The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-11-26
HISTORICAL SKETCH
STATE OF MINNESOTA
CONTINUED from Sixth Page, Histori-
cal Section.)
drifts into one OF the professions which

.
drifts into one of the professions which
used to be called learned"
This school of agriculture takes the
farmers boys and girls with good COM
mon school training, keeps them from
home from October to May for one or
two years, and sends them back to the
farm with no astonishing amount of
book learning, to be sure, but full of
the idea of applying science to their
work. Such men as Hayes and Green
and Shaw and Liggett have solved the
problem OF making science interest /.
ing and profitable to the young farmer.
They have been able to impress them
selves on the legislature in way to
secure not all the money they can well
use, but liberal appropriations as
things go. This modest agricultural
school is now recognized as a leader
turnout the country.
When the university was opened for
college work, in 1859, the president
of the infant concern in an inaugural
address proposed that the university
be charged with conducting a geologi-
cal and natural history survey of the
state. This suggestion was reported
and embodied in bill which was
passed by the legislature Of 1879. Pro-
fessor N. H. Winchell, already ex-
perienced in such work in other states,
was called IN that year to be our state
geologist. For twenty years and more,
with corps of experts, he pursued his
task, and the results, so far as geology
is concerned, are to be found In the
seven splendid quartos of his final re-
vey are still in progress Minnesota
lies, geologically speaking, 'low," be-
low the carboniferous. Probably the
whole cost of the survey has been
saved many times over by preventing
men from digging down for coal. The
state is rich in the best of building
stones, granite, quarzites and lime
porcelain clays are abundant, and nat
ural cement of good qualities has long
been marketed. The most marketable,
however, Of geological developments
has been the discovery and exploration
of the iron deposits lying mostly in
the triangle" north of Lake Superior.
That iron ore of good quality existed
in that remote and rocky wilderness
was long ago suspected by, biologists.
Norwood, member of the Owen sur
vey, found it in 1850 on Gunflint lake;
Eames, state geologist in 1866, on
luth, in 1875, employed experts to
make examinations of the two ranges
already supposed to exist. The re-
suits were not published till 1882 in
the eleventh annual report Of the Min
nesota survey. In consequence of Mr..
Stones faith and persistence, amid
many discouragements, actual mining
was begun on the vermillidn range in
1884, and 62,124 tons of ore were
shipped out that year. The annual
shipments rose gradually but rapidly to
1,167,650 tons from this range. In
that year mining began on the Misabi
range, and 1000 tons were marketed.
The very next year the. output rose
to 613,620 tons, and in the third to
1,7S8,447. The explanation of this
unparalleled increase is that the ore
exists in the form of gravel, lying
in beds near the surface, into which
railroad tracks can be run, and the
ore lifted onto cars by steam shovels;
5000 tons have been so extracted by
a single apparatus in nine hours. The
output for the year 1902 was 15,427,-
1913 tons, worth So a ton free on
board at Duluth. :. The output this
year will not be quite as. large. It
Is matter of regret that this splendid
body of raw material cannot, in part
at least, be smelted refined and con-
verted into iron and steel products
within our own borders, but the mar
velous reduction in cost of transporta
ton of the coal, and the cheapening Of
/. large production at home has enabled
Pittsburg to put a veto on steel pro-
Lumber Indusry.
Another industry Of much historic
interest is that of lumber and timber
products, and, unfortunately, the inter
est is now chiefly historic, for the end
of this business is already in sight.
Beginning In 1850 with a cut worth
$57,S00, the business increased to $45,-
1851 in 1900. Enormous and waste
full as has been the clearing of our
pine forests, it is still fact that there
is till standing in Minnesota a greater
quantity of merchantable white pine
than in any other state.
Manufacturers.