USA > Minnesota > Minnesota as it is in 1870 : its general resources and attractions for immigrants, invalids, tourists, capitalists, and business men ; with special descriptions of all its counties and townsand inducements to those in quest of homes, health, or pleasure > Part 8
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Of the Red River Valley, he 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 rich- ness and beauty of this fair region of the world.
North Shore, Lake Superior .- Scenery .- " The scenery of the whole extent of the ranges north of the lake is bold and picturesque.
" The Great Palisades are rocks rising from the margin of the lake, near Palisade Creek, to the height of over 300 feet, presenting perpendicular columns from 60 to 192 feet high, and from 1 to 6 feet in diameter. From the top of these rocks a magnificent view was afforded of the Apostle Islands, 30 miles distant ; and the outlines of the high ranges south of the lake, from the Porcupine . Mountains to Fond du Lac, were distinctly visible."
He speaks of rocks projecting into the lake 100 yards or more, that, with their cappings of small cedars and firs, present the most picturesque appearance imaginable.
Dr. August Hanchette, State Geologist, 1864, says " there are forty-three rivers and creeks, * the
88
MINNESOTA SCENERY.
majority of which find their way to the great lake over rippling cascades or frowning precipices, magnificently high."
Hon. Thomas Clarke, Assistant Geologist, 1864, spe- cifies a cascade in the Wisacode Valley as "one of the- most wild and exciting waterfalls to be met with in this wild region, where all are truly wild when compared with those more generally known." "One of the most sym- metrical," he again describes as "just such scenery as. the school girl, in her first attempts at painting, would delight to sketch." He speaks of firing a gun near Little Marias Bay, causing " fourteen distinct pairs of echoes, rolling back over the crags and bluffs like the rolling of thunder in a mountain region, and putting the: adjacent forests in an uproar as of artillery ; these fol- lowed by several indistinct ones, blended with the rumb- ling of a hundred cars winding their way in the distance,, beset by dozens of ambushed mountain howitzers."
Major Long's report of a topographical survey, 1824, compiled by Prof. Keating, describes a cascade on White Fish River (on the Canada side of the line,) about 30 miles above the mouth, as "one of the most magnificent cascades to be witnessed in any country," called by the. Indians the "Falls of Kakabikka, or Cleft Rock." The river is about fifty yards wide, with an unusually large body of water, and is precipitated in a dense sheet down a perpendicular precipice more than one hundred and thirty feet, into a deep chasm, bounded by perpendicular cliffs of the height just mentioned. * The scenery, although it is less extensive, yet vies in grandeur and sublimity with that of the Falls of Niagara. In beholding it the spectator is inspired with equal awe, the principal features are equally terrific, while the deep in- tonation, which is not only heard but felt at the distance
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REV. DR. BOARDMAN.
of 400 or 500 yards, is more sensible than that of its rival, and has a nearer resemblance to the roar of distant thunder and the rumblings of an earthquake."
As there are falls upon "the forty-five rivers and creeks " alluded to by Hanchette, we cannot, of course, describe all. The above examples will give the reader an idea of their style.
St. Louis River Falls .- Dr. Owen describes the Lower Falls as " a series of cascades, ten or eleven in number, six to ten feet high." The Second Falls as presenting "a much more imposing appearance than the lower ones." " The Third Falls, like the others, are made up of a series of cascades, and for grandeur and beauty equal any sce- nery of the kind I have met with south or west of Lake Superior. Although the fall, including the rapids, is only forty-five feet, the disposition of the rocks and other sur- rounding scenery combine to render the effect indescrib- ably beautiful." "The Fourth Falls are made up of a series of five large cascades and numerous smaller ones- height over 100 feet."
Mississippi River Scenery .- Long's Report says : "This first day's voyage on the Mississippi was delightful to those who had never been on that river before ; the mag- nificence of the scenery is such, its characters differ so widely from those of the landscapes which we are accus- tomed to behold in our tame regions ; its features are so bold, so wild, so majestic, that they impart new sensations to the mind."
Rev. Dr. H. A. Boardman, of Philadelphia, in a letter to the Philadelphia North American, Oct., 1868, says :
Confessing, as I do, to some native pride in the Hudson, I am constrained to say that with the exception of the Highlands, the ten or fifteen miles of its passage through the Catskills, the scenery of that river is not to be compared with the Mississippi.
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MINNESOTA SCENERY.
