The emigrant aid journal of Minnesota. [volume] (Nininger City, Minn. Terr. [i.e. Minn.]) 1856-1858, 1857-09-12

popular as it is undoubtedly one Of the most attractive
speculations Of the day. We hope preliminary arrange
ments for the sale Of lots may be speedily inside, and in
the meantime advise our readers to make themselves
thoroughly acquainted with the particulars Of the pro-
ject as detailed in. another column.
-~-
D1lsrepreseutallOa Of Mlno<s0e0.
The New York Eeeni.g Rs, owned aud edited BY
for the instruction of the commercial and moneyed Glasses
Of the Fast, has been creating q prejudice against the
West during the past year, by bitterly assaihug every
thing connected With it, prosperity. Mr.. Bryant is in
Europe, but the party who conducts it 10 his stead, has
the advantage Of his reputation in having his articles
extensively copied, and in producing the intended pre-
JUDGE among those who con6ds in the character Of the
paper for guidance. He has contented himself, until
recently, in joining with kindred spirits, in getting up
the great " panic and " crash" that was to PROSTATE
the entire West. His prophecies failing, instead Of
yielding with good grace, like his contemporaries, and
acknowledging his error, and seeking to repair what
ever mischief he may have done, he now engages in
unfairly representing everything transpiring in the new
and struggling districts West, which may be- used with
advantage against the entire country.
Our Minnesota readers, who may not zee such jour
nal as those alluded to at various times, as engaged in
wantouly assailing the West, may judge Of their spirit
by reading the annexed article, which we publish for
he purpose of showing how cruelty a temporary mis-
fortune may be employed to inaict still greater mis-
chief upon this Territory:
Notwithstanding the efforts of some of the Minnesota
journals to conceal or discredit the extent Of the ravages
Of the grasshoppers in the territory during the present
summer, from an apprehension that settlers might be de-
TERED from migrating tbither if the truth were known,
it is certain that an immense area of growing crops has
been devastated by them. The consequences are easy to
foresee. The scenes Of restitution and actual starvation
which were witnessed a few months ago in some Of the
Southern and Western States are pretty sure to be re-
peated in the remote frontier settlements, or even iii the
more thickly-settled portions of the territory, where it
is said that whole fields have been swept clean by the
grasshoppers. With money at three to five per cent. a
month and no means of raising it, it is difficult to see
how tho farmers of the ravaged districts, who depend
entirely upon their crops for u support, will be able to
subsist. Food will have to be supplied to them, and
that speedily, or we may expect to see a considerable
migration to the more favored localities for want of the
bare necessities of life.
1t may we'll be a matter of serious consideration for
the people of Minnesota, what is to be the extent or
duration of this terrible scourge. Successive visits of
the grasshoppers to Salt Lake city have caused such de-
struction of the crops, that Brigham Young is said to be
seriously meditating a removal of the Mormons to some
portion of Utah where the soil and climate are unfavor-
able to the production of the insects. Why may not a
similar misfortune be reserved for Minnesota ! 1t is
true, this is the first season in which the grasshoppers
have visited the territory in large numbers, or indeed, at
all, within our knowledge, but the circumstances attend
ing their appearance are so similar to those witnessed in
Utah that it is safe to conjecture that this visit will not
be their last. While, therefore, it is wholly uncertain
whether the scourge is a temporary one, but very Ger
tain that the present season will be one of great suffer
ing in the territory, it is criminal in the highest degree,
by a misrepresentation of facts, to invite ~emigrants of
the poorer class to a country where they must embark
all their means in farming lands and crops, and run the
risk of starvation. The citizens of the territory, alive
to the importance Of investigating the causes of this Wis
itation, and the possibility of preventing it, have taken
measures to procure an exact statement of the area of
cultivated lands visited by the grasshoppers, the amount
and proportion of the crops destroyed, and the situation
Of the inhabitants with regard to means Of subsistence
The result of their investigations will be awaited with
interest, by citizens of adjoining states a. well AZ Of the
territory.-(New York Evening IPnst-
Our local journals can answer for themselves to the
charges above set forth we have been inclined to be-
licve they had gone too far in their statements of the
ravages of the grasshonper. Certain it is, that the P"'
relied on Il statement published in a st. Paul paper.
made by an excited individual who resided on the line
over which the insect passed, for its text for the above
extraordinary article. The accounts Of the harvests
in those small and sparsely settled districts in the north
ern part of the Territory where affected, though poor,
are much better than were looked for. But in the central
and southern portions of the Territory, where alone
the country has been settled and improved to any extent,
the amount Of food raised may properly be char acterized
as extraordinary. Enough, certainly, from the accounts
given by reliable parties, to subsist more than the whole
population of the Territory. Dakota aud Rice coun-
ties alone might easily spare half a million bushels of
grain, and yet live comfortably on what was left and
these counties have been settled scarcely three years ;
besides which their papers have chroniclcd the appear
ance of the grasshopper in their line of march through
to Iowa and other states south and east.
But these same Minnesota papers, to which the Post
refers, gave minute and interesting accounts of the re-
markable and sudden fight, at one moment, of this ex-
traordinary insect, from the infected districts, to the great
relief Of the settlers, which were also published in most
Of the eastern papcrs,-bnt these the Post did not deem
proper to notice, as inapplicable to its purpose.
The history Of the migratory grasshopper that came
into our Territory last year, and which has just left us,
seems to be unknown to the Post, and perhaps also to
many others, although fully set forth in various publ.
cations within the past few years. 1t was first noticed
in Mexico, but may have taken its rise in Central or
South America; it passed thence to New Mexico, its
line always bearing north, and extending out but a few
miles. Little regard was yet paid to it, notwithstanding
it devastated many rich neighborhoods. It soon after
wards made its appearance in Utah, where large num-
bers of the Mormons had just taken up their abode.
Their loss of crops, which threatened them with starva-
ton, created quite a panic among them, and their straight
drew the attention of the entire country to the cuuse Of
their trouble. This was about FIVE years ago. Then it
was that the question Of removing from that place was
discussed, and not lately, as the Post intimates. Before
any definite conclusion was arrived At, the sudden de-
narture Of the miscellaneous mat settlad tho point and