224 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



duction was small, reflecting the dissected surface and 

 less productive soils of that section. Likewise the acre- 

 age and production of wheat was relatively small in 

 northwestern Olmsted County where the surface is dis- 

 sected by the South Branch of Zumbro River, the drift 

 is thin, loess is absent and the soil derived from the sand- 

 stone or limestone formations is poor 27 . The two leading 

 townships in wheat production in the state in that year 

 were Farmington township in the northeastern part of 

 Olmsted County and Elgin township in Wabasha County, 

 which joins it on the east, each of whieh produced more 

 than 200,000 bushels. These townships cover a broad 

 and nearly level stretch of prairie with a deep and fertile 

 loess soil 28 . 



In Fillmore County the townships in which the yield 

 was less than 100,000 bushels were in the dissected lands 

 contiguous to Root River and its tributaries. In Winona 

 and Houston counties the townships along the bluff lands 

 of the Mississippi and Root valleys, and the upland 

 ridges produced less than 100,000 bushels. The town- 

 ships of maximum production were those occupying 

 Wilmington Prairie in Houston County and Lewiston 

 Prairie in Winona County 29 . In all of these counties, 

 the townships in which more than 100,000 bushels of 

 wheat were raised are on the uplands. In general, the 

 greatest yields came from townships with a minimum of 

 dissection, and from those which have loess over much 

 of their surface. 



After 1880 the acreage and production of wheat in 

 southeastern Minnesota declined rapidly and the acreage 

 and production of oats, corn, and barley, and the num- 

 ber of livestock increased. Although this change in 

 the farm system was due to several conditions, the most 

 important were the low price for wheat which prevailed 

 after 1880 and a gradual decrease in the yield per acre. 30 

 The average yield per acre for the six counties in this 

 area in 1875 was 18.6 bushels ; by 1880 it had dropped to 

 11.5 bushels. Moreover, weeds became such a menace 



"Geol. and Nat. Hist. Surv. of Minn., Vol. I, pp. 337-338. 

 28 8th Annual Report of Commissioner of Statistics, pp. 29-34. 

 *• Ibid. 

 30 Robinson, op. cit., p. 



