MINNESOTA. 



and better fruit, and I have gathered many a quart of Llackben-ies which aver- 

 aged each an inch in diameter. Some attention has been given to the cultiva- 

 tion of the Isabella, Delaware, Concord, and other choice grapes, and with fair 

 success, which offers sufficient inducements to warrant every cultivator cf the 

 soil to plant a vineyard for family use at least. 



TIMBER. 



Pine stands first, and of this we have enough to supply all the demands that 

 may be made upon the forests for a hundred years. Its quality is unsurpassed, 

 and it is easy of access. Our list of hard timber comprises sugar and white 

 maple, ash, black and white hickory, elm, butternut, black walnut, red, white, 

 black, and live oak, basswood, birch, wild cherry, hackleberry, dogwood, horn- 

 beam, poplar, spruce, and tamarack, of which latter we have swamps extending 

 for miles. This is much used for fencing and building purposes, making gooil 

 and durable frames for houses and barns. Without going so much into detail 

 as the interest of the subject naturally would lead me, and the limit of my 

 notes requiring that I should touch but briefly upon the various topics that need 

 to be mentioned in making such a sketch, I will next refer to our 



MANUFACTURING FACILITIES; 



and on this point I can safely say that we have in the rivers above the Falls 

 of St. Anthony, including the Mississippi, a sufficient available water-power to 

 propel all the machinery now in motion in the United States. In fact, what 

 we term the upper Mississippi is navigable only for light-draught steamboats, 

 on an average of three months in the year, and during that period, at present, 

 only used for a distance of seventy miles. This river might, by means of 

 dams and locks, be made an available steam canal for a distance of at least four 

 hundred miles, and thus connected with Lake Superior, it would extend through 

 the most fertile region of the northwest, and furnish all the power necessary 

 for any machinery that would be called for, and also furnishing any quantity 

 of water for the irrigation of our soil. The tributaries of the upper river also 

 furnish valuable water-power, and are already occupied by the enterprise which 

 was early displayed by our first settlers. Timber and grist mills are found on 

 every stream, while at the Falls of St. Anthony, water-wheels are turning 

 every kind of machinery the business of our State requires ; and I do not be- 

 lieve that there exist in the United States greater inducements to the mechanical 

 genius of our country than would be furnished by the improvement of this 

 river as I have suggested, and I believe the time is not far distant when that 

 improvement will be accomplished. The steps of progress now being taken, 

 through the enterprise of our leading men, mark a future for our State that 

 even the most sanguine hardly dare anticipate. Every year has opened some 

 new source of wealth ; and where we first sought our income from two saw- 

 mills and the Indian trade, we now draw wealth, in part, from inexhaustible mines 

 of copper, iron, and coal, while salt lakes and petroleum springs remain unused, 

 which must shortly increase our exports, and give to us what we desire — a 

 permanent and active population. 



CLIMATE. 



This is an interesting topic, and the chief feature of attraction to all who 

 visit Minnesota. Strangers consider our State a cold region, from the fact that 

 during the winter the mercury sometimes falls to foi-ty degrees below zero, 

 Fahrenheit. These are really cold figures, but their force is much modified by 

 attending circiunstances. I may be excused, therefore, for going so minutel/ 

 into the subject as to sketch each month in the year, commencing with 



March. — This with us corresponds with the same month in the New England 

 States. Our farmers engage in making maple sugar and preparations for sj^ring 

 work. 



