEN,
WHO EARN A LIVELIHOOD BY HONEST TOIL;
TO LANDLESS MEN,
WHO ASPIRE TO THAT DIGNITY AND INDEPENDENCE WHICH
COMES FROM POSSESSION IN GOD'S FREE EARTH;
TO ALL MEN,
Or Moderate Means, and Men of Wealth, Who Will Accept
Homes in a Beautiful and Prosperous Country, this
Pamphlet, With Its Information and Counsel,
is Respectfully Offered by Direction
of the Governor and Board of
Immigration of the State
of Minnesota.
THE BENEFITS OF IMMIGRATION ARE RECIPROCAL.
If it is Well to Exchange the Tyrannies and Thankless Toil
of the Old World, for the Freedom and Independence of
the- New, and to Give the Overcrowded Avocations
of the East a Chance to Vent Themselves Upon
the Limitless and Fertile Prairies of the
New North West, it is also Well for
the Hand of Labor to Bring Forth
the Rich Treasures Hid in
the Bosom of the
NEW EARTH.
The Wealth of Mlnnesota' Consists Not tn Her Fertile Praerles and
Mighty Forests, Her Broad Rivers and Thousand Lakes, But
m Those Products Which Fill the Barns With
Plenty, and Quicken the Energies of
Trade and Commerce.

THE
EMPIRE STATE

-OF-

¥l<e ^ew ^of tl^-West

INTRODUCTORY.

Elevated as in a mirage of beauty, from eight to eighteen hundred feet
above the Gulf of Mexico, lies a wide spread domain of unparalleled fer
tility. Not mountainous, but with mountainous characteristics — dotted
with sparkling lakes of crystal clearness— with a quickly drained surface
of rapidly flowing streams, whose fountains are pure and renovating.
Cast your eye over the map. Take in the head waters of the Missis
sippi, Minnesota and Red Rivers of the North, extending through six
and a half degrees of latitude from the Iowa line to British America.
Then sweep westward from Lake Superior away off towards the Missouri,
and you have a grand level plateau of forest, prairie and stream of 84,000
square miles or 54,000,000 acres. The most of it of a deep rich, black
loam, unequalled in quality and fertility and apparently inexhaustible.
This constitutes the State of Minnesota, the future seat of empire on this
continent. A Slate that can throw oyer thirty- five million acres of the best lands
in the world into cultivation, and can produce annually over seven hun
dred million bushels of the finest wheat. Assuming the national debt to
have been three thousand millions at the close of our late war, and Min
nesota alone could throw from her bountiful soil, enough produce to pay
that debt in the short space of four years time.
From her inexhaustible pineries, she can produce lumber enough, and of
the finest quality, to line both banks of the Mississippi from the Gulf to
its remotest spring branch in Lake Itasca, with a continuous city, sloping
and terraced from bank to bluffs.
Her export of wheat, flour, corn, potatoes, lumber and beef, will soon
dot the great lakes with white winged commerce. The Father of "Writers
her tributary to the Gulf — thence over the broad Atlantic to Europe's
peopled surface, whose millions she almost alone can feed.
British America, from the Saskatchewan valley, and from our northern

INTRODUCTORY. 5
boundary to old Fort York, on Hudson Bay, will pour in its treasures
through the valley of our Red River of the North— the Nile of this con
tinent. Around the head of navigation on the Mississippi and the Falls
of St. Anthony, with its one hundred thousand horse power, will arise a
powerful and populous city— the capital of the State— and the depot for
the cotton and other productions of the south, the furs of the north, the
gold, or what is better, the golden grains of the west, the products of the
valleys of the Missouri and the Yellowstone to the base of the Rocky
Mountains. I might add to this the manufactures of the east, but she
will ere long produce her own manufactures, and with the jetty improve
ments at the mouth of the Mississippi, and the clearing out of the upper
and lower rapids, snags and sand bars, she will ship her flour direct to
European markets. Her present population of three quarters of a million
is but the beginning of the great human wave now rapidly flowing in
upon us.
We can sustain and give employment to a population of five millions.
To obtain them, I do not know where to look on the face of the earth
outside of our own country, as far south even as latitude thirty-nine, for
a people who would be worth having in Minnesota ; but we want all the
middle, northwestern, eastern, and southern States, and all the people of
' the islands, and the Continent of the north of Europe, to know what ad
vantages Minnesota offers to them.
The whole of the British islands, the nursery of that vigorous stock of
the human family, which, first taking root in the rocky shore of the At
lantic, has in two hundred and fifty years uprooted the forests filled with
barbarous Indians, and like the prolific locust tree, spread wider and
wider its annual shoots, until its shadows are reflected from the Pacific —
those British islav.ds lie more than five degrees north of the centre of
Minnesota. The whole of England, Ireland, Scotland, Belgium, Holland,
and apart of France, lie north of the extreme northern boundary of Min
nesota. I am now addressing those over the whole globe, who have been
invigorated by a moderately cold climate.
But, perhaps, thoughtful reader, youaje prejudiced against our climate.
Some insist that we cannot raise Indian corn. These wise people have a
theory that maize is adapted solely to the latitude they came from. If we
could not raise Indian corn, we should remember that, with the exception
of a part of Italy and Spain, all populous Europe subsists very well with
out it.
I subscribe to all of Mr. Clay's beautiful eulogium upon it, and perhaps
the most valuable quality of this grain is its adaptation to longitudes rather
than latitudes. There is not an Esquimaux Indian basking by his lake
side in the sunshine of his brief, hot summer, who cannot raise and ripen
one variety or another of maize. From the delta of the Mississippi to
the most distant spring branch that supplies Lake Itasca, the head of the
river, this crop can be raised, and is raised and ripened every year.
Settlers, what do you want ? I promise you health; and, if prudent,
industrious and economical, wealth and happiness. I promise you a good
climate, with its drawbacks, of course, as I have found the world over.
I promise you good lands— there are none better anywhere

THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.

Area of the State.

Minnesota contains within her boundaries the magnificent area of 83,-
530 square miles.
Reduced to acres we have 53,459,840.
Of this splendid domain, 50,759,840 acres is land, and 4,218 square miles
— or 2,700,000 acres is comprised in 7,000 lakes of greater or less extent.
This immense region is divided up about as follows : The pineries on
the -head waters of the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers occupy 21,000
square miles, or 13,440,000 acres. The "Big Woods" of hard wood timber
about 5,000 square miles ; or 3,200,000 acres. Leaving arable land of level
and rolling prairie and oak openings of 57,530 square miles — or 37,115,840
acres. <
The surveyed lands amount to 39,282,418 acres or 1,705 full townships.
In this surveyed region are 5,000 lakes averaging 300 acres each, and giving
a total of 1,500,000 acres.
These lakes are meandered but not surveyed. Total land and water in
surveyed portion of the State, 1,700 townships or 40,782,418 acres.
The unsurveyed portion of the State amounts to 12,677,422 acres; of
which 11,477,422 acres i» land and 1,200,000 acres is comprised in 2,000
lakes averaging 600 acres each. The number of lakes to a township is
much greater in the unsurveyed portions of the State than in that already
surveyed. They also average double the size.
It may be interesting to note the areas of a few of the largest lakes in
our State. Lake Minnetonka contains 16,000 acres; Lake Winnebagoshish,
56,000 acres ; Leech Lake, 114,000 acres ; and Mille Lacs, 130,000 acres.
Red Lake, which is much larger than any other in the State, has not yet
been surveyed.
The above estimate of 2,700,000 acres in lakes does not embrace the
vast water areas included within the projected boundary lines of the State
in Lake Superior and Lake of the Woods, and along the great water
stretches of the international line.
A comparative idea of the area of our State yet unsurveyed may readily
be seen in the fact that it is equal to the combined areas of New Hamp
shire, Massachusetts and Connecticut. The area already surveyed is larger
than the States of Illinois and Rhode Island, or, a little larger than both
the States of Virginia and West Virginia. The surveyed acreage is as
large as the States of Georgia and Connecticut. The field notes of the
surveys go to show that there is as much acreage of arable land in Minne
sota as the total area of the State of Illinois. This estimate of the arable
acreage of this State is wholly independent of the extensive pine areas on
the upper tributaries of the Mississippi, St. Croix and St. Louis rivers
which are not classed as tillable land. Neither does it include the mineral
area in the north eastern portion of the State.

GREAT RAILROAD CENTRE.

Minnesota as a Great RaMroad Centre.

In 1862 we had but ten miles of railroad ; in 1865, two hundred and
ten ; in 1870, one thousand and eighty-eight, and, in 1877, twenty-two
hundred and twenty- five.
From 1865, to (1872, when railroad building ceased here, as everywhere,
there were built nearly two thousand miles of road, or nearly two hun
dred and fifty miles per annum for eight years.
In 1877 there was a revival in railroad extension, 216}£ miles of road
having been constructed chiefly in the last half of the year. This is
largely in excess of the entire four years preceding, and the greatest num
ber of miles completed in any one year in the history of the State, except
in the flush years 1870-1-2.
This year, it is certain that the 62 miles necessary to complete the St.
Vincent Extension north of Glyndon to Pembina will be built ; that the
St. Cloud branch of the St. Paul & Pacific will be extended from Melrose
to Alexandria ; and that the Worthington & ' Sioux Falls railroad will be
completed to the latter point, while the Hastings & Dakota is now being
pushed forward to Granite Falls, on the Minnesota river; and the
Southern Minnesota road from Winnebago City towards the western
boundary of the State.
Other enterprises are talked of, but these advances are as certain as any
events of the future can be . Altogether, we can safely count on the con
struction of our usual yearly average, say from 200 to 250 miles, when we
shall have some 2,500 miles within the limits of this State. This is an
enormous railroad development for a State whose population does not ex
ceed 750,000 souls. It is equal to about one mile of road for every 325
inhabitants, a ratio of railroad mileage to population equal to any other
State. It is, in fact, about one-thirtieth of the entire railroad mileage of
the United States. But the value of this magnificent railroad system
which traverses every part of the State, as a means of pushing forward
the agricultural development and settlement, cannot be over-estimated.
No other State in the Union is more completely equipped with the appa
ratus of internal communication, or is more highly favored in the multi
plicity of its competing routes to Eastern markets. But it must be
remembered that this railroad system is simply the root of a mighty sys
tem of communications which is rapidly extending westward to spread
settlement and cultivation through the adjacent Western Territories, and
to gather np their rapidly increasing products and pour them back upon
the great commercial centres of Minnesota.

8 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.

Minnesota as the Manufacturing Centre of the
Continent.

WATER POWER AND MANUFACTURING CAPACITIES.
Minnesota has within her borders a water power unequalled in the world,
and I may safely call it the future manufacturing centre of this continent.
With its one hundred and twenty thousand horse power at Minneapolis,
with the Falls of the Minnesota river, Sauk Rapids, Little Falls and Poke-
goma Falls further up the Mississippi; added to the Falls of the St. Croix
and the Dalles of the St. Louis river, and numerous other smaller streams,.
she presents a permanent power on a broader scale than can be found any
where on this continent or in Europe. Although her power is as yet al
most as wild and free as at Niagara, the value of the flour manufactured in
1877 is estimated at fifteen million five hundred thousand dollars, and, that
of the manufactures of all kinds at $42,600,000.
Her flour and saw mills, with their employees, are about as follows :
Flour mills  405
Number of runs of stone  1,511
Employees in flour mills  2,642
Saw mills  250
Employees in saw mills  9,000
Wheat elevators  70
Amount of flour manufactured  2,600,000 barrels
One county (Hennepin), with but the spray from the Falls of St. Anthony
as.it were employed, and a little water power away from the river, manu
factured in 1877, from thirty-one flouring mills, with 237 run of stone, em
ploying 408 men, 1,100,000 barrels of flour, worth at the mills $7,500,000.
With twenty saw mills, they usually manufacture 200,000,000 feet of
lumber, 100,000,000 shingles, and 30,000,000 lath, value $4,700,000. Em
ployees in mills and yards, 1,500 ; in the woods, 2,500.
Four other flouring mills are in course of erection, two of which, with
six and thirteen run of stone, will commence operations on the 1st of May.
Two others, with twenty-four and thirty run of stone, will be finished in
season for this year's crop, and will add to the milling capacity of the
county seventy-three run of stone, giving a total of three hundred and ten
run, and will make Minneapolis the
GREATEST FLOUR MANUFACTURING CITY IN THE WORLD.
By utilizing all this great power, she can make flour enough to supply all
of this country and part of Europe ; and is prepared to double or quadruple
her mill-stones as rapidly as she is warranted in doing so.
When Minnesota produces (as she can when fully settled) over seven

MANUFACTURING CENTRE. 9
hundred million bushels of wheat per annum, the water power at Minne
apolis alone can manufacture over half of this flour, or to be exact, 72,700,-
000 barrels, as well as all the -pine now growing on the head waters of the
Mississippi and Rum rivers, to the extent of 2,281,700,000 feet. That is
what 120,000 horse power can do annually if it has the material to work
upon. At present, but 6,800 horse power is utilized, or less than 6 per cent.,
though the whole flow of water is available, and offers to manufacturers a
field unsurpassed in this country.
The water shed of the Mississippi river above the Falls of St. Anthony
is about five times that of the Merrimac river above Lowell, Massachusetts.
The fall here is aboul^ seventy-five feet, or about twice that of Lowell. .. The
annual'rain-fall in the valley of the Merrimac averages about forty inches.
Here it is somewhat less ; the evaporation here is greater. On the other
hand, the flow of the river here, from the great extent of flat land, and the
large area of the lakes, marshes, &c, on its tributaries, is more uniform
than the Merrimac. On the Merrimac there are large reservoirs, regulated
for the purpose of supplying water in day times. Here the opportunities
for such improvements are even greater.
The amount of power utilized at Lowell throughout the year, with occa
sional short periods of interruption to some of the mills during freshets, is
about Ten Thousand Horse Power; with the same degree of perfection in
the arrangements for the use of the water, about One Hundred and Twenty
Thousand Horse Power could be utilized at the Falls of St. Anthony during
the day time throughout nearly the whole year.
It is twelve times greater than the Augusta water power on the Kenebec
river, ten times greater than the water power at Lowell, and four and two-
tenths times greater than ¦ the water power on the Androscoggin, at Lewis-
ton, and is sufficient to turn the mills of England and Scotland combined.
The volume of water passing per minute at a low stage of water, is equal
to 450,000 cubic feet, equivalent, if all utilized, to 6,000 engines of 20-horse
power each.
The river is navigable nearly to the Falls. Thus may be brought to the
very threshold of the mills, by steamboat, the crude materials from every
quarter of the globe.
J. A. Wheelock, editor of the Pioneer Press, former Commissioner of
Statistics, a gentleman thoroughly conversant with the subject, speaks as
follows of the manufacturing facilities afforded by other streams :
" The St. Croix Falls, which are only second to St. Anthony Falls in hy
draulic power, are similarly, though somewhat less advantageously situated
at the head of navigation upon a tributary of 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 eliaracter of the
rocks which form its bed, and forming a series of falls and rapids available
for hydraulic works. Pokegoma Falls, Little Falls, Sauk Rapids, and St.
Anthony Falls, are the chief of these. But the Elk, Rum, St. Croix and
numberless smaller streams on the east slope of the Mississippi, the Sauk,
Crow', Vermillion, Cannon, Zumbro, Minneiska, Root, and their branches,
nearly all the tributaries of the Minnesota, and a multitude of streams be-

IO THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
sides, in their abrupt descent over broken beds of limestone or 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 de
velopment, can scarcely be over estimated, as it gives every neighborhood
the means of manufacturing its own flour and lumber, and affords the baps
of all those numerous local manufactures which enter into the industrial
economy of every northern community."
From what I shall show of the immense resources of Minnesota, in the
products of her forests and fields, it will be apparent that the ability to con
vert these products into manufactured articles, and thus greatly enhance
their commercial value, would be a crowning blessing, and secure to her
people the elements of the most unexampled prosperity.
Our unrivalled power invites not only the maximum of possible produc
tion to remain at home, but also offers our mills and the cheap transit of
the Mississippi, to the cotton of the South, on its legitimate way to the
millions of people who will soon gather beyond us, and thus save the circuit
ous route by way of New England.
Our railroads to Lake Superior connect this manufacturing power with
the mines of iron, copper, &c, which are already among the most import
ant in the world.
If to these bulky ores, facilities for cheap manufacture are offered in
close proximity to then* native beds, why should they be sent to remote
points at unnecessary expense. Situated as we are in the heart of a fertile
country, on the line of communication with the true "Northwest," and at
the head of several thousand miles of cheap inland, navigation, connecting
thereby with the commercial interests of a vast population, it is no marvel
that this water power should be considered as the most important in the
known world. With a poor soil, and great scarcity of the raw material
for manufactures, Massachusetts, by careful improvement of her commer
cial and manufacturing advantages, has attained the first rank for wealth
and influence among the States. Her many rivers turn the wheels of in
dustry, whilst her merchant ships bring to her doors the raw materials from
every clime, and again, go out of port laden with the products of her skill
and labor ; and her boots, shoes, agricultural implements and woolen and
cotton fabrics, find a market in every village in the land. With a vastly
richer soil, immense and varied resources within her own borders, and
ample facilities for manufactures and commerce, Minnesota is destined at no
distant day to be to the great West and Northwest, what Massachusetts is
to the Eastern States — the great manufactory of all the staiple articles which
require powerful machinery for their production. Minnesota is in the midst
of the great wool growing region of the north, her prairies teem with the
flocks whose massive fleeces must soon attract thither the spindle and the
loom. We now import at great cost railroad iron, stoves and various other
heavy articles, for the manufacture of which she has abundant natural re
sources. There is no reason why we should not scatter our copper and
iron wares - throughout the Mississippi valley, and compete with Penn
sylvania in the products of her foundries. While the rapidly growing
settlements springing up in the States and Territories westward, and in the

GREAT COMMERCIAL CENTRE. II
British possessions on the north, will furnish an exhaustive market for all
the various manufactures, which the immense machinery to be moved by
our water power can produce.
Woolen factories have been established at the Falls of St. Anthony, and
the finest blankets and cassimeres this country can produce are now being
made there. The blankets took the premium at the Centennial Exhibition.

Minnesota as a Great Commercial Centre.

Her situation is pre-eminent. Her commercial-facilities unrivalled. Oc
cupying the geographical centre of the continent, she renders all sections
of our country tributary to her — she scatters her trade and exports every
where. With great rivers upon her eastern and western border, flowing
towards different zones — a great river in the centre of the State flowing
crescent shape from her extreme western almost to her eastern border, na
vigable for 238 miles through the heart and garden of the State. The.Mis-
sissippij running eight hundred miles through the State, and navigable for
540 miles within her boundaries, opens up to us the Gulf and broad At
lantic. With the " Father of Waters," Minnesota can gather furs from the north,
and tropical fruits from the south ; by the same channel, and its immense
railroad connections, she can scatter her wares through the United States,
and send her flour and other produce to Europe — making direct exportations
and importations, as she is now doing, avoiding all middle men and expen
sive charges and delays incident to a warehousing system in any or all of
the eastern cities. Young as she is, Minnesota has set up housekeeping for
herself. Taking advantage of the fact that she is now close up, in point of time
and expense, through her unrivalled facilities with all the great markets of
the old world, Minneapolis, the great grain market of the Northwest, has
commenced shipping her flour direct to Europe ; and the wholesale mer
chants of Saint Paul, who did a business in 1877 of $28,000,000, are im
porting goods direct from Europe. A ban-el of flour can now be shipped
direct to Glasgow for $1.52, and to Liverpool for $1.57 per barrel.
The Mississippi, interrupted only by the Falls of St. Anthony, Sauk Rap
ids, and Little Falls, is navigable to the foot of Pokegoma Falls, distant but
236 miles from its source. On the Minnesota river, in good stages of water,
boats run to Granite Falls, a distance of 238 miles from its mouth. Our
fertile Nile, called Red River of the North, gives 380 miles of navigable
waiter on the western boundary of the State. The St. Croix furnishes 52
miles of navigable water on the eastern border. Lake Superior gives 167
. miles of shore line to the north-eastern section of the State, and the St.
Louis river, the principal stream of that section, adds 21 miles of navigable
waters to the extreme west end of Lake Superior. This river is important,
as the first link of the great chain of rivers and lakes of the St. Lawrence

12 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
system. Forty smaller rivers, with a vast number of still smaller streams
tributary to them, ramifying through fertile upland and grassy meadow in
every section of the State, afford invaluable facilities for lumbering, mill
ing, manufacturing and agriculture. To sum up, Minnesota has 2,796
miles of shore line of navigable waters — one mile of coast line to every
30 square miles of surface. Ohio, one of the best watered States, has but
one mile of coast line to 67 miles of surface. By this great extent of inland
navigation, she can gather up the surplus of products ready for shipment
from the largest markets. The commerce of this State is yet in its in-
sipiency, confined chiefly to the exportation of wheat, flour, lumber, furs,
game, and the importation of articles for home consumption.
During the preparation of the preceding pages, I have found so much of
a general nature thaj is valuable and interesting — so much information that
is just what is needed by the immigrant, as long experience has shown — in
a work by Mr. Pennock Pssey, late Commissioner of Statistics, that I have
been constantly tempted to copy from its pages. On the subject I am now
treating, I quote :
" The commercial position of Minnesota is perhaps the grandest among
the States^ Occupying the exact centre of this continent, and constituting
the water shed of its eastern half, the steam navigation of three great inter
na"! water systems terminates here, viz.: the Mississippi River, northward
from the Gulf of Mexico ; the Red River of the North, southward from
Hudson's Bay; and the St. Lawrence River and chain of great lakes; west
ward from the Atlantic. Minnesota is thus the focus of three cardinal
radii of a vast commercial system; the fourth radius, connecting her with
the Pacific Ocean, will be supplied by the Northern Pacific Railroad. This
road, already constructed directly through our State to Bismarck, on the
Missouri, will be the shortest thoroughfare between Asia and Europe, and
place Minnesota in the highway of the world's traffic. Here the whole
trade of those converging water lines will break bulk, and constitute this
State the entrepot and distributing theatre of a commerce whose extent and
wealth it is difficult to over-estimate.
" The St. Paul & Sioux City Road also places Minnesota in advantageous
connection with the Union Pacific Railroad.
" The interior water system and the great lakes are connected by a rail
road from the head of navigation on the Mississippi to the head of Lake
Superior. This road was completed in 1870, and affords a new and invalu
able outlet for the multiplying products of the State. The head of Lake
Superior, while practically as near the seaboard as Chicago, at the head of
Lake Michigan, has the advantage of being nearly 300 miles nearer the
heart of those western areas whose exhaustless resources feed the vast com
merce of those lakes. By this short cut, our trade may avoid the circuitous
and expensive route via Milwaukee and Chicago, the necessity of employ
ing which has heretofore stripped us of our great natural advantages. But
these disabilities are now ended. Minnesota has now the choice of the
many diverging and converging channels of communication to which lav
ish nature, and commercial sagacity justly entitle her."
Hon. Wm. H. Seward, in a speech delivered at St. Paul in 1860, used the
following striking language :
" Here is the place — the central place — where the agriculture of the rich
est 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 across the continent, is a country where
State after State is yet to arise, and where the productions for the support of
human society in their old crowded States must be brought forth. * *

AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS AND CAPACITIES. 1 3
•* 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 stand, at the head of navigation on the Missis
sippi River."
The commerical position of Minnesota upon the termini 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
undeveloped, but already starting on the swifj; career of Western growth,
and capable of supporting many millions of population, is directly de
pendent upon Minnesota for all the manufactured commodities it may con
sume. Its position relative to these Northwestern valleys, invests, it manu
facturing capabilities with an importance greater than those of any other of
the interior districts of the continent. For the future manufacture of cot
ton and woolen fabrics, it has decided advantages 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 of the great wool zone
of the continent.
When to all this is added the further fact, that from her western bound
ary, stretches the only tract of arable land reaching to the Rocky Mountains,'
north of the Great American Desert, and the most feasible route for a
Pacific Railroad, the grandeur of her position, as the great entrepot through
which will pass the immense traffic from ocean to ocean, and continent to
continent, equals that of any other commercial centre on the face of the
globe, and the greatness of her future baffles all attempt at computation.

Agricultural Interests and Capacities.

I now come to the pith and marrow of my subject, where the pen is
sure to run riot, unless held with a master hand. If ever there was a
time when suppressed enthusiasm had to be indulged in, it is in treating of
the contents of this chapter.
No single fact exhibits with greater force the extraordinary developments
of our State than the unprecedented enlargement of her cultivated area.
This in 1850 was 1,900 acres, in I860 it was 433,267 acres, in 1870,
1,863,316 acres, in 1877, nearly 3-,000,000 acres.
The following statement shows the number of acres of tilled land at
various periods since the Territorial organization of Minnesota in 1849 :
Acres. Acres.
Cultivated area, 1866  895,412
Cultivated area, 1867  1,092,593
Cultivated area, 1868  1,387,470

Cultivated area, 1850  1,900
Cultivated area, 1854 . . .# . 15,000
Cultivated area, 1859  345,000
Cultivated area, 1860  433,267
Cultivated area, 1865  630,000

Cultivated area, 1869  1,619,456
Cultivated ar.ea, 1870  1,863,316

The United States census, giving fuller returns than those as yet obtained

14 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
under the State system, shows a still greater actual progress — the number
of cultivated acres, being :
In 1860, 556,250. In 1870, 2,304,683.
State statistics give in 1877, 2,896,496 acres in cultivation.
This exhibits an increase of over 1,500 fold during the 27 years ending
with 1877.
From the prestige given to Minnesota throughout the world by the im
mense crop of 1877, and the large influx of population now pouring into-
the State ; filling its western borders with eager land hunters from Iowa to
the British line, as early as March, '78, it will be safe to estimate the culti
vated area of Minnesota in the fall of 1880, at not less than 5,000,000 acres.
A comparison of the products of Minnesota with those of Iowa and Ohio,
as shown by the official returns of each, affords the following exhibit of

Wheat.

Oats.

Corn.

Barley.

Rye.

Buckwheat.

Potatoes..

