508 



MINNESOTA. 



surface, and producing 15,381,022 bushels. 

 The average yield for the eleven years ending 

 1869 was 17 bushels per acre. The oat crop 

 of 1869 averaged 43 bushels per acre for the 

 whole State, and there are well-authenticated 

 instances of averages reaching 60 to 75 bush- 

 els per acre. The corn crop of 1868 showed 

 a total of 4,849,836 bushels, and an average of 

 37 bushels per acre. The average yield of 

 barley for 1869 was 37 bushels per acre, and 

 of potatoes 120. The total value of agricultural 

 products for 1869 was $2,300,000. The fol- 

 lowing table exhibits the items of production 

 and acreage for the year: 



Total tilled area 1,611,594 



Wheat, acres cultivated 1,018.808 



Wheat, bushels produced 17,271,968 



Oats, acres cultivated 285,653 



Oats, bushels produced : . 10,762,209 



Cora, acres cultivated 148,773 



Corn, bushels produced 4,236,822 



Barley, acres cultivated 45,318 



Barley, bushels produced 1,256,686 



Buckwheat, acres cultivated 2,951 



Buckwheat, bushels produced 51,684 



Bye, acres cultivated 4,648 



Rye, bushels produced 75,866 



Potatoes, acres cultivated 21 ,399 



Potatoes, bushels produced 1,633,483 



Tons of hay (cultivated) 73,694 



Tons of hay (wild) 543,758 



Number of apple-trees in bearing 20,800 



Bushels of apples produced 9,932 



Pounds of butter 6,593,528 



Pounds of wool 385,766 



The statistics for 1870 had not been com- 

 pleted at the end of the year, but the follow- 

 ing are the official estimates for the three prin- 

 cipal crops : 



Total tilled area 1,883,671 



Area in wheat 1,003,597 



Areain oats 356,408 



Area in corn 204,129 



Wheat, bushels 13,000,000 



Oats, bushels 8,553,792 



Corn, bushels... 7,552,773 



The subject of timber-planting has recently 

 occupied considerable attention in the State. 

 The Governor, in his annual message to the 

 Legislature, in January, 1871, refers to this 

 subject in the following terms: 



At the suggestion of the State Horticultural So- 

 ciety, I would invite your attention to this matter. 

 It is thought that, if we should not succeed in dis- 

 covering coal witnin the limits of the State, our ex- 

 tensive prairies will never be thickly peopled, unless 

 the cultivation of trees be made successful ; and even 

 with cheap fuel the demands for timber for other 

 purposes, and remoteness from our native forests, 

 would render the supply of the demand very expen- 

 sive, to say nothing of other inconveniences, and 

 want of attractiveness resulting from the absence of 

 trees. 



I apprehend that not only the cultivation of timber 

 for general purposes, but the planting of trees along 

 our open roads for both shelter and ornament, might 

 be encouraged, and much done to make both suc- 

 cessful, by a system of rewards or premiums, or, it 

 may be, by an abatement of a fixed amount of the 

 taxes assessed on property thus improved ; and this 

 with trifling expense to the State. 



At the head-waters of the tributaries of the 

 Mississippi and St. Croix Kivers are extensive 

 pineries, where the cutting of logs and the 

 manufacture of lumber form an important ele- 



ment of the wealth of the State. In this re- 

 gion, during the year, the logs scaled amounted 

 to 313,116,416 feet, being an increase of 7,969,- 

 432 feet over the business of 1869. The ex- 

 tensive water-power at St. Anthony, Falls of 

 St. Croix, and other localities in the State, 

 greater than the whole steam and hydraulic 

 power employed in the textile manufactures 

 of England, has been largely used for the 

 manufacture, not only of lumber, but also of 

 flour, whiskey, and leather. The number of 

 establishments in these branches in 1869 was 

 1,650, and the value of their products was 

 $14,831,043. The minerals of Minnesota, lo- 

 cated in the northeastern section of the State, 

 are destined to be inferior only to agriculture 

 as an element of wealth and prosperity. Cop- 

 per abounds on the northern shore of Lake 

 Superior, and large masses of the pure metal 

 have been taken from that locality. Iron-ore, 

 in considerable quantity, found near Lake 

 Pepin, has been tested, which proved to be 

 fully equal in tenacity and malleability to the 

 best Swedish or Eussian iron. Coal has re- 

 cently been discovered in the vicinity of New 

 Ulm. Other minerals are found in the State, 

 such as salt, lime, and white sand for glass, 

 but the development of mineral resources 

 may be said to be meagre in the extreme. 



Education is regarded as a matter of prime 

 importance by the people of the State, and the 

 schools are in a flourishing condition. The 

 whole number of persons in the State between 

 the ages of five and twenty-one on the 30th of 

 September, 1869, was 144,414, and on the 

 same date of 1870, 155,767, an increase of 12,- 

 022. The whole number of pupils attending 

 the public schools during the year was 110,- 

 590, an increase of 11,895 over the attendance 

 of 1868. Winter schools were taught in 1,955 

 of the 2,626 school districts of the State, the 

 terms averaging in length 3.43 months. Sum- 

 mer schools were taught in 2,155 districts, the 

 terms averaging 3.4 months. The whole num- 

 ber of teachers employed and in active service 

 during the year was 4,111, 336 more than in 

 1869. The average wages paid male teachers 

 was $37.14 per month; female, $23.36. The 

 whole amount paid for teachers' wages during 

 the year was $432,443.02. The school-houses 

 in the State are valued at $1,582,507.81, the 

 increase for the year being $242,816.93. The 

 whole amount expended during the year for 

 school purposes was $857,816.30. A land en- 

 dowment of two sections in each township has 

 been set apart by the General Government for 

 the support of common schools. It is esti- 

 mated that these lands will amount to 2,900,- 

 000 acres, the interest on the sales of which, 

 together with the annual tax of two mills on 

 the dollar, constitutes the present common- 

 school fund of the State. The permanent 

 school fund on the 30th of November, 1869, 

 had reached the sum of $2,476,222.19. The 

 interest on this fund, which was distributed 

 among the schools during the year, amounted 



