USA > Minnesota > Minnesota - its advantages to settlers, 1869 : being a brief synopsis of its history and progress, climate, soil, agricultural and manufacturing facilities, commercial capacities, and social status, its lakes, rivers, and railroads, homestead and exemption laws > Part 5
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Period of Exemption from Frost .- The period of total exemption from frost in Minnesota, varies from four to five and a half months, which allows ample time for the perfection of all the annual crops, The frost is general- ly entirely out of the ground, which is then ready for planting, the last of April and first of May. The first fall of frost takes place with great regularity about the middle of September, though sometimes delayed till the middle of October. Minnesota is not exposed to late and early frosts more than the Middle and West- ern States. The peculiar dryness of the air also enables vegetation to resist. light frosts, which in other localities would prove disastrous. This fact is exem- plified by the frost of June 4th, 1859, which was general nearly all over the United States. In Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, it was universally destructivo ; ice formed one-third inch thick in Ohio ; but in Minnesota no damage whatever was done to field crops. On account of this dryness, the temperature may fall considerably below the freezing point at times, without producing frost. The dryness of the atmosphere, notwithstanding the abundance of the summer rains, is also very important on account of the protection it gives wheat and oats from rust, smut, and insects, which often seriously injure the wheat fields of moister climates.
Advantageous Distribution of Rain .- The mean annual fall of rain in Min- nesota, as set down in Blodget's hyetal charts, is twenty-five inches. It is a remarkable fact that the greater part of this moisture is deposited during the six growing months, when it is most needed, instead of being wasted in delug- ing the land and making winter disagreeable, as in New England and the West- ern and Middle States. The following, from the report of the Commissioner of
60th parallel, a thousand miles north of St. Paul. One of the most curious consequences of this ab- rupt northern deflection of the isothermal lines around the head of the great lake basins, is that St. Paul, in latitude 45, is very considerably warmer during the whole six months of the growing season, than Chicago, in latitude 42.
"It Is not a little amusing, upon this showing, to read in the official report of the Illinois Central Company, and in the Chicago Democrat, that "every spring brings down the frost-bitten and chilled. Inhabitants of Minnesota, to the miid and genial clime of Illinois."-Report of Commissioner of Slutistics.
*See an article on the "Acclimating Principle of Plants," in the American Journal of Geology, by Dr. Forry.
28
1
MINNESOTA :
Statistics, shows the contrast between Minnesota and the above States, in this respect :
Minn.
Iils.
Pa.
Mass.
The six warm and growing months,
19.55
26.30
20.94
23.15
The six cold and non-producing months, -
5.88
15,50
21.40
23.81
The three summer months,
11.00
13.20
11.93
10.71
The three winter months,
1.92
7.10
10.76
11.85
"Now, all the points here brought into comparison have a greater rain fall in the whole growing season than Minnesota ; but the summer fall is nearly the same, their superfluous spring and autumn rains, which are unnecessary and even injurious to vegetation, making up the difference in the whole quantity for the warm months."
The excessive autumnal rains in the above States are often very destructive to harvests. "The Minnesota farmer reaps as he sows, in the full confidence that no untimely tempest will defraud him of the fruits of his labors. In these wet climates, in the reeking summer air, agriculture is a perpetual vigil against con- cealed enemies."
CHEAPNESS OF OPENING FARMS.
It is a fact worthy of note, that in all places whose growth is unsubstantial, the price of land is disproportionately high, while its products are low. But in Minnesota, real estate is low, land is extremely cheap, (owing to the large surplus yet unoccupied,) while its products command the first prices. Oats, corn, potatoes, and in fact nearly all that the farmer raises, find a ready market for cash at home. A curious illustration of the practical working of this principle is that lands purchased at ten dollars per acre are paid for out of the proceeds of the first crop. Take this instance : A gentleman having a farm for sale, offered it, with improvements, for $9 per acre. Failing to sell, he leased it, receiving one-third of the crop His third netted him more. than he would have realized from the sale of the land. Many such instances could be given. This illustrates what bargains may be secured where lands are cheap and the products of the soil high. It is but fair to state that the price of wheat this 25th Janu- ary, 1869, will not produce such results.
A man with a small, but high priced farin in the old States can dispose of it for sufficient to set himself up well in Minnesota, and procure a farm for each of his children besides ; and these farms in a few years will be as valuable as the one in the old State is now. The fortunes made by farmers here within a few years, would scarcely be credited in the older States.
