Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1854-11-07

not yet brought into market, 800 per acre are
demanded, and for lands adjoining the city, not
laid out in lots, from one to five hundred dollars
per acre! More than lands can be purchased for
adjoining the political metropolis of this great
Sc Model Republic Washington! And yet, pro-
perty is continually on the rise, and men every
day find themselves richer and richer by the en-
hanced value of their real estates, and emigrants,
especially from the States north of the Ohio and
Potomac, and from Europe, are pouring into the
country by thousands, bringing with them their
focks and herds, and farming utensils. The city
has population at this time of about 5000.
The first natural inquiry is: What inducement
is there for cmigrants to seek and locate in a
country so far North? Answer: A very rich,
light, warm SOIL easily titled and producing abun-
dant crops of wheat, corn, rye, oats, potatoes,
grass, and every thing that can be raised in Penn
sylvania, except, perhaps, peaches, grapes and
some other kinds Of fruit. The soil, generally, is
black, sandy loan, with large mixture of lime
and magnesia, which, you are aware, are extreme
ly fertlizing. This character of the soil gives it
warmth and geniality that do not belong to the
soil of the Northern and Eastern States generally,
and hence the farmer is able to raise crops here
which are so precarious in similar latitudes far
ther East. Take, for example, Indian Corn it
was at first supposed to be impossible to raise it
here account of the high latitude and conse-
qucnt shortness of the season but this idea is
found to be fallaciOus, and finer corn fields are
not beheld in Ohio or Indiana than are seen here
Owing to the warmth of the soil, frOsts are some
weeks later in making their appearance here than
they are in the New England States, and even
some hundreds of miles lower down the river
The ''Indan summer" is said to last here for
many weeks in the autumn, and sometime quite
up to December; but when it disappears, winter
sets in and holds on with tightening grasp until
spring; it then suddenly breaks up, and vegeta-
ton springs forward with wonderful rapidly, as
it does in all Northern climates.
AS yet, every thing one sees here, has the ap-
pearance of ncwness. The country is new: the
houses are all new, and if the people are not new,
are chiefly young and middle aged, hardy, enter
prsing, hopeful and resolute the very ones to
make the wilderness blossom as the rose.
The country is favorable for emgrants, as it
has good proportion, generally, of timber land
and prairie; though there some parts of it
where the prairie extends many miles, and wood
for fuel and fencing can only be obtained at in
convenient distances.
In travelling through Louisiana and Mississippi,
one cannot but ask, from whence came all the
rich soil that has formed the delta of the Mssis
spp? But in passing up the river from st. Louis
to this place, and the Minnesota, Wisconsin, and
other tributary streams, the answer to the above
question is forced upon the mind. The great
$ Father Of Waters,'' it is at seen, has not
Only pllu 10 lne ocean, Dut he mas Deen
for thousands of years cutting away the soil along
his banks, and forming his bed, and bearing it
away to be deposited below. The Missouri, how
ever has probably borne more of the soil from the
Northern region than its partner, and is, at any
rate, doing more in that way now than the stream
into which it falls.
AS you ascend the stream, the bluffs gradually
rse until the general level of the country is from
seventy to hundred feet above the river and
nf ;1o tn tbr.o
four miles apart, averaging perhaps mile and a
quarter, or a mile and Il half, it is apparent that
an immense amount of earth has been borne away
by the rushing waters and deposited elsewhere.
One of the great drawbacks to this place and
the country, is the want of railroad by which
ready ingress and errcss could be had. During
the season of avgation this evil is less seriously
felt than in the winter, when the river is closed
with ice. When this takes place the people are
shut out from the wOrld at least for time, so far
relates to mails and there are no good roads
down the river, travelling is then tolsome, tedious
and slow. | know of no part of the country
where railroad IS more needed or would so
greatly enhance the value of Uncle Sans lands
as one from Galcna to this place, thus opening an
outlet during all of the year, for the pro-
duce of the farm and the forest. and rapid mode
of travel to and from the Territory.
will venture to predict that the time is not
distant when tn )usands of cur citizens from the
lower Mississippi will annually seek the health
giving brcczes of Minnesota, take the cars at this
place for Superior City, at the Wcsternmost point
of Lake Superior, there embark on elegant steam
ers, for Buffalo, visit the Falls of Niagara, Sara
tOga Springs, &C., and return home either by
steamers from New York, Or by railroad through
Washington, Knoxville, &c. Already has one
man of wealth and taste from st Louis, selected
a most beautiful spot upon the banks of one of
the thousand little lakes that dot this Territory,
like small mirrors scattered here and thare-buiit
a cottage for summer residence embowered in
natural ground, and there during the months when
others are roasting and melting and being smoth
cred with dust in the cities, takes it coolly luxu-
rating on the finest FISH caught just by his doo:,
and upon wild game, the produce of his own gun,
with an appetite and n healthful zeSt which money
cannot purchase elsewhere. With well selected
library, Il good dog and gun, and fishing tackle,
several good horses, pretty wife and three or
four chubby children, If a Iaan could not enjoy
life for few months in such rural spot, he de-
serves to be tied down to the editorial desk, or
make one of a chain-gang upon the streets.
The Territory is full of these bright, beautiful
little sheets of water, dotting it all over like silver
spangles upon a lady's dress, sometimes fringed
around their borders, first with the deep, green,
luxurious growth of wild rice, and then, usually
are two or three sides, with picturesque soak
openings" amid which NAV be nestled. in cool,
noblemen of England have spent their hundreds
of thousands of dollars to produce, artifcialv, a
miniature lake not half, nor quarter the size or
beauty of these little aqueous gems which nature
has scattered around here in such wild and pie
turcsque prOfu>ion! Here are found in state of
nature the park, the pond, the lawn, the copse Of
wood, the venerable and ''aristocratic oak,n the
fertile meadow and the boundless pasture. all
combined and grouped together, which the wealthy
European is so proud to call his own baronial do
main.
We have had copious rains and chilly weather
here for the last ten days more, but have now
the commencement of the Indian summer, which
is mild, bland, soothing and delicious. The Min
nesotans say that it will last for six weeks or two
months, and is the most delicious season of the
year. This is the season for sportsmen plenty of
s'prarie Chickens" grouse, ducks, geese, reed
birds, &C., &C., besides deer in the more retired
portions. The disciples of old Isaac Walton can
always have their own sport here in great abun-
dance, as the lakes abound with fish. '-f
.. MASON ROUGE.
SNow.-The ground was covered with snow to
the depth of two inches in Montreal on the 10th
ult. The hills of Vermont were likewise white
with snow on the same day. Telegraphe des-
L