328 ANNUAL REPOKT. 



market, but will bear transportation. It is only in such a place 

 as the World's Exijosition that we can learn the positioii that 

 we, as a State, are entitled to. From conversation with others 

 engaged in this industry I learn that Minnesota amber cane 

 yields nearly double that of the Southern States and that the 

 quality is the best. It is to be hojied that cane growers will 

 keep a sharp lookout after this industry, which has been shown 

 to be able to secure a commanding position in the markets of 

 the world." 



MINNESOTA. 



The following address was delivered at New Orleans by Gen, 

 J. H. Baker, and should be read and studied. It is a masterly 

 and truthful statement of the vast resourcesof our grand State: 



There is an aristocracy in nature, as among men — the loftier 

 mountains, the grand old oceans, the greater planets — which 

 challenges our admiration and commands our homage. So among 

 rivers, there are great names like the Danube, the Nile, or the 

 Ganges, the very mention of which fills the imagination and 

 tells of empires washed by their waves. To-day we stand by the 

 '^ Father of Waters," which God hath made the artery of a great 

 continent. Young empires deck its shores as it meanders 

 through nearly every zone which belts the globe. Bright in- 

 telligences with all the higher aspirations of life, with all the 

 brighter forms of civilization, have come to people its shores, as 

 if indeed "time's noblest offspring was the last." As this proud 

 river flows onward in its march to the sea, it bears upon its 

 bosom the bounties of nature and the productions of art for inter- 

 change between one state and another, thus forming a highway 

 for common benefits and interest: a link creating ties and relations 

 alike natural and reciprocal, the people so located can never feel 

 indifferent to each other. One government, one policy, one in- 

 terest, one prosperity is their probable destiny. A misfortune 

 or a folly might prove the equal injury of all. If there were re- 

 sentments let the waters of this river forever wash them away. 



The Mississippi is our common inheritance. Its fountain is 

 ours; its waves to the ocean are yours ! Rising at the feet of the 

 forest pines of Itasca, it pursues its way, now in wanton meander- 

 ing, amid glens and rocks, again widening into picturesquelakes, 