Minnesota, 17.9

36.9'

37.3

28.5

19.2

16.4

105.09'

Iowa, 9.95

28.4

36.12

23.07

13.28

9.49

81.01

Ohio, 11.38

23.86

34.37

20.38

9.30

10.97

72.12:

Here is certainly food for honest pride in the agricultural capacity of
Minnesota — an attestation beyond cavil of her superiority in the production
of each of seven leading crops over that of two noble States, justly classed,
next to ours, as the most productive in the Union 1 She not only far excels-
these States in her specialty, wheat, but surpasses both in their own specialty,
-corn. I have alluded to Mr. Clay's beautiful eulogium upon the great cereal,
corn ; and it now seems proper that I should give place to another upon-
our great staple, from the pen of Hon. Pennock Pusey, Private Secretary
to Governor John S. Pillsbury :
WHEAT CULTURE.
" The history of the human race abundantly affirms the fact that no-
nation has long lagged in the race for civilization which gave prominence-
to the growth of wheat, or which assigned to the consumption of that
cereal the chief place in its domestic economy. The important part-
which it has played in determining the force and character of those na
tions which have figured upon the world's theatre, is shown in the
splendor of that civilization which blossomed co-eval with Egyptian
wheat fields, and it is beheld in tke earliest biblical history, in God's
mysterious providence with the Jews, whose sacred oblations were of the
'finest of the wheat,' whose holy feasts were of unleavened bread, and
whose strong sinews were knit for conflict with giants. Wheat was the
prime food of those dominating races on the shores of the Mediterranean,
whose triumphs in war and peace contribute the^nost vivid page to his
tory ; its nutritive and impelling agency is apparent in the sanguinary
struggles and conflicts of ideas through which modern civilization has
groped its tortuous way. When the plains and hill-sides of central
Europe became mantled with the kingly cereal which gave brains and

AGRICULTURAL, INTERESTS AND CAPACITIES. 1 5
shape to the rude energy of the people, imperial Rome, grown effeminate
with over-indulgence, fell before the fierce onslaught of her Northern
foes. So the theatre of civilization has constantly moved northward and
westward, where climate and soil favor the growth of the sturdy food
which is its primary nourishment. The first condition of genuine pro
gress is an adequate Vsupply of first-class food. Efforts at higher advance
ment, without this foundation, grow morbid, ephemeral, and futile.
" In modern times, through the aid of chemistry and anatomy, the art of
good feeding, in a true sense, is advanced to a positive science. That
food is shown to be best which at once gives toughness to muscular fibre
and tone to the brain. That nutriment excels which best sustains the
energies against constant and exacting demands ; which re-awakens the
drooping spirits and thickens the waning blood without the aid of mad
dening stimulants.
" That wheat fulfills all these conditions is not only attested by the char
acter and fate of nations, but is susceptible of scientific demonstration.
The nice adjustment of its vital properties supports brain and blood and
muscle, in just the proportion requisite for the highest type of manhood.
Refinement, fortitude, and enterprise most distinguish those nations
which most consume wheat. Beef-eating and wheat-consuming races at
once dominate and elevate the rice and pork consumers with whom they
come in contact- England, who has long been the conceded mistress of
the seas, and whose dependencies well-nigh encircle the globe, has so-
stimulated and enlarged her capacity for wheat growing, that her annual
average is 28 bushels per acre. But her consumption so far out-runs her
production, that she lays the world under contribution for her supplies
of bread. Russia, who not only feeds her own vast population, but ex
ports largely to hungry communities abroad, is advancing to an exalted
place among nations with a rapidity second only to that of the United
States. But a more practical as well as serious aspect of the subject per
tains to those social problems connected with supplies of bread. The
grave significance of the question involved is not susceptible of conceal
ment when the fact is considered, that while the consumption of wheat,
as the choice food of the human race, is rapidly extending, the capacity
of wheat-growing regions for its production is rapidly diminishing.
"According to the census of 1870, the entire wheat product of New
England was sufficient to feed her own people only three weeks I That
of New York sufficient for her own consumption six months ; that of
Pennsylvania, after feeding her own people, afforded no surplus ; while
the surplus of Ohio was but 3,000,000 bushels for that year, and for the
past six years her wheat crop has fallen below her own consumption. In
the ten years ending in 1870, the wfteat crop of these States decreased
6,500,000 bushels.
"In the light of these facts, the achievements of Minnesota in wheat.
growing, as well as her untaxed capacity for the continued and increased
production of that grain, assume a proud pre-eminence."
Both in the relative magnitude of operations and in the average per
acre, she leads the sisterhood of States. Prior to 1868 wheat occupied
more than one-half of the whole cultivated area of the State. Since that

1 6 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
time nearly two out of every three cultivated acres have been devoted to
this eereal.
In 1877, out of the 3,000,000 acres under cultivation nearly 2,000,000
were in wheat. The product, as is by this time well known throughout
th'e world, was estimated at 40,000,000 bushels.
THE AGGREGATE AND AVERAGE YIELD OF WHEAT DURING
THE LAST 'FOURTEEN YEARS.

Years.

1860 1865
1866186718681869187018711872
18731874,1875,18761877,

Acres sown.

683,784
858,316937,029
1,019,7441,096,5781,267,3091,548,7131,681,8301,764,109
1,869,1721,819,761

Bushels

Average

Produced.

Per acre.

5,101,432

22.05

9,475,000

22.07

7,921,442

14.46

10,014,828

14.64

15,382,022

17.91

16,587,621

17.70

15,372,941

15.07

13,467, S00

12 28

22,059,375

17.40

26,402,485

17.04

23,938,172

16.03

30,079,300

17.05

17,964,632

9.61

40,000,000

22.00

From the average of nineteen years, ending with 1877, a yield of 17
bushels per acre may be assumed as the established wheat average of Min
nesota. Particular localities, sometimes embracing whole townships,
produce frequently an average of 25 and 30 bushels, while yields exceed
ing 40 bushels are not unfrequent in favorable seasons in nearly every
county in the State.
Nothing is easier than the common practice of making a few samples
of great crops serve the purpose of exaggerating the total yields. These
are universally dispelled'by official figures, which alone I give.
The average yield in Wisconsin is reported officially to be 13.04 bush
els peracre. The largest known yield of Ohio, one of the leading wheat
States, was 17)^ bushels per acre, while the average for ten years in that
State, as officially shown, was but 10.55 bushels per acre. Illinois, ac
cording to high local authority, produces from year to year not more than
8 bushels of wheat per sere; only four States, by the census of 1850
reached an average of 15 bushels per acre, while the whole wheat area of
the United States does not exceed eleven bushels. The wheat crop of
Minnesota for 1876 averages, it will be seen, but 9 61-100 bushels per
acre. This crop was a failure without a parallel in the history of Minne
sota ; yet our failure compares favorably with the average good crops of
Ohio and Illinois, or even of Iowa, whose average in a series of seven
years, as shown by her reports, was but 10 30-100 bushels.

THE WHEAT CROP OF 1 877. 1 7
The Wheat Crop of 1877.

To give an idea of how the wheat has turned out in individual cases,
the following extracts clipped during the threshing season from our
State newspapers are appended :
SCOTT COUNTY.
In Eagle Creek, Robert Dean, on 85 -acres of old land, cropped for 22
years, had an average of 21 to 22 bushels to the acre.
Mr. John Eller, on 106 acres, averages 25 bushels to the acre. The most
of this was old ground. On 17 acres of new ground he raised 553 bushels
— an average of over 32 bushels to the acre.
Near Belle Plaine, in the edge of the timber, August Vought had 42
bushels to the acre, and N. Bay 31 bushels, and on the prairie M. Siegfred
had 27 bushels.
Mr. Robert Smiley, of Spring Lake, on 12 acres, averaged 27 bushels to
the acre.
Fayette Ufford, of Cedar Lake, from 15 acres of old ground, threshed
316 bushels, an average of about 21 bushels.
The most extraordinary crop of wheat we have had reported in the
State, is said to have been raised by Fred. Almich, in Tyrorle township,
who, from five acres of land, has threshed 275 bushels of wheat, or 55
bushels per acre. The statement comes well authenticated.
HENNEPIN COUNTY.
The St. Paul Pioneer- Press, of August 31, 1877, prints the following
cheering paragraph : "A gentleman who has been connected for the past
summer with the Chamber of Commerce of Milwaukee, was in Minne
apolis recently, and says 'that wheat operators there have received
information from every section of the State of Minnesota, sufficient to
base a pretty correct estimate of the average yield. It is the opinion of
tbe Chamber that it will be 25 bushels fo the acre.' The average in Rich
field township has been carefully kept, so far as threshing has been don^
by Mr. Charles Hoag, and runs over 25 bushels to the acre, and all on old.
land, too."
According to the above, the crop of last year would amount to forty-
five and one-half million bushels.
DAKOTA COUNTY.
As a granger, Mr. Maltby, of Pine Bend, has proved a success, but this
year he has outdone himself in raising wheat. His whole field was fine,
but there was a piece of two acres, by actual measurement, that looked to
him to be something better than anything he had before seen. These
2

l8 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
two acres he had stacked separate, an,d then he bet with the threshers as to
the. yield, his figure being sixty bushels, and the threshers taking him-
under. Before threshing, a search was made for large and small heads,
the smallest having twenty-five kernels, and the largest sixty-eight. Thfr
stack threshed, the wheat was measured, the threshers taking pains to-
heap each measure and refusing to clean up under the machine, and the
result was ninety-one bushels of splendid No. 1 wheat, or forty-five and
one-half 'bushels to the acre. Mr. Maltby is confident that by elevat6r
measure there is nearly or quite one hundred bushels of the wheat.
GOODHUE COUNTY.
J. L. Scofield, from 100 acres, threshed 3036 bushels of wheat, an average-
of over 30 bushels per acre.
The wheat crop of Chas. Smith, near Red Wing, yielded 27^ bushels
per acre, and weighs sixty-one pounds to the bushel. This was on land-
that had produced a crop every season for twenty-two years.
WASHINGTON COUNTY.
Oliver Dalrymple has raised from his Cottage Grove farm 72,000 bushels
of wheat, and from his Dakota farm 192,000 bushels — in all 264,000
bushels. A pretty good harvest for one poor farmer.
Mr. Archibald McCallum, whose farm lies in Cottage Grove township,
has obtained 498 bushels of wheat from ten acres of ground, being within
a small fraction of 50 bushels per acre ; but as good wheat invariably
overruns thresher's measure in weight, the yield will doubtless exceed an
average of 50 bushels, and good judges think it may reach 54 bushels of
weighed grain. We know of one well authenticated product of 190
bushels upon four acres, being an average of 47>£ bushels, and we have
heard of even greater results produced upon a very few acres, but an aver
age exceeding 50 bushels per acre upon so large a tract as ten acres, we
believe to be wholly unprecedented. — Stillwater Messenger.
ROCK COUNTY.
The biggest yield of wheat which thus far has come to our knowledge
was threshed for Mr. Geo. Blaisdell. From six acres harvested and
stacked separately Mr. B. obtained the extraordinary yield of forty-one
and three-fourths per acre, which this year overruns considerably when
weighed. RICE COUNTY.
Mr. W. H. Scofield, of Cannon Falls, states that a thresher in that
town gave twenty-five bushels per acre as the result of a week's thresh
ing in Stanton and Cannon Falls.
Mr. W. C. Cleland, of Dundas, got 452.20 bushels of wheat from thir
teen acres ; an average of about 35 bushels to the acre, and each bushel
weighed 63 pounds. LE SUEUR COUNTY.
W. W. Hodgkins, in Cordova township, threshed 900 bushels of wheat
from 30 acres, giving an average of 30 bushels.

THE WHEAT CROP OF 1 877. 1-9
Here is a good farmer: C. C. Whitney recently threshed a little over
two acres of oats and the yield was 160 bushels, or nearly 80 bushels to
the acre. He has Cottonwood trees, planted in 1872, which measure 21
inches arpund the butt.
The St. Peter Tribune mentions a nine acre field of wheat just across
the river from that city which yielded 357 bushels— 39% bushels to the
acre. The . threshers having their doubts, went and measured the fiold,
and found it to contain only nine acres.
OLMSTED COUNTY.
Hon. B. F. Perry, of Kalmar, threshed ten acres of wheat, which yield
ed 395 bashels, or an average of 39}£ bushelB per acre, weighing 62 lbs.
per bushel.
The Rochester Record and Union gives the yields of a number of pieces
of wheat in different towns in that county, the yields ranging from 20 to
35 bushels to the acre. The largest yields reported are from the Lost Na
tion and Canada Fife varieties of wheat.
BLUE EARTH COUNTY. >
Louis Fogel, of Mankato, sowed 10 bushels of seed, and got in return
220 bushels.
Mr. Seeberg, of Lime, from 11 bushels of seed, threshed 258 bushels; and
Mr. Hoehns, of Le Roy, from 28 bushels of seed, received 575 bushels of
wheat — all No. 1. The average sowing was about one and a half bushels
of seed per acre.
This season's crop of wheat is so dry that it makes no difference wheth
er it stands in the stack and goes through the sweating process or not. It
is so dry that the millers have to dampen it before grinding.
STEELE COUNTY.
Mr. O. L. Knapp, of Clinton Falls, threshed 2,272 bushels of wheat
from 70 acres of land, part of which had been under cultivation for more
than twenty, years. He estimates the yield by weight at fully 2,500 bush
els, or upwards of 35 bushels to the acre.
WABASHA COUNTY. .
Mr. D. Messer, of, Plainview, had an average yield of 39 7-12 bushels per
acre on land cropped for the last seventeen years in succession.
MEEKER COUNTY.
The Litchfield Ifews Ledger tells of the boss wheat yield. It fell to Mr.
Gibney, near Manannah, who got from less than half an acre of ground
26% bushels of-No. 1 wheat. BENTON COUNTY.
Hon. David Gilman, of Watab, left with us last week several samples
«f wheat and oats raised on his farm. One sample of wheat which was
raised on land broken in 1849, and which since then has received
compensation but twice, has straw that measures five feet two inches'
in iength, ana will thresh 25 bushels of No. 1 wheat to the acre. An-

20 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
other sample raised on land broken in 1850, and which has been in con
stant use ever since without compensation in the shape of manure, has
straw measuring five feet, and will also go 25 bushels to the acre.— Lake
City Leader.
MORRISON COUNTY. \
On Rich Prairie, Mr. J. M. Clark threshed 469 bushels of wheat from 18
acres of ground, and 226 bushels of oats from 5% acres, all grading
No. 1.
RAMSEY COUNTY.
As a specimen of what Minnesota soil is capable of, it is stated as a fact
that the old Ramsey farm near St. Paul has been tilled for 31 years
in succession, by the slouchiest kind of tenants, and has never been
known to receive an ounce of fertilizer, and yet this year it has produced
24 bushels of wheat to the acre.
The Faribault Democrat thinks the most surprising thing about this
year's wheat crop is the weight of the grain, the average in that county so
far as reported being over 62 pounds to the bushel measure, several fields
going as high as 64 pounds, and some from new land 65 pounds, a weight
previously unheard of.
The yield of wheat exceeds the estimates for every field thus far heard
from. Col. King's Lyndale farm steps to the front With an average of
33% bushels per acre, and several farmers in Carver county report 40
bushels per acre, all No. 1, as a matter of course. — Minneapolis Tribune.
COTTONWOOD COUNTY.
Mr. Barden, in 1876, bought a section of railroad land ; broke it during
that year; last spring he sowed 1J£ bushels wheat per acre, on the sod (it
never having been back-set or cross plowed), and last summer, from less
than four hundred acres, harvested upwards of eight thousaruPbnshels of
wheat, while on old land his neighbors raised from 25 to 40 bushels of
wheat per acre, while one neighbor raised 100 bushels oats per acre.
S. Greenfield threshed 34j^ bushels of wheat from one acre and 15 rods,
and the seed was screenings that he had bought for chicken feed.
Mr. Krause, of Southbrook, threshed 40 bushels wheat to the acre.
I might quote dozens of these items, showing similar yields of wheat
throughout the county, but the above are sufficient to demonstrate the
productiveness of the soil. Of oats and barley the yield is always enor
mous, ranging of the former as high as 60 and 70 bushels per acre, and
the latter from 40 to 60, and in some instances more. A good yield of
corn is also produced.
The Des Moines river traverses the county, and affords several excellent
water powers. There are already three steam mills in operation, one fine,
4- run mill at Bingham Lake, and two smaller ones at Mountain Lake, so
that farmers have at their doors all the necessary facilities for manufac
turing their wheat into flour.
President E. F. Drake, of the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad, and
Samuel Collins, Esq., are building a large water power flouring mill on
the Des Moines river, at Windom.

THE WHEAT CROP OF 1 877. 21
JACKSON COUNTY.
G. C. Chamberlin, editor of the Jackson Republic, helped measure a
field of oats that averaged one hundred and eleven bushels to the acre.
Wheat averaged 25 to 30 bushels.
Farmers in this county are going into stock and sheep raising very ex
tensively, and are all making money. Wheat and grass lands are well
divided, and the advantages of a diversified industry are well understood.
While writing of this county I am reminded that the Southern Minne
sota Railroad will be extended from Winnebago City, in Faribault county,
to Jackson, the county seat of Jackson county, this year.
NOBLES COUNTY.
The Worthington Journal reports 37 bushels of wheat and 80 bushels of
oats as the average yield of a farm in that county. Such facts as these
will quickly populate the southwestern frontier.
Nelson Coyer came to Nobles county in June, 1871, and settled upon a
homestead in the town of Indian Lake. His family consisted of himself,
wife, and five children. All the property he brought with him was a span
of Indian Ponies, an old wagon, and a two-year-old heifer, giving milk.
He borrowed the money to pay the land office fees, and was consequently
$7.00 in debt when he commenced settlement on his homestead.
He has now' 125 acres under good cultivation, all seeded ; 30 head of
cattle, 7 horses, besides hogs and chickens. He raised last year 960 bushels
of wheat, 2,400 bushels of oats, 400 bushels of barley and 700 bushels of
corn. 11 acres of his wheat yielded 32 bushels per acre, and the balance
averaged 25 bushels. He has nearly paid for 80 acres of railroad land, and
opened up and improved a tree claim ; bougHt and nearly paid for $600. 00
worth of farm machinery; his property is unincumbered, and he is nearly
out of debt. He has never had any outside help or assistance, but has
accomplished these results, and in hard times at that.
A number of people in the county are engaged in stock raising and
sheep farming. Messrs. Sugdon and Gressell came over from England in
the Spring of 1877, and opened a stock farm six miles from Worthington,
inDewaid township. They have 1000 sheep, a number of horned cattle
and two thoroughbred English draft horses— one three-year-old, weight,
1780 lbs., and one two-year-old, weight, 1870 lbs.
Mr. John Alley, three miles from Worthington, keeps 240 head of
horned cattle, and 500 sheep. ,
A number of pther farmers in the county have from 200 to 500 sheep,
and from 20 to 40 head of horned cattle each.

Durability of Soil on Our Prairies in the Northwest.
The question is often asked, " How many years will your prairie lands
produce good crops without renewal and rest 1" The answer may be
read below :
Mr. Joseph Haskell, the pioneer farmer in all the vast region northwest
of Prairie du Chien, has gathered excellent crops from his pioneer field

22 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
near Afton, Washington county, which was first subjected to the plow 38
years ago. He has' just harvested 25 bushels of wheat per acre on land
that was first sown in that grain in 1843, and has been since continuously
cultivated^ and which in the intervening 34 years has received but one
light dressing of manure.

Reports from Farmers on the Timbered Lands on the Line
of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
WADENA COUNTY,
A correspondent writes to the Wadena Seal Estate Journal as follows :
I herewith submit a few items of what was raised on six acres of my
farm in the year 1876, (my farm is in the timber land, twelve miles south
of Wadena.) I sowed four acres of winter wheat on the 9th day of Sep
tember, 1875 ; I harvested 39 bushels and 20 pounds of wheat that weighed
63 pounds to the bushel, strict measure. It must be remembered that the
following year, 1876, was the only year that wheat ever failed in Minnesota.
From the same land I cut rye from 119 rods 2% bushels, and the balance
was equally as good.
I planted one-half acre of the large yellow Dent variety of com (that my
brother brought with him from Wisconsin),- which ripened well befo^p
frost, and yielded at the rate of one hundred bushels (ears) per acre ; stallSi
of large growth averaging ten feet high. Potatoes yielded at the rate of
400 bushels per acre, of large size and superior quality. Of garden veg-
etables-7-well, I will say that I had a " heap," and of fine quality— -on my
prairie farm of thirty acres I had a fine crop.
I killed five hogs, in full aggregate weight of 1,400 pounds, that did not
cost $5 to fat them, nuts and mast being abundant. I have six fine shoats
that will weigh 150 pounds each, that are now thriving finely, ana I do not
feed them anything whatever ; the weather is fine, and there is not enough
snow to prevent them from getting to the ground — hence they get a good
living. I have twenty head of cattle and three horses, all looking tine and
wintering well. I butchered 1,500 pounds good grass fed beef, that I sold
at the Wadena market for $5 per hundred. So far, this country suits me
very well. More anon.
And another : .
Perchance the Journal may be read by some that th'nk of making Min
nesota their home, therefore thought I would write a little item to show the
productive capacity of this country. I am now 54 years old and a farmer.
I have lived for "the last thirty-two years of my life in Rock County, Wis.
In 1876, I came to where I now live. I located in the limits of the North
ern Pacific Railroad, twelve miles south of Wadena, and, having been a
soldier,- took a homestead of 160 acres. I had always had an impression
that this was too far north to grow all kinds of grain, especially corn ; con
sequently I hesitated, and between hope and fear I commenced with ax to
cut, with, fire to burn, with mattock to grub, and with oxen to plow a patch
of ground (my land is timber, and a beauty of a lot — at least I think so).
I cleared and fenced one acre and planted it. Now for the result ; I raised
one hundred bushels of Early Rose potatoes of large size — one measured
thirteen inches long and twenty-two inches in circumference. I planted
five different kinds of corn, of which I harvested forty-five bushels, ears
fully ripe and nice, some of it the large yellow and white Dent. I'raised
seven bushels onions, three bushels beets, thirty bushels Swede turnips, 100
heads good cabbage, five bushels cucumbers, ten pounds good tobacco, all

THE WHEAT CROP OF 1 877. 23
the early garden sauce that a family of four grown persons could use, and
five wagon loads of squashes, citrons and pumpkins. My tomatoes were as
fine as- 1 ever saw — one weighing two and one-half pounds. All the above
products from a patch of ground ten by fifteen rods. The result of my
observation and experience of the past season has more than met my most
sanguine expectations. I say, all hail to the Northern' Pacific country,
long may she wave I
Charles Lane, of Deer Creek, has* 1,410 bushels of wheat from 54 acres.
Mr. Lane had 5 acres of Sonora wheat, which yielded 105 bushels irovajm
bushels' sowing. This Sonora wheat is the result of four years' yield from
59 kernels. , *
Barley threshed from five acres on the farm of George' Foreman yesterday
yielded 262 bushels, an average of 52.4 bushels per acre. Barley coming
into the elevator here to-day from the farm of -S. S. Gardner, one-half mile
«ast of town, weighs 49 lbs. per bushel from t'ae machine.
The Audubon Journal has the following : "Our crop reports come tum
bling in. This from Lake Eunice : A. Ridel, 38 bushels wheat per acre
from 16 acres, and 85 3-7 bushels of oats per acre."
BECKER COUNTY.
The Detroit Record gives the following statement of yields from timber
lands :
By Chas. O. Quincy, from 2)£ acres timber land : Potatoes, 92 bushels;
turnips, 6 bushels; beets, 10 bushels; onions, 3 bushels; sweet corn, 3 bush
els; field corn, 53^ bushels; strawberries, 1 bushel; tomatoes, 6 bushels;
tobacco, 100 lbs.; bell peppers, 1 peck; cabbages, 75 heads; rhubarb, 1 bar
rel; pumpkins, 600; squashes,. 25; cucumbers, 2 bushels; watermelons, 20;
pop com, 2 bushels; radishes, 1 bushel; asparagus, ^ bushel; beans, 1
bushel; peas, 4 bushels; Siberian crab apples,- 2 bushels.
By Charles Sturtevant: From 20 acres wheat, 500 bushels; \% acres corn,
115 bushels; 1 acre potatoes, 140 bushels.
Thos. Squires has got the results of his summer's work on 6 acres figured
down to dots, and they certainly are very suggestive. He produced from
Two acres potatoes, 500 bu., sold for 35c bu  $175-00
Two " corn, 190 bu., " $1.00 bu  190.00
One-fifth acre onions, 77 bu., sold for 75c bu  57.75
One,acre .squash, 9 tons, sold- for l)4c- Per lb  270.00
One^half acre turnips, 100 bu. , 30c per bu,  30.00
¦One-third' acre white beans, 10 bu., $2 per bu.  20.00
Sweet potatoes, 8 bu., $2.50 per bu. ... ,  ¦.  20.00
Tomatoes, 10 bu., $2perbu  !.  20.00
Other miscellaneous garden truck  ...  50.00
Total proceeds from 6 acres.  $832.75
REMARKABLE GROWTH OF WHEAT.
An Interesting Statement of. Facts, demonstrating the Rich
ness and Strength of the Soil of the Red River Valley.
Mr. E. W. Chaffee, the general manager of the Amenia and Sharon Land
Company's farm in the Red River Valley, makes a very interesting state-

24 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
ment as to the destruction of his crop by hail, and its subsequent growth,.
of which we doubt if a parallel can be found in any part of our country.
He says :
"I put in about 630 acres of wheat on land that was broken and backset
last year, commencing my seeding on the 10th of April. The wheat came-
up and grew very rapidly, giving promise of an enormous crop. On the-
29th of June, just before it would have headed, the entire crop was cut off
by a hail storm, which was local in its effect, inflictnig no damage to other
crops in the vicinity. My crop was cut off a few inches above the ground,
and as completely as if done by a machine. I considered it a total loss, but
examined the ground daily to see whether there would be any further
growth, expecting that, if any, it would be from thjlt part of the stalk re
maining. It was not until the 11th day of July that I discovered, not a
growth of the stalk, but a new growth from the roots, springing np through.
the debris of the old growth, This. grew with a rapidity I never saw
equaled. To show how fast it grew, and how soon it matured, I have only
to state that the new growth which first appeared on the 11th of July came
forward arid matured a crop which I began to harvest on the 17th day of
August, just forty-nine days subsequent to the loss of the original crop.
The growth is fully as large as that of the wheat I have observed in, this vi
cinity that was put in on ground broken, but not backset, and will thresh
ten bushels per acre.
"After suffering this loss I was naturally led to seek for information in
regard to the risk of damage from hail in the cultivation of wheat, and
have carefully sought for it from the oldest inhabitant in the couritry, and
am gratified to learn that such storms are of very rare occurrence."'