The countless islands, the lofty bluffs on either side, gentle and precipitous, pyramidical and dome-like, the ever varying chan- nel of the noble stream, now shut in between narrow cliffs, and now spread out into an expanse of two or three miles, the mag- nificent panorama opening upon you at every turn, to say noth- ing of the rich foliage of the forests and the myriad wild flowers that carpet the margins of the islands-these are a few only of the elements of beauty which regale the traveler on the Upper Mississippi. But my object is too practical to justify me in dwelling upon the poetry of this region.
Prof. Maury says of our lakes : "They give variety and beauty to the landscape; they soften the air, and lend all their thousand charms and attractions to make this goodly land a lovely place of residence."
Of our clear bright nights, so bright that you may often read by moonlight, he says : "At the small hours of night, at dewy eve and early morn, I have looked out with wonder, love, and admiration, upon the steel blue sky of Minnesota, set with diamonds, and sparkling with brilliants of purest ray. A telescope, mounted here in this atmosphere, under the skies of Minnesota, would have its powers increased many times over what they would be under canopies less brilliant and lovely."
We might go on and make a volume of descriptions of Minnesota scenery. We have said nothing of the Falls of St, Anthony (see description of Hennepin County for this ;) nothing of the far-famed Minnehaha, of Minneinne- opa, near Mankato, scarcely less beautiful ; nor of scores of other falls, cascades, caves, mounds, and beautiful views ; but we have said enough to show the reader that this is a charming land for the tourist who would spend a few months in recreation, and while he enjoys the past- times of hunting and fishing, would also feast his eyes upon the beautiful, and breathe a pure and invigorating
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AS A FARMING COUNTRY.
atmosphere. Minnesota artists have photographed about 240 different varieties of Minnesota scenery, to which we refer as a concluding chapter on this subject.
CHAPTER VIII.
MINNESOTA . AS A FARMING COUNTRY .- As we prefer to give official or outside disinterested testimony on every subject, resting as little as possible upon our own lan- guage, which the reader may say is warped and colored by self interest, we will let Dr. W. B. Cheadle, an Eng- lish gentleman, speak first in general terms.
In a letter which we extract from the London Railway Record, dated Nov. 17, 1865, Dr. Cheadle, who accom- panied Lord Wilton in a tour through this country, speaking of the superior growth and development of the American States over those of British America, says :
Canada, as you know, is a land of forests, and a dense growth of timber covers the ground the settler is called upon to till. The soil is probably rich enough, but the labor and expense of clearing is considerable, and the delay a great drawback, for it may be years perhaps before he will be able to plough fields, clear from stumps and roots, or create any extent of pasturage for cattle, everything has to be prepared under difficulties-arable land and pasturage. In the Western States it is far otherwise : broad prairies waving with the most nutritious grasses, and diversified by woodlands and hills, lakes and streams.
Minnesota for example, the most northerly and the richest of them all, is like one great park. Farms are almost ready made to the settler's hand. He builds his house and fences his fields with timber from one of the neighboring woods.
The deep and fertile soil of the prairie lies ready for the plough without obstruction ; a portion of this he prepares with-
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HORACE GREELEY.
out difficulty for his grain and root crops, and the rest affords an inexhaustible extent of pasture for his flocks and herds, which grow fat on the herbage in which myriads of buffalo grazed in times gone by.
We will let Hon. Horace Greeley follow.
Horace Greeley on Minnesota.
OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE. New York, June 1st, 1868.
My Dear Sir : Fifteen to twenty years ago, when Minnesota first challenged attention, I was not prepossessed in her favor. I knew that her winters were apt to be long and severe; but I was born to face winters more snowy, though less steadily cold, in New Hampshire. But she seemed to have broken out all over with land speculators, bankrupt, seedy office seekers, and party wire workers, who had outlived alike their usefulness (if such ever was) and popularity in older communities and gone up the Mississippi as a consequence of having been decisively rowed up salt river. I saw that your State imported not only loafers in great abundance, but the bread they ate as well as the whisky they drank; and I did not see how she could stand it (you must pardon my weakness) in the defection of home industry.
