MINNESOTA.

This State, the 19th admitted under the federal Constitution, derives its name from the principal of the many tributaries of the Mississippi found within its border. The name, a compound Dakota word, signifies, according to the best authorities, "sky-tinted water," the accuracy of description being illustrated by the calm, pellucid waters of its countless lakes and streams.

Its lakes are numbered by thousands, and, scattered in groups or chains over nearly the whole surface of the State, form an immense system of natural reservoirs, which not only serve to feed the sources of the numerous streams, but to supply the atmosphere and soil during the hot summer months with ever-recurring circles of exhalation and rain. Linked as many are by a common stream successively passing from one to another, they also form a singular navigation, by which the most remote parts of the country are accessible. Many are 20 or 30 miles in extent, the largest being Namekin Lake, on the British border, Mille Lacs, Red Lake, Leech Lake, and Cass.

Occupying the elevated plateau of North America, and the most elevated surface between the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic Sea, Minnesota forms the water-shed of the three great basins of North America. The sources of the Red River of the North and of the Mississippi are nearly in the center of the State, and separated only by a scarcely perceptible rise of land, the one emptying into Winnepeg Lake and thence into Hudson's Bay on the north, and the other, pursuing an opposite course, loses itself in the broad expanse of the Gulf of Mexico. The Hauteurs des Terres, or Highlands, are the nearest approach to mountains in the State, and form the dividing ridge between the basins of the Saint Lawrence and the Mississippi. The great body of the country alternates between river bottoms and high rolling prairies. The Highlands or Superior district comprises an area of about 20,000 square miles, and is an elevated region, covered with a compact forest growth, principally of pine and spruce. The hills are generally sandy and sterile, but in the valleys the soil is alluvial and rich. The Red River Valley is a level plain, comparatively woodless except along the margins of streams, and with a rich, retentive soil. The Mississippi Valley is a prairie region, with an undulating surface, thoroughly drained by numerous streams and lakes, and dotted with groves and belts of timber, principally oak; its soil a warm, dark, calcareous sandy loam.

In all the material resources necessary to the development of a rich and prosperous State Minnesota is most amply endowed, and bids fair, as well from its geographical position as from other influences, to hold a commanding position. Its varied scenery is made up from rich rolling prairie, extensive forests, lofty bluffs, and waterscapes of intermingling lakes and streams. Minnesota is already ranking high among the first of agricultural regions, and advancing toward a position among our manufacturing States.

Extending from 43° 30′ to 49° north latitude, its climate is but slightly varied, Saint Paul having a temperature during the whole year equal to that of central New York, and in summer corresponding with that of Philadelphia, yet with cool and refreshing nights. The position and topography of the country protect the fields from the devastations of drought, at the same time that its dry atmosphere and warm, rich soil, its luxuriant and vigorous vegetation, and the rapid evolutions of temperature, protect it from frost on the one hand, and the ravages of insects and disease on the other. The effect of this symmetrical union of cli

matic conditions is to make Minnesota one of the best wheat-producing States of the Union, both as to quality and quantity of the grain.

In 1860 the whole number of farms in the State was 18,081, the cash value of which was estimated to be $18,967,454, and the total valuation of agricultural products for that year was $6,748,707. The total appraised valuation of all taxable property was $36,753,408; so that the products of agriculture alone gave a gross return of 18 per cent. upon the whole taxable basis.

In 1866 the number of acres under cultivation was estimated at 790,000; the tiled area in wheat, 520,000. The exports of wheat were 9,267,153 bushels. The total value of live-stock January 1, 1867, was $15,400,659.

The past season has been one of the most favorable to the agriculturist since the settlement of the State. All the cereal crops are excellent, while the average yield of wheat is variously estimated at from 20 to 25 bushels per acre. The product of potatoes, flax, hops, and tobacco has been much greater than during any previous year, while it is also clearly established that wool-growing is destined to form an important feature of the productions of the State, the climate being peculiarly adapted to that purpose.

Minnesota contains an area of about 83,531 square miles, or 53,459,840 acres, of which 24,023,425 acres have been surveyed, and 29,436,415 remain unsurveyed; 17,925,840 have been disposed of, and 35,534,000 yet remain open to settlement. The population on the 1st July, 1868, was, according to the most reliable estimates, 440,000. During 1866 the immigration to the State exceeded 50,000, and during 1867 the immigration north of Saint Paul amounted to nearly or quite 40,000. The assessed value of real property for 1867 was $55,155,000, and of personal $25,333,000. Its principal cities are Saint Paul, Red Wing, Saint Anthony, Stillwater, Mankato, Saint Cloud, and Minneapolis. Saint Paul, the capital, is situated on the east bank of the Mississippi, and at the head of navigation, 2,140 miles from its mouth. Its population is about 20,000, and the assessed valuation $3,112,179. Its wholesale trade is large and rapidly increasing, and it is estimated that the amount of sales during 1868 will reach $12,000,000. The length of the boating season averages 228 days.