Wheat Cnlture in the Red River Valley Compared with the-
Middle States.
The Philadelphia Inquirer of June 1st, 1876, contained an interesting
article descriptive of the large farms at one or two points on the N. P. R-
R. in Minnesota, and draws an instructive comparison between the profit
ableness of wheat culture in the Red River Valley and the Middle or
Western States. In speaking of the large wheat farms of this upper
country, the Inquirer says :
Five causes have impelled to this extraordinary culture of wheat as a
business for capitalists :
First— Ten years2 experience have proved that the best quality and
largest yield of American springy wheat .is raised north of the 43d parallel
of latitude and west of the Mississippi River.
Second — Land specially adapted to the culture, in a climate indispensa
bly necessary to it, can only be got in Minnesota and Dakota in large
bodies on favorable terms, at prices ranging from $3.50 to $8.00 per acre,
and averaging $5.00, according to the distance from a railroad.
Third— Farming to wheat exclusively admits" of large economies. The
labor and expenses cover less than half the year. The grain is threshed
and spld immediately after being cut, the hands are paid off, the horSes-
are sold, the machinery is stored, the watchman and his family are left in,
charge of the property, and only interest and taxes are running against
the investment till the recommencement of work.
.Fourth — There is a steady demand in the Chicago and Milwaukee mar
kets for " No. 1 hard " wheat from Northwestern Minnesota, to mix with-
and grade up the inferior wheats of Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and
Indiana.

THE WHEAT CROP OF 1 877. 25
Fifth— The millers of Minneapolis, Buffalo, Black Rock, Rochester and
Oswego agree that No. 1 Minnesota spring wheat is harder and "stronger"
than any other ; that it makes more bread to the barrel of flour ; that the
flour ground from it takes more water than any other, and for that reason
is preferred by bakers ; that it is richer in gluten than any other flour ;
that this wheat makes more "middlings" than any other, and better "new
process" flour, which takes the market for family use wherever it is
known over the best St. Louid and Georgetown, District Columbia
"winter wheat" brands. Hard No. 1 Minnesota is selling in Milwaukee
for $1.20.' The best Milwaukee No. 1 is selling there for $1.13J£, a differ
ence in favor of the wheat from the Northern Pacific region of 6% cents
a bushel, which half pays the freight on it from Duluth to New York.
The Red River Valley, which is the heart of these large operations in
wheat culture, is seventy-five miles wide and 400 miles long. Experience
in the Selkirk settlement, jn, Manitoba, above and below Fort Garry, justi
fies the declaration that the soil of the valley is inexhaustible. There is
no diminution in the yield of fields which have been cultivated continu-,
ously for a half century. The peculiar characteristic of- the climate of
Northern Minnesota, dryness of the atmosphere in ripening and harvest
time, is the secret of the excellence of their spring wheat, together with
the silicious quality of their loamy soils.
To what degree the United States are to become dependent for bread on
this Northwestern region, which has been not inapfly named the "conti
nental wheat 'garden," is matter for curious thought. The power oft the
old States to produce wheat remuneratively has been lost by continued
cultivation. The weakened soils will not yield inferior qualities in suffi
cient quantities to pay a profit. The average product of even the young
States of Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin does not exceed 8 bushels to the
first, 10% to the secoad, and 13 to the latter. Even Ohio gives but 10^
bushels; all, No. 2 grain. The distance to the Atlantic seaboard from the
Red River Valley is not an adverse factor in the account with its wheat.
THE GOLDEN HARVEST IN THE RED RIVER VALLEY.
Messrs. Dypvick and Kvello raised 4,300 bushels of wheat last year
from 130 acres — an average of a little over 33 bushels per acre. Their
wheat is the Scotch Fife variety, and is of such superior quality that they
have already sold 1,600 bushels for seed at $1 per bushel.
Ole Ammonson informs us that his crop averaged 35 bushels per acre,
and that the lowest yield he has heard of in his vicinity was 28 bushels.
Wm. Craswell raised 131 bushels of wheat from four acres— 32% bush
els per acre. As Mr. Craswell only sowed three bushels of seed on the
four acres, it is certainly a remarkable yield. His field °f sixteen acres
of oats yielded 1,024 bushels, or 64 bushels per acre.
L. Hadley, Fargo, reports a yield of 1,538 bushels of wheat from 65
acres— an average of 23% bushels per acre; arid another of 840 bushels of
wheat froin 30 acres— an average of 28 bushels per acre.
John Mosher, from 300 acres of wheat, had a yield oif 9,158 bushels, an
average of 30^ bushels per acre. From 9 acres of oats, 495 bushels, an
average of 55 bushels per acre, and from 10 acres, 123 bushels flax seed.
E. T. Olson' 15 acres wheat, with yield of 576 bushels, average 34^
bushels per acre, and from one and a half acres a yield of 100 bushels of
oats. O. Hplman, 30 acres wheat, 1,000 bushels;
Hans C. Oleson, 40 acres wheat, 29J£ bushels per acre.
Henry Israelson, 72 acres wheat, 31 bushels per acre.

26 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
From 140 acres of wheat, Jas. Holes, Fargo, threshed 3,845 bushels, aa
average of 27^ bushels per acre. From 17 acres of the same piece, which
had formerly been cultivated as a market garden, he obtained 508 bushels,
within a small fraction of 30 bushels per acre, which goes to show that
thorough working of the ground pays as well for wheat as for anything
else. J. B. Crispin's field of 360 acres of wheat threshed out 9,700 bushels,
averaging 27 bushels per acre. From 80 acres of oats he had 5,000 bush
els; being sixty-two and a half bushels per acre.
•Peter Siems, from 50 acres, produced 3,600 bushels of common white
oats, averaging 72 bushels per acre, and Weighing 44 lbs. per bushel.
Hans E. Bjerke raised 627 bushels of wheat from 15}£ acres of land, an
average of 40i^ bushels per acre. This is the largest yield, with one ex
ception, that we have heard of in the county this season. Mr. B. sold
the whole crop at $1 per bushel for seed
THE DIFFERENCE.
The Rural New Yorker of April 28th contains a letter from a man who
sixteen years ago bought 14 acres of land about 25 miles from New York.
He says that since then he has been manuring this tract, until the cost of
the fertilizers now amounts to more than the price originally paid for the
land. He wants to know how much longer he has got to keep this up,
" taking nothing off and putting everything back," before he will be able
to get on his fourteen acres " a rich soil a foot deep." Probably the rest
of his natural life time. People who like that style of operations are wel
come to keep it up, but most people would rather sell, or if they couldn't
sell, then give away, that fourteen acres and come to Minnesota, where
they can get, already made, " a good rich soil from one to three , feet
deep," that every year returns to the owner more than the original cost.

A Large Yield and a Pointed Lesson — The Way to Recu
perate Impoverished Soil.
A remarkable feature of the wheat crop of 1877 is the fact that the
heaviest yields are from the oldest fields. Many experiences of farmers
in the oldest counties are similar to the following :
" Mr. G. C. Thorp raised on fifty acres in the northwest quarter of sec
tion twenty-five, town one hundred and eleven, range nineteen, Rice
county, 2,050 bushels of wheat, being an average of 41 bushels per acre
as measured by the Buckeye seeder. About one-half of the land wsis new
breaking, this being the first crop. The other half was on timothy sod
which had been continuously in grass for eight years, on two of which
the field was mowed and the other six pastured. On this sod portion of
the land the wheat was so superior that in the opinion of good judges the
average yield exceeded 45 bushels and some of it reached 50."
This is strongly confirmatory of the wisdom of rotation of crops which
we are glad to observe our best farmers are practising, the land prior to
being seeded in grass having been so impoverished by continued grain
culture as to become practically worthless for longer use in that way.

THE WHEAT CROP OF 1 877, 27

*8his is What a Glass Pyramid of Minnesota Wheat Would
Say to the World at the Paris Exposition of 1878 :
* No. 1
Minne
sota Wheat.
SlXTY-FOUR LBS.
to the Bushel.
The Best Spring
Wheat Produced in
America. It CoMMANDa
a Higher .Price by Eight
Cents a Bushel than any
other Wheat. Forty Mil
lion Bushels of this Wheat
were Produced in Minnesota in
1877. The Flour from it is
Graded Considerably. Higher than
any Other in the American Market.
Minnesota has a Larger Milling In
terest and Produces more Flour than
any other State in the Union. Her Four »
Hundred and Five Flour Mills, with their
One Thousand Five Hundred and Eleven
Run of Stone, are Capable of Grinding Her
Crop of Last Year into Eight Million Barrels
of Flour; or Her Expected Crop of 1878, of
Sixty Million Bushels, into Twelve Million Bar
bels — Worth, at the Present Price at the Mills,
the Enormous sum' of Seventy-Five Million Dollars.

28 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
The Cass-Cheney Farm.

A correspondent of the Country Gentleman, who visited this farm during
harvest, tells the readers of that paper what he saw, as follows :
This noted wheat farm is immediately adjoining the station of Casselton, ,
twenty miles west of Fargo. It covers 10,240 acres, nearly in a compact
body, and equal to a tract four miles square.
The surface of the land is nearly le.vel, with but sufficient undulation to
afford good drainage; the soil a rich, friable, black alluvial mold some
thirty inches deep, resting upon a retentive clay sjjfcsoil. It is a magnifi
cent tract of land, and almost every acre can be put under the plow in un
broken furrows from one end to the other. This is but the commencement
of their second year's operations, and they now have 4,000 acres under-
cultivation, a field equal in size to one that is one mile in width by 6%
miles in length. For this year's operations there are on the place 80 horses,
30 wagons, 40 cross-plows, 26 breaking plows, 21 seeders, 30 of the Wood
self -binding harvesters, 60 harrows and 5 steam threshing-machines, each
with a daily capacity of 1,000 bushels. Fifty men were needed during the
seeding season, and at harvest time eighty were busily engaged. Seeding
was comm'enced on the 9th of April, and completed on the 30th — all put in
in 18 working days, at the rate of some 220 acres per day, averaging about
10% acres per day to each seeder.
The buildings consist of 4 dwelling-houses, each 32x32 feet, and 4 barns,
each 56x64 feet, with room in each for 60 horses, with commodious lofts,
harness rooms, feed-bins, etc., beside necessary store-room for farming im
plements. In addition to these are the blacksmith and repair shops ; also,
a large store-house for grain, although it is intended to ship the bulk of the
crop as soon as harvested. The management is good, and the most com
plete system seems to govern. Everything moves forward with regularity,
and while there is liberal expenditure, yet there is every evidence of care
ful judicious economy in all pertaining to the work. Each department of
work is under the care of a foreman, with a general superintendent over
all, and the whole enterprise is under the direct personal supervision of
Mr. Dalrymple, whose success in wheat-growing on a large scale in Min
nesota during-the past ten years is a good guarantee for the future success
of this enterprise. The area for cultivation has been added to this year by
the breaking up of sorrie 3,000 acres of new ground, and will be enlarged
every year, the intention of the proprietors being, to have the whole 10,000
acres under cultivation during the year 1880 — buildings, farm machinery
and live stock to be added according to needs.
A careful examination of the 3,500 acres in wheat shows a uniform
growth of about four feet of straw, heads from 2% to 3 inches in length,
and berry of the usual small variety of our Northern spring wheat, but very
plump and well developed, and will grade as extra No. 1 hard.
The work of harvesting was in full operation, twenty-five of the Wood
harvesters with Lock's self-binding attachment being used, which were
taking down the grain at the rate of 360 acres per day. The machines are
of the large size, six and one half feet cut, drawn by three horses, and
when pushed to their full capacity easily cut 15 acres per day, and have
been driven up to 20. In all, eighty men are in the field, one driver to
each machine, and two men following each, putting the bundles in shock,
and the necessary foreman directing all.
The work is very systematically carried forward, the machines follow
each other around the field about four rods apart, and if from any cause one
has to stop it is at once turned from the ranks, and the next one following falls
into its place. Ahelper, with a wagon carrying duplicate pieces of machin
ery, supply of binding wire, etc., is upon the ground, ready upon a display
of a flag signal to go to the relief of any disabled machine, and put it in

AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS AND CAPACITIES* 2£
working order without the delay of .having to send it to a repair shop.
Foremen on horseback follow the machines and men, keeping everything
moving and preventing any unnecessary stoppage in the work. We timed
a number of the machines, and found them cutting and binding from 15 to
18 biindles per minute, and during our four hours of inspection there was
not a single break in the clock-like regularity of the work.
The, cutting was commenced on the 8th of August and completed on the
23d, and on the following day the five steam threshing machines com
menced their work. '
[The entire crop from this immense field was threshed, sent to the Duluth
elevators, and .there transferred to steamers for shipment to New York by
the 25th of September. The yield,,as given by elevator weights, shows
from one field of 2,315 acres, 57,289 bushels — an average of 25J^ bushels
per acre ; from another of 1,100 acres, 22,124 bushels — an average of 20J^
bushels per acre, and from 277 acres in pats the product was 14,320 bush
els. The total amount of grain from the entire farm was 93,733 bushels.]

The Grandiu Farm.

THE GREAT WHEAT FARM OF THE WORLD — AMOUNT IN
CULTIVATION AND YIELD— MEN AND MATERIAL EM
PLOYED, ETC.
This noted farm, owned jointly by J. L. and W. L. Grandin, of Tidioute,
Pa., and Oliver Dalrymple, of St. Paul, covers 38,000 acres, embracing-both
railroad and government land, is located on and near the west bank of the
Red River, some twenty-five miles north of Fargo. This large tract is to
be devoted principally to the cultivation of wheat, and its development is
now fairly under way, the statistics from it last year indicating somewhat
its future.
The farm is practically divided into three parts, with dwelling houses,
stables, granaries, blacksmith shops, wheat elevators, etc., the total stabling
capacity being for 190 horses, and the granary capacity 65,000 bushels.
Last season there were 2,600 acres in wheat that produced 62,660 bushels,
an average of 24 1-10 bushels per acre, all extra No. 1 ; 140 acres in oats,
producing 11,287% bushels, an average of 80 4-7 bushels per acre, of first
quality, Weighing 38% lbs. per bushel.
Eighteen hundred acres of sod were turned over last year for wheat this
season.
, , , . Last year's work employed 120 men, 130 horses, 21 16-inch breaking plows,
37 16-inch' cross plows, 25 wagons, 40 72-tooth Orvis harrows, 16 Buckeye
seeders, 8fefet gauge, 16 Wood's self-binding harvesters, 6% feet cut, 4 largest
size Bu5alo Pitts separators, each of 1,000 bushels daily capacity, 5 Little
Giant fanning mills, besides all other necessary equipments to conduct the
business. In addition to what the proprietors have in contemplation as to the im
provement of this wfceat farm, they have bought some 23,000 acres addi
tional, to be used as a stock farm, which will be carried forward on the
same extensive and comprehensive scale as their wheat farm.
On the farm of Hon. James B. Power, land commissioner of the company,

30 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
a field of 140 acres threshed out 3,990 bushels of wheat, being an average of
28% bushels per acre. On 10 acres of this field the grain was very superior,
and being separately handled exhibited a yield of 424 bushels, showing the
splendid average of 42.4 bushels per acre.
There are many other individual samples of products ranging from 25 to
35 bushels of wheat and 60 to 80 of oats.
These are specimens of the capacity of the so-called arid and alkali lands
which it was seriously proposed a few years ago to abandon to the Indians.
The result there, together with Minnesota's 40,000,000 wheat products, is
exhibiting this whole region in its true light, as more than the Egypt of
America. , AN INTERESTING REMINISCENCE.
I do not know' how I can better illustrate the great progress this State
has made in rapid settlement and in the development of its great re
sources, than by stating that in the summer of 1851, I participated in
hunting buffalo right over the ground now occupied by the Cass-Chcney
and Grandin farms. The buffalo were in droves of countless thousands,
and covered the prairie as far as the eye could reach. We had at times to
make our way through them, scattering them as we proceeded. They
were herded in places as thickly as droves of cattle are ever seen in pass
ing through the streets of a crowded city. Now not a single animal is to-
be found till you reach the distant plains far west of the Missouri.
OATS.
Oats is peculiarly a Northern grain. It is only with a comparatively
cool atmosphere that this grain attains the solidity, and yields >the return
which remunerate the labor and cost of production. The rare adaptation
of the soil and climate of Minnesota to the growth of this grain, is shown
not only by the large average, but the superior quality of the product, the
oats of this State being heavier by from three to eight pounds per bushel
than that produced elsewhere.
The following is an exhibit of the result for the several years named :
No. bushels Average yield
Year. No. acres sown. produced. per acre.
1868  212,064 , 7,831,523 36.00
18«9  278,487 10,510,969 „ 37.74
1870  339,542 10,588,689 3102
1875  401,381 13,801,761 34.38
1877  432,194 16,678,000 37.75
The following is a statement of the product of oats in Minnesota, com.
pared with that in the other States named :
Average Bushels to
per acre. each inhabitant.
Ohio, average of 11 years  23. 9.17
Iowa  2».30 17.80
Minnesota.  37.70 23.88
CORN.
The foregoing exhibits, abundantly sustain the extraordinary capacity
of Minnesota for the production of those cereals which are best produced

AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS AND CAPACITIES. 3 1
in high latitudes. Our State is often supposed to be too far north for In
dian corn. This is a great mistake, founded on the popular fallacy that
the latitude governs climate. But climates grow warmer towards the
west coasts of continents, and although its winters are cold, the summers
of Minnesota are as warm as those of Southern Ohio. The mean summer
heat of St,. Paw, is precisely that of Philadelphia, five degrees further south,
while it is considerably warmer during the whole six months of the grow
ing season than Chicago, three degrees further south. The products of
the soil confirm these meteorological indications.
The average yield of corn in 1868 was 37. 3< bushels per acre, and in 1875
— a bad year— 25 bushels. In Illinois — of which corn is the chief staple —
Mr. Lincoln, late President of the United States, in the course of an agri
cultural address in 1859, stated that "the average crop f uom year to year
does not exceed 20 bushels per acre."
These results, so favorable to Minnesota as a Corn growing as well as
wheat growing State, will surprise no one who is familiar With the fact
established by climatologists, that " the cultivated plants yield the great
est products near the northernmost limits at which they will grow."
COMPARISON WITH OTHER STATES.
A comparison with other States affords the following exhibit :
Bushels per acre.
Ohio, average of nineteen years  32. 8
Iowa, average of six years.  .31.97
Minnesota, average of nine years.,  ,30.98
In order to insure the fairness of this comparison, & just annual average
is given, embracing such years as include 'both the highest and lowest
known yield in each State named. The result is certainly a refutation of
the notion that Minnesota is exclusively a wheat State, lyipg too far north
for corn. She suffers little by this comparison with two of the represen
tative corn States of the Union, and should suffer still less when it is re
membered that the newer and more rapidly growing a State is, the larger
is the proportion of corn planted by the newly arrived settler directly on
the sod, in the rudest manner and without culture, from which process
little more than a third of an average crop is ever expected. The av
erage of the whole is thus reduced. With thorough cultivation, crops of
60 to 60 bushels per aGre are obtained, while a yield of 75 to 80 bushels
is not an unusual occurrence.
That the farmers of Minnesota are satisfied with their corn product is
shown by the fact that the cultivated area in corn was over 163,000 acres
more in 1S77 than it was in 1876.
BARLEY.
The following extract from a circular of a grain shipping firm in
Chicago, shows what judges of 'good grain think of the quality of our
barley: MINNESOTA.
" This State is renowned for good barley. Its latitude seems especially
adapted to its finest development; its soil is fertile, and well tilled by

32 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
thrifty farmers ; its climate is cool, allowing the grain to become plump
and well filled before ripening, an'd is almost free from hot, sultry
weather, and its tendency to rust. The barley is well cleaned before mar
keting, and usually weighs over 50 lbs. per bushel. When this State has
a poor average yield of barley, the remainder oftlie Western crop is not worth
much.'" So much as to the quality ; for the quantity let the following figures
speak. The average product compares with other States as follows :
Bushels per acre.
Minnesota, average of five years  25. 65
Iowa, average of three years  22.11
Ohio, average of nine years  19.29
. In reference to the barley crop of Minnesota in 1875, it appears by the
United States reports, that no State in the Union, except perhaps Texas,
whose statistical reports are not remarkable for accuracy, had an average
yield, equal to hers, in 1875.
The comparison is as follows :
Iowa  20 bushels.
Wisconsin  20 "
Ohio  20 "

Indiana  '  19 bushels.
Illinois  17.5 "
Minnesota  30.15 "

RYE AND BUCKWHEAT.
These crops are produced in great abundance and of the best quality in
this State; but the far greater facility and profit with which more valuable
products are grown, have caused a contraction of the area formerly
assigned to their culture. ( The average product per acre in this and other
States for a series of years will be seen in the following comparative
statement : Rye. Buckwheat.
Minnesota  .'  19.20 16.40
Iowa  13.28 9.49
Ohio  10.43 10.97
POTATOES.
The well-known principle established by climatologists that "cultivated
plants yield Jheir greatest and best products near the northermost limits
of their growth," applies with peculiar force to the production of pota
toes. The mealy quality, the snowy whiteness, the farinaceous proper
ties, and the exquisite flavor which distinguish the best article, reach
perfection only in high latitudes. The potatoes grown in Minnesota are
well known to be unsurpassed in all the qualities named, while their pro
lific yield is not less remarkable.
In the South, the potato, 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. Torrey, "brings the potato 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

AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS AND CAPACITIES. 33
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 indi
cated by increasing exports. The-potato crop of Minnesota is remarkably
exempt from the rot which often affects that of States south of us.
Nearly three and one-half million bushels aTe produced annually. From
250 to 300 bushels to the acre are frequently obtained, while over 400, and
even 500 bushels have been produced under favorable circumstances.
The average yield in Minnesota and other States is here shown :
Bushels per acre.
Minnesota, average for five yeai*  120.76
Iowa, average for five years  76.73
Ohio, average for nine years  74.55
Hay. — Among the grasses that appear to be native to the soil of Minne
sota are found timothy, white clover, blue grass and red top. They grow
most luxuriantly, and many claim that they contain nearly as much nutri
ment as ordinary oats. So excellent are the grasses that the tame varieties
are but little cultivated. The wild grasses which cover the irhmense sur
face of natural meadow land formed by the alluvial bottoms of the intricate
network of streams which everywhere intersect the country, are as rich
and nutritious in this latitude as the best exotic varieties, hence cultivation
is unnecessary. The yield of these grasses is 2.12 tons to the acre, or 60
per cent, more than that of Ohio, the great hay State !
Sorghum. — The cultivation of the sugar cane is fast becoming popular
among the farmers of Minnesota, and one, Mr. Seth H. Kenney, of Rice
County, claims that it can be made more profitable than even the wheat
crop. The syrup and sugar produced is of the finest character, possessing
an extremely excellent flavor. An acre of properly cultivated land will
yield from one hundred and seventy-five to two hundred gallons of syrup,
worth 70 cents a gallon.
Flax and Hemp. — The lint plants, as they come to perfection only in a
cool climate, do extremely well in Minnesota. Their bark in southern
climates is harsh and brittle, because the plant is forced into maturity so
rapidly that the lint does not acquire either consistency or tenacity. Min
nesota is equal for flax -and hemp growth to Northern Europe.
A very large amount of flax is grown in Minnesota, the extensive linseed
oil works at Mankato, on the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad, and at Min
neapolis, paying, the highest prices for it, and furnishing seed when desired.
Onions, Tubnips, Parsntps, Carrots, Beets, and nearly all bulbous
plants, do equally as well as the potato.
Turntps, Rutabagas and Beets, often attain a great size.
The Salad Plants. — Cabbages, lettuce, endives, celery, kpinach — plants
whose leaves are only eaten — are not only more tender here than in warm
climates, where the relaxing sun lays open their buds, and renders their
leaves thin and tough, but are more nutritious, because their growth is slow
and their juices well digested.
Melons, although they come in rather late, instead of throwing too much
3

34 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
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 can-
telope melon, which, in warmer climates, has its sides baked, or rots liefore
it is fully matured.
Pumpkins, Squash, &c, on the same principle, fully mature and grow
very fine and large. The Hubbard variety requires early planting, say first
ef May.
Be&ns, Peas, &c, of eveTy variety, are fine and prolific. Rhubarb; or
pie-plant, flourishes without cultivation. •
All kinds of garden vegetables are grown in great abundance, while the
exquisite flavor and fresh crispness of all table esculents grown in»the quick.
black soil of Minnesota is a subject of universal remark.
Perhaps in no State in the Union does the soil so surely and amply re
ward labor, or yield larger products for the amount bestowed on it. It is
easily cleared of weeds, and once clean, its warm, forcing nature enables
the crops to speedily outstrip all noxious growths. Two good, thorough-
workings usually insures a good growth of almost any cultivated crop.