Years passed : I was invited to visit her at a great railroad excursion party, but declined; then to speak at her State Ag- ricultural Fair of 1861, and accepted; but Bull Run intervened, and I had not the heart to go, and begged off. I was re-invited, but declined to go till we should be delivered from the dire necessity of carnage. At length came 1865, bringing with it a first installment of peace; then I went. I found her soil better. than I had hoped-warm, fertile and just about rolling enough to secure proper drainage at little or no expense. Her Indian corn was not luxuriant, but a fair growth ; her grass had plainly been ample; her wheat and oats better (in the average) than I had ever before known. Her railroads were just beginning to promise benificence. In lumber she was greatly favored. Her vegetables (as exhibited at the State Fair) I had seen surpassed in California alone. In fruit alone did she seem deficient; but she was still in the gristle of her youth. Her butter, cheese and honey would justify any praise.
93
MR. GEO. B. WRIGHT.
Yet I was most impressed by her men and women. I never saw so few chronic idlers, except among the Mormons in Utah. Every one seemed to have work and to make a business of doing it. I knew that many had gone to her for health; I rejoiced to perceive that most of them had found it. In quiet homes as well as at the Fair, I found every one strong, elastic, active, vigor- ous, buoyant. I realized that they not only would but did ac- complish more in seven months of unfrozen earth than so many people would in ten months of a softer, a more enervating clime. In short, I learned to like her heartily, and to expect great things of her people and her growth in a future by no means remote. God bless her! Yours, HORACE GREELEY,
To J. W. McClung, Esq., St. Paul, Minn.
MINNESOTA COMPARED WITH ILLINOIS, IOWA, AND WIS- COSIN .- Wishing a candid, moderate, and fair statement of the relative agricultural capacity of these States, from some one qualified by actual observation to judge, we addressed a note to Geo. B. Wright, Esq., and elicited the following reply. He is an old surveyor, and his statements can be relied on,
Minneapolis, Minn., May 10th, 1869.
J. W. MCCLUNG, ESQ., ST. PAUL, MINN .- Dear Sir : In reply to your note of inquiry of May 6th, I would say-I have been for the past fifteen years engaged in surveying and land exam- ining in different parts of the Upper Mississippi Valley, and have made special and minute examinations of farming lands with reference to their value for that purpose, to as great an extent perhaps as any person living north and west of Chicago, and for eight years past have been engaged in government surveying. During that time I have become pretty intimately acquainted with nearly all of Minnesota south of latitude 47º (except the south-eastern portion of the State,) and to some extent with some of the finest portions of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois (as far south as the Ohio and M. R. R.)
To compare Minnesota with those States :-
1st. As to average quality and productiveness of soil and capacity to sustain a dense population, I should place Illinois and Iowa first, then Minnesota, and lastly Wisconsin, while if
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COMPARATIVE VIEW.
we leave off the north-eastern portion of Minnesota (valuable chiefly for timber and minerals,) the remainder; about equal in area to Iowa or Illinois, will average fully equal in agricultural capacity with either of those States, and very far in advance of Wisconsin, of which a quite small proportion only is of the best quality for farming purposes.
2d. Concerning Crops .- Probably Illinois will always lead in the production of corn. Though Minnesota produces good crops of that, much better than in the most favored spots in New England-while it is unquestionably the best wheat pro- ducing State east of the Rocky Mountains; and for the raising of most of the small grains-hay, potatoes, and root crops gen- erally-it is fully equal if not better than either of the three States mentioned.
3d. For Stock Raising, and the production of beef, wool, but- ter and cheese, Minnesota is I think better adapted than either of the States mentioned. The dry atmosphere, and equable temperature of the winters, are specially valuable for wool growing, and the almost unlimited extent of natural meadows (not marshes,) covered with a superior quality of fine grass and distributed so that every farm has more or less of them, renders the getting of winter supplies for stock a simple and inexpen- sive matter. I have this spring noticed hundreds of cattle and other stock, which during the winter were fed exclusively on this native hay, costing to put up not over $2 per ton, and in nearly every instance they were in fine, thriving condition.
I think, in regard to the matters above named, that Minnesota will compare favorably with Illinois or Iowa, in some respects better, and in some not so good .; but it is particularly in refer- ence to her climate, geographical position, scenery, pure water, and admirable distribution of those natural advantages for pleasant and profitable farming, that-as seems to me-she offers inducements to the farmer seeking a home in the West, such as no other Western State can present. Timber for build- ing and fencing, if not for fuel, is a necessity. For profitable farming, prairie is almost a necessity also. Pure clear water is indispensable for comfort, and generally for health. A gently rolling country attracts the eye and pleases, so that its beauty alone gives it an additional value, aside from more perfect drainage, and therefore better adaptation for tillage; and a
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CARLTON.
healthful, bracing, and invigorating climate, alone is sufficient to make poor land rich and valuable. Convenience to market, and choice of many competing routes for transportation, make farming profitable and lands valuable. Within two years our markets should be equally good with Illinois, and better than Iowa, ultimately better than either; for we are on the shortest and best route across the continent. Especially, however, I would call attention to the fact that the climate of Minnesota is better, pleasanter, and more healthful, than that of either of the States named. We have neither the scourge of the West (intermittent fevers,) nor of the East (consumption,) except as they are brought here.
