38 LAND AND LABOR. 



acres of wheat. By either calculation it is seen that 

 Commissioner Drake's estimate of 55 per cent, per 

 annum profit is largely within the true figure, as the 

 appreciation in the value of the land would much 

 more than repay the expenditure for improvements on 

 it. With 20 bushels to the acre the profit would be 

 $17,216, and with 12 bushels to the acre, the amount 

 expected this year, the profit would be $8,256. The 

 total value of 1,600 acres of wheat, at 70 cents per 

 bushel, and 16 bushels to the acre, is $17,920. 



These being the results of actual operations Com- 

 missioner Drake's enthusiasm appears to be thorough- 

 ly justified. 



From Windom to Sioux Falls, ninety-two miles, 

 was through a country of remarkable beauty, with 

 the land rolling in long and gentle billows covered 

 with fine grasses, dotted in wide distances with the 

 little improvements and shanties of the small farmers. 

 Occasionally were seen the broad fields and large im- 

 provements of the great agricultural adventurers, and 

 numbers of small towns on the line of the road. On 

 my return I stopped at Luverne, two hundred and 

 eleven miles from St. Paul, and made my way to the 

 bluff to the north, which proved to be about three 

 miles distant. From the edge of its sharp sides was 

 presented a magnificent stretch of beautiful country 

 which, from my point of view, appeared to be without 

 swell or billow of any kind, except upon the eastern 

 side of the valley, where there was a gentle rise to an 

 apparently interminable plain. In this vast stretch 

 the sj.arsity of population was very noticeable. Some 

 five miles to the southeast were distinctly seen the 



