The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-10-20
MINNESOTA.
As SEEN By HORACE GREELEY.

As SEEN By HORACE GREELEY.
His Letter to. the Tribune.
Editorial Correspondents of the N. z. Tribune. =
MINNEAPoL1s, Sept 80. 1866.
The few days haye spent Ia this nav Srata
have been 80 employed that have seen too
little Of it. and must leave after SEEING very
Etti i more. But / have met ana Convey. sssS
Vith intelligent residents and OF traveller
through nearly every section, and have eafb-
era facts tint ought to suffice for the hasis Of
toaershav accwate and safe conclusion. And
those eonclusjons shall at least be candidly set
forth. oa 50
when she was organized - territory IN March,
1S49 In 1850, she had 6.ga ~ the census
of 1850, she had abont 170000-a rapid but
not unprecedented growth. For meantime
had occurred the so-called "panic" OF 1857,
which brought down these air castles about the
heads of her myriods of high-fying speeula-
tors. who were one day dreaming Of their
millions, and the next anxiously inquiring how
they should secure daily bread. Everybody
that pretended to be anybody 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 $1-25 per acre and their sale to YER.
dant simpletons at $50 to $5, 600 Per lot, had
been the leading branch of business--0r rather,
the main sten-the chief branches being the
supply of Champagne and kindred comforts TO
the operators and the construction for their
occupancy of palaces on the credit of their
tory had imported most of the breadstuffs re.
qHired by its people; now. large proportion
Of them suddenly left in pursuit of fortune or
Of food, while the residue went to work |;
and this, from being the idlest or most use
lessly employed suddenly became the most
Industrious and thrifty community on earth.
ye1y soon, its surplus product Of wheat
some five and half millions of bushels
being returned by the census of 1860 % the
yield of 1859-only the second year after that
most wholesome and necessary spanic'' Of 1867.
Since then, the bloody Indian raid and massa.
ere Of 1862, whereby some 500 immigrants,
mainly women and children, 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 the life-blood of the young State.
has very nearly neutralized her growth so
that It is not expected that her census now in
progress win show an aggregate of more than
225,000 to 250, 600 people. But, while her pop
ulation has almost stood still, her production
has steadily increased, so that in spite of Sc
we're and general dr0uth, extending through
1868 and 1854, she exported from five to seven
millions of bushels of Wheat and Oats of the
proaucts of either season. This year, there has
been sufdciency of rain, and the yield of
small grain is entirely beyond precedent. The
very lowest estimate have heard of the aver
age yield of wheat is "a bushels peracre, while
~ Is unusually claimed, and many viii not be
SatisfiQd with lose than ooorr>d <t.x
In almost every instance, actual measurement
has oVerrun the owners anticipatiOns. One
farmer who sowed five hundred acres has
threshed out and weighed of 16 600 bushels.
or 80 bushelf per acre from the entire area
sowed. Considering that very little is
Fall-sewn or Winter Wheat-the light
variety, especially If sown on the broad os
wind-swept prairies-this seems to me i'm.
mense, especially as much Of it il necessarily
sown too late on ground not more than half
plOwed. The general rule take to be this
Harvest and stack your grain; then start the
pillow and keep it running till hard frost stops
It, which It usually does between the 10th and
10th Of November. Now turn to threshing
and marketing, which, with getting wood for
fuel, the winters work and when the frost
goes, about the middle of April, turn TO SOW
ing and narrowing In on the ground plowed in
the fall though many resume blowing and
keep at 1t for two or three weeks of spring.
After It is too late to COW wheat it will still do
to plow for and SOW oats. which Is the chief
reason for sowing them 30 extensively. In an
excursion made on Tuesday oyer the Mime
sofa Central Railroad, on the occasion of its
opening to Mortified, 40 miles south of this.
saw oats still lying ungathered in many
feds, though noted none wherein they had
not been cut, as had been I'D to expect But
the season having been wet, and its earlier half
cold, the entire harvest was late this year; and
Indian corn, though generally ripe, Is far from
heavy. Potatoes are alike abundant and ex.
cellent as are nearly all root crops.
they say the spring wheat of Minnesota "a
equal to the winter wheat Of other States, and
''..f he best flour made from it at this place
commands the very highest prices. The yield
vi 1865 cannot fall below ten millions Of bush
els which, allowing one million for home con.
sumption flour bushels per head for the entire
population) and like amount for seed and
waste, leaves eight millions for sale. worth at
the river rather more than 90 900 600 TO-DAY
Allowing o., 600 0fO for her GA; crop. and tue
little corn that will be spared from the south-
ern counties, Minnesota is seen TO be ab,,n-
dainty able to paw fn- al. the goods she GU. ht
to buy, and her thrifty, Woodworking people
aciu pay. do raw. for what they buy. Whoever
chooses to supply the other sort on credit will
doubtless deserve what he gets and get what
II
The climate of Minnesota is Der chief hno.
bear and while ] have little f.llow-feelipg
with the chap who confessed to "a prejudice
against the equator. I own I'D TO a SLIGHT re-
pagnance to 40 deg. below zero And Vet the
climate with most Minnesotians is their STRONG
point. Nearly all have met assure me thai
they have never passed winters so deliehtfullv
in milder ATTITUDES as here; several spent
winter here as an experiment before migrating
and found the dry atmosphere, bright skiee
and steady cold. SO exhilera.ing that thew
could not henceforth live elsewhere. Several
have assured me that they feel the cold far less
mere tnan they did in Central Ohio, New Eng
land, or even in New York city. They saw the
winter days are almost uniformly still and SIM
ny, and that man comfortably clad does not
nnd the cold unpleasant They admit, how.
ever, that there are few days each winter Al
once cold and windy. and these are most agree
aoiy passed between roaring fireplace and a
hot stove. 38Sa ? u 5rf~'->'Ss $50 - :
There are hundreds here-perhaps thous-
ands-who came to save their lives and all in.
sist that the climate is an autidote TO pnlmoo-