Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1856-08-23
From the Journal and Statesman, Wilmington, Del.)
ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, July 80, 1856.

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, July 30, 1856.
Editor Journal and Statesman:
Minnesota, territory into which the stream of
immigration has been pouring so rapidly that its
population has doubled during the past year,
must be an object of very general interest, and
am sure column in regard to its condition and
prospects will find favor with your readers. Two
visits of several weeks, each spent in examining
the country and in making inquiries Of suitable
persons, enable me to present you with informa-
ton in regard to climate, health, soil and pro-
auctions, the accuracy of which may be relied
upon.
Minnesota lies between the parallels of 43 and
40 n. latitude, and 18th and 25th meridians of
west longitude, containing an area of about four
times the size of Pennsylvania. The population
of the territory last year was 10000; it now ex-
ceeds 100000, and there is every reason to believe
that it will double in the next year.
The most thickly settled part of the territory
is in the latitude of Bangor, Maine, and many
persons satisfied with knowing its geographical
position, fancy that it possesses cold and inhos-
pitable climate, through the rigor of whose win
tiers only the robust can struggle. Such persons
would be most agreeably surprised could they
exchange the bleak and gloomy winter which pre-
walls along our eastern seaboard, for the fresh,
clear, invigorating weather which is enjoyed here.
A Minnesota winter sets in with great regular
ity about the LIST of November,* at which time
all the rivers and lakes are suddenly frozen up,
in which condition they remain until towards the
end of March. During this winter of five months
the cold is. constant and the mercury indicates o
very low temperature, yet owing to the extreme
dryness of the air and the almost total absence
of winds, the suffering from cold is much less
than that experienced anywhere along our sea-
board from Carolina to Maine. A bleak, cloudy,
rainy day is a thing utterly unknown in Mime
sofa during the winter.
Day after day the sun shines brightly down with
scarce cloud upon the face of the sky and not
air enough stirring to defect in the slightest de-
gree the smoke which rises through the clear air
in tall slender columns. On such days one may
walk for miles through the frosty atmosphere,
the crisp snow cracking under foot and the ther-
mometer at 20 deg. below zero, without expert
encing any inconvenience from degree of cold
which, in damp atmosphere or with high wind,
would be absolutely uncomfortable.
About the time that winter sets in enough
snow generally falls to cover the ground, and, as
there is here no interval of thawing, sloppy
weather, this remains until spring, affording a
means of communication inferior only to rail-
roads, for the cheap and ready transportation of
goods and produce. The snow rarely ever attains
greater depth than sixteen or eighteen inches
during the most severe winters, and, owing to the
almost constant Gains, is seldom drifted. This
heavy and regular covering of suow protects the
plants and, as farmers well know, increases the
productiveness of the soil far more than equal
amount of. rain.
When winter terminates and spring fairly sets
in, the farmer has little to fear from late frosts,
Spring, so changeable with us, assumes another
character here, and is period of regular pro.
gresson from winter to summer, with few pauses
or retrograde movements. Later frosts occur in
Delaware than are felt here. Vegetation is some
what more backward than with you-perhaps the
difference may be two weeks, though scarcely
think it so great. This spring was late, yet much
wheat was sown before the Goth of April. The
summer sun is very hot, ripening the grain fast.
Spring wheat is cut about the Goth of July.
Throughout the summer the days are hot, though,
owing to an almost constant breeze the heat is not
much felt; the nights are always cool with very
abundant dews, which are almost as useful as
showers In the autumn they have long Indian
Summer, lasting FIVE or six weeks. The season is
delightful; the air is clear and bracing, the sky
oloudless, and abundance of fish, nuts and wild
fruit, render the country in the highest degree
attractive.
With such climate a. Minnesota possesses, its
bright 'unsAiny winter days, and entire exemption
from sudden changes of temperature, it could not
be otherwise than healthy. And so it has proved
in the highest degree. Fever and Agus are almost