Minnesota possesses a most ample and effective water-power. The falls and rapids of Saint Anthony alone, with a total descent of 64 feet, have an available hydraulic capacity, according to an eminent engineer, of 120,000 horse-power, greater than the whole motive power, steam and water, employed in textile manufactures in England in 1850. Except the Minnesota River, nearly every tributary of the Mississippi, in its rapid and broken descent to the main stream, affords valuable mill sites.

The most important branch of manufacture is now pine lumber, of which in 1867 there were scaled in the Mississippi, above Saint Paul, 149,562,218 feet, and from the Saint Croix River 113,867,502, showing an aggregate of 263,429,720 feet. Fully 200,000,000 feet are annually manufactured or fitted to run in the log to a southern market within 30 miles of Saint Paul. Flour, whisky, leather, bricks, and miscellaneous articles of wood, as barrels, sash, doors, blinds, railroad ties, and hoop-poles, are also among the material articles of manufacture.

In the mineral ranges of Lake Superior, as well as in more central portions of the State, the deposits of iron, coal, copper, and lead, known to exist to a greater or less extent, are yet undeveloped, and their future bearing upon the material interests of the State is therefore a matter of

conjecture. With the greater facilities now at hand, their development may be looked upon as an immediate work.

In 1865 attention was directed to discoveries of gold and silver northwest of Lake Superior, in the vicinity of Lake Vermillion. The islands in the lake indicate distinctly volcanic action, one of them being an extinct crater. The prevalent rocks are described as talcose slate "traversed by numerous veins of quartz from an inch to five feet wide, some of which contain beautiful crystals of iron pyrites." These quartz veins were ascertained in 1865-'66 to be auriferous, and specimens forwarded to the Mint at Philadelphia were found to contain $23 63 of gold and $4 42 of silver per ton. Other assays in New York exhibited results from $10 to $35 per ton, while a ton recently reduced at Saint Paul is said to have yielded between $400 and $500. In Carlton County gold has also been found, but not enough has been done to test the quality or show whether the quartz is rich enough to pay for mining.

Superior slate exists in abundance near the Saint Louis Falls, limestone of fine quality in many of the central counties forming, in the valleys of the Minnesota and Mississippi, the basis of most of the bluffs; while in Brown County an excellent potters' clay is found in beds 10 feet thick, from which two potteries are now manufacturing ware. A very notable mineral is also the famous red clay or "pipe-stone," found chiefly in the Couteau des Prairies, from which the Indians manufactured pipes, and which is now being applied to many economic purposes.

Not the least important of the indigenous raw material of Minnesota is the salt from the numerous springs of the Red River Valley, the beginning of the immense salines which stretch westward along the international boundary to the Rocky Mountains. These large reservoirs of salt are destined to form a considerable source of wealth, the immense consumption of this article in the Northwest, in the packing of beef and pork and other purposes, rendering it of great value.

There are at present 1,701 miles of railroad projected in the State, 552 of which were completed prior to July, 1868. The Northern Pacific, not yet definitely located, but designed to connect the upper waters of Lake Superior with the Pacific coast at Puget sound, is undoubtedly destined to have a most important bearing upon the future interests of the State, as one of the great connecting lines between the East and the West, and as developing a new outlet by the way of Lake Superior for her own products.

The munificent land grants with which Congress have endowed her complete system of railroads secure to the State, in the opinion of her most eminent statesmen, all the internal improvements that will be needed for the present generation; and as these are rapidly pushed to completion, her facilities for transportation will be fully adequate to the wants of her energetic and enterprising citizens.

Proceeding southward from Minnesota, the next State reached is

IOWA.

The territorial position of this flourishing State is unsurpassed and scarcely equaled in its advantages for commerce and industry. Extending from the Mississippi to the Missouri, 300 miles, with a breadth of 208, it covers an area of 55,045 square miles, or 35,228,800 acres. Lying on the main path of interoceanic railway communication, it will witness the transit of the great masses of trade which will soon pass between Western Europe and Eastern Asia, a fact which its own admirable facilities for domestic commerce will soon turn to great advantage.

The State presents a surface sufficiently undulating for drainage, but nowhere rises into mountains. In some cases along the Mississippi the bluffs appear in considerable abruptness, but generally the land is in graceful slopes, alternately swelling and sinking to the line of horizon. In many cases these are crowned with heavy oak forests, while in other instances the beautifully rounded summits have a carpet of green, dotted with clumps of trees, baffling the utmost imitative skill of the landscape gardener. Upon these slopes and their intervening alluvions are located flourishing towns and cities, the way stations of the splendid tide of Mississippi commerce. Back from the great rivers the traveler meets with immense prairies, covering, perhaps, three-fourths of the surface of Iowa. These in a state of nature are beautified with a profusion and variety of delicate wild flowers and grasses, and skirted, along the streams, with belts of heavy timber.

The soil of the State, especially in the southern part, is remarkably well adapted to the growth of cereals, presenting a very desirable combination of organic with earthy and saline matter, and based upon calcareous and magnesian rocks. The prairie is generally underlaid by the devonian and carboniferous formations, affording by their decomposition the most desirable inorganic elements, which, in combination with accumulations of animal and vegetable matter, dating back through ages, afford a productive surface found only in the choice of upland plains. No soil, perhaps, affords greater nutriment to woody fiber, as is attested by the rapid growth of forest timber since the repression of the annual prairie fires. It is estimated that timber in Iowa is growing much faster than its consumption, through the influence of an extensive tree planting enterprise and careful economy in the use of fuel. The rapid growth of woody fiber has been attributed by chemists to the immense accumulations of potassa and its combinations, caused by annual prairie fires. Fruit trees grow rapidly and bear early.

