The daily Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1855, 1855-03-13
Our Prospects for 1855.

Our Prospects for 1855.
1t is with difficulty one can realize the
changes wrought in the condition of this
Territory within the past year. Sections Of
country almost unknown to the white man
at the opening Of navigation last spring,
are now filled with hardy and Industrious
settlers Extensive fields have been enclos-
ed and plowed, and large tracts of timber
ed lands have been cleared, and made ready
for crops the coming spring, where single
year back the natural beauty of the prairie,
and symmetrical grandeur of the forests, re-
NAMED undisturbed.
The fertile and beautiful tract of country
north of the Iowa line, and almost enclosed
within the curve made by the Mississippi
and Minnesota rivers, which had previously
been measured only by the tread of the In
dian hunter, has, within the past year, been
surveyed by authority of government, and
opened to legal location by the hardy pion-
eer. The equally desirable section. west of
the upper Mississippi, it is understood will
in q like manner be open to settlement be-
fore the close of the present season. In the
numbering region Of the St. Croix and upper
Mississippi valleys, the amount of capital
invested in lands, aud employed in creating
manufacturing facilities, has probably in
creased over three hundred per cent; while
in the larger towns in all portions, the cap
ital invested in the various departments of
trade and manufactures, has increased in
still higher proportion.
When we contemplate the changes which
have taken place under the Encouragement
and difficulties encountered by the first set
tiers, but which are now much diminished,
or utterly done away, we can reasonably
cherish the highest hopes of an immigration
the coming spring and summer, unprece-
dented in the history of the Territory. Every
settler who has located within our borders
is only the arant courier of families and set
Elements from the sterile and unhealthy sec
tons of the older States. who ore now
awaiting the opening of navigation that
they may follow to take possession of our
fertile soil, and enjoy the benefits of our
healthy climate.
During the past winter the resources,
health, and climate of Minnesota have be-
come more generally known at the South
and East than heretofore. The testimony
Of hundreds who have passed the winter
here has been sent to all quarters of the
Union, proving that the weather is more
pleasant, and the cold far less severe in Min
nesota than in either New York or Pennsyl-
vania. The bilious and ague-shaken inhab-
itants of the Western and Southern States
have been made aware that here the annoy.
ances Of ague are unknown. Those who
have been picking precarious subsistence
from the barren and rocky soil of the East
ernSS States, where the cultivation Of one acre
requires more actual labor and expense than
does that of fifty here, have been given to
understand that Gavin" can be grown in
Minnesota and that when once harvested,
it will bring about as much per bushel in
our home markets as in "Varmount." The
impression that our climate [precluded the
successful cultivation of any thing but pota-
toes, and that even their success depended
upon planting sufficiently deep to insure
them against freezing through the summer,
is not so general now as heretofore. The
crops Of wheat, corn, oats, &C., harvested
last fall in this Territory, convinced new.
corners that our soil is much more produc.
tive, and the climate better adapted to ag-
siculture, than are those in almost any other
quarter of the Union while the demand
for unlimited amounts Of produces. north and
nest for the supply Of our lumbermen, mi
nan. and the troops and Indians in the Ter
Eeqsys papet convince them and an Others
that agriculture in Minnesota presents the
most certain and Q speedy source Of wealth.
Ihe more genaral and diyersiRed knowl.