PAPERS OX GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY 223 



cultivation in Olmsted County was planted in wheat 21 , 



and that in 1870, Fillmore, Goodhue, Wabasha, and Wi- 

 nona Counties, each produced more than 1,300,000 bush- 

 els of wheat, and Olmsted County more than 2,000,000 

 bushels (Fig. 1). The relative importance of the south- 

 eastern counties is indicated by the fact that with one ex- 

 ception the counties mentioned were the only ones in the 

 state to raise more than 1,000,000 bushed 



Climax of wheat raising. Bonanza farming in the 

 southeastern counties culminated in the five years from 

 1875 to 1880. The largest acreage in the state as a whole 

 occurred in 1S78, when wheat was grown on 68. 93 per 

 cent of all cultivated land 23 . In the southeastern coun- 

 ties the largest crop was produced in 1875, when these 

 counties produced 38 per cent of the state's crop. The 

 production and distribution of the- crop in that year by 

 counties and townships clearly reflects the natural in- 

 vironment. In that year, Wabasha and Yv'inona counties 

 each produced more than 1,000,000 bushels of wheat, 

 Olmsted and Fillmore counties more than 2,000,000 bush- 

 els, and Goodhue County more than 3,000,000 bushels- 4 

 (Fig. 1). The three counties last named owe their large 

 production to (1) their large size, (2) their nearly level 

 surface, being much less dissected than Houston, AVinona 

 and Wabasha counties, and (3) their fertile loess and 

 glacial soils. 



In Goodhue County wheat was raised on 30 per cent 

 of its area and occupied 81 per cent of its cultivated land. 

 Such a production led early writers to describe Minne- 

 sota as one continuous wheat field 25 and to claim that 

 Red Wing was the "leading primary wheat market in 

 the world 2 ". Vasa, Belle Creek, Goodhue. Wanamingo 

 and Zumbrota townships each produced more than 

 000 bushels of wheat in the year in question. All of 

 them have a nearly level surface, a loess soil, and little 

 waste land. In the northern part of the county the pro- 



r.nual Report of the State Auditor, Session of 1867, Minnesota Ex. 

 Docs, for 1S66. p. 61. 



th Census of the United Statts; Robinson, op. cit., pp. 260, 261. 

 53 Robinson, op. cit., p. 



h Annual R-port of Commissioner of Statistics CSt. Paul, 1 

 [ 



:5 Geol. and Nat. Hist. Surv. of Minn.. Vol. I. p. 337. 



M Hancock, R. W. : Fast and Present in Goodhue Countv, (Red Wing, 

 1893), p. 1S7. 



