32 AGEICULTURAL REPORT. 



Beyond this, towards and on Run river, a clayey soil predominates. On the 

 west shore, and extending to our own State line, both north and west, clay 

 and black loam of unsurpassed fertility invite the husbandman to deposit his 

 teed with good promise of rich rewards. I presume that the country north 

 and west of the Falls of St. Anthony, as far as the British possessions, presents 

 a greater variety of soil, and better adapted to the real wants of the farmer, 

 than any like portion of the country in the west. It is.oftcu said by travellers 

 that three-fourths of the farms in this region are well supplied by nature with 

 wood and water. 



PRODUCTIONS. 



Both spring and winter wheat are raised in perfection ; also oats, corn, rye, 

 barley, buckwheat, hemp, flax, and tobacco ; in fact, we never hesitate to plant 

 any crop usually considered reliable in the New England States. Potatoes 

 and all other root crops excel, in this part of the State, any like products I 

 have ever seen elsewhere, particularly in quality. 



STOCK-RAISING. 



Eelying chiefly upon the wild grasses for hay and pasturage, we are at 

 present making good progress in this branch of agriculture. Stock, generally, 

 is allowed to roam on the prairies and in the timber, picking such food as best 

 pleases their taste, the result of which is good, wholesome beef, and the rich 

 butter and cheese that such food produces. Diseased livers in animals raised 

 here are, I believe, unknown. As to the quality of the stock now seen, there 

 has been the most rapid improvement ; in fact, Minnesota has some of the best 

 blooded animals that can be found in the western country. 



WOOL. 



Probably in no branch of stock-raising shall we be more proficient and suc- 

 cessful than in sheep. Our peculiarly dry and cold winters make our State 

 every way adapted to the business, and immense numbers, and of every breed 

 yet introduced into this country, are to be found here. There is every reason 

 to believe that in five years the clip of Minnesota will equal that of any other 

 State in the Union. 



FRUITS. 



A State that but fourteen years ago was inhabited wholly by Indians, with- 

 out a single Protestant church, or a village containing two Yankee families, 

 within its limits, cannot be expected to boast of noble orchards. They have 

 been planted, however, and though some have proved failures, others have 

 brought forth fruit, and two hundred bushels of apples is the estimated crop of 

 our State for 1863. Hundreds have given their opinion that this would never 

 be a fruit-raising country ; but when we take into consideration the fact that 

 the same opinion prevailed regarding the first attempts in all the northern 

 States that now export fruit, we may well take courage from our present suc- 

 cess and persevere. Among our wild fruits we find apples, grajjes, wild cher- 

 ries, haws, sand plums, gooseberries, thimbleberries, whortleberries, blueberries, 

 raspberries, black currants, checkerberries, blackberries, strawberries, and cran- 

 berries. Of wild plums we have some fifteen varieties that I am familiar with, 

 and I learn that there are still more. The greater part of those I have eaten are 

 of superior flavor. Certainly, if such a variety of fruit yields in abundance, and 

 endures our extremes of heat and cold, why have we not good reason to believe 

 that we are in a fruit region 1 In the eastern and middle States I notice that 

 they are under the necessity of covering raspberries and grapes in winter, I 

 venture to say that our wild raspberries, that never see covering, bear more 