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
This efficient organization has contributed largely to the advancement of every thing pertaining to farming, stock raising and the other varied interests of our young State. The annual State Fair each year increases in extent of the exibitions-the numbers in attendance, and the disposition manifested on the part of our people to not be behind any body or any State in this respect. Gen. Alexander Chambers of Owatonna, is President, and Hon. Charles H. Clark of Minneapolis, Secretary.
THE CLIMATE OF MINNESOTA.
UNPARALLELED HEALTHFULNESS-EXEMPTION FROM PULMONARY AND MALARIOUS DISEASES-CAUSES OF ITS SALUBRITY-DRYNESS AND PURITY OF THE AIR- TEMPERATURE AS COMPARED WITH OTHER STATES-AS A RESORT FOR INVALIDS, &C., &C.
The assertion that the climate of Minnesota is one of the healthiest in the world, may be broadly and confidently made. It is sustained by the almost unanimous testimony of the thousands of invalids who have sought its pure and bracing air, and recovered from consumption and other diseases after they had been
29
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
given up as hopeless by their home physicians ; it is snstained by the experience of its inhabitants for twenty years ; and it is sustained by the published statis- tics of mortality in the different States. The eminent Dr. Horace Bushnell, of Hartford, Conn., after spending a year in Cuba and another in California, with- out any permanent benefit, spent a year in Minnesota, and recovered. After returning East and submitting to a rigid examination, his physicians said : " You have had a difficulty in the right lung but it is healed." In a published letter he says :- " I have known of very remarkable cases of recovery there which had seemed to be hopeless. One, of a gentleman who was carried ashore on a litter, and became a hearty, robust man. Another who told me he had even coughed up bits of his lung of the size of a walnut, was then, seven or eight months after, a perfectly sound-looking, well-set man, with no cough at all. I fell in with somebody every few days who had come there and been restored ; and with multitudes of others whose disease has been arrested, so as to allow the prose- cution of business, and whose lease of life, as they had no doubt, was much lengthened by their migration to that region of the country."
Many of our most prominent business men, whom no one would now take for invalids, belong to the above class. Almost any one who has resided here for any length of time can refer to numbers, now enjoying ordinary health, who on first coming here were considered hopelessly gone with consumption, or other chronic disease. It is believed consumption is never generated here, which is a strong proof that the climate is a favorable one for those afflicted with the disease.
Minnesota is entirely exempt from malaria, and consequently the numerous diseases known to arise from it, such as chills and fever, autumnal fevers, ague cake or enlarged spleen, enlargement of the liver, &c., dropsy, diseases of the kidneys, affections of the eye, and various billious diseases, and derangements of the stomach and bowels, although sometimes arising from other causes, are often due wholly to malarious agency, and are only temporarily relieved by medicine, because the patient is constantly exposed to the malarious influence which gen- erates them. Enlargement of the liver and spleen is very common in Southern and Southwestern States. We are not only free from those ailments, but by com- ing to Minnesota, often without any medical treatment at all, patients speedily recover from this class of diseases ; the miasmatic poison being soon eliminated from the system, and not being exposed to its farther inception, the functions of health are gradually resumed.
Diarrhea and dysentery are not so prevalent as in warmer latitudes, and are of a milder type. Pneumonia and typhoid fever are very seldom met with, and then merely as sporadic cases.
Diseases of an epidemic character never have been known to prevail here. " Even that dreadful scourge, diptheria, which like a destroying angel, swept through portions of the country, leaving desolation in its train, passed us by with scarce a grave to mark its course. The diseases common to infancy and childhood, partake of the same mild character, and seldom prove fatal." "This is the language of Mrs. Colburn, an authoress, and the experience of physicians corroborates this opinion.
That dreadful scourge of the human family, the cholera, is alike unknown here. During the summer of 1866, while hundreds were daily cut down by this. visitation in New York, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and other places, and it prevailed to an alarming extent in Chicago,-not a single case made its appearance in Minnesota.
Another, and a very large class of invalids, which derive great benefit from the climate of Minnesota, are those whose systems have become relaxed, debili- tated, and broken down, by over-taxation of the mental and physical energies, dyspepsia, &c.
And these facts, establishing as they do the remarkable salubrity of our cli- mate, are borne out by statistics. The following table is copied from the Uni- ted States census of 1860. The percentage column exhibits the number of deaths in every 100 persons ; the last column shows the number, in each State, out of which one person has died :
30
MINNESOTA :
Popula- tion.
Deaths.
Percent-
age.
One for
every
Popula- tion.