Lastly. No other Western State can show so large a per cent. of NATURAL FARMS, with meadows, and fields ready for the plow ; fine groves of timber; beautiful lakes and streams; fine building sites ; handsome views ; and lacking only buildings and fences to make them models of perfect farms,-as can Minne- sota.
In other words, the timber, meadow, prairie, water, and fine scenery, as well as fertile soil, are better distributed here, so as to afford a greater number of pleasant homes, than in any other of the Western States with which I am acquainted.
These are real and substantial advantages, which Minnesota possesses over the States south and east of her; and I am very sure that few persons who have carefully examined the ques- tion, and are really acquainted with the comparative advantages of the different States named, would willingly leave Minnesota for a residence in Illinois, Iowa, or Wisconsin. Very truly yours, GEORGE B. WRIGHT.
MINNESOTA COMPARED TO KANSAS, NEBRASKA, IOWA, AND ILLINOIS .- " Carlton," in July, 1869, writes the Boston Journal :
Many of those who, perchance, may read these lines have visited Illinois and seen the wheat and corn fields and cultivated lands of that State, reaching on and on in boundless expanse ; have heard the music of the reapers gathering the ripened grain ; have beheld the harvest fields in all their glory. Think now of those fields extended as far as it is from Boston to Omaha, over
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COMPARATIVE VIEW.
a tract as wide as from Montreal to Philadelphia, and you have the area of the wheat field lying northwest of Chicago.
It is a region presenting features different from the country along the highway opened to San Francisco by the Union Pacific road. The plains of Nebraska and Kansas-magnificent in ex- tent-are traversed by no great water courses. The streams are few, and when the summer heats prevail, they dwindle to rivulets, and become wholly dry; but here there are ever-flow- ing streams and lakes of pure fresh water, fed by never-failing springs. Ride where you will over this vast territory, and you are always in sight of a river, a creek, or a lake of purest water, where the waves break on pebbly beaches, and where thousands of waterfowl rear their young beneath the oaks and maples that fringe the rippling streams.
Beautiful as are the prairies of Illinois and Iowa, nature has been even more generous in her adornment of the Northwest.
Comparison with other Lands .- No other country has such a domain. The plains of Bavaria and Hungary, upon which Central Europe relies for its grain, united, would not exceed in area a single county in Minnesota. The fine lands of Prussia have a thin soil, while the wheat fields. of France have been cul- tivated for centuries, and are only kept in heart by constant application of fertilizers ; but here the soil is in its virgin state, yielding such returns as are not obtained in any other land, unless it be in the San Joaquin and Santa Clara valleys of Cal- ifornia.
The most fertile acre of the Ganges Valley in India will not yield a greater return than these of the Northwest. The Nile and the Yangteze-their fertility renewed by each annual flood -may vie with the uplands of Minnesota ; but there are sections along this Red River of the North-along the Cheyenne and Mouse rivers of Dakota-which are not surpassed by the richest in the heart of China or on the Delta of the Nile !
Is this letter too enthusiastic? Will those who read it say " he has lost his head and gone daft out there on the prairies ?" Not quite. I am an observer here, as I have been in other lands. I have ridden many times over the States of the Northwest; have seen the riches of Santa Clara and Napa west of the Sierra Nevadas; have looked out over the meadows of Yangteze and the Nile, and can say with honest conviction, that for one who
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WHEAT.
has had a home in New England, I have seen nowhere so invit- ing a field as that of Minnesota-none with greater undeveloped wealth, none with such prospect of quick development.
The Cincinnati Times on Minnesota Wheat .- The Cincinnati Times, speaking of the progress of wheat cul- ture in Minnesota several years since, said :
While the wheat crop has been subject to great vicissitudes in other States, it has steadily kept up a full yield in the young and promising State of Minnesota, as appears in the following table :
Acres in wheat.
Bushels harvested.