The Grazing Interest in 1877.
Tons of wild hay  993,140
Tons of cultivated hay  155,000
Number of sheep  203,508
Product of wool, pounds  664,000
Number of milch cows  200,627
Pounds of butter  •. . . 13,392,000
Pounds of cheese  1,150,000'
The butter averages 67.6 pounds per head, against 52 pounds per head in,
Iowa, 46.8 in Llinois, and 62 in Wisconsin.
STOCK AND WOOL GROWING.
The cost of transportation which absorbs much of the profit of wheat
culture in localities distant from the market, is forcing attention to the-
peculiar advantages of Minnesota for stock raising and wool growing.
Prominent among these are : 1. The richness and luxuriance of the native-
grasses. The grass is mainly cut on the meadows which everywhere
checker the rolling prairies, or fringe the countless streams and lakes. 2.
The great extent of unoccupied land, affording for many years to come a.
wide range of free pasturage. 3. The remarkable dryness and healthful-
ness of the winter. . The sleety slush, mud, and the train of diseases which
the damp and variable winters of Eastern or Southern climates inflict upon
animals, and men, are here nearly unknown. The cold, dry air sharpens
the appetite, and promotes a rapid secretion of fat and a vigorous muscular
development. The wool grows finer and heavier, and mutton, beef and»
pork sweeter and more juicy. The effect of the climate and the rich herb
age is seen in the increased products of the daily, as shown above, over-
those of any other Western State.
Cattle do well, without exception. Finer herds than those that graze-

AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS AND CAPACITIES. 35
Upon our prairies cannot be found in any land. Fat cattle find ready sale
on the farm — you need not drive them to a market. You will find the
drover at your door. To all farmers let me say that in looking for, as I
hope, a permanent home, it is to your advantage to seek not only a good
grain-growing country but also a good stock country. The people whose
food is wheat bread, beef and mutton, rule the world politically and men
tally. The successful farmer must raise, not grain only, but horses, cattle,
sheep and hogs. To do this, he must choose a country which produces
cheap corn, and rich, nutritious and cheap grasses and hay. The test of
actual experience is the only safe test of a stock growing country. We
have had that experience, and can speak confidently.
SHEEP HUSBANDRY.
Even from the limited experiments made in this branch of farming, we
say, without "hesitation, that nowhere on the continent can there be found
a more healthy climate for sheep than in this New Northwest. Shelter
and feeding in winter will be needed, as in the Eastern and Middle States;
but proper care and management is essential to success anywhere. Sheep
thrive all through this section, and are not subject to foot-rot and other
diseases prevalent in Ohio and Illinois, where the water is less pure, and
the climate has a greater dampness. Sheep are adapted by nature to
withstand cold ; but they will not thrive in a drizzly winter or a hot sum
mer climate ; nor will they drink the water of muddy streams.
The experience of Col. W. S. King, of Minneapolis, best demonstrates
the adaptability of our climate for this industry, especially with the finer
breeds. Some six or seven years since he brought to Minnesota a small
flock of a dozen Lincoln sheep. He has now, as lineal descendants of
that flock,'oVer 200, claimed by many as the best flock of long-wooled or-
combing-wooled sheep in the United States. During that time they have-
maintained those qualities in the clip that are so essential to the best
types of combing wool, viz.: length, firmness, evenness of fibre, strength
of staple, and a great degree of lustre. They have always been healthy
and very large, and their yield of wool averf ges annually about eleven
pounds each.
Last year Mr. King shipped his wool to Hill, Weston & Co., Boston, one
of tfte most reliable and intelligent firms engaged in the wool business,
and who handle millions of pounds annually. After a careful examina
tion of the shipment, they wrote : " Your wool is well grown, and, bet
ter blood than any wool of the class we have seen of American growth.
It compares favorably with the full-blood wool we imported from Austra
lia two years ago."
A. Wilson, Esq., of Richfield, Hennepin county, says, as comparing his
experience in Vermont with that in Minnesota :
" InVermont they were subject to diseases, would run d6wn and degen
erate in spite of all my efforts. In Minnesota, in 1865, 1 commenced with
30 ewes and one buck, full-blooded Spanish Merinos. From these have
come the sheep- Which I have kept for the past thirteen years, and my
present flock, I keep on an average 200. My success has been very

36 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
satisfactory. The following statements will give an idea of my success
and profit :
I realize an average of eight pounds of wool per sheep.
In the spring of 1876, ten yearling ewes yielded one hundred pounds of
washed wool.
Eight yearling bucks one hundred pounds of washed wool.
One 2-year-old buck sheared twenty-two pounds of unwashed wool.
One 3-year-old buck sheared eighteen pounds of washed wool, the
heaviest washed fleece I ever heard of.
One 3-year ewe, with a lamb, thirteen pounds of washed wool, a very
remarkable clip for a ewe with lamb.
I have sold buck lambs for $50 each, and yearling bucks for from $40
to $75.
Sheep of the right class, and properly kept, are more profitable than
wheat. In comparing Minnesota with Vermont, I am of the opinion that
Minnesota climate improves sheep. Last fall I visited many of the best
flocks in Eastern New York and Vermont, for the purpose of comparison.
I did not find anything superior to Minnesota sheep."
The exact cost of raising sheep in Minnesota is from 55 to 60 cents per
head per annum. Counting the increased value of wool and mutton
raised in this climate, and sheep raising is more profitable here than in
Texas. They are almost wholly free from disease — the yearly loss from
disease and casualty being only one and one-half per cent. Mr. Jonathan
Ames, of Nobles county, an extensive stock raiser from Ohio, has a flock
of one thousand, and declares that the grasses here are the best, richest,
and most nutritious that he has ever met with.
SOUTHWESTERN MINNESOTA.
Southwestern Minnesota has made rapid progress in stock raising. As
capital increases, and the utility and profit of stock raising becomes better
understood by the farmer, we shall see fine flocks and herds, in addition
to the fields of waving grain, and our rich prairies teeming with the life
they can so amply sustain. The abundance of clear, sweet water, dry
atmosphere, its elevation, rich pasturage, freedom from disease, and direct
and ready access to all the prominent markets, unite to make Minnesota
the paradise of stock raisers. Good hay can be put in the stack in South
western Minnesota for $1.25 per ton. It can be secured Without other
expense than cutting, and with very little labor enough can be made for
the maintenance of a large amount of stock. Cattle, horses, and sheep
eat the wild hay with a relish, and we know of men who have sold num
bers of beef cattle in. the past five years who have fed their stock no
grain, and turned it off in fine order. In the past few years they have
operated entirely with beef cattle, and found it such a source of profit not
only with themselves, but the farmers, who can raise stock with less labor
and expense than grain, and are dependent almost wholly upon , the
natural grasses of the prairie. Butter and cheese are also made with large
profit. This section has been settled but seven years, yet it is already
teeming with a population of wide awake, industrious people, whose
fields are evidences of the innate wealth of the Tegion. The soil of South-

AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS AND CAPACITIES. 37
Western Minnesota is adapted to the successful cultivation of grain, and
so celebrated has its grain producing qualities become, that capitalists
have put their money into large tracts of land, and have now immense
fields under cultivation, and their investments have proven extremely
profitable. There are farms of 600, 1,000 and 2,000 acres, all producing
Minnesota's great staple, wheat. Every year, as the success of these in
vestments becomes known, new and larger farms are opening. Men of
wealth have found a safe and reliable investment in practical farming.
No notes becoming due, no mortgages to foreclose, no arrearages in in
terest, in these investments.
Fruit — well, all kinds that are raised in any northern latitude can be
raised in this locality. Some parties raise thousands of pounds of grapes
the next season after setting out the vines. Of course, the culture of
fruit, like anything else, depends very largely upon the care and attention
given to it, but there is no reason why all the hardy varieties cannot or
will not thrive here.
Southwestern Minnesota is on the move, and those who wish to locate
in a thriving, driving, pushing, growing country, no locality on the green
earth promises more faithfully, and none will redeem its pledges with
greater pride to the wide-awake, stirring husbandman. The very soil
teems with wealth, and the air is laden with the most precious gifts of
health.

Another Rich Section of Country.

South, southwest, west and northwest, of Lake Osakis, and the chain of
lakes which give rise to the Sauk River, and embracing the section com
prised in the western portion of Stearns County, west of Sauk Centre, and
the counties of Pope, Douglas, Stevens, Grant, Otter Tail, &c., westward,
lies a splendid fanning and grazing country.
This whole section is naturally adapted to a varied agriculture — grain and
stock raising. The wheat lands are equal, if properly cultivated, to any in
the State. Great crpps have been produced. I have no individual cases of
successful culture at hand, or I should take pleasure in giving them.
The natural meadows and the lake systeih, with connecting streams, afford
unusual advantages for stock raising. Cattle, including two-year-old
heifers that have been running wild all winter, seeking their own subsis
tence, are now, April 20th, in excellent condition for beef.
Most of this section is extremely rich in natural provision for this varied
agriculture, which enables the farmer to keep his land in condition, in
stead of exhausting it by the process of perpetual cropping with grain
while returning nothing to the soil. A large portion of the State may per
haps stand this everlasting cropping process as in the case of the pioneer
farmer, Mr. Joseph Haskell, of Washington County, mentioned on page 21,
but I would not advise any one to keep it up forever.
The soil generally is of excellent quality. A heavy sandy loam, with

38 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
clay subsoil, forming land which the government surveyors truthfully de
scribed as No. 1, and which will produce excellent crops of all kinds for
years in succession without fertilizers.
In digging a well some years ago the soil was found to be rich and black
to the depth of five feet. The next thirteen feet, the full depth of the well,
consisted of blpck loam, partly mixed with clay, but not in sufficient
quantity to Cause the pile of earth thrown 'out to bake after the lapse of
years. I might add here that the soil of Minnesota never bakes or heaves.
The surface of nearly all of this whole region, especially Douglas County,
is thickly dotted with beautiful lakes ; while the water powers at Sauk
Centre, and Fergus Falls, in Otter Tail County, is only excelled by those of
greater volume previously mentioned. Excellent improved farms, all, or
part of them fenced and broken, with buildings and every essential requi
site to putting in immediate crops, can be obtained cheap of those who
have encumbered themselves with more broad acres than they can manage,
or who have unwisely bought more harvesters, fanning mills, &c, than
they can pay for.
The branch line Of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad has been graded to
Fergus Falls, the county seat of Otter Tail County, and will be extended by
the 4th of July, 1878, .from Melrose, its present terminus, 38 miles to Alex
andria, the county seat of Douglas County.
Wild fruits are abundant everywhere. Considerable quantities of wine are
made from the native grape. Thousands of bushels of sweet wild plums
may be gathered in the groves and along the road sides. Strawberries,
raspberries, gooseberries, currants and Juneberries, are excellent in quality
and exhaustless in quantity. The finest cranberries grow on the natural mar
shes. Of hazel nuts there is no end ; hazel bush always denotes excellent
land. The apple and other tame fruits are also grown.
From the thousands of acres of heavy maple forests, both of the hard
and soft varieties, large quantities of syrup and sugar are made. These
forests also jield choice lumber for building and the manufacturing of
furniture. Here then, in nearly the centre of the foremost State in the West
or Northwest, is a tract of country that is rich in every essential requisite,
with comparatively few of the hardships incident to a life on the frontier.
It offers to farmers with small capital good farms, pleasant homes and
opportunities of successful business, and to capitalists the pleasant task of
building up a new country and reaping large profits. It is certainly one of
the inost beautiful portions of the great " Park Region," and is the sec
tion of country so enthusiastically described by General Pope and "Carl
ton," in the chapter on the
BEAUTY AND FERTILITY OF THE' STATE.
I also had the rare good fortune to accompany the second Government
expedition through this same region in the summer of 1851. Our objective
point was Pembina and incidentally Selkirk settlement, in what is now the
province of Manitoba. The result of our mission was a treaty formed with
the Pillager Chippewas and Half Breeds for the valley of the Red River
of the North. The country— the buffalo hunting and bear chasing, at
times performed in a two horse carriage — I described at the time in a series

AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS AND CAPACITIES. 39
•of- "Camp Fire Sketches." Hon. Alexander Ramsey, then Governor of
the Territory, and since U. S. Senator from this State, was in command of
<the expedition. Southern Minnesota— The Garden of the State.
It only remains to say a few words in conclusion in regard to that im-
inense region of old settled country, known as " Southern Minnesota." As
the dessert of the feast naturally comes last, so now do I sum up the feast
Of good things this State affords by a brief reference to what has always
been considered the very heart and garden of the State. All then that I
have said upon our agricultural interests, and of stock and perhaps wool
growing, in other regions, applies with equal force to the whole country
south of the Minnesota and west of the Mississippi river.
THE GREAT WHEAT COUNTIES
which produced in 1876 (the only year that there ever was a failure of
©ur wheat crop) over half a million bushels of wheat each, are only twelve
in number, and are all comprised within this region. They are Blue Earth,
Dakota, Dodge, Fillmore, Freeborn, Goodhue, Mower, Olmsted, Steele,
Wabasha, Winona, and Houston, Four of them, Fillmore, Goodhue,
Olmsted, and Winona, produced over one million each. While the aver
age of the State for 1876 was only 9.61-100 bushels, these twelve counties
averaged 10.03 bushels.
THE INCOMPARABLE WHEAT COUNTIES
of the State are six- only, whose average per acre for that disastrous year,
was as follows : Winona, 12.50% ; Olmsted, 10.94% ; Freeborn, 10.90% ;
Fillmore, 10.66; Goodhue, 10.62%; Steele, 10.06. The average per acre of
ten of the above twelve counties (I have not the other two at hand) for
the year 1875, when we had just a fair average crop throughout the State
of 1J.05 bushels, was as follows, viz :
Dodge, 18.90 ; Steele, 19.26 ; Goodhue, 21.08 ;. Fillmore, 18.02; Wabasha,
18.06; Olmsted, 19.64; Dakota, 16.62; Winona, 17.55; Mower, 18.71; Free
born, 19.61. Average of all, 18.74%. For 1876, 10.03. Showing a difference ,
of 8.71% bushels per acre as the average loss sustained by the entire wheat
area of the State in 1876 from unusual" climatic causes.
The acreage in wheat of the twelve counties in 1877 was 1,107,070 acres—
the product — at only 22 bushels to the acre — the average for the whole
State, would be 24,355,540 bushels, considerably over half the acreage and
half the product of the entire State. To men of moderate means and men
ofifweajth, who wish to purchase highly cultivated farms, all ready to their
hand, who prefer an old settled and populous country, fairly gridironed
with railroads (many of whose worthy people already have the land fever
and are full of "homestead," " pre-emption" and " timber culture," and
want to "go West")i *° aP such men Southern Minnesota offers induce
ments and advantages and attractions that no other part of the State can
equal, including the splendid water power at Cannon Falls and elsewhere.

4o

THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.

I have faithfully endeavored, without any bias or self interest, to
do equal and exact justice to every part of this great commonwealth. To
do this conscientiously is a work requiring great thought and labor. Foi
three months past I have made diligent and careful research and investi
gation into every leading interest of the State ; I have made every docu
ment, newspaper and individual possessing information, that I could put
my hand upon, pay tribute. Every statement made comes from the very
best sources, and is entirely reliable.
In concluding this great and remarkable chapter, I give the acreage of
the seven leading crops as follows : Wheat, 1,819,761 acres ; oats, 441,934;
corn, 458,125 ; barley, 92,689 ; potatoes, 35,449 ; rye, 10,570; buckwheat,
7,864. Total, 2,866,392 acres. The total product of all crops and miscel
laneous productions for 1877 — exclusive of those items heretofore given
under the title of "The Grazing Interest " — is as follows: Wheat, 40,000-
000 bushels ; oats, 16,678,000 ; corn, 12,827,000 ; potatoes, 2,700,000 ; bar
ley, 2,325,000 ; rye, 200,830 ; buckwheat, 136,170 ; grand total of seven
crops, 74,867,000 bushels, worth at home sixty million dollars. Also white
beans, 16,450 bushels ; hops, 34,000 pounds ; amber cane syrup, 108,000 gal
lons; flaxseed, 60,613 bushels; clover seed, 5000; Timothy, 85,000 ; tobac
co, 45,000 pounds ; strawberries, 250,000 quarts. Apple-trees growing, 831,-
879— number bearing fruit, 158,923, producing 150,000 bushels. Grape
vines in hearing, 31,749. Honey, 100,000 pounds; maple sugar, 20,000 ;
maple syrup, 6,182 gallons. Cheese factories, 46; nurseries, 47; farms,
57,104. Forest trees planted on Arbor Day, 1877, 442,568. Whole number
planted in 1877, 4,466,371. Whole number planted and growing, 28,602,-
566. The following table needs no comment :

Population 
Schoolhouses 
Scholars 
Railroads, miles. . ,
Flour, value 
Lumber, value. . .
Manufactures, Wheat, bushels. . ,
Corn, bushels....
Oats, bushels....
Potatoes, bushels.,
Barley, bushels —
Horses 
Cattle 

Hogs.

1860

172,000 800
37,000

$1,289,665
$1,405,303$3,373,172 5,101,4323,143,577
2,900,0002,303,308 301,539 16,800
106,000 12,500
104,467

1865

250,000 ..1,112 50,564 210
$3,187,429
$2,510,254$9,714,147 9,475,000
2,400,0004,000,000
'2,401,654 312,000 52,058
202,730161,187 74,118

1870

440,000 2,000
112,000 1,088
$6,982,959$5,058,15823,396,097 16,283,000 6,092,230
10,588,680 2,500,000 1,603,686 102,600
294,500 136,000 112,000

1877

675,000 3,141
162,551 2,225
$15,565,000 $8,968,000
42,636,00040,000,000 12,827,000
16,678,000 2,700,000 2,325,000 209,141 584,483
203,508211,041

A WORD TO EASTERN FARMERS.
It has been ascertained from statistical data that there are now over 2 -
800,000 men in the United States at work on farms as farm laborers, who

GREAT LUMBER REGION. 4l
do not own a foot of land. The great majority of these men have the expe
rience, energy and ability to manage small farms of their own. Many of
them have families. By dint of close economy, they have saved from their
wages a small capital, which in the West would be sufficient to give them
a good start, but in the older sections of the country, where they live, with
land at from $50 to $150 per acre, jt is beyond all hope of their ever securing
a homestead there. At the best, their future promises only a life of hard
labor, and at the end, when incapacitated from work by old age or other
cause, their little savings will soon be exhausted, and they are left depend
ent upon the help of their friends or the charities of the public, and their
children have nothing left them but the laborer's heritage.
This amount of labor for others, and for which they get but small wages,
would, if put on an 80 or 160-acre farm of their own, give them rich returns
and a comfortable home for themselves in old age, and when they are gone,
a valuable property for their children.

Minnesota as a Great Lumber Region.

LOGS AND LUMBER.
The head waters of the Mississippi, St. Croix and St. Louis Rivers, and
their numerous tributaries are covered with vast forests of pine. The en
tire vailey of the Mississippi and a vast treeless country westward are
dependent upon these forests for their lumber.
The annual cutting of logs and mauufacture of lumber, constitute, there
fore, an important branch of industry, affording an extensive field for the
employment of men and capital.
The mild, open winter of 1876-7 prevented lumber manufacturers from
securing the usual supply of logs, consequently the cut of lumber and
shingles was much smaller in 1877 than 1876. The same causes operated
in all the lumber districts of the northwest, especially in Wisconsin, and
all streams tributary to the Mississippi River. The lack of snow in the
winter was followed, during the summer, by a low stage of water in all the
logging streams. As a consequence, a large per centage of the logs cut
and put into streams, ready for the spring drives, were hung up, and the
manufacture of lumber, on the Mississippi river and its tributaries, was
very small. This tended to strengthen the market, and in the middle of
the year prices were advanced, and at the close were some $3.00 to $4.00
per thousand higher than at the commencement of the year. This advance
in price has more than compensated the dealers and manufacturers for the
small cut in 1877, and relieved the yards from accumulated stocks, caused
by over-production in former years.
The amount Of lumber manufactured in 1876, in the North Mississippi
District, was 244,800,000 feet ; 105,000,000 shingles, and 50,000,000 lath.
In the St. Croix District, 281,750,000 feet, and in the Duluth District 27,750,-
000 feet. Total in these three districts, 554,300,000 feet ; worth at the mills
not less than eleven million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

42 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
Outside of these districts which comprise or are tributary to the pine
regions, there are numerous mills all over the State, the exact product of
which I have no means of ascertaining.
Vast pine forests are found on the shore of Lake Superior, on the
head waters of the Red River, and along the numerous streams which feed
its waters, and operations scarcely now begun will soon be carried on in
those regions upon an extensive scale.

Beauty and Fertility of the State.
In Minnesota are found neither the illimitable level prairies which dis
tinguish Illinois, nor the vast impenetrable forests of Indiana and Ohio,
in which the settler finds it so difficult to carve himself a home ; but a
charming alternation of woods and prairie, upland and meadow, charac
terize the topography of this State.
The general surface of the country is undulating, similar to the rolling
prairies of the adjoining States of Iowa and WiscOnsm> with greater diver
sity, beauty, and picturesqueness imparted to the scenery by rippling lakes,
sparkling waterfalls, high bluffs and wooded ravines.
To the general evenness of the surface, the high lands known as the
Hauteurs des Terres, form the only exception. These are a chain of drift
hills in the northern part of the State, commonly with flat tops, rising
from 80 to 100 feet above the 'level of the surrounding country. Among
these hills lie embedded the lakes that give rise to the three great rivers
•of the continent. The Mississippi, pursuing a southward direction, over
ledges of limestone, through fertile prairies and rich savannas, gathering
its tributaries from a country of great fertility and nearly equal in extent
to one-third the area of Europe,, pours its waters into the Gulf of Mex
ico. Eastwardly, through lakes, rivers and foaming Cataracts, flow the
waters of the St. Lawrence system, finding their way into the Atlantic.
Northward runs the Red River, by a circuitous route to Lake Winnipeg,
where it mingles with waters brought from the Rocky Mountains by the
Saskatchewan, and rolls onward to Hudson's Bay.
Three-quarteVs of the State may be generally described as rolling prai
rie, interspersed with frequent groves, oak openings, and belts of hard
wood timber, watered by numberless lakes and streams, and covered with
a warm, dark soil of great fertility.
OFFICIAL AND SCIENTIFIC TESTIMONY.
General, then Captain, Pope was commissioned in 1849 to make a topo
graphical survey of Northwestern Minnesota. In his official report to
Congress he used the following glowing language touching the beauty
and resources of that region :
" I have traversed this territory from north to south, a distance of 500
miles, and with the exception of a few swamps, I have not seen one acre
of unproductive land." Again: " The examination of a portion of this
territory during the past summer has convinced me that nature has been

BEAUTY AND FERTILITY. 43
¦even more lavish in her gifts of soil than in her channels of communica
tion." " I know of no country on earth where so many advantages are present
ed to the farmer and manufacturer."
"In this Whole extent it presents an almost unbroken level of rich
prairie, intersected at right angles by all the heavily-timbered tributaries
of the Red River, from the east and west— the Red River itself running
nearly due north through its eeritre, and heavily timbered on both banks
with elm, oak, ash, maple, &c, &c. This valley, from its vast extent,
perfect uniformity of surface, richness of soil, and the unlimited supply
of wood and water, i^ among the finest wheat countries in the world."
Of the region surrounding Otter Tail Lake the same writer says :
" The whole region of country for fifty miles in all directions around
this lake, is among the most beautiful and fertile in the world. The fine
scenery of lake and open groves of oak timber, of winding streams con
necting them, and beautifully rolling country on all sides, renders this
portion of Minnesota the garden spot of the Northwest. It is impossible
in a report of this character, to describe the feelings of admiration and as
tonishment with which we first beheld the charming country in the vicin
ity of this lake; and were I to give expression to my own feelings and
opinions in reference to it, I fear they would be considered the ravings of
a visionary or an enthusiast."
" Carlton," of the Boston Journal, who accompanied the party who ex
amined the route of the Northern Pacific Railroad in July, 1869, speaks
thus of a portion of the same section of country :
" On our second day's march we came to a section of country that might
with propriety be Called the park region of Minnesota. It lies amid the
highlands of the divide. It is more beautiful than even the country
around White Bear Lake and in the vicinity of Glenwood. Throughout
the day we ride amid such rural scenery as can only be found amid the
most lovely spots of England.
" So wonderfully has nature adorned this section, that it seems as if we
were riding through a country that has been long under cultivation, and
that behind yonder hillocks we shall find an old castle, or at least a farm
house, as we find them in Great Britain."
" I do not forget that I am seeing Minnesota at its best season, that it is
midsummer, that the winters are as long as in New England; but I can
aay without reservation that nowhere in the wide world, not even in Eng
land, the most finished of all lands; not in la belle, France, or in sunny Ita
ly, or in the valley of the Ganges, or the Yanktze, or on the slopes of the
Sierra Nevada, have I beheld anything approaching this region in natural
beauty." '
"How it would look in Winter I cannot say; but the members of our party
are unanimous in their praises of this park region of Minnesota. The land
is unsurveyed, and the nearest pioneer is forty miles distant, but land so
inviting will soon be snapped up by settlers."
Of the Red River Valley the same writer says :
"The sun shines through a mellow haze, while all around, as far as the
eye can see, there is such richness of- verdure, such wealth of greenness and
display of flowers, that the language descriptive of the Elysian fields, and
the choicest and best of poesy, is too forceless and. feeble to convey an idea
of the richness and beauty of this fair region of the World."
David Dale Owens, the eminent geologist, speaking of Southern Minne
sota, designates it as a "fertile, well watered and desirable farming coun.
try." The same writer, describing another portion of the same section,
eays:.

44 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
"The scenery on the Rhine, with its castellated heights, has been the
admiration of European travelers for centuries. Yet it is doubtful whether
in actual beauty of landscape it is not equalled by that of some of the streams
that water this region of the far West.?'
G. W. Featherstonhaugh, an English traveler, in 1835, in his " Report
of a Geological Reconnoissance," speaks of this valley as "extremely beau
tiful — charming slopes, with pretty dells intersecting them, studded wifh
trees as gracefully as if they had been planted with the most refined taste."
Prof. Owen, speaking of the Lake Superior region, says i
"The scenery of the whole extent of the ranges north of the lake is bold
and picturesque."
Major Long, of the U. S. Army, speaks of the scenery of the Mississippi
as "bold, wild and majestic," and describes one of the falls on the north
shore of Lake Superior as
" Equalling Niagara in the grandeur and sublimity of its scenery, although
less extensive, the fall being 130 feet, but with features equally terrific — the
deep intonation more sensible and having a nearer resemblance to the roar
of distant thunder and the rumbling of an earthquake."
The "Dalles" of the St. Croix River are every year attracting tourists in
increasing numbers by their wild and picturesque beauty. The falls of
Minne-ha-ha, the "laughing waters," have been so immortalized by Long
fellow's " Hiawatha " as to require no description ; while also the beautiful
cascade, "Minne-inne-opa," near Mankato, elicits expressions of admira
tion from delighted visitors. Scores of other rare features might be named
which contribute to the charms of our scenery.
As a concise general description of the landscape of Minnesota, it may
finally be said that the number and beauty of its groves and belts of timber,
which crown the undulations of the uplands or shadow the margins of the
streams, break up the monotony.of the prairie into forms of infinite variety
and beauty, and unite all the elements not <jnly of smccessful husbandry, but
of delightful landscape in the limits of almost every farm.
LAKES.
The number, beauty and picturesqueness of its lakes form a marked fea
ture in the scenery of Minnesota. These lovely little sheets of water are
found dotting its surface in nearly every section of the State, sparkling on
the open prairie, hidden in the depths of its primeval forests, and glistening
like gems of beauty among the ragged hills of its northeastern section.
They are from one to thirty miles in diameter. Some of them are of a cir
cular form, others of an exceedingly irregular outline. The water of these
lakes is remarkably clear and pure, resting upon a basin of quartzose sand
and pebbles, among which the jasper, agate and cornelian appear conspic
uous. Some of these lakes are surrounded by hard, gravelly shores ; others
encircled by an embankment several feet high ; around some the green
sward touches the water's brim ; others are fringed with wild rice and
various aquatic plants of rare beauty. These lakes abound with a great
variety of fish of superior flavor and quality ; and in spring and autumn they
are the resort of immense numbers of wild geese, ducks and other water
fowl. I am indebted to Gen. J. H. Baker for the following :

BEAUTY AND FERTILITY. 45

OF THE DISTRIBUTION AND USES OF LAKES.
" The lakes of the world are not distributed at random, but are developed
in certain regions by causes which are pretty well understood. The north
ern parts of Europe, down to the 52d parallel of latitude, are well dotted
with lakes ; in the northern parts of America they only extend as far south
as the 42d parallel. In Finland, nearly one-third of tbe country is water.
In the northwest of Scotland scenery and lakes similar to that found in,the
northeast of our own State and Canada exist. The lochs of Scotland and
the loughs of Ireland have touched with beauty both the poetry and romance
of those countries. Lakes are numerous also in Switzerland, Bavaria and
the south of Sweden. But the most remarkable lakes in the world are those
of the northern continent of America.
"This vast mass of fresh water, so far inland, subserves many important
purposes. It has a marked climatic effect, as shown by the excellent fruit
districts around lakes Erie, Michigan, and Huron, where peaches and
grapes ripen to exquisite sweetness north of their normal latitudes. They
affect our own climate by retarding the early approach of frost in the
autumn. They subserve a noble purpose by bottling up trie mighty
volume of waters which gather from the great rains and melting snows.
They spread this water over vast areas, and pass it gently from basin to
basin : whereas, if it rushed at once to the declivity of rivers, it would
overflow whole regions, and carry devastation in its march. They also
serve as the reservoirs for innumerable springs. Besides serving these
functions, they add an indescribable charm and picturesque beauty to the
landscape. They have made Switzerland the home of the tourist, and the
lochs of Scotland the synonym of romance. In time the lakes of Minne
sota will do all this for us. The disciples of Isaac Walton will here find
their choicest field, and the hunter multitudes of aquatic fowl. The
sports of the regatta, with oar and sail, will give diversion and health.
Thus our seven thousand lakes will furnish lasting resources of amuse
ment and health, and add forever an indescribable charm to our natural
scenery." TIMBER.
As before remarked, Minnesota is neither a timber nor a prairie State ;
yet it possesses, in a large degree, the advantages, of both, there being un
questionably a better proportion of timber and prairie, and a more admir
able intermingling of the two, than in any other State. It is estimated
that about one- third of Minnesota is timbered land, of more or less dense
growth, being the best timbered Sta-te of the Northwest. On the head
waters of the various tributaries of the extreme upper Mississippi and St.
Croix rivers is an extensive forest country, known as the "pine region,"
comprising an estimated area of 21,000 square miles. Extending in a north
easterly and southwesterly direction, about 125 miles long and an average '
width of 40, is the largest body of hard wood timber between the Mississippi
and Missouri rivers. It lies on both sides of the Minnesota river, compris
ing in all an area of 5,000 square miles, and is known as the " big woods."
This extended forest abounds in small lakes, and in some portions it is
broken by small prairies and openings, covered with a luxuriant growth of
grass. Elsewhere .timber is found in detached groves, and bordering the
numerous rivers and lakes, and a scattered growth of stunted trees called
" oak openings " usually skirt the prairies.

