PAPERS OX GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY 219 



date from Wabasha Prairie, a river terrace on which the 

 city of Winona is located, to the upland along each of 

 the several small valleys which focus on the terrace. 



During the pioneer years some attempts were made to 

 grow winter wheat on the upland prairies. Of those in 

 Olmsted County local reports state that winter wheat 

 was a success only once in three years 8 , and this experi- 

 ence was found to hold on other prairies. In most years 

 the wheat was killed during the winter because the prai- 

 ries were so broad, open, and windswept that the snow 

 was blown off, leaving the wheat exposed to the alter- 

 nate freezing and thawing occasioned by diurnal and 

 cyclonic temperature changes. In some years the fall of 

 snow was too light or came too late in the season to pro- 

 tect the wheat 9 . In other years a warm spell melted the 

 snow and covered the fields with water, which if it be- 

 came ice killed the wheat. 



In the valleys and timbered tracts, snow drifts much 

 :han on the prairies, so that winter wheat was grown 

 successfully. In 1859, the commissioner of statistics ad- 

 dressed specific inquiries to the different counties, ask- 

 ing for reports on the success of winter wheat. The re- 

 plies showed that it was a failure in the counties which 

 were mainly prairie, but was a success in those which in- 

 cluded large areas of bluff lands or timber'-'. Until the 

 improved methods of milling were introduced, the 

 winter wheat crop in the valleys and wooded tracts in the 

 southeastern part of the state was important. Good 

 flour was made from it in the small water-power mills 

 located near rapids or falls in the streams. Some of these 

 mills gained a considerable local reputation for their 

 flour. A few of them have been in business for more 

 than fifty years, grinding the small amount of wheat 

 annually produced in the communities tributary to them. 

 The pioneers shortly discovered that spring wheat is 

 adapted admirably to the conditions on the upland prai- 

 ries. The crop seldom is damaged by frost 11 , as the 

 growing season, varying from 140 to 150 days, is ade- 



3 First Annual Report of Commissioner of Statistics (Hartford, 1860). 

 •Ibid., p. 94. 

 30 Ibid., p. 94. 



11 Purcell. V. G. : Climatic Conditions of Minnesota, Minnesota Geologi- 

 cal Survey, Bull, No. 12, pp. 19-21. 



