198 
season 1200 bushels of fruit, which sold at an average price of 8S cents per 
bushel ; two-thirds sold in the orchard. Our Walworth reporter writes : 
Apples are fair to good. Orchards under my immediate observation, of 20 years’ growth, 
and well cared for, in good locations, have for the past three years averaged $2 per tree, and 
if health and enjoyment be estimated, I should double the estimate. This is for improved 
fruits only, as natural fruits will not exceed half that amount, and have not proved much 
more hardy. 
Rock, La Fayette, Green, Buffalo, Vernon, Monroe, Jackson, and other coun- 
ties, report that hardy apples succeed with proper care, while in many localities 
wild, small fruits are found in abundance and the cultivated varieties are grown 
without difficulty. From Rock our reporter writes : 
Capacity for fruit-growing is limited, except for apples of the most hardy varieties and 
small fruits, such as currants, raspberries, strawberries, &c., which do remarkably well. 
There are 8 or 10 varieties of apples that do as well here in all respects as in Michigan or the 
Middle States, and with proper attention to this fact it is hoped that this prairie country will 
supply its own fruit market. The Red Astrachan, Carolina, Red June, Duchess de Olden- 
burgh, forsummer; Bailey Sweet, Haas apple, Fameuse, and Benoni, for autumn; and Rambo, 
Tallman Sweet, Golden Russet, Rawles’ Jannetting, and Ben Davis for winter, have been 
thoroughly tested and prove both hardy and uniformly prolific with indifferent protection. 
MINNESOTA. 
1. Returns from about 25 counties of the more thickly settled portions of this 
highly prosperous and rapidly advancing State indicate an average increase of 
at least 100 per cent. in the value of farm lands in the surveyed districts, as 
compared with the census of 1860. The territory embracing nearly the whole 
upper half and a portion of the southwestern counties of the State have not yet 
been surveyed and putin market by the government; are uninhabited or settled 
only by Indians and traders, and are not of course considered in making up 
the average increase. No county reports an active decrease in value of farm 
Jands, though Morrison, sparsely settled, and Cass, just coming into market, 
report no change in price since 1860 ; and Ramsey, in which the capital is located, 
and where lands were held very high at that date, reports little if any advance. 
Brown, Nicollet, and Watonwan claim an increase of 300 per cent., the first- 
named somewhat higher; Wabashaw, 250 per cent.; Carlton and Carver, 125 
to 150 per ceut.; Mower, Freeborn, and Faribault, 100 per cent.; Dodge, 70 
per cent.; Rice and Washington, 50 per cent.; Houston, Winona, Le Sueur, 
and Scott, 25 to 33 per cent., and several others ranging from 5 to 25 per cent. 
2. Vast quantities of government lands are yet unsold, and may be purchased 
at the minimum price of $1 25 per acre, or entered as homesteads under acts of 
Congress making provision therefor. In the counties which have been taken 
up, however, the wild or unimproved lands are held at higher figures, running 
from $2 per acre upwards. In Carlton such lands command $3 per acre, loamy, 
but in small tracts light and sandy; in general fertile, and well adapted to 
winter wheat, roots, all kinds of grain, (except Indian corn.) also timothy and 
clover. In Crow Wing $2 50 per acre; Morrison, containing public lands, 
$1 25 per acre; a portion first-class, others light; generally well timbered ; 
presents rare advantages for settlement under the homestead laws. Monongalia 
and Wright, $5 per acre; prairie and timber, clay subsoil, soil dark, deep, 
and rich, capable of producing excellent wheat and small grain. Washington, 
$8 per acre; the southern half of the county mostly prairie of the best quality ; 
with good cultivation it will produce 40 bushels of wheat to the aere; in the 
northern part the land is more broken and covered with burr oak; the soil is 
stiff; produces good crops of wheat and oats, grass, &c. Carver, $8 per acre; 
timber and meadow; soil good, capable of producing all crops suited to the 
latitude ; several beautiful lakes in the county, affording an abundance of good 
fish and pure water. Scott; nearly all the unimproved land in this county is 
either marsh or woodland; the former at this time has but little market value, 
but its prospective value is great for forage purposes, it being susceptible of easy 