46 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.

GAME.
The prairies and forests abound in a great variety of wild animals, among
which are deer, bears, wolves, foxes, wild-cats, raccoons and rabbits. Otter,.
mink, beaver and musk-rat are the principal aquatic animals that frequent
the water-courses. Pigeons, prairie chickens and pheasants are among the-
feathered game ; whilst multitudes of smaller birds, of sweet song and gay
plumage, add their thousand charms to the summer landscape of Minnesota.
FISH.
The Legislature, some three years since, established a "State Board
of Fish Commissioners," in common with many other States. The pres
ent Board consists of Robert Ormsby Sweeny, of Saint Paul, Chairman,
Dr. W. W. Sweeney, of Red Wing, Goodhue County, and one vacancy to be
filled by the Governor. A Fish Hatchery has been established at Willow
Brook, at the base of the high bluffs on the left bank of the Mississippi just
below Saint Paul. Young salmon and trout are being propagated by the
million in the pure spring waters which flow from, the high grounds in this
vicinity. An appropriation of $5 ,000 per annum has been made for the. sup
port of this new State enterprise, and to Messrs. Wm. Golcher, of Saint
Paul, a late commissioner, and R. O. Sweeny, great cseditis due for the zeal
and energy they have displayed in giving it practical shape and utility.
The Chairman of the Board furnishes me the following statement. It pos
sesses peculiar interest. Should a drouth or general failure of crops ever
take place, the fish supply of the State would go far towards subsisting the
people ;
"There is no State of the Union more bountifully beautified with clear
deep lakes and spring brooks and rivers than Minnesota. The lakes and
streams are sources of food for the dwellers of this favored land, for they
abound in choice varieties of native fish, and those planted by the Fish
Commissioners of the State; so that, should all else fail the fisheries of
the State alone would support a heavy population.
A careful estimate taken from township maps of the State shows that
we have, of inland lake surface (exclusive of rivers, and portions of Lake
Superior and Lake Pepin), within our borders no less than 2,700,000 acres
of inland lakes alone. Assuming that our State contains 83,530 square
miles, or 53,459,840 acres, it will be seen that we have five acres of water-
to every hundred acres of land. The capacity of this vast water surface
to produce food is practically unlimited.
The Fish Commissioners have in the three years of the labors of the
Commission, planted in the different waters of the State nearly a million
of young fish of- the following varieties — California Salmon, Land-locked
Salmon of Maine and Atlantic Salmon, Great Lake Superior Trout, Brook
Trout and Shad. The latter from the United States Hatchery and Com-,
missioner. The native fishes of superior merit are the white fish, tulabee, lake her
ring, brook trout, wall-eyed pike, bass, croppy, perch, Great Lake trout,
siskowet, pike musquealonge and pickerel. Some of these kinds are to
be found in nearly all parts of the State, affording attractive sport and
good food to those who can 'be quiet and go_ a-angling.' There are-
many more kinds than are enumerated above, in great abundance, and<
many who catch fish esteem them highly and eat them with relish."

•BEAUTY AND FERTILITY. 47

A Peep at Minnesota.

From the Chicago Tribune.
For the first time in years I find myself outside the walls of Chicago,
and the change is a most striking one.
The growth and rapid development of this State is one of Ae marvels
of modern times. In the year 1852 the writer of this first visited St. Paul,
a small town then of about 2,000 inhabitants. It has now 40,000 1 The
entire Territory of Minnesota (which included the present State and the
present Territory of Dakota) did not at that time number more than 15,000-
inhabitants. The State alone has now a population of neariy, if not quite, 750,000.
Then we were all speculators. There were no farmers in the country.
The Territory did not raise grain enough for its own consumption.
Wheat and all other produce was much higher in St. Paul than rn Chicago.
We were all dealers in town lots, and thought in our foolishness that
the cultivation of the soil was a slow way of getting rich. But opinions-
change as we get older, and the circle of experience widens. Speculation
nearly ruined Minnesota, or seemed to do so. It certainly ruined the-
speculators, and brought all their golden plans to grief. Then everybody
went to work, and slowly but surely recuperation went on. The patient
has now fully recovered, and i's at present in a most healthy and vigorous
condition. There is no young State which to the emigrant offers such substantial
inducements as this. And they are fast finding it out. The tide of emi
gration is setting powerfully in this direction, and is every day gathering.
volume and force. It is natural that this should be so.
The fame of last year's crop has gone abroad, and the present movement
is the logical result. Think of a State barely twenty years old producing
in one season a crop of 40,000,000 bushels of as pure wheat as was ever
raised. Grasp that fact, and then call upon your imagination to aid you
in predicting the destiny of such a State — a State about twice the size of
New York— with millions of acres of fertile land never yet vexed with a
plow, and possessing a climate unsurpassed in salubrity.
No wonder the people here wear such smiling countenances. They are
full of hope. I have yet to see the first despairing or gloomy face. Mel
ancholy belongs to the overcrowded cities, and there is plenty of it in
Chicago. Is it not astonishing that so many able-bodied men should hang about
our large cities doing nothing, because they can find nothing to do, and
nearly starving to death, when these broad and fertile prairies are calling
upon them to come and release the treasures which lie within the soil.
The resources of this State are immense. It has every variety of
wealth, and every facility for profitable exchange. There is no more pro
ductive soil in the world. Then the State has an abundance of pine tim
ber. It has a vast amount of available water power, and offers every fa
cility and enc ragement to manufacturing industry. It has mineral
wealth on Lake Superior of iron and copper in inexhaustible abundance.
There is no region in this country or any country that I am aware of, that
is so well watered. And the water is everywhere clear and pure. It is a
land of great rivers, pelucid lakes, and sparkling streams.
All this may sound enthusiastic, but every word is calmly written and
justified by the facts; and it is strictly within the facts. If the advantages
of this region were only adequately made known, there would surely be-
a great flow of labor from the cities and places where it is not wanted,

48 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
into a region like this, where every variety of labor is needed and where
it is certain to meet with a rich reward.
It would afford me pleasure to say much more, but I am afraid to tres
pass farther upon your attention at present, and I will simplj_ subscribe
myself as yours respectfully,

An Agricultural Paradise.

From the Chicago Tribune.
I write this from one of the centres of agricultural Minnesota, — from
the heart of an agricultural paradise. Mankato is 135 miles nearly west from
Winona, and about 435 miles from Chicago. It is an easy and comfortable
trip throughout, and those who make it, if only for pleasure, will be well
rewarded. A more attractive and beautiful country than that which lies
along the line of the Northwestern railroad, from Winona to this point,
I have never seen. It is a perpetual feast for the eye. It is not only a
garden in the way of fertility, but there is a variety, a finish, a picturesque-
ness about it which is as surprising as it is pleasing. It is difficult to
realize that this 'is a newly settled region, and that but a few years ago
these now highly cultivated lands were in a state of primeval wildness — ¦
the hunting grounds of savage tribes.
The change that has been wrought within a single decade in Minnesota
borders upon the miraculous. Within ten years this" wonderful State has
doubled in population and quadrupled its wheat production, and the
development of its resources has only just begun, as even the most skep
tical will be convinced who will take the pains (and it will not be a pain,
but a pleasure) to visit this State and acquaint himself with the" actual
facts. They will, I am sure, fully bear put any statements that I have yet
made, or am likely to make. If the facts are as I have represented them,
then there can be no doubt that they should be given the very widest cir
culation^ and that every journal which aids in this work will be doing the
community a service.
The growth of Minnesota — the eneatiou of wealth, from its soil — will of
necessity add incalculably to the solid prosperity of Chicago. It will add,
moreover to the prosperity of the whole country. It is upon these broad,
general grounds that these letters are written. Minnesota has within her
limits riches far greater in value, and far more essential to the welfare of
man, than can be found within the limits of any mere gold-producing
State. The wheat of Minnesota, the finest in quality that can be raised,
will command its equivalent in gold in any of the markets of the world ;
and for the production of this staple, th» result of last year's crop proves
beyond a question that Minnesota has no peer. This may sound very
much like " blowing," but it is blowing only the truth. The writer is
not a resident of Minnesota, and does not own an acre within that State ;
and, even if he did, it would be but futile to attempt to alter facts. Facts
are hard things against which to butt one's head. But when the facts
are in our favor, as in this case they certainly are, then it is not only a
pleasing task, but it is one's duty, to give to them the fullest expres
sion. 1 have no space to go into statistics, which are dull things at best,
although pregnant with ineaning ; but,, for such as care to do so, I will
refer them to the able report of Mr. Metcalf, Commissioner of Statistics
for the State of Minnesota. They will find in that work much to astonish
them, and that will furnish their minds with food for thought.
Minnesota is in all respects extraordinary, and in the future it is my ,<

MINERALS. 49
"belief that she will surprise the country even more than she has done in
the past.
I know of no other portion of the earth's surface where so many ad
vantages are concentrated, and where the man of industry and small
means may so quickly and with so much certainty render himself
independent. Here you have a climate of exceeding purity, a soil of
amazing productiveness, abundance of the clearest water, with groves,
and lakes, and rivers and streams wherever they are wanted. Then the
great railway lines are beginning to intersect this country in all directions,
and thus furnish the farmer with a cheap and immediate outlet for his
produce. What more can be desired ? How can there be a combination more
favorable for the creation of wealth ?
Land is now cheap, abundant, convenient ; and it is rapidly being taken
up. The emigration that is now pouring into this region proves that the
facts here alluded to are become known. And, as they become better
known, this human stream will grow larger and larger, until every avail
able acre in this fertile State is brought under the civilizing -influences of
the harrow and the plow. With much respect, your wandering fellow-
townsman,

Minerals.
The northeastern corner of the State comprises a mineral field which will
be'inferior only to agriculture as a source of wealth. /
Copper. — Copper abounds in the mineral belt stretching along the north
ern shore of Lake Superior ; and large masses of the pure metal have been
taken from Knife and Stuart rivers.
The lower magnesian limestone and sandstone near Lake Pepin are met
alliferous, yielding lead and copper. But no mines as yet have been at
tempted. Ibon. — Lon ore is found in considerable quantity around Portage and
Pigeon rivers. The metal wrought from this ore has been pnt to the sever
est, test, and found fully equal in tenacity and malleability to the best
Swedish and Russian iron. The growing importance of this mineral resource
may be inferred from the table of shipments of iron ore from the Superior
district, which shows a rapid increase.
An iron ore is also«found in several localities, between the Blue Earth and
Le Sueur rivers, which is said to yield thirty-one per cent, of light-grey iron.
Coal. — Should Minnesota prove to be wanting in this valuable mineral,
the deficiency can shortly be supplied at a cheap rate from the immense coal
fields of Iowa. These fields cover an area of 25^000 square miles ; and the
Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad places them practically in the neighbor
hood of the mineral districts of Lake Superior.
Slate. — Vast bodies of slate of good quality exist in some portions of the
State. Lime. — The burning of lime has been pursued to a large extent from the
first settlement of the State, the extensive beds of stone everywhere found
affording abundant materialffor its prosecution on a large scale.
Salt. — Among the valuable mineral resources of this State are the salt
springs of the Red River Valley. These reservoirs ef saltare the beginning
of a series of saline springs that reach westward on the international bound-

5o THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
ary line to the Rocky Mountains ; some of these springs, even with the
imperfect apparatus used by the Indians, are said to yield one bushel of
good salt to twenty-four gallons of brine, or 33% per cent.
Building Stone. — Limestone suitable for building purposes, is found in
immense out-croppings below the Falls of St. Anthony, on the Mississippi
and its tributaries, which forms another considerable item of wealth. That
nearest the surface is of a greyish rock, easily quarried and worked, but in
capable of a high polish. Underlying this formation, in many localities,
is a close-grained limestone of a bluish color, highly valuable for building
purposes. A variety occurs at Saint Peter, resembling marble, and suscep
tible of a fine polish.
The limestone near the mouth of the Cottonwood contains ninety-four
per cent, and that near the mouth of the Minnesota sixty-four per cent, of
the carbonate Of lime ; and indeed all these f ormatio <• are rich in this ele
ment, and consequently valuable for building.
Within the past few years the ledge of granite which makes its appear
ance near Sauk Rapids, has been brought into considerable use for buildin g
purposes. Large bodies of granite exist in the upper Minnesota Valley,
at Granite Falls and Minnesota Falls ; and in the Northeastern part of the
State. White Sand for Glass. — A sandstone of remarkable purity, composed
of limpid and colorless quartz, varying from forty to one hundred feet in
thickness, is found overlying the limestone formation at Fort Snelling, and
along the Mississippi below the Falls of Saint Anthony, to Red Rock.
Subjected to chemical analysis, this stone gave two-tenths of one per
oent. of foreign matter, which is alumina, with a trace of a carbonate of
lime, and is pronounced even purer than the celebrated Lind sand used by
Scotch manufacturers of flint glass.
Prof. Owen's (U. S. Geologist) report, says : " The St. Peter's (Minne
sota River) country certainly can afford as pure a quality of sand as that
obtained in Missouri, and now, I believe, extensively used in the glass
houses of Pittsburg."
Tripoli.— He describes a bed of tripoli near Stillwater as of " very fine
quality," "inexhaustible for all practical purposes," and "a source of
wealth to the State."
Clay.— There is an abundance of day underlying the soil in the larger
portion of the State, of which brick of good quality are made. Beds of
marl, adapted to the manufacture of pottery, are found in various places ;
and a bed of fine porcelain clay is reported in Wabasliaw County.

Climate.
PECULIAR ADAPTATION OF SOIL AND CLIMATE.
Prominent among the questions proposed by the emigrant seeking a
new home in a new country, are those concerning the climate, its temper
ature, adaptation to the culture of the grand staples of food, and its
healthfulness.

CLIMATE. 51
Though Minnesota has no mountain peaksj> its general elevation gives
it the characteristics of a mountainous district ; that, while it is equi-dis-
tant from the oceans that wash the eastern and western shores of the con
tinent, and is therefore comparatively unaffected by oceanic influences, it
has a great water system of lakes and rivers within its own borders.
These, combining with other influences, give the State a climate in many
respects dissimilar to the other Northern States.
Its yearly mean temperature (44.6°) coincides with that of Central Wis
consin, Michigan, Central New York, Southern Vermont, New Hamp
shire, and Maine.
It is well known that dampness is the element whence comes the great
est suffering, whether of cold or warm weather. With an average tem
perature of 16°, the dry atmosphere of winter in Minnesota is less cold to
the sense than the warmer yet damp climate of States several degrees
further south.
The farmer improves the winter season by preparing fencing and fuel,
and drawing to market the surplus products of his last year's toil. Lum
bermen are busy in the forests getting ready logs to be borne on the
swollen streams of spring to the various lumber manufactories. Winter
in Minnesota is a season of ceaseless business activity and constant social
enjoyment, and by those accustomed to long wintry storms, and continued
alternations of mud, and cold, and snow, pronounced far preferable to the
winters in any section of the Northern States. Here there is an exhilara
tion in the crisp atmosphere which quickens the blood and sends the
bounding steps over the ringing snow with an exultant flurry of good
spirits akin to the highest enjoyment.
But the best evidence of the rare adaptation of the climate, as well as
the soil of Minnesota, to agriculture, are the incontrovertable statements
et its bountiful products heretofore shown in this pamphlet.
The soil of Minnesota may. be classified in four geological divisions —
limestone, drift, day, and trap. Scientific analysis develops the presence
in due proportion of elements of extraordinary fertility in each of these,
comparing favorably with the most celebrated soils in the world. David
Dale Owen, the eminent geologist, describes it as of " excellent quality,
rich as well in organic matter as in those mineral salts which give rapid
ity to the growth of plants, and that durabilty which enables it to sus
tain a long succession of crops." It has been analyzed by Dr. A. H.
Hayes,- assayer to the State of Massachusetts, who pronounces it a "dark
colored, fine textured soil abounding in organic matter, and highly fer
tile. It is in fact a large amount of natural manure, mixed with soil, and
cannot fail to produce great and permanent fertility. It closely resembles
the sugar cane soil of the West India Islands." This theoretic excel
lence is amply confirmed by- the practical results of agriculture.
SALUBRITY OF CLIMATE.
Of paramount importance to the emigrant, is the healthfulness ©f fhe
locality which is to be the scene of his future labors and the home for
himself and family. What to him are fair fields, flowering meadows,
buried in the luxuriant growth of fertile soils and tropical suns, if they
generate fever-producing miasm and vapor ? What are soft and perfumed

52 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
breezes, if they waft the seeds of pestilence and death ? What are boun
tiful harvests of golden grain, and rich mellow fruits, and all the wealth
the earth can yield, if disease must annually visit his dwelling, and death
take away one by one the loved and the young ?
It is well known that some of the fairest portions of the Western States
are so fruitful of the causes of disease, as almost to preclude settlement.
And multitudes have left their comparatively healthy New England and
European homes, to find untimely graves in the rich soil of some of the
Western and Southwestern States. And even in sections of these States
deemed most healthy, the climate has an enervating effect upon those
accustomed to the bracing air of Northern Europe and the Eastern States.
The dryness of the air, the character of the soil,, which re
tains no stagnant pools to send forth poisonous exhalations, the uni
versal purity of its water, the beauty of its scenery, and the almost
total absence of fog or mist, the brilliancy of its sunlight, the pleasing
succession of the seasons, all conspire to give Minnesota a climate
of unrivaled salubrity, and to make this a home of a joyous, healthy,
prosperous people, strong in physical, intellectual, and moral
capabilities. And while the chilly, damp winds from the Atlantic are
sowing broadcast the seeds of that terrible disease, pulmonary consump
tion, while the malarious exhalations from the undrained soil of Indiana,
Illinois, and other States of the Southern Mississippi Valley, yield an an
nual harvest of fevers, Minnesota enjoys an almost entire immunity from
both. If fever and ague occur, the germ was imported ; if consumption
claims its victim, the cause is to be sought elsewhere than in the climate
of Minnesota. TESTIMONIALS AS TO HEALTHFULNESS.
But let those testify who are either wholly uninterested, or, whose in
terest springs from a grateful consciousness of restored health resulting
from a sojourn in Minnesota.
Surgeon G. K. Wood, U. S. Army, speaking of the advantages of a
Northern over a Southern climate in cases of consumption, says :
" The present injudicious course of sending consumptives to the hot,
low and moist coast, and the islands of the Gulf of Mexico, should be
abandoned. In diseases of debility the remedies are tonics and stimu
lants. What is more debilitating than affections of the lungs ? It is sim
ply not cold, and has no other advantage over the Northern States."
Disturnell, author of a work on the "Influence of Climate in North and
South America," says that " Minnesota may be said to excel any portion of
the Union in a healthy and invigorating climate. ' '
The following comparative statement exhibits the proportion of deaths
to population in several countries in Europe and States in the Union :

Minnesota  1 in 155
Great Britain & Ireland. . . 1 in 46
Germany  1 in 37
Norway  1 in 56
Sweden  1 in 50
Denmark  1 in 46
France  1 in 41
Switzerland  1 in 41
Hdlland  1 in 39

Wisconsin  l in 108
Iowa  l in 93
Illinois  l in 73
Missouri  1 in 51;
Michigan  1 in 88'
Louisiana  1 jn 43:
Texas  1 in 46
Pennsylvania  1 in 96
United States  1 in 74]

PUBLIC LANDS. 53
April, 1878— Present Population, 750,000.
The population in the fall of 1877., as estimated from the census of 1875,
was 675,000. This census gave the nativities of the people at that time,
and while any calculations are arbitrary and necessarily inexact, yet, as I
¦believe it to be a fair approximation to the facts, I reproduce it here :
Natives of Minnesota  231,750
" other States  197,150
" Ireland...  25,300
" Germanic States  76,500
" Norway  60,000
" Sweden  34,500
" British Provinces  21,000
" England and Wales  9,000
" other countries and unknown  19,800
Total  .' 675,000

Lands for the Landless. Homes for the Homeless.
GOVERNMENT LANDS. THE AMOUNT STILL VACANT.
I am indebted to Gen. James H. Baker, Surveyor-Gejieral of Minnesota,
for the following valuable article on this subject. The General says : >
" To post the books and see just where we stand in the disposition of our
lands, we find that we came into the inheritance of a vast domain, contain
ing 53,449,840 acres; deducting the water areas, 2,700,000 acres, we, had
50,749,840 acres of land, including Indian reservations. Of these lands
39,282,418 acres have been surveyed, leaving y.,467,422 acres yet to survey.
Of these surveyed lands the following disposition has been made, and this
table will not be found elsewhere, and has been prepared with great care
from official sources :
Disposition of Surveyed Lands. Acres.
Cash sales and wan-ants  8,920,285.70
Homestead and timber culture acts  >  5,829,042.64
Agricultural college lands  1,033,908.75
Railroad grants (certified)  7,621,131.22
Swamp selections (approved)  1,361,125.13
Internal irnprovement  500,000.00
Schools .....  2,969,990.00
Universities  *  92,548.35
Indian scrip  244,672.29
Float scrip  ,  400.00
Salines  • • • • • 26,435.00
Public buildings  6,400.00
Grand Total  28,605,939.08
Note. — These returns are up to June 30, 1877, except railroad lands,
which are up to Dec. 31, 1877.
Of the thirty-nine millions of acres of surveyed lands, it will thus be ob
served that 28,605,939 have been disposed of, leaving 10,676,479 acres of the
surveyed portion of the State yet undisposed of, and of both the surveyed
and unsurveyed areas of the State, leaving a balance of 22,143,901 acres yet
subject to disposition. The surveyed lands embrace the cream of our agri
cultural areas. Those which are in the hands of actual settlers go to create
the State and fulfil their highest mission. Those which have gone as gra-

54 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
tuities have been given with a lavish hand. But the bank account in that
direction is about closed; and but few more checks can be drawn. The area
yet to survey will bring to the market a few agricultural lands in the coun
ties of Polk and Pembina, some valuable pine on the tributaries of St. Louis
and on waters flowing north to the Rainy Lake series, and, it is fully be
lieved, rich minerals on the north shore of Lake Superior. In that superb
lacustrine region will also be found the Switzerland of America, amid whose
romantic lakes the tourist of the future will find diversion and health."
The 2,700,000 acres of water area are comprised in the 7,000 meandered
public lakes alone ; there are also a vast number of lakes under 40 acres
each, which are sold with the sections of land and are private property.
The Government land is divided up in the nine different land districts about
as follows, viz. : Taylor's Falls land district, 350,000 acres ; Benson, 325,-
000 ; Fergus Falls, 480,000 ; Worthington, 60,000 ; New Ulm, amount not
stated, nearly all taken; Red Wood Falls, do., do. In the Crookston, St.
Cloud and Duluth districts, comprising the northern half of the State, there
are 20,928,901 acres, about one-half of which are still unsurveyed. Total,
22,143,901 acres. Minnesota school lands still unsold, 2,500,000 acres.
RAILROAD LANDS.
Northern Pacific, 1,615,000 acres ; Winona & St. Peter, 1,160,000 ; Saint
Paul & Duluth, 1,200,000 ; Saint Paul & Pacific, 1,120,000; Saint Paul &
Sioux City, 850,000 ; Hastings & Dakota, 325,000 ; Chicago, Milwaukee &
Saint Paul, 460,000 ; Southern Minnesota, 200,000. Total, 6,932,000 acres.
Rapidly as the lands of all kinds have been taken up during the past winter
and present spring, it will be seen that there are still left some Thirty-one
million five hundred and seventy-six thousand'acres subject to entry under the
homestead, pre-emption and tree culture acts ; with State school lands and
railroad lands for sale by the above eight railroads. Much of all this land is
equal in quality to any in the State, and situated convenient to many rail
roads already in operation.