The climate of the State, extending as it does through three degrees of latitude, presents some variations, but it is free from unhealthy extremes. Its general character is a salubrious dryness, which greatly alleviates the extremes of winter cold and summer heat. The sweep of prairie plains facilitates a free circulation near the surface, removing malaria and conducing to general health, both of animal and vegetable organic life. The advance of civilization and its consequent changes, and the extension of fruit culture, will tend to remove such general and local causes as produce disease, and thus improve the sanitary condition of the country. The experience of the community has already detected, and, to a great extent, neutralized those minor difficulties which embar rassed early settlement.

By the State census of 1867 the number of inclosed acres is shown to be 8,263,174, of which 1,057,331 were set in wheat, harvesting 14,635,520 bushels, and averaging, in an unproductive wheat year, 14 bushels per acre. The oat crop on 504,362 acres amounted to 15,861,494 bushels. The corn crop of 56,928,938 bushels occupied 1,992,396 acres. Of rye and barley 1,690,570 bushels were harvested from 83,617 acres. From 25,796 acres 2,094,557 gallons of sorghum molasses and 14,697 pounds of sugar were made. From 536,896 acres sown in Hungarian and tame grasses, 596,701 tons of hay were made, besides 823,153 tons of wild grass from an area not stated. Of grass seed 107,532 bushels were raised, while the yield from 92,883 acres planted in potatoes was 2,879,963 bushels.

Fruit culture is represented by 1,075,177 trees in full bearing, and

3,629,789 not yet producing fruit, indicating a very great enlargement and productiveness within the next year or two. Of grapes 549,179 pounds were raised and 29,495 gallons of wine manufactured. Of tobacco 385,000 pounds, and of hops 48,653 pounds were reported; 48,774 acres were planted in timber. From 85,727 hives of bees 896,745 pounds of honey and 36,266 pounds of beeswax were received.

The aggregates of live-stock embrace 447,092 horses, mules, and asses; 1,282,728 cattle, including 326,559 cows, yielding 19,192,727 pounds of butter, and 1,403,864 pounds of cheese. Of sheep 1,708,958 yielded 5,323,385 pounds of wool. In 1867, 663,063 rods of hedging were planted, being an excess of 331,322 rods over that set out in 1866. Of mineral productions, 2,483,010 bushels of coal, of 80 pounds each, were marketed. Other minerals to the value of $320,820 were produced, including lead, zinc, and copper, which were frequently found associated with silver. The western coal field occupies an area of 25,000 square miles, in deposits sufficiently convenient and accessible.

Manufacturing industry during 1867 presents an aggregate product valued at $15,957,599. Agricultural implements, machinery, and wagons were returned at $11,362,402. The annual assessment covers 28,773,400 acres of land, the value of real estate being $189,966,359; total, $256,517,184; these aggregates exhibiting a remarkable expansion in all kinds of industrial enterprise.

Iowa possesses first-class facilities for commercial pursuits, being washed on the east and west by the Mississippi and Missouri, while the interior of the State is penetrated by several affluents of these rivers, affording superior internal navigation, reaching her business and producing localities. But these advantages are more than doubled by her 1.152 miles of finished railroad, with a capital of about $35,000,000. Besides these, other lines have been projected, and some are in process of construction. The educational returns show 62 colleges, academies, and universities, being an increase of 21 in three years, with 3,951 stu dents, an increase of 1,614 in the same period. Notwithstanding the State census makes no mention of public schools or churches, it is well understood that in religious as well as in educational enterprises Iowa occupies a prominent position.

The population is estimated at not less than 1,000,000. The militia enrolled in 1867 numbered 125,646; the number of dwellings the same year was 155,758, and 13,503 foreigners were naturalized. The above statistics, compared with former ones, exhibit an expansion in social organization and individual welfare that would excite astonishment but for the presence of similar phenomena in other States founded upon our public domain. Doubtless the forthcoming decennial census of 1870 will reveal still more remarkable results.

Des Moines, the capital of Iowa, is situated at the head of steam navigation on the river of that name. It is a thriving city of nearly 10,000 inhabitants, with railroad connection to Omaha on the west and Chicago on the east, placing it on the main line of interoceanic railway travel. It is surrounded by an excellent agricultural and mineral country, and amply endowed with literary and scientific institutions. It will become one of the most beautiful western capitals.

Dubuque, with a population of 24,000, in the heart of the lead regions, has established still more productive industries and commercial operations, showing an annual aggregate of trade for 1867. of $16,000,000. From 15 lumber yards 31,000,000 feet of lumber were shipped. The export trade embraced also 91,000 barrels flour, 2,000,000 bushels of wheat, 16,000,000 pounds pork, and 23,000 live hogs. The product of