The Portland daily press., 1870-07-22
Terms $500 per- 0nsaua,e, in adrance.
Letter from the Norihwest-No. XVIII.
FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY, MIMI,
July IL, 1870.
TO Tie Editor Of The Press

haht. During large portion of thelatter
half OF June the mercury was almost con-
stantly during the day time) among, or in
the immediate neighborhood OF, the nineties,
sometimes soaring to one hundred and five in
the shade, producing lassitude in the system.
enervating the frame of both man and beast,
and making one feel that Paradise, to be at
all desirable, must possess some of the attri-
butes of an ice-house! True, as a general
thing, the nights were cool, too cool, often. to
be agreeab unless to those favoraby situ-
ated to remain comfortable 1t was my for
tune to ride during one of the hot afternoons
some eighteen miles, in an open buggy, be-
meath spacious "umbr," and to be exposed
to a heat absolutely overpowering and ex-
hausting to all courage and energy up TO nine
o'clock in the evening. The mercury could
not have declined below eighty up TO that
hour. Two hours later 1 was obliged TO
start on my return trip, making it just before
and Immediately following the commence
ment Of the "wee small hours,' and though
clad in woolen, before the end of my ride was
reached 1 was chilled 10 the very marrow of
II N,-cr. anss : gsolutely suffered with the
cold.a : : leaders can judge, without
the al0 of physician or Psychologist, whether
the human system can be long exposed to
such sudden and "radicaf changes" OF condi-
tion without danger to its well-being.
The weather here, at the present writing,
though we have had few cool days, is hot
and excessively dry, and the effect upon the
growing crops is fearful TO contemplate.
Large fields of oats and wheat begin to yell
low and look as though ripening for the har-
pearance results not from approaching matu-
rity but drought; and this, too, at the precise
juncture when the greatest damage must be
the effect, as the half-grown kernel will be
stopped in its development, making the yield
light both in quantity and specific gravity.
Our farmers are indeed a sorrowful people,
and their sorrow is participated in by all
classes, for if the wheat crop comes short all
branches of business must suffer incalculably.
As general thing the farmers are in debt to
the merchants, perhaps their land is mort
gagged for the money with which they have
improved it, and the merchants in turn are
in debt to Eastern creditors, and when the
only product Of the State which ordinarily
afford surplus for shipment beyond our own
bodies, is cut off or cut short, it requires no
prophet to predict the sure result. Money
flows as naturally and as surely from the
Northwest to the great Atlantic cities, as the
waters of this Stane do to the Gulf of Mexico,
and if our products are insufficient to bring it
back again, stagnation is sure to follow. Said
st. Paul merchant to me few days since:
"Say what we will to the contrary, for the
sake of keeping up appearances, money is
scarcer and scarcer every day, as surely as
dries the moisture beneath our parching SUM-"
1t is even so.
Should 1 say to the readers of the Press
that you "down east" farmers who raise two
tons of good English hay 10 the acre, realize
much more net money from their land than
our best wheat-growers in this emphaticaly
wheat State, some of your restless, disinter-
ested readers would doubtless take exceptions
to the statement, and yet such is the literal
truth. assume that such hay, ,oeU cured, is
worth upon an average ten dollars per ton on
the farm where cut, or twenty dollars per
acre. Your readers are better qualified than
I am to estimate the cost of cutting, curing,
&C., as well as of topdressing the land so as
to keep up the yield. How is it with wheat
in Minnesota? The best of our wheat land
will not Average, one year with another, over
sixteen bushels to the acre, and seventy-fve
cents per bushel, on the farm, is large aver
age for its market value, or twenty-four dol
for plowing, one dollar for sowing and har-
rowing, two dollars for seed, three dollars for
cutting, binding and stacking, two dollars
paid the machine man for threshlng, and as
much more for extra hands and horses in
threshing and bording the men, and we have
thirteen dollars, leaving only eleoen dollars
per acre as the profits of wheatraising, even
under favorable circumstances.
A Maine man who left your State about
nine years since, and settled in one of the best
wheat regions of this State, within twelve
miles of one of the best markets ON the Mis-
sissippi, tod me few days since, that the
best he / ad ever been able to do, with indus.
try, good health, aud strict economy all COM
bined, he could not make his returns for crops
sufficiently overlap the cost of production to
afford his small family comfortable living;
that he had several times, after paying har-
vest hands three dollars a day, hauled his
wheat to market and sold it for sixty-ive
cents bushel, while he had sold pork some
times as low as two dollars and half per
one hundred pounds! Eight years. expert
ence has satisfied him that, in leaving Maine,
he did an unwise thing, and that Minnesota
ans, Irishmen and other people of very priml-
tive habits, who expend little for convenience,
and nothing for luxury, taste or embellish-
ment, who see no advantages i'll common
schools or refinement, and nothing to be fear
ed in ignorance, is by no means the thing for
those who leave homes of comfort in the East
in pursuit of real prosperity.
For the benefit of your mercantile readers,
who may think this the place for large profits,
active trade and fat disidends, allow me to
state few facts. The best American prints,
Merrimacs included, are retailed for twelve
tuu u ueli SChtS. u SOOu uuoiutoS SuiJ vi
wool goods can be had for twelve or fifteen
dollars sugars are retailed at from twelve and
a half to sixteen cents; the best kerosene for
forty cents gallon, and most other goods in
proportion, and yet nearly all these things
come from the East, and pay exorbitant rates
of transportation. Hardware, stoves, and all
kinds of dry goods are nearly as cheap here
as with you, while taxes, rates, insurance, etc.,
are very much higher for corresponding privi-
leges.
To-day am off ON a brief trip for the new
city of Duluth, at the head of Lake Superior.
The rails are now traversed to within twenty
five miles Of that city, and will soon be laid
the entire distance. At present that is the
centre of the State-the point to which gath
ers the money, the activity as well as the
scum of the whole surrounding country
Money is said to be plenty-the result of spec
ulation and railroad operations. Those who
have been there, as general rule, fear, If they
do not confidently predict, a general smash
up, and that ruin will overtake the daring
spirits who are now leveling down the rough
spot, and trying to build city where nature
has been excessively grudging in her giits.
From that point L will try and write you a
letter, or at least gather the materials rom