Deaths.
| Percent-
age.
| One for
every
Alabama,
964,201
12,760 1.82
75
Missouri,
1,182,012
17,557
1.48
61
Arkansas,
435,450
8,860 2.03
491
New Hampshire,
326,073
4,469 1.87
72
California,
379,994
8,705
.97
102
New Jersey,
672,035
7,525 1.11
89
Connecticut,
460,147
6,13S
1.33
74
New York,
8,880,735
46,8S1
1.201
82
Delaware,
112,216
1,846
1.11
90
North Carolina,
992,622
12,607 1.27
78
Florida,
144,425
1,769
1.25
79
Ohio,
2,839,511
24,724 1.05
94
Georgla, -
1,057,286
12,807 1.21
$2
Oregon, -
52,465
251
47
209
Illinois,
1,711,951
19,263 1.12
88
Pennsylvania,
2,906,115
30,214 1.03
96
Iowa,
674,913
7,26011.07
93
Rhode Island,
174,620.
2,479 1.41
70
Indiana,
1,350,438
15,205 1.12
88
South Carolina,
703,708|
9.745 1.3S
72
Kansas, -
107,306
1,443 1.34
74
Tennessee,
1,109,801
15,176|1.36|
73
Kentucky,
1,155,684
16,467 1.44
70
Texas.
604,215
9,369
1 55
64
Louisiana,
70S,002
12,329 1.74
57
Vermont, :
815,093
8,355 1.06
93
Maine, -
628,379
7,614 1.21
82
Virginia,
1,596,318
22,474 1 40
71
Maryland,
687,049
7,370 1.07
93
Wisconsin,
775,831
7,129
.92
108
Massachusetts,
1,231,063
21,304 1.78
57
Dist. of Columbia,
75,080
1,275 1.69
58
Michigan,
749,113
7,399
9S
101
Nebraska, -
28,841
381 1.82
75
Minnesota,
172,123
1,109
64
155|
New Mexico,
93,516
1,305 1.39
71
Mississippi,
791,805
12,214 1.54|
64|| Utah,
-
40,2731
3741
.92|
107
It will be observed that Minnesota has the smallest mortality of any State in the Union, except Oregon. Oregon, though a very healthy clime, is not a resort for invalids. Lying on the Pacific coast, its climate, like that of New England, is too humid to attract invalids. On the contrary, Minnesota is a great resort for consumptive invalids, and those laboring under various chronic diseases. Of course, some come too late, and die here-probably living a year or so longer than they would at home. This swells our mortality list, and taking it out, Minnesota would hold a higher place than even Oregon.
Many letters are received asking what portion of the State is best for invalids. My uniform answer is that there is no difference. Persons seek all parts of the State for health, and I have never heard our people claim any advantage for one part over another. The burial record for the city of St. Paul are required by law to be kept with much care. There were in the year 1868, according to the
report of Dr. Mattocks, health officer, 243 deaths, 8 accidental, 15 still born, total 266, in a population of over 20,000. Any other city or town of the State would show as well if records were kept. The St. Paul Pioneer, on this sub- ject said : - " When we consider that our city is a hospital for invalids, even these figures rob it of its real meed of praise. A very large proportion of the per- sons dying in this city are strangers, who have come here sick and almost dying, to receive the benefits of our salubrious climate, but only to linger a few months and then cease the struggle. The city is constantly filled with them in all stages of disease. Excluding these (and they should be excluded) from our table of mortality, and counting only the deaths in our regular residents, would reduce the deaths to less than 1 per cent. of the population."
CAUSES OF THE HEALTHFULNESS OF MINNESOTA.
However interesting it might be to go into a scientific exposition of the causes and theories of the exemption of Minnesota from many of the diseases which annually carry off thousands in the older States of America and Europe, space will not permit, and I must confine myself to such facts as are already es- tablished beyond cavil or dispute.
Absence of Malaria .- A large proportion of the diseases which afflict man- kind have their origin in the poisonous and unhealthy emanations which arise from the earth. These emanations embody a subtle principle termed malaria, which is constantly rising, like an imperceptible gas, poisoning the air, and gen- erating disease, chills and fever, different kinds of fever, pneumonia, diarrhea, dysentery, debility, biliousness, diseases of the liver, spleen, kidneys, &c. The low temperature of our winters, continuing as they do for four months, effectually
31
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
destroys any malaria that might lurk in the soil, ready to spring forth in warm weather.
We are thus entirely free from malaria, and the fact is well established that chills and fever, and diseases generally, of a malarious origin, are entirely un- known in Minnesota, and those who come here suffering these ailments speedily recover.
