St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1863-06-04

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Fto~ tie 81. Paul P..... Ny 27tA. IN
7 One often wonders how it il that il
this ''little spot which men call EARTH" il
takes 80 many thousand years for it's ex
ceedingly cute and knowing lnbabitants
to find out the commonest and most sim
pie facts facts patent 70 every observe,
and palpablo 70 every sense. 81 81
t. We find an article in Boston paper
for example, which makes Iowa the north.
ern limit Of grain production and al Min.
nesota is consigned to the frigid shades Of
the tabled Cimmeria. BY the tune the
morning of the Millennium daxns upon
the world, the people who live among the
rocks and clay barrens of New England
may possibly learn that though Minneso.
ta is in the same latitude as New Eng
land, it is very much warmer than that
classic region during the six months Of
the growing season, aud that therefore a
great many very important staples thrive
with astonishing luxnriance in our warm,
itch prairie soil, which cannot be grown
probably, with all the aids of art and i'm
mense markets close at hand, in the cold,
damp air and sterile hardpan, clay and
granite Of New England. In these DAYS
Of scisnce, the relative agricultural Ca
pacities Of different climates NAV be meas
ured with as much precision by the aid
Of the thermometer, hygrometer, &c., as
they measure tape in Boston with yard
stick. ~ ' - 4" 40
Now, taking the mean Of tho thermo-
metrical observations of over twenty years.
the following lines of figures show tho
comparative temperatures Of St. Paul
and Boston, during the six months of veg
citation and harvesting: 81 !.
April. May. June. July. Aug. Sept.
St! Paul, 1853 $50 68.4 1874 10 58.5
Boston, ri 46,5 81 65.6 40 50 62.7
It will be seen that our two mouths of
spring and three months Of summer, il
which all the processes Of vegetation are
accomplished, are very considerably warm
err than Massachusetts,. But these dull
down. casters are less likely to be Impress
ed by scientific results expressed in dry
figures, than by pictorial illustrations ex-
pressed in words. We will trouble them
with another COMPARISON
A Boston letter dated May 18th saws e
"For three weeks, until yesterday, We hav
groaned under cloudy skies and dripping UNI
brellas for only day since the first of May,
have the clouds consented to let US SEQ the
sun; and even now there is only. sort Of
compromise between fair weather and FOUL
The grass begins to look green, but tho trees
still wear the barrenness Of their wintry as
pect."
Now there is regular Massachusetts
spring for you. During the same period
in Minnesota, our people were basking in
the sunshine of an almost cloudless sky,
the weather being much of the time a
little too warm, if anything, for comfort
Grass, at least the cultivated grasses, were
green in the latter part Of April, and even
the wild, tough, root-matted prairie sward
was green IN tho first week in May
Trees were budding in the middle of April
and by the first of May were in full leaf:
Fields Of spring wheat were green
throughout the State on the 10th of May,
as our country exchanges indicate.
So much by way of comparing the ex-
ternal aspects Of nature. Now let US look
a moment at the actual results of agricul-
ture, and this time we compare Minnesota
not with Massachusetts,, which as far as
the agricultural staples OF commerce are
concerned is cpyher, but with Iowa,
which according to our Bostonian forms
the northern border Of the zone of profit
able agriculture in this meridian.
Minnesota being very young State,
had in 1860 but 172,000 Inhabitants -
Iowa, much older, had nearly 100000
Minnesota only began to raise wheat for
expectation in 1859. In that year she
harvested 2,374,4l5 bushels Of wheat
with an average yield of 10 bushels per
acre, and about IA bushels to each inhab-
liant. Iowa in the same year harvested
1898, 1858 bushels Of wheat average
ylelo - ousueIS per acre anu ABOUT II
bushels to each inhabitant. In 1860,
Minnesota produced nearly 5000, 900
bushels Of wheat twenty-five bushels per
acre, and over twenty-eight bushels to
each inhabitant. What Iowa produced
we don't know, but at its best it was not
more bushels ia all than Minnesota and at
the ratios which have prevailed there, not
half as many bushels per acre, nor third
as many per inhabitant. "
Now what does our Boston journalist
think about the parallel Of forty-two de-
grees being the northern limit of success
full agriculture in the Mississippi Valley.
Proceedings of the Town Council.
OFFICIAL.
Sr. CLOUD. MAY 3Oth. 1868.