St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1865-10-19

HORACE GREELEY IN MINNESOTA.
HIS IMPRESSION OF THE STATE.
The People, Harvests, Resources, Seen.
cry and Climate.
Editorial Correspondence Of the New York
Tribune.
MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 80 1865.
The few days have spent in this new
State have been so employed that have
seen too little of it, AMI must leave after
seeing very little more. But have met
an converaed With intelligent residents Of,
and travellers through nearly every section
and have gathered facts that ought to sut-
fee for the basis Of tolerably accurate and
shall at least be caudidly set forth.
Minnesota had some 4 900 white inhabi-
tants when che was organized as Terrific:
ry in March. 1910. In 1850, she had 6, OF;
by the census of 1869, she had about ITO,
oOo-a rapid but not unprecedented growth.
For meantime had occurred the eso-called
Aipauic' of 1857, which brought down their
air castles about the heads Of her myriads
Of high flying spectators, who ware one
day dreaming of their millions, and the
next anxious'y inqnsring how they should
secure daily bread Everybody that pre-
tended to be anybcuy was ''ruined," - to
their own Christening and the ultimate good
of the embryo State. Up to this time the
manufacture of city lots from wild lands
just bought at $l.25 per acre and their sale
to verdant simpletons at $50 to $4,000 per
lot, had been the leading branch of busi-
ness-or rather, the main stem-chief
branches being the supply Of champagne
and kindred comforts 10 the operators and
the construction for their occupancy Of pal
aces on the credit ,oftheir prospective gains
Up to this hour the Territory had imported
most of the breadstuffs required by its peo-
pie; now, large proportion of them sud.
denly left in pursuit Of fortune or of food,
while the residue went to work; and this,
from being the dlest or most uselessly en-
ploycd suddenly became the most indus
trious and thrifty community on earth
Very soon, its surplus producAef wheat
was estimated by the millona bushels
some five and half millions Of bushels be-
ing returned by the census Of 1860 as the
yield of l859-only the second year after
that most wholesome ana necessary .'pan-
ic'' of 1857. Since then. the bloody Indian
raid and massacre Of 1862, whereby some
500 immigrants, mainly women and chill
drcn, were killed, and the whole Western
frontier devastated and driven in, has done
much to retard settlement, while the war,
making constant drain on the resources
and tho life blood of the young State, has
very nearly ncutralzcd her growth; sc
that it is not expected that her census now
in progress will show an aggregate Of more
than 225,Oo0 to 25' 600 people. But
while her population has aln.st stool still
her production has stendily increased, S,
that in spite Of severe and general droutl
extending through 1868 and 1854, She ex
ported from FIVE to seven millions Of bush
els of wheat and oats Of the products o
! either season. This year there has been
suficiency Of rain, and the yield of smal
grain is entirely beyond precedent. TIL
very lowest estimate have heard of tn
average yield Of wheat is "a bushels pc
acre, while 27 is usually claimed, and man,
will not be satisfied with less than 80.
am assured that, ia almost every instance
actual measurement has overran the own
sr , anticipations. One farnler i; ho sowe
live hundred acres has tbreshed out sn
weighed off l6, 900 bushels, or 30 bushe]
per acre from the entire area sowed Cor
s!dering that very little is fail sown or wiz
ter wheat--the light, SHOWS and hard fros,
killing out that variety, especially if SOW
on the broad;; wind-swept psAirics--thi
seems to me immense, especially as muc
of it is necessarily sown too late, on groun
not more than half plowed. The gener,
rule l take to be this: Harvest and STAG
i your grain; then start the ,plow and kee
it running till hard frost stops it, which
usually does between the 10th and Goth
November. Now turn to threshing an
marketing, which. with getting wood fe
fuel, is. the winter work and when sstl
frost goes, about the middle of April, tur
to sowing and. narrowing in on the groun
plowed in the fall ); though many resuu
blowing and Keep at it for two or thre
weeks Of spring. After tits too late to so
wheat, it will still do to plow for and so
oats, which is the chief reason for sowin
them SO extensively. In an excursion
made on Tuesday ever the Minnesota Cel
trail Railroad, on the occasion of it's opcl
ing to Northfeld, forty miles south of thi
! saw the oats still lyiug ungathercd
> many fields, though noted none wherci
they had not been cut, as had been led
expect. But, tho season having been W
and its earlier half cold, the entire harve
was late this year; and Indian corn, thoug
generally ripe, is far from heavy. Potato'
are alike abundant and excellent, ss a,
nearly all root-crops. '
They say the spring wheat of Minnesot
is equal to the winter wheat of other State
and that the best -four made from it at tn
place commands the very highest prices