Perturbation of the Air .- The atmosphere, like large bodies of water, re- quires perturbation to preserve its purity ; otherwise it becomes heavy and stagnant, loaded with impurities and unhealthy, depressing the spirits by its mo- notony, and inducing a torpid condition of the whole system. The waters of the ocean, and of large lakes, are kept pure by the agitation of the winds and tides. All healthy countries are windy, but all windy countries are not healthy. Winds blowing for many days in succession from one quarter, become pregnant with moisture and other impurities. The winds in Minnesota are not persistent and severe, but constitute rather a lively agitation of the air, which constantly · changes it, carrying off noxious vapors and effluvia, conducing to its clearness and purity, and imparting to it those qualities which give tone to the system and invigorate the nutritive functions.
The prevailing direction of our winds is from the south, according to obser- vations, extending over twelve years, recorded in the U. S. Army meteorologi- cal register. " This fact," says Mr. Wheelock, " goes far toward accounting for the exceptional warmth of the spring and summer months in Minnesota, and . serves to show that the direction of currents of air exerts an influence only less than the position in latitude in forming the measure of heat and cold." Our winds, instead of passing over the ocean, laden, like those dreaded "east winds" of New England and the Atlantic coast generally, with saline moisture, come to us only after traversing half a continent of land, pure and invigorating.
A comparison of the mean force of the wind for ten years, at different places, gives the following result : Fort Snelling, Minnesota, 1.87 ; New London, Con- necticut, 2.67; New York city, 2.96; Eastport, Maine, 2.63 ; Portsmouth, N. H., 2.50; Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 2.20 ; Detroit, Michigan, 2.26 ; Fort Atkinson, lowa, 2.48 ; Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 2.09. We thus perceive that the mean force of the wind in Minnesota is less than at either of the other places, representing, as they do, all'sections of the Union except the South, and con- firms the statement previously made, that our winds are lively agitations of the air, rather than strong, continuous currents.
As a consequence, the snows drift less than in the East, and usually lie without material disturbance.
The following table, from the report of the Commissioner of Statistics, gives a synopsis of the climate of Minnesota for the whole year, from which it will be seen that a more perfect harmony between the three great fundamental condi- tions of climate than is here displayed, could be found no where on earth :
Jan.
to Feb.
Mar,
Apr.
May. 59.0 32 to
June. 6S.4 3.6
July. 73.4 4.1
Aug. 70,1 3.2 S.E. to
Sept. 58,9
Nov.
Dec.
Mean Temp'ture-degs.
13.7 0.7
17.6 0.5
31.4 1.3
46.3 2.1
N.E. N. W. N. W. N.W. S.E. S.E. S.E.
Courses,
to
to
to
to
to
. 3.3 1.3 S.E. to Oct. 47.1 1.4 8 31.7 16.9 0.7 N.E.
Rain-Inches,
Prevailing Winds-
N.W. S.W. S.W. S.W. S.W. S.W. S.W. S.W. S.W.
N. to to N. W. N. W.
Dryness of the Air .- Another great cause of the salubrity of our climate is the marked dryness of the air. Moisture is a powerful agent in generating dis- ease. It is the main vehicle of malaria and other atmospheric poisons. They cling to it, or it holds them in solution. It is through the watery vapor of the atmosphere that most morbific agents reach the human body. While au atmos- phere which is too dry, like that of arid plains and sandy deserts, is unhealthy, engendering over-action, fever, and debility, that which contains an excess of moisture is still more so. A humid climate rapidly abstracts the natural warmth of the body, and lowers the vitality of the system, producing feeble action and poor nutrition as a consequence, thus rendering the system open to attacks of inflammations, colds, coughs and consumption, as well as neuraigic and rhuematic
-
32
MINNESOTA :
affections. Cold, however intense, is not so perceptible if the air is dry. For example : wet one hand ; hold it and the dry one in the cold for a few minutes. A damp air penetrates and chills, drives the blood inwards, and shrinks and wrinkles up the skin. A cold, dry air, like ours, is tonic, exhilarating, and strengthening. It has not the feverish heat of the desert, nor yet the humid chilliness of the coast. This dryness further conduces to its purity. It is pure air, such as God intended to be breathed, oxygenating and purifying the blood, and exerting a tonic influence on the whole organism. It is free from the thou- sand and one impurities held in suspension by the excess of moisture prevalent in the wet climates of southern and western States, and in New England. It is full of electricity, and rich in the life-giving principle termed ozone, never found in impure air.
