218 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



walls of the Mississippi are so steep that the upland 

 farms were not readily accessible, until roads were built 

 to them. Southeastern Minnesota is a region of nearly 

 horizontally bedded limestone, sandstone, and shales, 

 dissected to topographic early maturity by the Missis- 

 sippi Eiver and a number of its tributaries. It consists 

 of nearly level upland tracts, the surfaces of which are 

 about 1,150 feet above sea level, and of the valley floors 

 of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, which lie 

 from 350 to 400 feet below them. The upland corresponds 

 in surface to most of southeastern Minnesota, and it con- 

 stitutes the larger part of this area. The Eoot, White- 

 water, Zumbro, and Canyon rivers flow across the area 

 from west to east (Fig. 2). The deep valleys of these 

 streams divide the upland into wide, flat-topped ridges 

 which, like the rivers, extend from west to east across the 

 area. The broad summits of these ridge-like remnants of 

 the upland are fine farm lands, but their margins are not 

 because they are too greatly dissected by the head ra- 

 vines of the streams. The following table shows that 



SHIPMENTS OP FARM PRODUCE FOR RTVER POINTS IN SOUTH- 

 EASTERN MINNESOTA IN 1859' 

 (Bushels) 

 Ports Wheat 



Red Wing 30.000* 



Lake City 18,000 



Wabasha 4,800 



Reed's Landing 3,000 



Minneiska 12,000* 



Mt. Vernon 3,000* 



Winona 177.000 



La Crescent 15,000 



Hokah 3,000 



Brownsville 32,000 



in 1859 wheat had already attained first place among 

 the crops. 



The large shipments of wheat from Winona were due 

 to the fact that Winona County was settled early, and 

 that a larger tract of undissected upland suited to farm- 

 ing is tributary to Winona by wagon haul than to any 

 other point along the river. A road was built at an early 



7 Robinson. E. V. : Early Economic Conditions and the Development of 

 Agriculture in Minnesota (Minneapolis. 1915), p. 45. as corrected from 

 ■ 1st Annual Report of Commissioner of Statistics for Minnesota (Hartford. 

 18G0), p. 155. 



* All grains, but principally wheat. 



