The emigrant aid journal of Minnesota. [volume] (Nininger City, Minn. Terr. [i.e. Minn.]) 1856-1858, 1858-03-31
The Time to go West.

NOW, says a clipped paragraph lying before us,
now Is the time to settle in the West The idea may
Hot nave struck our readers, but the fact is that for the
iSse thirty years there never was a time when it was
letter worth while for al who can farm to 60 West, or
what Is, probably better, go to the country in the vicin-
'ty OF our large cities. As regards the West, lands are
cheap there a, present-very cheap compared to what
'ney were a year ago, and even improved lands may be
and improved for the sake of selling, and who now fud
themselves in want of money TO meet obligations. They
Quit houses and cleared fields on anticipations, and the
antlclpatlons have not been realized.
Until there is more going West and less settling
down IN cities, there will be no real relief from financial
troubles. There arc more dweliers in cities in the Uni
tea ota'eS than in any country on the face OF the earth,
manufacturing England, perhaps, not excepted. One
u'an IN every thirty inhabitants keeps a shop-that is
to say lives by his wits instead of by production, while
every young scion of the faintest claim to %gentility
scfapes into the professions, though he knows in ad-
vance that he must end as a criminal ~'shyster,' rather
than 60 to an agricultural college and become a gentle
man and a farmer. The whole country is running to
seed in black-like the Sorghum sugar plants. Any
thing to entitle 4 man TO wear b~roadcloth and steer
clear Of any thing like manual labor That is the
great grief.
Fourier worked hard for many years, trying to make
labor attractive. lie had much better have tried to rem
der it respectable. The man who could do that in this
Notwithstanding country, need not trouble himself to
add any attractions-they are all summed up in the
word 'genteel.' Meanwhile we confess that the only
way which We can see to render labor 'genteel' and
send population from shaving notes in the cities to
shearing sheep in the country, is to vigorously raise the
standard OF education for aoricnltnral;sta, a"A she~ tho
world, what IS indeed true, that it requires quite as
much book-iearning and science to make a farmer as q
lawyer. When this is understood az it should be, there
Wi! be some hope Of further progress. After that, it
may possibly be found that there are very few callings
nowadays, in which a scientific education, would he
thrown away lind Il scientific education when aided by
decent demcanor, is q better diploma of g~entility, than
all the titles and wealth extant. Now il indeed the
time to 60 West-or at least the time for young men to
prepare to go West. 4 finished farmer-a man whose
education fully qualities him to take charge of a large
estate-can always command q solid and lucrative en-
pioyment. lie can always get d farm on shares, or find
= capitalist willing 10 have land improved, and to aid
him. Civilization has hitherto tended to I'll our cities
the tendency Of liberal education will be to empty
Observation-Disclosures Bulletin.
minnesota as Regarded by Scientific lien.
Lieutenant Maury, in a recent letter to a scientific
journal, speaking of Minnesota, says:
There is ia this Territory e greater lumber of these
lovely sheets of laughing waters, than in all the country
besides. They give variety and beauty to the land
scspe; they soften the air, and lend sll their thousand
charms and attractions to make this goodly land lovely
place Of residence. We see that, with these beautiful
sheets Of water. nature has done for the upper Missis-
-ippi What t.llet proposes should be done for the gov
,ernment for the Ohio, and what Napoleon Ill.,, is doing
rag the river, Of France.
Every one Of these thousands Of lakes is a reservoir
ror the rains III the wet season, which it reverses to fill
up the RIVER III the Lry-at least that is one of their
Offices, for they have many. The consequence is, that
though mose water falls from the sky upon Minnesota,
IN summer, than you in New York receive in winter or
-pring, yet the Mississippi there is never flooded. The
Inference between extreme nigh and low water at ST.
Paul is not more :han six or eight feet-while further
.sown, as p Memphis, the difference is many times as
treat. TIE difference on the Ohio, | think, is upwards
Of thirty feet.
Minnesota is far from the sea, but it is a better va.
tered country than either Kansas OF Nebraska. Indeed
It may be considered the best watered State in the
Union, and it doubtless owes it's abundance Of summer
rains measurably to this leke system