Proportion of tilled land in wheat.
1859,
124,792
2,374,415
34.45
1860,
231,915
5,101,432
53.88
1865,
400,000
10,000,000
62.00
The total crop of wheat in Ohio in 1864 was 15,541,825, which was produced on 1,655,595 acres. This shows a fraction less than ten bushels to the acre. The yield per acre in Minnesota was twenty-five bushels in 1865. Health and wheat are the first attractions in this upper State. Life and the staff of life are the chief productions.
The Actual Yield, and the Yield per Acre of Produce .- Gov. Marshall, in his message to the Legislature in 1869, gives the following statistics carefully collected by the - Secretary of State from the somewhat imperfect returns of assessors and from other sources. He says : "these figures are rather under than above the facts."
Number of acres of corn, wheat, oats and potatoes un- der cultivation in 1866-7-8.
No. of acres in wheat,
1866. 547,531
1867. 683,784
1868. 908,500
Total product of wheat,
7,921,441 10,014,828 16,125,875
No. of acres in corn, .
Total product of corn,
88,183 2,056,747 187,023
100,648 115,170
No. of acres in oats,
4,598,760 174,500
Total product of oats,
6,103,510
No. of acres in potatoes,
Total product of potatoes,
4,372,477 16,297 1,851,696
3,216,010 162,722 5,620,895 17,647 1,788,053
17,500 1,698,900
WHEAT .- Average Yield Compared with other States .- This shows an average of wheat in 1866 of 14.48 bushels
9
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THE BANNER WHEAT STATE.
per acre ; in 1867, 14.64 bushels per acre ; and in 1868, 17.75 per acre. In 1865, on an area of 400,000 acres, the enormous crop of 10,000,000 bushels was the yield (estimated in the Governor's Message,) being an average of 25 bushels per acre. In 1859, on 124,972 acres, 2,374,- 415 bushels ; average per acre, 19. In 1860, on 231,315 acres, 5,101,432 bushels ; average per acre, 22.05. Mr. Wheelock says, "Illinois and Iowa do not yield from year to year one-third of this average. In an address delivered at the Wisconsin State Agricultural Fair in 1859 by Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, he stated as the best result of all the testimony he was able to collect, that the average wheat yield of Illinois was not over 8 bushels per acre, Iowa in 1849 produced 14 bushels per acre ; in 1856, 143 ; in 1858, but 7 bushels ; and in 1859, but 4} bushels per acre. The largest known crop of Ohio, that of 1850, averaged only 17g bushels per acre, and the average yield of that State for the last ten years is but 12§ bushels per acre."
MINNESOTA, THE BANNER WHEAT STATE .- The crop of Minnesota in 1868 exceeds the crop of 1860 in Pennsyl- vania, Wisconsin, Ohio and Virginia, is about double that of California, Iowa, New York, Michigan, Kentucky and Maryland, and about four times that of Missouri : Illi- nois and Indiana alone exceeding her, and Indiana by less than a million bushels. At the same rate of progress she will soon be the banner wheat State of the Union. With inferior implements, and less experience and skilled farming than the older States, the above average yields are most remarkable.
While these are the average yields, it is but fair to say that from thirty to forty bushels per acre are frequently raised, where the cultivation is good and the season favorable (see examples at the end of this chapter.)
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WHEAT.
Especially is this the case with winter wheat. And it is also proper to say that Minnesota has a much lower average than she should have, on account of the great number of slouchy, unskillful tillers of the soil, who are not farmers, but men who never farmed before they moved West. Shallow plowing, irregular sowing, deficient har- rowing, careless and wasteful harvesting and threshing, together with too much reliance upon the rich soil and too little upon cultivation, rotation of crops, and good seed, are evils a thousand fold multiplied in Minnesota farming over what they are in the older States. To excel them all, even with these drawbacks, is a trium- phant vindication of our great agricultural capacity.
Bushels of Wheat produced in 1860 :
Illinois,
23,837,023
Iowa,
8,449,403
Indiana,
16,848,267
Michigan,
8,336,368
Wisconsin,
15,657,458
Kentucky,
7,394,809
Ohio,
15,119,047
Maryland,
6,103,480
Virginia,
13,130,977
California,
5,928,470
Pennsylvania,
13,042,165
Minnesota,
2,186,993
New York,
8,681,105
Minnesota, 1868, 16,128,875
Increase in production in ten years, from 1850 to 1860 :
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