The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1875-09-16
MINNESOTA.

MINNESOTA.
HER PRODUCTIONS. HER CAPABuI-
TIES AND THE ADVANTAGES
WHICH SHE PRESENTS FOR
SETTLERS AND BUSINESS
.s THE DUTY OF OUR
.$s PEOPLE.
Having chosen Minnesota for my
home nearly twenty years ago, and
having become more attached to the
State each year, I propose to address
a few words to my fellow citizens
with view to do the State some SER
vice. MY connection, for several
years, with the efforts to make Min
nesota known abroad, naturally drew
my attention, not only to our own
State, but to. the States and Terri.
tories competing with us for emigrar
ton. Through all these years I have
tried to post myself thoroughly as to
the advantages Of each locality, and
now, taking into consideration all
that can properly pertain to the ques-
ton, the advantages and disadvanta-
ges of our own and other countries,
upon full, fair review Of the whole.
subject, I am ready to assert without
apprehension Of mistake, that Minnes
sofa presents more substantial induce
ments to those seeking homes than
any State or Territory on this CONT
nent.
It is not the purpose of this brief
article to enumerate these advanta-
ges or to argue the question. I desire
to call the attention of our people to
what seems to me our duty in view of
the fact that we have a State the SUI
perior of all others now inviting pub
lie attention.
For some years Eastern papers
have only spoken Of our State as a
region swept by terrific storms and
devastated by armies Of g1asshoppers.
Rival localities, finding Minnesota
head and shoulders above them in all
that makes an attractive State, have
magnifed these and continue to
dwell upon them until many persons
have actually come to associate our
name with a succession of calamities
that render us objects of commissera-
ton. We have observed this, and
quietly smiled at the figure our own
Minnesota was cutting in the journals
of the country, while we are at home
very quietly growing large crops and
steadily progressing in wealth and i'm
portance. Let us put a new song in
their mouths. 1t is time Minnesota
should come to the front time our
glorious young State should assert
herself and take the position to which
she is entitled.
The world should be told that we
have here in the centre of the CONT
nent State with an estimated area
Of ffty-four million acres, of which
less than three million acres are un-
der cultivation, and that instead of
claiming of the world its charity, we
have this year raised thirty-6ve mill
ion bushels of wheat--better wheat
and more to the acre than any State
or Territory ever has or can produce !;
that our crops of oats, barley, rye
and potatoes are equally good; that
we are maturing a corn crop that en-
titles us to rank proudly among the
corn growing States Of the. West.
Young as we are, we to-day stand at
the head Of the wheat-growing States
Of the Union, and this is a proud
historical contribution to the centen-
NAL; not only ahead in quantity, but
far ahead in quality-a quality that
makes our wheat bring as much in our
fields as the wheat of some States brings
when it reaches the Eastern markets {!
Tell them that these crops are raised
on lands that are bought at from one
dollar to twenty dollars per acre, and
men often clear their entire farm and
all expenses out of the first crop
that farming here is done with half
the labor required in New York and
New England; that such is the vigor
men enjoy in this climate that man
can do as much field labor here in
one day as he can in some States in
! two: that so much: of our farming
here is done by machinery that but
little is left that is irksome or forbid
ding in farm life; that we have a
market at our door; that our broad
rivers and our two thousand miles of
railroads traverse our entire territory
and give every section of our State 8
market; that, we have eight rival
routes to the East, one by our own
lake port at Duluth, another progress-
ing toward Bayfield,, also on Lake
Superior, the great water route of the
continent; that we have the Missis-
sippi river as an outlet to- the Gulf
and eight competing lines of railroad
connecting us with Chicago, st. Louis
and the East. Tell them that we
have climate unequaled for comfort
and health the year round that our
winters, upon the severity of which
our rivals so much delight to dwell,
are by many preferred to our sum-
mers, pleasant as they are conceded to
be; that we are above and beyond
the region in which malarial inauen-
ces prevail; that the health of our
people when contrasted with the mid
die, south, and southwestern States,
is alone sufficient to determine think
ing men. Tell them of these things
and that we have here already seven
hundred thO;1sand neonle. that wo