Public Lands.
DIRECTIONS HOW To OBTAIN THEM, FROM AN OFFICIAL
SOURCE.
Citizens of the United States, or persons who have declared their inten
tion to become sueh, who are heads of families or over the age of 21 years,
can obtain public land of the United States under the homestead, pre-emp
tion, or timber culture acts, in the following manner, viz.;
First. — A citizen, or one who has declared his intention to become such,
can homestead 160 acres outside, or 80 acres inside, the ten mile limits of
any railroad grant, by filing his application and affidavit, and within six
months thereafter commencing settlement and improvement, and continuing
the same five years.
Second. — A soldier having served in the army or navy during the war of
the rebellion for over ninety days can obtain 160 acres of any of the public
lands by filing, himself or by an attorney, a declaratory statement, and
within six months thereafter filing his affidavit and application commencing
settlement and cultivation, and continuing the Same for five years, less the
time lie served in the army or navy. His widow can take advantage of the

PUBLIC LANDS. 55
above. In case of his death in the army, the term of his enlistment is de
ducted. Third. — A citizen or person who has declared his intention to become
such, is entitled to 160 acres under the pre-emption law, by commencing
settlement thereon, and within ninety days thereafter filing a declaratory
statement continuing such settlement and improvement. And any time
after six months or within thirty-three months from date of settlement,
making proof and payment for the same at the rate of $1.25 outside, and
^2.50 per acre inside, the ten mile limits of any railroad grant.
A person qualified as before can file his application and affidavit for 160
acres, (under the timber culture act,) of any of the public lands that are
naturally devoid of timber, (provided that only one-fourth of any section
can be taken under this act,) and by breaking, planting, and keeping in
growing condition forty acres of timber; the trees not to be more than twdve
feet apart each way, for a period of eight years, will be entitled to patent
for the 160 acres. A bill has passed the United States Senate, and will be
come a law, reducing the number of acres to ten, and requiring that the
trees shall be planted 4 feet apart instead of 12 feet.
The government fees for entries under the several acts mentioned, are as
follows, viz. :
HOMESTEAD.
160 acres inside 10-mile limits  $18 ©0
160 acres outside 10-mile limits  14 00
80 acres inside 10-mile limits  14 09
Soldier's declaratory statement.  2 00
PRE-EMPTION.
Declaratory statement  2 00
TIMBER CULTURE.
For all entries, irrespective of area, inside or outside ten-mile limits, 14 00
Over 28,000,000 acres are now disposed of, leaving over 22,000,000 acres,
nearly half of the land area of the entire State — for the landless and poor
of all nations of the earth to enter in and possess. Here is a domain
abounding in all the elements of health, beauty, and fertility — an area
larger than many of the principalities of Europe, which awaits the
developing hand of the frugal and industrious among all classes and con
ditions of men. FREE FARMS IN MINNESOTA.
Under the provisions of the homestead law the land thus acquired with
out cost is exempt by law from liability for all debts previously con
tracted. This privilege of obtaining free farms under, the homestead law is shared
tynwomen, whether widows or unmarried ladies, equally with men.
Minnesota invites the honest and industrious, however poor and friend
less tomake themselves free homes ; also those who have wealth ; the well
to do class and those of moderate means. The manner in which this
may be done is pointed out as follows : '

56 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.

LAND OFFICES.
For the convenience of all who may wish public lands, nine government
land districts have been established in the State, in each of which is a
land office. In each of these are two officers, called Register and Receiver,
who conduct the business. The location of these offices, and the name
of the Register is as follows :
WORTHINGTON DISTRICT.
1st. For a district 30 miles wide, and extending from east to west
through the State, along the south line, office at Worthington in Nobles
County. Register, Mons Grinager.
There is still left a small amount of good government land in parts of
Pipestone and Murray Counties. NEW ULM DISTRICT.
2d. For a district 30 miles wide, extending east and west immediately
north of the last named, office at New Ulm, in Brown county. Register,
C. B. Tyler. A small amount of good government land yet in parts ol
Pipestone, Murray, and Lyon counties.
REDWOOD FALLS DISTRICT.
3d. For a district 30 miles wide, extending east and west immediately
north of the last named, and embracing all of townships 111, 112, 113,
114, and 115, office at Redwood Falls, Redwood county. W. P. Dun-
nington, Register. A small amount of good government land in the
counties of Renville and Yellow Medicine and a part of Lyon.
BENSON DISTRICT.
4th. For a district 30 miles wide, north of the above, extending east to-
the Mississippi river ; also including to northwest all of townships 124,
123, 122 and 121 west of*range 35, (embracing the county of jBig Stone, the
southern half of Stevens and Pope and part of Swift and Kandiyohi,) for
merly belonging to the St. Cloud district, are now within the limits of the
BensonLand District, office at Benson, in Swift county. A small amount
of good government land in the counties of Lac qui Parle, Chippewa and
Big Stone. Register, J. Q. A. Braden, clerk in Register's office. 325,000
acres of unclaimed lands still undisposed of.
FERGUS FALLS DISTRICT.
5th. For a district north of the last, embracing all townships numbered
from 125 to 136 inclusive, from range 35 to the western border, being the
counties of Wilkin, Otter Tail, Grant, Traverse and the northern half of
Stevens. Good government land yet in all these counties. Office at Fer
gus Falls, Otter Tail county. Register, Soren LiStoe. 480,000 acres still
subject to entry and pre-emption. CROOKSTON DISTRICT.
6th. For a district immediately, north of the above, of the same width,
and extending to the northern border of the State. This is a new district

PUBLIC LANDS. 57
opened in 1872, and most of its government lands are yet subject to entry
under the homestead and pre-emption laws. The counties of Becker and
Clay, traversed by the Northern Pacific Railroad, are in this district, and
thousands of miles of fertile prairie and openings belong to it. Office at
Crookston, in Polk county. Register, Thos. C. Shapleigh.
TAYLOR'S FALLS LAND DISTRICT.
7th. For a district lying between the St. Cloud district and the St. Croix
river, office at Taylor's Falls, in Chisago county. Register, J. P. Owens.
Number of acres still subject to entry, 350,000.
DULUTH LAND DISTRICT.
8th. For the remainder of the State, comprising the territory bormded d/
Lake Superior, British Ameriea and the St. Cloud and Taylor's Falls dis
tricts, office at Duluth. Receiver, T. H. Pressnell.
ST. CLOUD DISTRICT.
9th. For a district 24 miles wide, north of the Benson district, extending
eastward from Range 35 to the Taylor's ' Falls district ; and also extending
northward to the north boundary of the State, office at St. Cloud. Regis
ter, J. V. Brower. Good Government land in Wadena county One-half of
the St. Cloud district still belongs to the United States— a considerable por
tion of which is unsurveyed. STATE LANDS.
The sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections in each township have been
granted by Congress to the State, for the support of common schools. The
total amount thus acquired will eventually reach 3,000,000 acres. Minne
sota has also received about 83,548 acres in aid of the State University and
94,439. 28 acres of Agricultural College lands. An excellent system for the
gradual sale of these lands has been devised. They are placed under the
control of the State Auditor, as Land Commissioner, and provision is made
for their appraisal at a price not below $5 per acre, and each year a quantity
of these lands is offered at public sale in the several counties. The pur
chaser is required to pay^ in cash 15 per cent, of the amount of his bid for
prairie land, and 20 to 75 per cent, for timber land, according to the value
of such timber. On the remainder of the purchase money the purchaser is
granted a' credit of twenty years at 7 per cent, interest, payable yearly in
advance ; or he may at any time within that period pay the whole amount,
receive a deed at once, and thus stop the accruing of interest.
These advantageous terms attract crowds of purchasers at the annual
sales. The small sum required in cash enables the purchaser to employ his
means for the improvement of the land, and frequently the profits of a
single crop cover its original cost, while the land generally increases in value
many fold long before final payment is required.
The public sale of 80,000 acres of. State, School, University and Internal
Improvement lands at Redwood Falls, on the 13th of May, 1878, offers a
splendid chance to those who want to makeliomes in a settled community,
where all the great markets are accessible by railroad.

58 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.

CLASSES OF PUBLIC LANDS.
There are three classes of public lands —
1st. All lands outside the limits of the lines of the several land-grant
raikoads in this State. These are held at $1.25 per acre.
2d. All public lands comprising the even numbered sections within
the limits of railroad grants, which are $2.50 per acre.
3d. The lands formerly reserved for the Sioux Indians, which, until
offered for sale, are subject to pre-emption by actual settlers at their
appraised value.
The two first may be had at all the land offices, and the third at the New
Ulm, Benson and Redwood Falls offices only.
THE HOMESTEAD ACT.
In May, 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act. The main features
of the bill are, that all lands owned hy government are open to settle
ment, in parcels not exceeding 160 acres to each person.
The bill requires a permanent residence of five years upon the land.
The applicant should be the head of a family ; or over 21 years of age, or
have performed service in the United States army, in which case he may
be a minor.
He must not have borne arms against the United States, or have given
aid and comfort to it enemies.
He must be a citizen of the United States, or have declared his intention
to become such.
Each quarter section of the millions of acres of her unoccupied lands
needs an actual settler, to give beneficent action to the idle richness slum
bering in her black soil, and convert prairie and meadow into fields of
ripening grain, for the supply of the granaries of the world. How
princely that act of Congress which secures to the poor man a farm, upon
the simple condition of laboring five years in his own service. Mighty
conquerors have often divided the conquered territory amongst their
favorite chieftains, but America acquires territory by purchase, and dis
tributes it among the landless of all nations.
PROPERTY.
The following is a statement of the assessed valuation of the real and
personal property of Minnesota for the years named :
Real Estate. Personal Property. Total.
1862 - $24,791,888.31 $ 5,040,831.40 $29,832,716.71
1871 69,267,563.00 21,174,299.00 90,441,862.00
— showing the total value of property to have more than trebled in the
nine years from 1862 to 1871.
The total valuation of the taxable property of the State for 1877, was
$221,000,000. The State tax is two mills, or one-fifth of one per cent.
In the six years from 1871 to 1877 the value of property in the State has
again trebled, notwithstanding the fact that four years out of the six are
included as the disastrous years resulting from the panic of 1873.
But the above by no means phows the actual value of property, in conse
quence of the custom of assessing it at only a fraction of its real worth.

PUBLIC LANDS. 59
The following stateteient shows more nearly the real value, being an estimate
founded upon known facts and actual sales for the year 1871 :
Value of land and improvements outside the limits of cities and
towns  $122,567^360
Lots in cities and towns, and improvements  45,000,000
Total value of real estate  $167,567,360
Total value of personal property  96,155,157
Giving a grand total of  $263,722,517
A similar statement for the year 1877 would give the value of all the real
and personal property at Six Hundred and Sixty-three Million Dollars.
THE ASSESSORS' VALUATION.
Taxable value of real property in Minnesota in 1877  $175,783,979
Taxable value of personal property in Minnesota in 1877, (ex
emptions being deducted)  45,141,659
Total  $220,925)638
SCHOOL FUND AND SCHOOL LANDS.
Amount of School fund permanently invested and bearing
interest  ,  $3,403,219 23
Estimated number of acres of school, land remaining/unsold.. 2,500,000
Average price per acre obtained fbr"school lands sold  $6 07.4
Amount of school money apportioned during 1877  $199,982 07
HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION.
A very liberal law exists in Minnesota for the protection of the homes of
her people against the effect of sudden reverses by which innocent families
are liable to be thrown houseless upon the world's cold charities. The fol
lowing is the language of the law of this State exempting homesteads from
liability for debt :
"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 dwelling-house 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 . This section shall be deemed and construed to
exempt such homestead in the manner aforesaid during the time it shall be
occupied by the widow or minor child or children of any deceased person
who was, when living, entitled to the benefits of this act."
Thus, without regard to cost — whether it be a cottage or a palace — the
sanctities of home are guarded by the protecting arm of the law.
It is not improbable that advantage is sometimes taken of the liberal pro
visions of this law to cover the knaveries of dishonest men. - This is a lia
bility from which few humane laws are exempt ; but there can hardly be
serious danger in enactments which merely err on the side of mercy.
There is also a liberal exemption on personal property, consisting of the
family Bible, pictures, school books, musical instruments, church pew,
cemetery lot, all wearing apparel, beds, stoves, and furniture not exceeding

60 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
$500 in value ; also a certain number of cows, sheep, and working team,
with a year's food for the same ; a wagon, sleigh, and farming implements
not exceeding $100 in value ; also a year's supply of family provisions, or
growing crops, and fuel, and seed grain not exceeding 50 bushels each of
wheat and oats, 5 of potatoes and 1 of corn, also mechanics' or miners' tools,
with $400 worth of stock-in-trade, and the library and implements of pro
fessional men. RATE OF INTEREST.
When not specified, the rate of interest in this State is understood to be
seven per cent. ; but any rate is legal which may be agreed upon and ex- ,
pressed in writing, not exceeding twelve per cent, per annum."
LEGAL PRACTICE.
Pleading in this State is according to what is known as " the code/' sub
stantially as practiced in New York.

Educational Facilities.
STATE UNIVERSITY, NORMAL AND COMMON SCHOOLS.
No State enjoys more munificent provision for the education of her
people than Minnesota. Very early steps were taken in behalf of several
important measures for its promotion.
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA.
This Institution, which is surpassed by but few in the country, is
located at Minneapolis. It is provided with excellent and^caref ully selected
instructors, and occupies a series of elegant and commodious buildings.
It is associated with the Agrieultural College of the State, and both Institu
tions are generously endowed by a Congressional appropriation of public
lands. Both sexes are' admitted to its privileges, and the enrollment at present
is : gentlemen, 211 ; ladies, 93 ; total, 304.
This University was the first in this country to admit ladies on equal
terms. Its example has been followed by those of several other States. Its
property is worth one million, and its permanent fund is $368,000. Hopeful
as is this view of its condition, it is in the practical achievements of the
Institution in the noble work for which it was established that we 'may
most indulge an honest pride.
The devoted efficiency of an able faculty, the assiduity of a superior
class of students, and the generally harmonious working and inviting out
look of the Institution are all matters for public congratulation.
NORMAL SCHOOLS.
Three normal schools are in operation, viz.: The first at Winona, second
at Mankato, and third at St. Cloud.
Cost of buildings  $222,000'
Enrollment of pupils  996.
Total number of graduates  648

COST OF MAKING A HOMESTEAD. 6 1
Boys- and girls are admitted on equal teems in all our Normal and Com
mon Schools and Colleges. Women are allowed to vote on all school mat
ters throughout the State.
There are also various academies, graded schools and high schools in
different parts of the State, in which are taught the higher branches of
learning. Excepting those older States, containing the first class, richly endowed
colleges, no section of the Union affords better facilities than Minnesota
for acquiring a thorough education, all free of expense.

The Cost of Making a Homestead.
A settler who resides in Lincoln County, in the extreme southwestern
part of the State, sends to the " Workman," at St. Paul, the cost of his
homestead, as follows : He took a soldier's claim, which cost $15.00,
government fee; railroad round trip ticket, $12.50; two yoke oxen,'
$200.00 ; wagon, $55.00 ; breaking plow, $23.00 ; ordinary plough, $17.00;
harrow, $10.00 ; house, 14x16 feet, materials, $27.00, built it himself. He
broke 15 acres of land last fall, $45.00, which he now has sown in wheat.
He has broken 5 acres this spring to plant in corn and potatoes. He has
laid in a stock of provisions for six months at $48.00, for a family of four
— himself, wife and two children. Wood $1.75 a cord. He had his own
furniture, the freight was $25.00. Total, $482.55.
Another in the Valley of the Red River of the Nbrth sends the follow
ing: Government fee $9.00 ; colonization ticket, $8.30, a person from St.
Paul to Moorhead ; one car load of furniture and goods, $50, at coloniza
tion rates. To build a house 16x18, $50 ; common lumber, $18 to $20 ;
breaking plow, $25 ; harrow, $10 ; one yoke of oxen, $100 at St. Paul, one
pair of swine, $3.00 ; one-half dozen chickens, $3.00 ; common furniture,
$30.00 ; one cow, $35 ; provisions for a family of four, to last six months,
$50. Total $478.20.
Here are some prices throughout the State— lumber, $15 per thousand.
Good fence posts $8 per hundred. Oxen $75 to $100 per yoke. Cows
$20 to $35. Farm horses $75 to $125 each. First breaking costs from
$2.50. to $3.00 for clean prairie ; $5 to $8 for brush land.
The first crop will in many cases pay for the breaking, seeding, and the
entire cost of the land ; and will in all cases pay cost of breaking twice
over. (
These prices will afford sufficient clue to allow of close estimates for
different scales of operations. On wheat, there is usually a profit of from
$4 to $15 per acre ; but wisdom teaches a diversification of husbandry
which places the farmer beyond the vicissitudes of a single crop.
Thus it will be seen that, with the outfit of a few hundred dollars, one
can make a start on the new lands of Minnesota ; and, if wanting even this
small capital, he need not be discouraged if he, have health and strength ;
these, with habits of industry and economy, will surely, overcome all obsta
cles. The history of pioneer life abounds in instances'of penniless settlers
who in a few years acquired a comfortable independence.

62 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
At the present time one can earn money enough to pay the initiative sura
and make the improvements which would constitute occupancy of the land -r
and by alternately working for himself on the homestead, and for others
during the harvesting, or in the pineries in the winter season, he may build
his house and purchase stock and tools, and by the time the five years have
elapsed, find himself the owner of a good home, surrounded by the comforts-
of life, with a sure title to a farm growing more profitable as improvements
are added to it, and more valuable as farms and improvements multiply
around it.
True, in the outset, it will cost self-denial of present gratification, much.
hard labor and close-calculating economy ; but without these what great
result was ever obtained? The satisfaction of having the noble purpose of
acquiring a competency and comfortable independence of the ills of poverty
would to a noble soul be compensation adequate to long years of servitude.
And yet it is believed that tile most indigent settlers, in the first years of
pioneer life, scarcely endure more of privation, toil and hardship than falls
to the lot of the majority of laborers and common mechanics of the Eastern
States, who toil on year after year for a mere subsistence, with no prospect
of anything better in the future.
A laboring man in the cities and larger towns paysirom $50 to $100 yearly
rent f or-a tenement as devoid of pure air and sunlight as it is in convenience,
a sum which, if saved for one year, would make him the owner of a riealthy
riouse on the prairies of Minnesota ; whilst trie remainder of his hard earned
money, increased by the earnings of his wife, and under her prudent man
agement, scarce suffices to procure food, clothing and fuel for the depend
ent little ones in good times ; when business is checked, or sickness comes,
suffering is the inevitable consequence.
To such Minnesota offers home, comfort, and ultimate wealth, upon the
sole condition of a few years of patient toil and well directed effort* Nor
to these only are such offers made; they extend to the millions of the old
world, groaning in misery, driven to despair by bad government, burden
some taxation, surplus of labor, and deficiency of the means of subsist
ence — to all such is made the same generous offer.
WHEN TO COMMENCE.
The most favorable time for opening a farm must be determined by cir
cumstances. Many come in the months of September and October. This
is the better time for those who have the means for a comfortable sub
sistence. It gives them leisure to select a good location and build a
house before snow covers the ground, and the advantage of the winter
months to get out fencing and to prepare to commence farm work as soon
as spring opens.
To the man of means any portion of the year is a favorable time for com
ing to Minnesota. But to the mechanic or laborer, and especially the poor
man who expects his support from the soil, the value of time is an im
portant consideration. As a rule, the fall is the worst time for the first
two named to come, while early spring is probably the best for all. H the
immigrant reaches his land by the middle of June, he is too late to pro
duce most crops the same season, but he is yet barely in time for oorn,
potatoes, and turnips. For the corn, let him turn over the virgin sod,.

COST OF MAKING A HOMESTEAD. 63.
chop holes therein with an axe and drop in the seed, which, if the season
be favorable, especially a wet one, will produce a tolenible crop. The
potatoes may be dropped into the furrow and covered by the plough with
the tough sod, through which the plant will gro\^, while turnip seed may
be sown on the freshly turned sod and very slightly covered. June is the
best month for breaking wild land, especially prairie, while the breaking
season should not begin earlier than the middle of May nor be prolonged
beyond the first of August. A particular stage of vegetation of the over
turned sod is necessary for its rapid decay, and frequently more harm than
¦good results to land which is first unseasonably plowed.
The present is a more favorable time for immigration to Minnesota than,
. any past period of her history. Some of the richest sections of the coun
try are more easily reached which a few years ago were very difficult of
access for want of roads. Other portions have long been vacated by In
dians, and those rude natives who were always an annoyance to the early
settlers, have long since been far removed and almost entirely forgotten.
Especially is this a favorable opportunity for the emigrant from foreign
countries. Grim visaged war at home. Peace, prosperity, happiness,.
here. Under the former law of Congress, the payment of $200 for 160 acres of
land was required of the Settler whenever it was offered for sale. Many
found themselves unable to raise this sum except by hiring money at a.
high rate of interest on mortgage of the land, when the financial crisis of
1857, occurring soon after, left them no alternative, and the land with its
improvements went to satisfy the creditor. The Homestead Act precludes
the possibility of a recurrence of similar embarrassments in the future.
Still, the emigrant of to-day will find his share of difficulties to en
counter. Hard work, and careful management for the first few years, are
indispensable. An occasional drought may pinch his crop, frost will
probably sometimes, but very rarely, nip his corn and potatoes. Pigeons
and blackbirds may gather some ot his grain, and gophers help themselves
to his root crops. Yet with all, he may rely on an abundant supply of
food, and other necessaries of life— a good home, and a reasonable pros
pect of ultimate wealth.
WHAT MONEY CAN DO.
Of course capital, directed by sagacity and enterprise, possesses great
advantages in Minnesota as elsewhere ; indeed the new avenues being
continually opened by the rapid development of a bountiful new country,
multiply the opportunities for its profitable employment. There is
scarcely a reputable vocation of any kind wherein the same capital and
good management which insures success in Eastern communitiesrwill not
yield far greater returns here. Judicious investments in real estate,
owing to the rapid settlement and development of the country, are sure
to realize large profits.
WHAT PLUCK AND MjUSCLE MAY DO.
Great as are the unquestionable advantages which a union of money and
industry possesses, there is no country where unaided muscle, with a
plucky purpose, reaps greater rewards than under the bright skies and
lielpful atmosphere of this fair land. Feeling himself every inch a man.

64 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
as he gazes upon the unclaimed acres which shall reward his toil, the set
tler breathes a freer air, his bosom swells with a prouder purpose, and his
strong arms achieve unwonted results.
Minnesota is emphatically the place for men whose capital consists of
brawney arms and brave hearts. Any mail, possessing these may do as
thousands who have little else, annually do in this State — select a home
stead, in some one of the many beautiful and fertile regions into which
railroads are rapidly penetrating, and, by the time he produces a surplus,
the railroad is at his door to take it to market — he finds himself not a lone
settler, encountering the hardships of frontier life, but in daily com
munication with the busy world, and the proud possessor of a valuable
farm which has cost him little but the sweat of his brow.
WHO SHOULD COME TO MINNESOTA.
Young people of either sex, however poor in cash, if rich in courage, hope
and strength, may be .encouraged to come to Minnesota at all times. It
may not be advisable for those advanced in years, or those who are comfort
ably settled in old and well-established communities, to incur the hazards
incident to a removal to a new country. And it should be further under
stood that the wholly destitute will encounter at first greater hardships here
than those they seek to escape. Northern countries are usually more pros
perous than those of languid climates, largely because of the greater stim
ulus the energies receive in guarding against hunger and want, for which
reason it is, of course, more difficult for the feeble and destitute to find
maintenance ; but to the thousands in the older States and in foreign coun
tries, whose only resource is the labor of their hands, who, on looking
around, see every avenue to manly independence thronged by jostling mul
titudes, and the only alternative left them emigration or dependent labor ;
to all such we offer the testimony of an English writer : — "Minnesota
affords the finest and most inviting field for emigration in the world."
Formerly the richest countries were those in which the products of
nature were the most abundant, but now the richest countries are those in
wriich man is the most active. In Minnesota we may justly claim that
both essentials are found in full measure. Our bountiful soil ensures the
first, and our bracing atmosphere the second. Moreover, thanks. to the
beneficent wisdom of that generous legislation which finds no parallel in
the history of human enactments, every man is here gfven a farm upon the
simple condition, as before stated, of laboring fiVe years in his own service. ¦
The world's plaudits have too long been for men and nations whose
power was evinced in devastation. The law of might partitioned the spoil
among the conquerors, but I again repeat that it is the glory of America
that she acquires territory by purchase, and distributes it among the land
less of all nations. In Minnesota is found the fairest domain upon which
the blessings of this new dispensation receive practical exemplification. A
cordial welcbme is extended to all to come and partake of the national
bounty, and when, with all the advantages with which lavish nature has
endowed our State, it is considered that here also may be possessed the
perfect healtri requisite for their highest enjoyment, it is not too much to
claim that Minnesota presents unequalled inducements to those in search
of new homes.
To the immigrant from monarchic governments, the benefits of a re
public offer many inducements. Its protection is estended alike to all
classes of citizens, its rights, immunities and privileges enjoyed by all.
There are in the Eastern States a class of small capitalists, chiefly widows
and unmarried ladies, living upon the income of a small legacy, or of the
earnings of former years, who manage to subsist comfortably when prices
are low, but who, in the present times, must find it difficult to make their
means meet their expenses. Such will find the actual cost of living in
Minnesota about one-third less than in the Eastern States, whilst the more
simple habits of a new country and less expensive modes of dress and
eqjiipage, will enable them to maintain a corresponding social position at
a still further reduction.

RAILROADS & RAILROAD LANDS.

Chicago & North-Western Railway Co.
LAND DEPARTMENT.

Chicago, April 20th, 1878.
Hon. John W. Bond,
Secretary ef Board of Immigration,
St. Paul, Minn.
Dear Sib: In compliance with your favor of the 6th inst., I have the pleasure of
submitting the inclosed statement in refereface. to the lands along the line of the
Wmona & St. Peter Railroad, and map showing railroad communication with the
same. Very truly yours.
GEO. P. GOODWIN,
Zand Commissioner.

66

THE EMPIRE^ STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.

As wfll be seen by the above map, the Chicago & North-western Railway Com
pany, with the Winona & St. Peter Railroad, which it operates and controls^ has a
continuous line of railroad extending from Chicago, Dlinois, through the State
of Minnesota, into the Territory of Dakota.
The Winona & St. Peter Railroad Company now has ready for sale, along the
line of its railroad, about 1,160,000 acres of choice farming lands in Southern
Minnesota and Eastern Dakota. The location of these lands is indicated on
the above map by the shaded belt on each side of said Winona & St. Peter Rail
road, from Winona, on the Mississippi, to Lake Kampeska, in Dakota Territory.
The price of these lands is from $2.00 to $8.00 per acre on long time. •
First class farming lands situated within from one to six miles of the railroad
depots, and town sites, established and laid out by said company on said lands on
the line of said railroad, west of Marshall, Minnesota, are now offered for sale at
the extremely low prices of from $4.00 to $6.00 per acre, payable as follows : .
The first year one-fifth cash, with interest in advance, at six per cent., on the
balance of the purchase price. The second year interest only, in advance, on the
balance of the purchase price. The balance of the purchase price in two, three,.
four and five years, with interest in advance each year on unpaid balances — ex
cepting the last year, which is one-fifth -of the purchase price only.
The purchasers' account would stand as follows, supposing he contracted for
40 acres of land on the above t«nns, at $5.00 per acre :

Payment.

Purchase Price.

Interest.

Total.

