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and cheap drainage, and thus improved and sown to timothy and red-top grasses 
would become enduring and first-rate meadows, an important item when stock 
is kept up half the year; woodlands now command $15, and in the course 
of a decade of years will average not less than $50peracre. Rice, $7 per acre, 
with land similar to that just described, timber and low land. Le Sueur, $6 
to $10 per acre; land rolling, deep, sandy soil, capable of producing large 
crops of wheat, oats, corn, potatoes, &c., for a long series of years without 
manure. Nicollet, $2 50 to $10 per acre; rolling prairie, friable, black 
loam, with clay subsoil, will produce wheat and other cereals, &c. In Brown 
county a portion of the “Sioux reserve” is in the market at $1 25 per acre; 
rolling prairie, soil a rich, black. humus, about two feet thick. Watonwan, 
$7 50 per acre; black, sandy loam onclay subsoil. Faribault, $3 to $6; rolling 
prairie; good soil. Mower, $6; level prairie; good rich soil. Freeborn, $3 50 
per acre; suitable for farming or grazing. Dodge, $12 per acre; mostly good, 
dry, tillable prairie; balance (except a small percentage of wet peat land) timber, 
worth $20 per acre. Wabashaw, $12 50 per acre; rich prairie. Winona, $5 
per acre; good for wheat, corn, oats, potatoes, &c. Houston, $7 per acre; soil 
fertile and productive, especially for wheat. ‘There is a vast area or territory 
yet unsurveyed within the limits of this State, perhaps one-half of the whole State, 
embracing a variety of soil, resources, &c., which will be open to settlers as 
speedily as the demand shall require the government survey. 
3. The great resources of Minnesota are to be found in her rich soil and adapta- 
tion to successful agriculture, though valuable minerals exist in several counties, 
and, for a prairie region, the State is well supplied with timber. In the western 
portion of the State there is a scarcity, but in most of the counties there is a 
sufficiency of timber to meet the wants of the population, while in some sections 
it is found in great abundance, and must prove valuable. Cass reports pine 
timber in quantity, now being developed. Morrison, Le Sueur, Scott, Rice, 
Dodge, Nicollet, Carlton, Carver, and other counties report an abundance of 
white, red, and other oaks, elms, bass, butternut, black walnut, poplar, sugar 
maple, pine, elder, hickory, &c. 
Our Carver correspondent says: 
This being a timber county, with market facilities for surplus wood, clearing land is pro- 
fitable, instead of an expense to the farmer. Wood on the stump is worth from 75 cents to 
$1 25 per cord. Good wood sells at $4 per cord. 
In Scott county their oak timber is utilized for railroad ties, car and wagon 
stuff, &c.; the several varieties of maple for furniture and sugar-making; the 
bass-wood for boards and dimension stuff in building; red elm for railroad ties 
and fencing, and the white elm for bridge and stable plank; the ash for flooring 
and carriage-making, and an immense number of young hickories are annually 
cut for hoop-poles. 
Carlton county reports some gold, but not enough has been done to test the 
quality or whether the quartz is rich enough to pay for mining. The reporter 
further says: 
There is an abundance of superior slate near the St. Louis River Falls, with water privilege, 
second to none in the United States, close to the quarries. The tract comprising the slate 
country is about 26 miles long by 6 miles wide. Inducements for the development of lum- 
ber and slate will be great when the Mississippi and Lake Superior railroad shall have been 
built. 
In Nicollet there is abundance of iron ore, but not yet developed, owing to 
lack of capital; iron is also found of good quality in Brown county, but is of 
little value, owing to the want of wood and coal to work it. Limestone of 
superior quality is found in Dodge, Rice, Brown, Houston, and other counties. 
Coal and copper appear in Nicollet; while in Brown county potter’s clay of fine 
quality is found in beds 10 feet thick, from which two potteries are now manu- 
facturing ware which finds ready market. 