TEMPERATURE OF MINNESOTA- Compared with other States-Errors repect- ing our Winters-Secret of the Salubrity of our Climate .- The popular im- pression that the further north you go the colder it gets, is an erroneous one. The rule is open to many exceptions. The configuration of the earth is such, that owing to mountain ranges, vast sandy plains, large inland bodies of water, &c., the isothermal, or heat lines, are deflected several degrees north or south, thus giving places a thousand miles apart the same temperature. Thus places in the same latitude of the Saskatchewan river, (latitude 51º N.) enjoy the same annual mean temperature as places in the latitade of Fort Union (latitude 37º N.) a thousand miles south of it. Minnesota, owing to the large lakes east and north of it, and the vast arid plains, extending from latitude 35° to latitude 47º west of it, enjoys a mean spring temperature of 45º, warmer than Chicago 23° south of it, and.equal to Southern Michigan, Central New York, and Massa- chusetts ; a summer mean of 70°, equal to Central New York, Central Wisconsin, Northern Pennsylvania, and Northern Ohio, four degrees south of us ; an autum- nal mean of 45°, equal to New Hampshire, Central Wisconsin and Central Mich- igan, 23° south of us ; a winter mean of 16º, similar to Northern Wisconsin, Nothern Michigan, Central Vermont and New Hampshire, on the same line of latitude, but nearer the ocean ; while its climate, for the entire year, being a mean of 45°, is similar to that of Central Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Central New York, two degrees south of it. We thus have an annual range of temperature from the summer of Southern Ohio to the winter of Montreal.
Referring to the above contrasts of climate, Mr. J. Disturnell, in a paper read before the American Geographical and Statistical Society of New York, says : "This remarkable fact can only be accounted for on the presumption that Min- nesota receives its favorable climatic inflence as regards health and growth of vegetation, from secret laws of nature, yet to be discovered."
But the veil which covers these natural laws is easily drawn aside. The luxu- riant growth of her vegetation, large yields of cereals, &c., as we have seen, are accounted for by her warm, rich soil, forcing summer sun and timely rains, while the secret of the salubrity of her climate is found in the dryness and consequent purity of our atmosphere, combined with all the advantages of a rugged, delight- ful land, charming seasons, lovely and magnificent scenery.
That the dryness of our air is real, we have many evidences. Meat hung up, even in moderately warm weather, dries up before it spoils. Wagons, barrels, &c., if left idle a short time, drop to pieces. The hygrometer, an instrument for determining the moisture in the air, shows our air to be very dry, generally. The hyetal, or rain charts, in Blodget's "Climatology of the United States," shows the remarkable fact that Minnesota is the dryest State in the Union, and at the same time the best watered, on account of its many lakes and streams, and free from drouths. Lying, as it does, between a vast arid belt on its west side, extending through twenty-five degrees, and a large humid belt of equal length on its east side, it enjoys a happy medium. The mean annual deposit of moisture in Min- nesota is 25 inches ; Wisconsin 30 to 40; lowa 25 to 42 ; Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, 42 to 48 ; Kentucky, Tennessee, 50 ; Cannada, 34 to 36 ; New England and New York, 32 to 45 ; Pennsylvania, 36 ; Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, 55 to 63 ; Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, 40 to 42.
33 .
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
Errors respecting our Winters .- No region which at present engages the public mind, as a field for settlement, has been so grossly misrepresented, in regard to peculiarities of climate, as Minnesota. Fabulous accounts of its arctic temperature, piercing winds, and accompanying snows of enormous depth, embelish the columns of the Eastern press .- Neill's History of Minnesota.
We have seen that such impressions are erroneous-that our climate com- pares favorably in all respects with that of many other densely populated States. Disinterested authorities, that cannot be questioned, have set this matter at rest long since, and it only remains to enlighten the public respecting the truth. However repugnant to popular prejudice it may seem, our winter fall of snow and rain is only one fifth that of New York and New England ; the average de- posit of moisture in those places for the winter being ten inches-that of Minne- sota two inches .- See Blodget's Climatology, f.c., page 342.
The great bulk of our water falls during the six growing months, in the form of refreshing showers, which cool the air and encourage vegetation, leaving our winters dry, crisp, and bracing-much easier to endure than the same amount of cold in a damp climate.
MINNESOTA AS A RESORT FOR INVALIDS.
Ever since consumption has been known, a change of climate has been re- commended by physicians as a means of arresting a disease which medicine can- not cure. Uutil within the past few years, it has been customary to send con- sumptives to southern latitudes. But medical opinion, influenced no doubt, by the poor success attending this plan, has undergone a change, and as usual, gone from one extreme to another. Climates of a mild, equable temperature are no longer sought ; patients are now sent almost invariably to dry, cool, northern climates, where the air is subject to considerable perturbation.
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