$40.00

$9.60 9.60 7.20
4.80 2.40'

$49.60 9 60

3d " 2 years " " " 

40.00 40.0040.0040.00

47.20

4th " 3 " " ' " " 

44 80

5th ¦" 4 " " " " 

42.40

6th " 5 " " " " ...¦ 

40.00

Total payment made,
$200.00
$33 60
$233.60
12% per cent, will- be deducted from the purchase for all cash, aud the same
land may be purchased for $175 caBh down at date of purchase.
These lands are high rolling prairie; of dark rich sandy loam, and lie in the
Great Wheat Belt of the Northwest, in a climate unsurpassedfbr healthfulnees,
and in a country which is, being rapidly settled by a thriving and industrious
people, composed, to a large extent, of farmers from the Eastern and the older
portions of the Northwestern States.
' Sheep "and Wool Growing.
Sheep thrive extremely well on these rolling prairies^ Which produce the most
nutritious grass, and are well watered hy unfailing streams, and springs of pure
water. 'The foot-rot, scab and other diseases common to a flat and muddy country,
are unknown in this section.
RAILROADS AND RAILROAD LANDS. 6"J

Cattle Raising.
This branch of industry has become very extensive and profitable, in the section
of country where these lands are located.- Cheap pasturage in abundance is found,
im. the summer, and an unlimited quantity of blue joint hay, equal or superior to
ttie best quality of timothy hay, can be had for the cost of cutting, curing, etc.

Batter and Cheese Making.
The excellent pasturage, and pure water, of this section of the country, renders
it particularly favorable for this branch of industry.

Market Facilities.

This company has laid out towns at convenient distances along the line of this
road, within the limits of these lands, at which it has built depots, for the tran
saction of all business offered, and responsible parties have constructed suitable
grain warehouses for the receipt, storing and Shipment of grain.
Agents provided with suitable conveyances to enable purchasers to make their
selections from personal examination will be found at the Land Office at Marshall,
Minnesota, and other principal stations within the limits of these lands, who will
render all the assistance possible to enable purchasers to select their lands witri the
least expense and trouble '; but all persons desirous of purchasing lands should, in
aJl cases, where it is possible to do so, first obtain full information from the Land
Commissioner at the Land Department of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway
Company in Chicago, Dlinois, or, of the Local Land Agent of the Winona &
St. Peter Railroad Company, in Marshall, Minnesota, (which is in the midst of
these lands,)as to the prices, locality and the means of reaching the particular land
Khey wish to purchase, and thus avoid confusion, loss of time and expense, which
they are liable to incur when not possessed of definite information at the com
mencement.

Settlers' Teams and Movables,
By the car load, from Chicago, and all the principal points on the lines operated
by the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, will be transported to places
within the limits of these hinds at trie very lowest emigrant rates.
As is indicated by the following circular, issued by the General Manager and
Hie General Freight Agent of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company :

68 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.

¦FORI!

ON THE LINE OF THE

WINONA & ST. PETER RAILROAD,
IN MINNESOTA AND DAKOTA.

PWcago Si North-Western Railway & Im Ss SI. Peter L K, k
SPECIAL FREIGHT TARIFF
ON
EMIGRANTS' MOVABLES, including Household Goods,
FARM IMPLEMENTS and LIVE STOCK,
also TREES and SHRUBBERY,

TAKING EFFECT FEBRUARY 20th, 1878.

From CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE, RACINE, KENOSHA, JANES-
VILLE, WATERTOWN, BELVIDERB, ROCKFORD, FREE-
PORT, and all points on Milwaukee, Kenosha and Rockford Divis
ions, Freepbrt Line and Fox River Branch/ of Galena Division, and
all points on Wisconsin Division south of Juneau, to Points on
Winona & St. Peter Railroad between New Ulm and Gary (Dakota
State Line), inclusive,  $60.00 per car.

RAILROADS AND RAILROAD LANDS. 69
From Points on North-Western Union, Points on Wisconsin
Division North of Minnesota Junction to Ft. Howard, inclusive, and
Points on Galena (Dixon Air Line) Division,, west of Geneva to
Fulton, inclusive, to Points on Winona & St. Peter Railroad between
New Ulm and Gary (Dakota State Line), inclusive, $70.00 per car.
From BELOIT and Points on Madison Division north of Cale
donia to Madison, inclusive, to Points on Winona & St. Peter
Railroad between New Ulm and Gary (Dakota State Line),
inclusive, - -¦, - . • . . . $50.00 per car.
From Points on Madison Division, Waunakee to Marshland,
inclusive, to Points on Winona & St. Peter Railroad, between New
Ulm and Gary (Dakota State Line), inclusive, - $40.00 per car. ,
From Winona and Points West on the line of the Winona &
St. Peter Railroad, when existing Tariff does not quote less
rate,  $30.00 per car.

-*?»-

In all cases, one man will be passed free with any car containing Live Stock,
to ride on the train with the car to take care of the Stock, and in such cases
the agents will use the usual f orm of live Stock contract.
A liberal reduction from Tariff Rates will also be made on shipments of Less
than Car Load Lots of Household Goods and Emigrants' Movables, on applica-
cation "to General Freight Agent, at Chicago.
A discount of 25 per cen&in cash will be made from the above rates, to actual
settlers in any County on the line of the Winona & St. Beter Railroad, in Min
nesota or Dakota Territory, where that Company has lands for sale. To secure
this discount, the freight charges must be paid at the rates given abpve, and the
freight bill sjfnt to the General Freight Agent of the Chicago & Northwestern
Railway, at Chicago, with proper proof of settlement, within ninety. (90) days
from date of shipment. In case of actual Settlers purchasing the lands of the
Winona & St. Peter Railroad Company, the only proof required will be the cer
tificate of the Company's Station Agent at the Station where the freight is
delivered, on the back of each paid freight bill, that the applicant for a reduc
tion is an actual settler on railroad lands, with a description of such lands (and
to enable such Agent to make the certificate correctly, such settler should exhibit
to the Agent his Contract or Deed received for' said lands) and that the property
described "by the freight bill was for his or their sole use. With settlers on
other than Railroad lands, within the limits above named, an Affidavit, made

70 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
before a Notary Public or Justice of the Peace, hy the owner of Emigrants'
Movables, including Live Stock, or Trees and Shrubbery, certifying that the
property is for his own use and benefit solely, and that he is an actual Settler in
the County, or has purchased, or rented land with the bona fide intention of
becoming an actual Settler, with the names of two good citizens as witnesses,
will be required as proof to entitle the owner of the property to the discount.
The discount will also be paid to any Club of Fanners living in any County in
which the Winona & St. Peter Railroad Company have lands for sale, who may
wish to bring Live Stock, Trees or Shrubbery into ¦ the Country for their own
use. In such cases an Affidavit, signed by all the parties interested in the ship
ment, and certifying that the articles are for their own personal use and benefit,
will be required.
These discounts are open to all Settlers, whether purchasers of Railroad land
or not, within the limits named above.

MARVIN HUGHTTT, HENRY C. WICKER,
General Manager, Gen! Freight Agent, l
CHICAGO. . CHICAGO
C. H. KNAPP,
General Agent, WINONA, MINNESOTA.

THESE EITVE

FARMING LANDS

Are readily accessible from all. points on the Chicago & Northwestern Railway and
its connections. Through trains to all stations within these lands make close con
nection with trains on all the principal railroads running into Chicago. The pas
senger fare to Chicago from any railroad station in the United States, or Canada
can be ascertained at almost any local ticket office.
To all persons desirous of procuring homes in Minnesota or Dakota on these
lands, the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company will sell Round Trip Tickets
rom Chicago and intermediate points to Marshall and return, as stated below;

RAILROADS AND RAILROAD LANDS.

71

Pare from Chicago and Intermediate Points to Marshall, Minaesota,
and Return.

From Chicago, HI  $21.85
' ' Harvard Junction, III  19 . 30
" Kenosha, Wis., via "Har
vard   21 . 10
" Rockford, HI.-, via Cale
donia   19.20
" Elgin, HI., via Crystal Lake 20.75
" "Turner junction, 111., via
CrystalLake  21.26
" Belvidere, 111., via Cale
donia  19.05
" Beloit, Wis  18.20
" Madison, Wis  16.30
" Baraboo, Wis  .'... 14.80
" Qshkosh, Wis., Via Har
vard Junction  24.55
" Fond du Lac, Wis., via
Harvard Junction  23 . 90

From Milwaukee, Wis., via Chi
cago  $25.25
" Racine, Wis., via Chicago 24.33
" Waukegan, 111.; via Chi
cago.....  23.30
" Elroy, Wis  ..; 13.35
" Norwalk, Wis  .;. 12.50
" Sparta, Wis  12.00
" Winona Junction, Wis. . . 11.15
" La Crosse, Wis  11.30
" Winona, Minn.  9.95
" St. Charles, Minn  8.80
" Rochester, "  7.95
" Owatonna, "  6.35
". Waseca, "  5.75
" Janesville, "  5.30
" Mankato, "  4.85
" St. Peter, "  4.35
" New Ulm, "  3.15

The purchaser of 160 acres will be allowed a rebate of the. whole amount of
fare paid, or one-half the amount on purchasing 80 acres, which- agreement is
fully specified on the ticket. Parties desiring these tickets, whieh are good to
return within twenty days, can obtain the same of the following agents, viz. :
H. R. Phujjps  62 South Clark St., Chicago, DI.
Wm. Ptngree   Kinzie St. Depot, Chicago, HI.
IPwtt.tp New Mbybe  '.  Station Agent, Harvard, HI.
John S. George  Ticket Agent at Milwaukee, Wis.
Richard Teist  '..¦•. ..."   Station Agent at Racine, Wis.
Azebl Z. Blobgett  '  ¦ Station Agent at Waukegan, HI.
L. F. McLean  Station Agent at Beloit, Wis.
A. G. Barker  I  Station Agent at Madison, Wis.
H. C. Strong. . ».  ,,.  Station Agent at Baraboo, Wis.
J. Herman Martin  Station Agent at Oshkosh, Wis.
R. M. Lewis  Station Agent at Fond du Lac, Wis.
J. M. Swtneford  Station Agent at Elroy, Wis.
Wm. Lohmiller  Station Agent at Sparta, Wis.
W. S. Case  •  — Station Agent at La Crosse, Wis.
C. H. Knaff  General Agent at Winona, Mitm.
R. T. Lamberton  Cashier Winona Depot, Winona, Minn.
Ghas. Van Campen,  Station Agent at Rochester, Minn.
J, L. Train  Station Agent at Owatonna, Minn.

72 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
Or by remitting the amount of fare, giving full name and date of starting,
directly to the Land Commissioner, at the Land Department of the Chicago &
Northwestern Railway Company, at Chicago, Dlinois.

Land Exploring Tickets.
At Marshall, Minnesota, Exploring Tickets can be obtained of H. M. Burchard,
the Land Agent of the Winona & St. Peter Railroad Company, and experienced
Field Agents will be found, who are familiar with the section lines, and have
good teams, to show all parties intending to purchase, the exact location of any
desired tract of land.
Maps of the unsold lands of this company, in any county, and a hand book, or
guide, giving description, prices, location and all needful information will be fur
nished free.
G-EO. P. GQODWIIT,
Land Commissioner Gen'l Office C. & N. W. R'y,
Chicago, Illinois.
H. M. BURCHARD,
Land Agent for sale of lands of said Company, at
Marshall, Lyon Co., Minnesota.

TAKE 1TOTICE.

jjj|p! That Circulars and Maps, giving terms of sale, location
and description of said lands, will be sent by said Land Agent
or said Land Commissioner, free of cost, to all persons re
questing the same by mail or otherwise.

RAILROADS AND RAILROAD LANDS. 73
First Div. St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company.
LAND DEPARTMENT. — - • ¦ ? ¦ ¦
HERMANN TROTT, Land Commis'r. BERNHARD DASSEL, Secretary.

St. Paul, Minn., April 24, 1878.
J. W. Bond, Esq.,
Secretary State Board of Immigration :
Beak Sir : — In reply to yours of the 6th inst., I would make the fol
lowing statement in regard to the lands on our road :
"We have now left for sale on our lines of road —
MAIN LINE, 700,000 ACRES. BRANCH LINE, 300,000 ACRES.
Below please find the counties in which these lands are located,' with a
short statement of the general character of these lands:
Anoka County. — These are, for the most part, a light, sandy loam,
with oak openings and an abundance of fine meadows. There are several
fine lakes in this county.
Sherburne and Isanti Coumties. — This district is abundantly watered
by Bum river and its tributaries, and by numerous beautiful clear lakes,
abounding in fish. The land is of the same general character as Anoka
county, but better in quality, and gradually improving to the west. In
the timbered localities it is very good, capable of producing the finest
winter wheat. In the northern part of the county there are some fine
groves of good sugar maple, basswood, white and black oak, ash and elm.
The rest of the district is generally open, with scattering oak. No part of
Minnesota offers greater inducements for stock farms. Grazing is good
and extensive, and good wild hay is plentiful.
Benton and Miixe Lacs Counties. — This district is well watered by
the Elk and St. Francis rivers and their numerous tributaries. The finest
grazing and stock lands in the State are embraced in this section. The
upper soil is a strong, black vegetable mold ; under this lies sandy loam,
rich in lime, &c, and the mixture of tlfe two makes a soil capable of pro
ducing 30 to 35 bushels wheat, and 70 to 80 bushels corn, and other pro
duce in proportion. The timber is of the finest quality, and covers a
large part of the two counties. Some pine in the northern part.
Wright' and Stearns Counties. — The most of this district comprises
as heavily timbered lamds and as productive soil as can be found in this
State, or in the United States. The surface is gently rolling ; the soil is
a deep, black loam, with vegetable mold, and produces extraordinary crops
of wheat, rye, oats, corn and vegetables. The lands are well watered by
many streams and innumerable beautiful lakes, with clear water, sandy
and pebbly shores, and abounding in fish.
Wright and McLeod Counties. — Southwestern part. The soil is very

74 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
heavy, black loam, underlaid with clay and gravel, and. covered with a
dense forest of what is known as hard wood timber, ,
i , ¦ '..''.
Meeker County. — These lands are much diversified, affording every
facility for farming that the husbandman could desire. The eastern and
northern parts are generally heavily timbered with oak, maple, linden, ash,
<fec.. The balance of the lands are mostly prairie, with groves of timber
skirting most of the largest lakes. The surface is gently undulating, and
the soil is a very deep, rich, black, sandy loam. The county is well
watered by numerous clear water lakes and streams.
Kandiyohi County. — This is generally considered the- garden of the
State. It cannot be surpassed for beauty of seenery and fertility of soil,
being prairie and meadow with numerous beautiful lakes, skirted with
groves of timber. All the larger lakes abound with the finest of fresh
water fish. The soil is of a deep, rich, black, loamy character, in places
nearly level, in others gently undulating, and from that to quite rolling.
There are abundant meadows of good, nutritious bluejoint and .redtop
grass nearly, if not as good for stock as the. tame grasses.
Chippewa, Swift, and Pope Counties. — These lands are gently undu
lating and nearly level prairie, with groves • of timber on the Chippewa
river and on the shores of all the larger lakes. Extensive meadows stretch
along the shores of Shakopee Creek. The soil is a very deep, rich, black,
sandy loam, with clay and gravel subsoil.
Stevens and Grant Counties. — All these lands are prairie lands of the
very best quality.
Traverse and Wilkin Counties. These lands are the same as above —
the soil a heavy, black vegetable mould, of from 1 J to 3 feet thick, under
laid with clay, and marl in some places. The grasses in this section grow
to the height of five feet, showing the richness of the soil.
Under the deeds of trust the Company is obliged to receive its bonds at
par. The appraised value of lands of the Company varies from $4.90 to
$12.00 per acre, according to locality and quality. The bonds of the
Company are of four different issues — each issue commanding a different
price, which varies as all other obligations of a similar character. At
whatever discount the purchaser of land can procure the Company's
bonds, just to that extent he reduces the cost per acre of his purchased
lands. Time contracts are given for ten1 years, with interest at the rate of 7
per cent, per annum;. all interest payable in advance. Company obliga
tions received on account principal; all interest must be paid in cash.
Purchasers can pay up at any time during the term. [Note. — Whether
the bonds of the Company will be received in the future, or rather, after
the contemplated changes may be accomplished, we cannot say.]
I think I have answered all questions, and that the ground you desire
to cover will be met by the above information. Should you wish any
further facts, if they are in my possession, I will cheerfully give them.
Yours respectfully,
HERMAN TROTT,
Land Commissioner.

RAILROADS AND RAILROAD LANDS. 75
The Saint Paul & Sioux City Land Grant

Location.— The Land Grant of the Saint Paul and Sioux City Railroad Com
pany, and of the Sioux City and Saint Paul Railroad Company, in Minnesota, com
prises about 900,000 acres.
These lands are situated in the southwestern part of the State, most of them
in the counties of Watonwan, Martin, Cottonwood, Jackson, Murray, Nobles, Pipe
stone and Rock. >
Surface. — They are as to surface neither hilly nor level, approaching the first
only so near as is necessary for proper drainage, and everywhere sufficiently level
for convenient cultivation.
Clear running streams and lakes of pure water abound ; the banks of many
of them are skirted with timber enough to give variety to the landscape, though
there are but few groves large enough to supply fuel permanently.
Sort- — The soil is everywhere a rich, dark loam, two to three feet deep, with
usually a clay subsoil.
Experiment hae proved it to be well adapted to the growth of" wheat and corn,
and all the usual grains in their best estate as to quality and quantity; and for stock
growing they are not to be surpassed in any State or country.
Crops. — Wheat is the staple. The flour from the hard Minnesota wheat is the
best in the world, and no other State can produce wheat in such perfection.
Barley, oats, rye and flaxseed are also cultivated as successfully as in any coun
try. Corn is one of the most important and profitable crops.
Recent experiments have developed a variety of sugar cane that is especially
adapted to the soil and climate, and that yields a syrup and sugar equal in quan
tity per acre and in quality to the best results of Southern plantations.
Potatoes and all the valuable roots of the temperate zone are grown here in
abundance. Hardy varieties of apples, grapes and small fruits are- also success
fully cultivated.
Markets. — All of these lands are within convenient distance of railroad stations,
at which the best market price is paid for all grain and other produce every week
day in the year.
FaEL,— Coal from the Iowa mines and wood from the Big Woods of the Minne
sota River are the usual supply of fuel.
The former costs about $6 to $7 per ton, and the latter about the same price per
Cord, delivered at the several railroad stations.
Many of the farmers, however, burn hay. This is really a cheap and excellent
fuel. It costs, prat into stacks near the house, from $1.25 to $1.50 per ton, and by
simple machines it is twisted into little skeins and so prepared for convenient and
cleanly handling and use, with much less cost and labor than wood can be sawed
and split. ,f
A steam flouring mill at Worthington, making one hundred barrels of flour per
day* and another at Binghata Lake, making fifty barrels daily, are run exclusively
on haV as fuel, and find it both cheap and effective. "In these mills no preparation
whatever is made of the fuel, it is fed from the stacks directly into the furnaces.
These Railroad Companies to encourage the planting of trees have transported
(and will so continue to do) during the planting seasons in the spring and au
tumn, forest trees and cuttings free of charge, in any quantities to any of the

j6 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
stations in the prairie counties. And the companies have themselves planted
successfully several hundred thousand of young trees along the line of the
road. Lumber.— With direct and short connection by rail with the inexhaustible
pine forests of Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, these districts are espe
cially favored with good lumber at low prices. ,
A very comfortable house can be built at from $200 to $600, aceording to the
amount of accommodation required.
It is often the case that settlers arriving in the spring and desiring to get at
work at once, find a comfortable shelter until the breaking and fall plowing is
completed, in tents or temporary houses.
Prices and Terms.— These lands are appraised at an average of $6 per acre,
and one half of them at $5. Some near the railroad stations at $7 or $8, and a
few sections at $9.
At these prices the terms of payment are, at time of purchase, one-tenth of
purchase price and interest at 7 per cent, in advance on the remainder.
The second payment at the end of the first year is one- tenth of purchase price,
and interest as before on the remainder.
The third bayment, and the fourth, fifth and sixth also, are each one-fifth of
the purchase price with interest on the balance as above at each payment except
the last.
If the purchaser is prepared to pay in full for his land at the time of purchase,
he receives at once a diseount of 20 per cent, from the list price of the land, and
as to some lands a greater discount than this is made.
Some of these lands are exchangeable for the land bonds of the Sioux City and
St. Paul Company, and as to these lands the discount made by the company
where cash is paid, is made to correspond to the discount for the time being on
the bonds in a cash market. Purchasers will therefore consult their own inter
ests by dealing directly with the company, rather than looking in the market
for bonds which may not be applicable to the lands they want after they have
found them.
Half Rates. — Persons who satisfy us that they in good faith desire to go and
examine these lands, with the intention to buy if suited, are supplied with ex
cursion tickets good for ten days at two cents per mile, which is half the regular
fare. Persons who have purchased lands of us, are upon application transported
over our roads in moving to their purchases at half rates, including their fami
lies, stock, household goods and other personal property taken with them at the
time. Land Department tickets aTe sold at St. Paul or Mankato at full rates to any
station when asked for, and the price of these tickets is refunded on the pur
chase by the person named therein, of eighty acres of land within 30 days after
the date thereof.
How to Purcesase. — It is best in all cases where it is not inconvenient, to
come first to the Land Office at St. Paul, and there get all information not other
wise obtained, decide upon the particular county you will go to, and with a map
of that county showing the unsold lands, with prices and description, and with
excursion tickets to the point you desire to visit, you will be able to make a sat
isfactory examination at the least expense of time and money.
When this is not convenient, go direct to any of our prairie stations, and get

RAILROADS AND RAILRQAD LANDS. 77
from local agent there such map and price list, and with an old settler to show
you the land lines, proceed at once to select what you want. You can consum
mate the purchase through the local agent, without going to St. Paul at all, if
you so desire.
Address. — For any information not contained herein, please address Land
Department, SU Paul and Sioux City Railroad, St. Paul, Minn., and you will
receive an appropriate reply. We have at your service the best farming lands
in America, and it is our pleasure as well as our duty to let it be known.
These lands have not been raised in price in view of the rapidly increasing de
mand for them, but are and will be throughout the present year offered at the old
appraisement. Our policy is not to hold them for high prices, but to. sell them at moderate
prices, and to see them occupied and cultivated by a happy and prosperous peo
ple. You will find in these columns ample reasons for selectingiMinnesota be
fore all other States, and these counties before all other portions of the State, as
the place for you and yours to build your future homes and fortunes.
It will be in the future, as it has been in the past, the policy of these Railroad
Companies to so conduct all its relations with the people they serve, as to en
hance the value of the property and advance the general prosperity of both, up
on the obvious principle that each must profit by the advancement of the
other.
WATONWAN COUNTY.
This county consists of rich, rolling prairie, dotted with beautiful lakes, and
is well timbered along its eastern border.
It is traversed by the Watonwan river, which furnishes several valuable water
powers, and is threaded by many smaller streams.
Population about 4500
Nicholson. — This station is located near the west line of the county, 130
miles 'from St . Paul, where the company have erected a depot and platted a town-
site. 'There are some 2000 acres under cultivation 6n the contiguous " Butter-
fleld Farm," and the " Odd Fellows' Colonization Bureau" have secured the
agency for several townships of land adjoining this town site, which, by their
proverbial energy, will soon be settled with an industrieus and prosperous pop
ulation. ,
MARTIN COUNTY
Is located immediately south of Watonwan county. Its northern line is some 10
or 15 miles south of our railroad depots at St. James and Madelia, and its eastern
line is within four miles of Winnebago City, the present terminus of the South
ern Minnesota Railroad. TTiis latter company proposes to extend its road west
ward into this fertile county*,dnring the present year. This county is entirely
out of debt, and has money in its treasury. Groves, and belts of timber, and
good mill privMeges, are very frequent, and schools and church organizations
are established throughout the county.
The population of the county is about 5000, generally English and American,
with several settlements of Germans and Swedes.
COTTONWOOD COUNTY,
In addition to the Des Moines River, and its numerous smaller streams of pure
water, contains some thirty lakes.

7% THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
The County Auditor reports the population at 4500. There are nearly 1000
farms opened, and 45,000 acres of land under cultivation. There are a number
of goodwater-powers on the Des Moines River, which traverses many miles of
the county.
Mountain Lake.— This village, 137 miles from St. Paul, contains some 30 or
40 buildings— 200 population— a school house, elevator, grain houses, four or
five stores/lumber yards, wagon and smith shops, and two steam grist mills, and
is attracting trade for many miles in every direction.
It is the centre of operation for a colony of some 1500 German Mennonites,
who have recently arrived from Russia, and purchased land in that vicinity.
This moral and thrifty people are to be followed by many more of their country
men, so that the progress of Mountain Lake and the eastern portion of Cotton
wood county is well assured. JACKSON COUNTY.
No. of farms opened, about  '  1,000
No. of acres under cultivation, about  25,000
There are three flouring mills located on the Des Moines river, which runs
through the entire length of the county, afl ordkig many other valuable water
powers. Along its banks, and upon the borders of the numerous beautiful
lakes that gem and adorn the territory, there are about 3000 acres of heavily tim
bered land. And no soil in the Northwest could be more desirable to the immi
grant. The Southern Minnesota Railroad, now in operation from the Mississippi
river, opposite LaCrosse, to Winnebago City, will be extended through Martin
and Jackson counties, to the line of our road, at an early day. Indeed, the com
pany and residents along the line are sanguine of its completion during the
present year.
Heron Lake, 160 miles from Saint Paul. — This prosperous village is situated
near a large and beautiful lake of the same name, in the midst of a rich and fer
tile country. A colony of thrifty and industrious Scandinavian farmers from
Goodhue County, Minn., have located northwest of Heron Lake, where they have
secured 46 sections of choice land, and are about commencing extensive operations.
MURRAY COUNTY. »
This county contains a thrifty and industrious population, consisting, of Amer
icans, Germans and Norwegians, nearly equally divided. Its lands are unsurpassed,
and its lakes are beautiful and picturesque, several of them being large and heavily
timbered. Lake Shetek, a beautiful sheet of water, some eight miles in length,
with an average of about two miles in width, has upon its banks an abundant
supply of timber.
The located line of the Southern Minnesota Railroad traverses this county from
east to west, and it must be constructed thereon at an early day.
NOBLES COUNTY.
In point of fertility of soil, the number and beauty of its lakes and small living
stream's, and the worth and intelligence of its people, this county is unsurpassed
by any of its neighbors.
Some 900 farms are opened within the limits of the county, and about 30,000
acres are under cultivation.

