PAPERS ON GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY 213 



AGRICULTURAL ADJUSTMENTS TO THE NAT- 

 URAL ENVIRONMENT IX SOUTHEASTERN 

 MINNESOTA DURING THE PERIOD OF 

 BONANZA WHEAT FARMING 



Chakles C. Colby, University of Chicago 



The period of bonanza wheat farming in southeastern 

 Minnesota covered approximately the two decades from 



1860 to 1880. During all of this period the wheat crop 

 constituted the principal economic activity in the area, 

 and daring much of it the counties in this part of Minne- 

 sota were the leading wheat producing counties of the 

 state. Peculiar interest attaches to the development and 

 decline of wheat culture on a single crop basis in south- 

 eastern Minnesota, because this area was one of the first, 

 if not the first section of the present spring wheat area to 

 be settled and it, therefore, pioneered in spring wheat 

 farming. To appreciate the rapid rise of bonanza farm- 

 ing in the area, it must be remembered that southeastern 

 Minnesota was opened for settlement in 1853, and that 

 in the ensuing four years most of the land within a two 

 days' haul of the Mississippi was occupied. The area, 

 therefore, was settled and considerable of it was under 

 cultivation before 18G0. Thus settlers in the area were 

 in a. position to be benefited by the high prices for wheat 

 and other farm products which prevailed during the 

 Civil War. Of the crops grown, wheat shortly proved 

 to be the most profitable because it commanded a high 

 price, it produced abundantly on the fertile upland prai- 

 ries, it was grown with a relatively small amount of 

 labor, and it shipped satisfactorily via the existing means 

 of transportation to eastern markets. 



The hard labor and considerable expense connected 

 with the settlement of a new. area, and with bringing the 

 prairie into cultivation, placed the pioneers in desperate 

 need of a cash crop. Wheat met this need admirably. 

 As a rule the pioneers had limited financial resources. 

 Many of them had sold a farm or small business to ob- 

 tain the money to cover their traveling expenses to the 

 West, to pay or partially pay for their new land, and to 

 buy the tools and other equijmient needed to break and 



