The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1871-10-05
aoRAcE GREELEY IN MlNNEso "a
What He says About Our state.


to the Tribune concerning his recent
trip to this State j
Minnesota is sober with gravity
beyond her years. She has this year,
perhaps for the first time, u half:crop
OF her great staple, Wheat, aud she
oontemplates it ruefully. An early,
severe, protracted drought, operating
upon her miserable shallow blowing,
has reduced her average yield Of this
tavorite bread.grain from twenty to
less than ten bushels per acre.
For Indian corn, the season has been
good, yet shallow Flowing, late plant
ing, and general neglect, have COM
einsd to reduce the yield of many
farms below ten oushel, per acre
But there is mu:h that is very good,
with some that is excellent. I saw at
Faribault the best field I have found
this year-75 bushels to the aero at
least; the owners estimate it at much
more. But the fell was well fertiliz-
ed and plowed t, depth of eighteen
inches; 50 the credit mainly inures to
the grower, not much Of it to the
State or field. l saw at the Mime.
ap Ills Fair corn stalk from point
further north tha, was nine feet long
below the ear, I cannot say; perhaps
the tape line gave out At that point.
| never saw at any place, except in
California, such mammoth potatoes,
beets, turnips, sqsasbes, caobages, &c :,
TO-, as were exhibited at this Fair,
held beside the Falls of St. Anthony.
where the mercury falls to 400 below
zero, and the growing season (from
frost to frost) averages about one hrn-
bred days. Apples Of the harder va
rieties were abundant and very fair,
though the early attempts to grow
them here were mainly failures Grapes
also are abundant, and include Della.
wares, Conoords, 1onas, Clintous, Ad.
lrondack, 60. I was assured that the
Catawbas are also ripe, though I am
not sure that I saw any. All these
must be covered with straw or earth
in winter; thus protected, they sur
vive and bear bounteously. I find
myself reported as having predicted
that peaches would yet be grown tere;
a mistake That Time may convert into
a sagacious prophecy. It does not
need this to demonstrate that Minneso
ia has achieved triumphs in fruit grow
Jog that could not have beeo|reasooably
anticipated even six years ago. 10
tho production Of roots and vegetables,
including tomatoes, 1t would be very
hard to excel her best efforts whether
in quantity or in quality.
And yet Minnesota is sober, because
her Wheat crop for 1871 falls far be-
low her expectations and her needs,
and ITS failure is beyond compens at ton.
Though her every other product be
all that she could fairly anticipate, a
half crop Of. Wheat makes her feel
poorly enough. =. -.
The 6rst settlers in a prairie State
must grow Wheat if they can. They
are poor they need quick rctaras for.
'thsirlabor and Wheat is their best
resource. But after bis fifth or sixth
year, each should DO able to do better
than grow Wheat'after Wheat. Clover,
Timothy and Blue-Grass should have
followed his Wheat good Stock
Barn should be we'll filed with Cattle
and Sheep; be should have Bullocks,
Pigs, Lambs and Wool to turn off each
season thus utilizing his yet unbrok-
en- prairie and ceasing to exhaust his
soil. Then 70 might DO jolly at tho
close of such year as tn,s.
Many or tie pioneers Of Minnesota
brought 10 large e 'oks Of sheep. Ar
riv.ng in the fall, they CAV, them poor
shelter or none, and fed them on
eoarse prairie hay, t. which they were
uuaccustomed, aud which had often
been cut weeks too late, when nearly
all its virtue had departed. Sheep so
kept had right to get homs.sick and
die; Of course they did, General
oarelessness and lack of attention az
gravased the calamity. Hence, this
great and rapidly growing State, with
thrice the population and ten times
the wealth she had in 1860, has hard.
Iy more sheep than then and now she
feels the need Of them. With prairie
hay costing but 81 to So per ton in
the stack, and pasturage nothing at
oil, she ought to hsve sheared twenty
times the wool she actually did last
June, and to have kept over most Of
the. lambs. They ought to have
grown into such aooks very gradually
rushing into them is not nearly so we'll
Had every farmer bough: twenty
sheep III 1865, and suffered them to
increase by this time to one hundred,
the product of 1871 would have been
equal in value to all the wheat she can
spare. And the cost of those modest
flocks would have pail their way
Throughout the last six years. I think
have evidence that these truths are
making their due impression on many
minds.
Minnesota has stern but healthful
climate, rich soil, about the right
proportion OF timber to prairie, a most
intelligent and energetic people, and
immense faith IN her own resources