RAILROADS AND RAILROAD LANDS. 79
Within its boundaries there are six railroad stations, to wit: Worthington,
Hersey and Bigelow upon the main line, and Sioux Falls Junction, Miller and
Adrian upon the Worthington & Sioux Falls road.
Near Worthington the Worthington & Sioux Falls branch road takes its start
westward. It is .already, completed to Beaver Creek, near the eastern boundary
Sne of Dakota territory, and will reach Sioux Falls by August 1st, next.
Adrian is located, midway between Worthington and Luverne, and bids fair to-
rival either of these older villages.
Bishop Ireland has secured the railroad lands in six of the nearest townships,
and, with his tireless energy, is building u;-> in that section of the country a pros
perous polony,' called the "St. Adrian Colony."
PIPESTONE COUNTY.
This oounty is located immediately north of Rock county. Its lands are fer
tile, and its future full of promise.
It contains the valuable Pipestone quarry, which has already a national repu
tation. This county also is on the line of the Southern Minnesota Railroad location.
ROCK COUNTY.
This is the extreme southwestern county of the State, and has already become
proverbial for the quality and quantity of wheat which it produces ; and it is not
surpassed in the growth of any of the other products of the State.
About 700 farms are opened, and some 27,000 acres of land are under cultiva
tion. The Rock River, bordered by romantic scenery and numerous belts of timber,
passes through the county, affording a number of valuable water powers.
There is an inexhaustible supply of superior building stone at "Blue Mounds,'*
some three miles north of Luverne. i
THE ODD FELLOWS' COLONY.
This colony is located in towns 105, 106 and 107, range 33, being the three
western townships of Watonwan county, and embraces 108 square miles of splen
did arable land, owned hy the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad Company. The
town site and railroad station of Nicholson is in the centre of the tract. The
colony was organized by a few Odd Fellows of this State, who secured home
steads there, and finding that the demand by members for land in the locality
promised to become large, secured the three townships named from the railroad
company, for a colony. The price of the land ranges from $6 to $9 per acre, ac
cording to the distance from the station. It is designed to build up here a com
munity of brothers, with good .schools, churches, a lodge, mills, factories, and
all the essentials of a prosperous neighborhood. For circulars and maps giving
full particulars, address Chas. N. Bell, or J. Fletcher Williams, St. Paul.
ST. ADRIAN COLONY.
It is the well-known policy of the Catholic Church in this State to look welt
to the material prosperity and general welfare of its people in things temporal a»
well as spiritual. ¦
Rt Rev John Ireland, of St. Paui, has long been distinguished for the zeal,
ability and success with which he has illustrated the policy of his church in
this direction. His " St. Adrian Colony," though commenced only a few
months ago, is already an assured success. His agents in the Eastern States are
supplying to those needing it the information required to make their translation
to these new homes easy and comfortable, and the local arrangements for their
reception at St. Paul and St. Adrian are provided in advance.
E. F. DRAKE,
April 26, 1878. President St. Paul & Sioux City R. R. Co.

ONE MILLION ACHES OF UID,

SITUATED BV

Southwestern Minnesota and Northwestern Iowa,

Located along the line of the St. Paul & Sioux City, Sioux
City & St. Paul, and "Worthington & Sioux
Falls Railroads.
Lands producing 20 to 40 bushels of wheat per acre.
Lands producing Indian corn, 40 to 60 bushels per acre.
Lands unsurpassed for all small grains and vegetables.
Abounding with lakes and streams; well water easily ob
tained.
Soil rich loam, suited for all crops.
Natural blue joint meadow, with prairie grass suitable for
mowing on the upland.
The most healthy climate in the wojrld — agues never known,;
population industrious and orderly; with churches, schools,
mills and thrifty villages along the whole lines of road.
Settlements of Americans, Germans and Scandinavians; Odd
Fellows' and Catholic colonies.
Lands sold on long credit, or may be bought with cash or
Land Bonds at very low prices.
Send for copy of Minnesota Homestead, giving full infor
mation; or, for prices of particular lands a*d half rate excur
sion tickets to land seekers, apply personally or by letter to
1AXTD DEPARTMENT,
ST. PAUL, MINN.

RAILROADS AND RAILROAD LANDS. 8 1
Northern Pacific Railroad Lands.

Office Northern Pacific Railroad,
St. Paul, April 85, 1878.
John W. Bond, Secretary Board of Immigration :
Sir :— In compliance with your request of the 9th inst., I have the pleasure of
submitting the following statement in reference to the lands and country geuer-
ally along the line of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the State of Minnesota and
Territory of Dakota — extending from Duluth, at the head of Lake Superior, to
Bismarck, on the Missouri. Very truly yours,
JAS. B. POWER,
Ben. Agt. Land Department N. P. R. R.
, The Northern Pacific Railroad Company have in the State of Minnesota,, and are
now offering for sale, 1,615,400 acres, located in different counties, as follows : —
Acres.
St. Louis County  ,  143,000
Mille Lacs  90,000
Aitkin  218,500
Crow Wing  1  88,300
Itasca  55,000
Cass  v • . . 532,500
Morrison  ,  .'  ; . . . 7,000
Todd  ...:...;  34,700
Wadena  ¦'¦¦¦¦¦ 112,400
Otter Tail  123,000
Becker  160,0Q0
Polk  51,000
With the exception of St. Louis, Otter Tail, Becker and Polk Counties, the lands
designated are located in the valley of the upper Mississippi River. St. Louis
County, lying east of the dividing ridge between the Waters of the Mississippi and
Lake Superior, can properly be called part of the lake basin. Mille Lacs, Ait
kin, Crow Wing, Itasca, Cass, Morrison, Todd and Wadena counties are all in the
Upper Mississippi Valley. The counties of Otter Tail, Becker and Polk, all west
of the ridge dividing the waters of the Mississippi and Red Rivers, are part of
the great Red River Valley of the North, although the term " Red River Val
ley " is usually applied, and generally considered as being, that part of it em
braced between the slopes approaching it from the east and west ; in other words,
the level portion of what is pronounced by Prof. Winchell as the original lake
bed of that section of country. The western part of Otter Tail and Polk, and all
of Wilkin and Clay counties, are also within the limits of the grant to this road ;
but the railroad lands are not now in the market, on account of a dispute as to
title with the St. Paul & Pacific road, the determination of which will be by the'
courts. The character of the country embraced in the grant to this company, and the
lands now offered for sale, are worthy'of a very extended description.
6

82 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
The entire country in the Lake Superior basin and around the head waters of
the Mississippi River is covered with a forest growth. The flora embraces several
varieties of pine, also cedar, fir, tamarack, balsam, ash, aspen, elm, maple, birch,
oak and other woods, and is identical with that of New York, Pennsylvania,
the New England States and Canada. In this forest region there are many mead
ows and marshes, covered with luxuriant native grasses, where thousands of tons
of hay may be had for the cutting. Prom these natural meadows the lumbermen's
teams are supplied with hay during the winter. The blue- joint, foul-meadow,
red-top and other varieties of grasses are indigenous, and not unfrequentlv yield
three tons per acre. As the timber disappears before the lumberman's ax, the coun
try will become dryer, and there are large tracts of these now swampy lands which
will ultimately be brought under cultivation, as has been the case in Ohio, Indiana,
Michigan and Wisconsin. Between the lakes there are low ridges and belts of
land' where the soil is excellent, and where wheat, rye, barley and potatoes will
yield as large returns as in other sections of the State. English grasses grow lux
uriantly. In the immediate vicinity of the Mississippi the soil is sandy, but; from
the fact that it contains a large percentage of lime, produces good crops.
Crossing the Mississippi River at Brainerd, the road passes through the counties
of Cass, Wadena, and the northeastern part of Otter Tail to Detroit, in Becker
county, where is reached the well known "Park Region" of the Northwest, a
distance of 92 miles from Brainerd.
This section of the country is generally more diversified than the region east of
the Mississippi. There are prairies, low hills, ridges, swales and meadows watered
by numerous lakes, ponds and clear running streams. There are wide belts of
forest, and isolated groves and parks, presenting beautiful and charming land
scapes. The surface is, as a rule, gently undulating, and,in a region so extensive,
different varieties of soil are found ; principally, however, being a rich sandy loam,
warm; quick, and easy of cultivation. Corn ripens early; oats, barley and rye
give large returns, and vegetables produce enormous yields. The yield of wheat .
on this soil is not as large as on the heavier soils of the Red River valley to the
west, yet it is a profitable crop, and largely in excess of the average in Ohio or
Iowa. The growth of timber also differs from that east of Brainerd, consisting princi
pally of maple, oak and elm, with some pine. During the past year settlers have
taken up considerable quantities of this land, and in clearing it for cultivation
have found ready sale for their wood to the railroad company at remunerative
prices. >
At both of the villages of Wadena and Perham are quite extensive tracts of clear,
open prairie, now generally well taken up, and are being rapidly improved by their
energetic occupants.
THE PARK REGION
Is so called on account of the many picturesque parks and groves, which, with the
intervening lawns and undulating prairies, waving in summer with luxuriant
gsasses, lend a charm and beauty to the ; landscape hardly to be surpassed on the
continent. The soil is deeper, darker and richer than that of the country east of it. The
sandy element gives, place to clay and lime, which, with the great amount of or
ganic matter, makes it exceedingly fertile.

RAILROADS AND RAILROAD LANDS. 83
-.«
The country west of Detroit Lake was almoBt a solitude in 1871, but is now
quite thickly settled. Most of the desirable sections of government land near
the line of the railroad have already been taken as homesteads. The region is
so attractive that many settlers secured homes before the lands were surveyed.
In addition to the richness of the soil; the abundance of pure water; and the
attractive features of the landscape, is the large area covered with timber — not
in unbroken forests, but in groves, easy of access. Here the settler may com
mence at once to turn the sod, inclose his field, and from a neighboring grove
obtain his fencing material and wood for his fire.
THE VALLEY OF THE RED RIVER OF THE NORTH, IN
MINNESOTA AND DAKOTA.'
Here the visitor finds the great " Wheat Field of America," the settler of
moderate means lands unsurpassed on the continent for productiveness, from
which he can select a farm of any desired size, from 40 to 160 or more acres, and
it is here that the capitalist has already commenced demonstrating that great
farms can be managed 'with corresponding profit; where furroWs, unbroken by
hillocks, hollows, ridges, or other obstructions, may be turned for ten or even
twenty miles between the streams tributary to the Red River, or between the river
and the eastern or western boundary of the valley. To the eye, the valley seems
perfectly level ; but the descent to the river is at the rate of ten feet to the mile —
sufficient for drainage. There are but few lakes or ponds in the valley, but it is
watered by the Buffalo River and its branches,' the Wild Rice and other streams
on the Minnesota side, and by the Sheyenne, Maple, Elm, and others on the
Dakota side ; while excellent water can be obtained anywhere in the valley by
sinking wells from fifteen to twenty-five feet deep. '
The prairie is covered in summer' with a heavy growth of grass, furnishing a
vast area of fine pasturage, and where hay may be cut for winter use . The grass
is very nutritious, and stock turned out to pasture in April is fit for the market
in midsummer. <
The valley of the Red River is about three hundred and fifty miles long north
and south, and about forty miles east and west, containing an area of about
twenty thousafld square miles of land unsurpassed for fertility. The soil is an
alluvia], black, argillaceous mold, rich in organic deposits, and resting, for a
depth of two to four feet, on a tenacious clay subsoil, and is easily cultivated.
Wheat is the principal staple, some fields having been known to produce forty-
five bushels to the acre without fallow or manure. Oats, barley and potatoes
yield corresponding crops. Garden vegetables, including cucumbers, radishes,
peas, beans, onions, and even watermelons, grow well, mature fully, and are of
excellent quality.
The secret of this remarkable summer growth, aside from the fertility of the
soil, lies in the length and warmth of the summer days. Though the nights are
cool, the mercury often goes up to One hundred degrees at mid-day. And not
only are the days warm, but they are several hours longer than in the more
southern latitudes. With such warm and long days, growing crops ought to do
good work. • The^ measures of heat are ample for the production and develop
ment of Indian corn. . 1 .
The lands of the company are appraised with reference to their agricultural
value and distance from road, ranging in price from $2.50 to $10 per acre, and at
these prices the company takes its preferred stock at par.

84 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
In addition to the low prices at which the company sells its lands, it gives to
all settlers coming to the line of road, for the purpose of buying either railroad
or government lands, very material reductions in rates of fare for themselves and
families, and special freight rates for the transportation of their household
goods, live stock and farming implements.
In addition to the one million six hundred thousand acres of Minnesota lands
offered by this company, they also have for sale over four millions of acres of
prairie lands in Northern Dakota at prices ranging from $2.50 to $8.50 per acre,
that can also be bought in the same way by the company's preferred stock. This
section of Dakota is so directly tributary to our State, tbat jt is practically part
of it, and a brief description of it can properly be attached to this report.

THE TERRITORY OF DAKOTA.
Leaving the Red River at Fargo, the road enters the Territory of Dakota, the
first twenty-five miles crossing the western part of the Red River valley, already
described. The face of the country at this point begins to show gentle undula
tions until reaching the summit of the hill above the Sheyenne valley, 60 miles
west of Fargo, where it becomes more rolling. The Sheyenne river is a stream
having its source some 80 miles north of the road and west of Devil's Lake. The
first 50 miles of its course it runs eastwardly, then changes its course to the
south for a distance of nearly 100 miles, then bends gradually to the east and
north, and empties into the Red River some ten miles north of Fargo, the rail
road first crossing it about five miles west of this place. The extent of country ,
it drains, and the constant supply from innumerable springs in the blaffs on
either side, makes it an ever-living stream of pure water. The river is fringed
with timber from its source to its mouth, consisting of oak, elm, ash, and box
elder, at some places in considerable quantities.
The Sheyenne valley is from one-half to a mile and a half in width, sloping
gradually from the foot of the bluffs to the stream. In additon to its ordinary
agricultural capacities, this valley is peculiarly well adapted to stock raising, on
account of its sheltered position, abundance of pure water, timber, rich soil and
nutritious grasses. Indications of coal have also been found along the bluffs.
Passing out of the valley of the Sheyenne, the road runs across the rolling
prairie between that and the James River, a distance of forty miles. James
River at this point is a small yet ever-living stream, heading some forty miles
north of the road, and with a general southerly direction, empties into the Mis
souri River at Yankton. The valley of this stream is very similar to that of the
Sheyenne, although with less timber ; yet it is very attractive, and, like the
Sheyenne valley, is already drawing to it the attention of those who are looking
for good locations for permanent homes.
From Jamestown to Bismarck, a distance of 100 miles, the character of the
country is very much the same as that east of the James River. Through the
counties of Barnes, Stutsman, Kidder and Burleigh, the country is a gently roll
ing prairie, broken only by the valleys of the Sheyenne and James Rivers, and
by the bluffs of the Missouri River, and is without timber, except on the streams.
The soil, with but few exceptional places, is a sandy loam from fiteen to twenty
inches deep, with clay subsoil, and is susceptible of profitable cultivation of
grains and vegetables.

RTREM WCIFI

The LAND DEPARTMENT of the NORTHERN PACIFIC R. R. CO.
HAS FOR SALE
6,000,000 ACRES of MINNESOTA and DAKOTA LANDS,
Embracing some of the very best
PRAIRIE, unexcelled in any country for WHEAT growing,
HARD WOOD TIMBERED LANDS, rich SoiUxcellent for Farming,
NATURAL MEADOW LANDS, suitable for Stock Raising.
 PS, ICES LOW.  TERMS REASONABLE. 
The Company's PREFERRED STOCK taken at its par value in Payment for Lands.
GOVERNMENT, LANDS
Of the choicest description yet open can be secured under the operation of the
Pre-emption, Homestead and Tree Culture Acts.
fly Reduced Rates of Fake to land seekers, and to all Settlers on Government
Lands, Free Passes to purchasers of Railroad Lands, when moving on to the
lands of the Company, and Reduced Rates of Transportation on Household
Goods, Farming Implements and Live Stock.
Detailed information, maps, &c, can be had upon application, either by letter .
or in person, to Office of Land Department N. P. R. R., Brainerd, Mow.,
or 45 Jackson St.,_ Saint Paul, or 54 Clark St., Chicago.
JAMES B. POWER, General Agent.
THE NORTHERN PACIFIC ROUTE'
Is the only first class route to the Wheat Fields of the Red River Valley, to
Bismarck, all points on the Upper Missouri River, to Montana, and to the
Black Hills. ;
Through Express Trains between St. Paul and Bismarck daily (except
Sundays) making close connections at St. Paul with trains to and from Chicago
and all points East and South, and at DulutH with Steamers to all Lake Ports
between Duluth and Buffalo.
Elegant Palace Sleeping Cars on all night passenger trains. First Class
Eating Houses at convenient points between St. Paul and Bismarck.
H. A.. TOWNE, G. G. SAJVJBOIUV,
Sup't, Brainerd, Minn. G-en'l Fr't & Pass. Agt., St. Paul, Minn.
H. E. ©.AJRGHEIVT, Gen'l Manager, ST. PAUL.
THE WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY OF MINNESOTA
Now offers for sale
275,000 ACRES OF CHOICE LANDS,
Contiguous to the line of road, and situated in the counties of Benton, Morrison,
Todd and Crow Wing, all in the Upper Mississnri Valley, at from
$1.25 to $8.00 per acre, on seven years' time, at seven per
cent, interest. Liberal discounts for cash.
For particulars address, JAMES B. POWER, Land Commissioner,
45 Jackson Street, ST. PAUL.

THE BEST LINE STALL ODDS.

« <» — *•-

In every respect the best Passenger Route between all points in
MINNESOTA,

^ANB-

-IS THE—

CHICAGO, ST. PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS LINE,
COMPOSED OF THE
Chicago, St. Paul & Minneapolis, formerly the West Winconsin, and
the Chicago & Northwestern Railways.
The Chicago and Northwestern Railway embraces under one management the
Great Trunk Railway Lines of the West and Northwest, and, with its numerous
branches and connections, forms the shortest and quickest route between Chi
cago and all points in Illinois, Wisconsin, Northern Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa,
Nebraska, California, and the Western Territories.
That portion of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway between Chicago and
Elroy (via Madison), and the Chicago, St. Paul & Minneapolis Railway, between
Elroy and St, Paul, form a single line between Chicago, St. Paul and Minneapolis,
and is known as
The Chicago, St. Paul & Minneapolis Line.
It is the only line between St. Paul and Minneapolis and Chicago that passes
through Hudson, Eau Claire, Black River Falls, Elroy and Madison, and is the
only line that runs on all of its trains North, of Chicago, tbe celebrated
PULLMAN PALACE SLEEPING- OARS.
All trains of this great route run through without change of cars.
If you wish the best travelling accommodations, you will buy your tickets by
this route; and will take no other.
All Ticket Agents can sell you Through Tickets, and Check usual Baggage
Free by this Line.
Passengers from Chicago, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, Niagara Falls,
Pittsburgh; Cincinnati, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec, Portland, Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Indianapolis, Cairo, and all points South
and East, should buy their tickets via
The Chicago & Northwestern R'y.
Close connections are made at Chicago with Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, Baltimore St Ohio,
Michigan Central, Pittabnrgh, Fort Wayne 8c Chicago, Kankakee Line and Pan Handle Routes, and
with the Chicago St Alton and Illinois Central Railroads.
New York Office, No. 415 Broadway; Boston Office, No. 5 State Street; St. Paul Ticket Offices, cor
ner Third and Jackson Streets, and at Depot on Sibley Street; Minneapolis Ticket Offices, No. 3
Nicollet House Block, and at St. Paul & Pacific Depot; Chicago Ticket Offices, 62 Clark' Street,
under Sherman House; 75 Canal, earner Madison Street; Kinzie Street Depot, corner West Kinzle
and Canal Streets; Wells Street Depot, corner Wells and Kinzie Streets; San Francisco Office, 2
New Montgomery Street; London (England) Office, 449 Strand.
F. B.CLABKE,G.P.A.,C.,St.P.SiM.R'y. V. H. STENNETT, G. P. A., C. St N. W. R'y, Chicago.
A. H. PBIDE, Gen'l Eastern Ag't. W. A. THBALL, Gen'l Tioket Agt.,
C, St. P. & M. Line, 415 Broadway, New York City. C. & N. W. R'y, Chicago, 111.
MABVIJT HUGHITT, Gen. Man. C. & N. W. R'y, Chicago, 111.

THE COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM. 87

Common Schools.— Material Basis of the System.
The common Schools of Minnesota are munificently endowed with sections
16 and 36 in every township, being one-eighteenth of the whole State. The
Constitution provides that the proceeds of these -lands shall remain a perpetual
school fund to the State ; that the principal, arising from the sale of such lands
shall ever remain inviolate and undiminished, and the income accruing from
leases or sales shall be distributed to the different townships, in proportion to
the niimber of scholars therein contained, between the ages of five and twenty-
one years. ,
This magnificent inheritance of the millions yet to be, guarded by a judicious
and efficient code of school laws, places the benefits of the common school with
in the reach of every home in the State. And no elf orts are spared by those
entrusted with her educational interests, to make the common schools of Min
nesota equal in every respect to similar schools in the Eastern States.
This excellent system for the free education of all the children in the State is
in successful operation. At the first session of the Territorial Legislature, in
1849, a law was enacted for its establishment. In order to exhibit- at a single
glance the prodigious development of the common school system during the
intervening 26 years, the few items embraced in the first school report in 1851,
are contrasted below with the corresponding results for 1877. 1851. 1877.
Whole number of school districts  13 ,3;700
Whole number of school houses  5- ' 3,141
Aggregate value of school houses and sites  '  $2,500 $2,982,816
Whole number of scholars  250 162,551
Numberof male teachers  1,711
Number of female teachers  '  3,031
Total productive school fund  $3,388,569
Total apportionment 'of income to schools   .•  221,327
Income from one, mill tax  ., -  209,836
From special taxes  '• —  750,162
Total cost of public schools  1,184,326
The system was re-organized in 1862. A new law was that year enacted for the
better regulation and support of common schools, which, in its essential features,
is still in force,.
It will be remembered that these schools are perfectly free to the children of the
rich and poor alike, who meet upon terms of perfect equality, and receive the1
blessings df education, pupils receiving marks of distinction only upon superior'
behavior and scholarly achievements.
In this Congressional grant of three million acres we have the material basis of
our public school system. Of this immense domain, but 500,000 acres; about one
sixth, have been sold, and already there is accumulated a fund of $3,388,569, which
is exceeded by that of only four other States, three of these being the old and
wealthy States of New York, Massachusetts and Ohio.' As above stated, the inter
est arising from sales of school lands, with proceeds of annual sales of glass and
stumpage, constitutes the general or current school fund of semi-annual distribu
tion, These proceeds, with an annual levy of a one mill tax, afford present sup
port to the common, schools of the State. If the residue of school lands shall be
sold at prices equal to those heretofore Obtained, viz. : $6.07 per adre, the1 perrha-
nent school fund of the State will amount to nineteen million dollars.
The above was inadvertently omitted from its proper place on page 61.

88 THE EMPIRE STATE OF THE NEW NORTHWEST.
The Catholic Colonies in the State.
Catholic Colonization Bureau of St, Paul, Minn.
The Catholic Colonization Bureau was established under the direction of Right
Rev. Bishop Ireland, of St. Paul, in the spring of the year 1876. Since then its
efforts in behalf of Catholic colonization have been crowned with most gratifying
success. It affords Catholic immigrants seeking homes on the fertile prairfes of
Minnesota great facilities for obtaining reliable information concerning the State,
and secures them half-fare railroad rates from St. Paul to any of the Catholic col
onies. During the past winter it has distributed upwards of 13,000 pamphlets in
English and German, and two of its agents, Mr. Dillon O'Brien and Rev. Fr.
Berghold, have been lecturing in English and German in all the large cities of the
East. There are at present three Catholic colonies in Minnesota, and steps are
being taken to open a fourth.
The first is in Swift county, 120 miles from St. Paul, on the line of the St. Paul
& Pacific Railroad. Twelve townships have been reserved, in this county for colo
nists. The principal villages are De Graff and Clontarf . , Rev. J. F. Swift repre
sents the bureau at De Graff, and Rev. A. Oster is its agent at Clontarf.
The second dolony is in Nobles county, 197 miles from St. Paul, in the south
western part of the State, and on the line of the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad.
Six townships have been reserved here, and Rev. A. Knauf acts as agent for the
bureau at St. Adrian, the principal village.
The third colony is in Big Stone county, 22 miles from Morris, and about 180
miles from St. Paul. All the land here is Government land. Col. J. R. King
represents the bureau at Graceville, on Lake Tokua.
At the office of the bureau at St. Paul, immigrants can obtain information con
cerning all the Catholic colonies in general, and local agents, who are provided with
maps and plats, will furnish details and assist them in the selection of lands.
Pamphlets giving full particulars can be had on application by letter, or postal
card. For further information address Catholic Colonization Bureau, St. Paul.

The Druid Farming and Colonization Company.
In organizing the Druid Farming and Colonization Company, the origi
nators had a two>- fold object in view, viz.: To present to the members of the
order an opportunity for an absolute safe and profitable investment, and assist
such members as desire to secure a home in the country and to follow the pur
suit of farming, in obtaining the best kind of land at a low price, and that, too,
in a neighborhood where they will be surrounded by men belonging to the
same brotherhood, and where good public schools can at once be established.
With this object in view, the company had reliable men visit the different parts
of the State, known to abound in rich farming lands, for the purpose of select
ing the very best, and acting upQn their report, it was decided to select Town
ship 117, Range 3.6, (the Southwestern Township of Kandiyohi County,) as a
base for their operations. These lands are considered, by all who know, to be
the very garden spot of all Minnesota, and are situated six miles from the Has
tings & Dacota Railroad, and ten miles from the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad.
These Railroads will offer competing markets for all the products of that coun
try, and prices will, on that account, never be much less than obtained in St.
Paul and Minneapolis. Granite Falls, the second greatest water power in the
State, capable of turning one thousand run of mill stone, is within the reach of
sixteen miles. Thus, it will be seen, that the lands that produced over thirty
bushels of wheat to the acre, are as near to markets as lands in other States that
sell at $50 an acre. Our purpose is now to open one large wheat farm and one
large stock farm, and to that end begin with the making of all necessary im
provements at once. These farms will form the centre of the Druids Colony,
and will also serve members who desire to settle in the vicinity as a base for
their operation. A Village will also soon be established.
For further information, apply for circular, to
J. P. LEITNEK, Secretary, St. Paul, Minn

:. S, FAIRCHilM
Real Estate Agent
Wfed Uuksoi 8ts„ op, Xgrekstf Hotel,
ST. I^JL^mNN.
ildam Blocks, Hotels, mils, Farms, Lands,
tetaLofe^FimBasMtecw, Cheap Homes
and Vacant Lots for sale.

This Pamphlet will be sent to any address in
America and Europe,
FREE OF POSTAGE.
All persons who may receive a copy are re
quested, after reading it, to give it to
some friend who niay pass it
around to others.
Also send a list of names of your friends, and
their address, to
JOHN W. BOND,
Secretary of Board Of Irhmlgration,
ST. VA UL, MINNESOTA.

mm