MINNESOTA. 



4X!I 



partment is constantly waging war, and the re- 

 port contains a record of seizures of this article 

 which fills more than 5 pages. The cheese and 

 civamery reports are exceedingly favorable, and 

 the miik offered to the public in the cities, as 

 tested and analyzed by the State chemist, com- 

 pares favorably with that of other States. In 

 the two years 4,142 samples of milk have been 

 inspected with an average of 3'63 per cent, fat, 

 the standard being 3'5 percent. There are 571,- 

 481 cows in the State, according to the latest as- 

 sessors' reports, a large proportion of which are 

 " scrubs." There are 230 creameries, whose ag- 

 gregate annual products amount to $5,520,000 a 

 year. These are principally in the southern part 

 of the State, each taking in the milk product of 

 the farmers for a distance of from 1| to 3 miles. 



The wheat crop was greatly injured in several 

 counties by the chinch bug. The product for 

 the State was estimated at 15 bushels to the acre, 

 or a total of 50,000,000. 



The corn crop suffered so much from the 

 drought of July and August and the price of 

 wheat was so low that farmers began feeding 

 wheat to their stock. A few hogs or cattle 

 would be separated from the main bunch for ex- 

 perimental purposes, and a daily record of the 

 weight of wheat they consumed and of their 

 loss or gain in weight was kept. 



Alfalfa fields were used as pasture for young 

 pigs, and what they gathered there was sup- 

 plemented with crushed wheat, generally fed 

 dry. 



The experiment was very successful, some 

 fanners estimating that the wheat, which would 

 bring 35 to 40 cents a bushel in the market, 

 would bring $1 a bushel when converted into 

 pork. A more conservative estimate is that it is 

 worth from 50 to 65 cents to feed to fattening 

 hogs and cattle, and worth more than those fig- 

 ures to feed to young, growing stock. 



This method, moreover, reduces freight charges 

 considerably, since 60 pounds of grain go to make 

 11 to 13 pounds of meat. 



Site for the New Capitol. The Capitol 

 commissioners have bought about eight acres of 

 land in St. Paul for this purpose. It is at the 

 head of Wabasha Street, within three blocks of 

 the present Capitol, and fronting on the main 

 electric thoroughfare between St. Paul and Min- 

 neapolis. The situation, while not conspicuously 

 elevated, is sufficiently so to give a commanding 

 prominence to the new building, since the city in 

 front of it slopes downward many feet toward the 

 south. The total cost is about $283,000. 



Itasca Lake Park. Prom the report of the 

 commissioner it appears that the State has ac- 

 quired the ownership and control of 10,879 acres 

 within the limits of the park, and that there are 

 still within these limits 8,823 acres' owned by 

 private persons and scattered in tracts of vari- 

 ous sizes among the State lands. See article on 

 GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS in this volume. 



Gold. The finding of gold in the regions of 

 Rainy lake and the Lake of the Woods has at- 

 tracted prospectors, and stage lines to the Rainy 

 lake district have been started from Tower, on 

 the Vermilion range, and Mountain Iron, on 

 the Mesaba range, about equally distant from 

 the gold field. Rainy Lake City has been laid 

 out and platted on the Canadian side. The 



truth seems to be that, while many of the re- 

 ports have been greatly exaggerated, gold is 

 mined in paying quantities, the ore assaying 

 from $25 the ton upward. Some well-equipped 

 mines are running at both lakes. Gold has also 

 be'en found in Redwood County, where pros- 

 pectors were seeking asbestus, and also on the 

 middle branch of Whitewater river near Quincy. 



Drain ing Red River Valley. The Legis- 

 lature of 1893, on condition that the Great 

 Northern Railway Company would contribute 

 one fourth of that amount, appropriated $100,- 

 000, to be expended at the rate of $25,000 a year 

 during four years, for the purpose of draining 

 Red river valley by opening closed water courses 

 leading into the Red river and its tributaries, 

 and by opening existing streams in the valley. 

 The Great Northern Railroad Company has 

 complied with the condition. The board hav- 

 ing the work in charge have finished 2 ditches 

 the Tamarack river ditch in Marshall County, 

 and the Sand Hill river ditch in Polk County- 

 each about 7 miles long, 20 feet wide, and 4$ to 

 5 feet in depth, at a cost of about $45,000 ; and 

 also a third the Mustinka river ditch. By this 

 means thousands of acres of wet, swampy, and 

 overflowed lands have been rendered tillable. 

 Part of them a're owned by the State, and the 

 increase in their value is largely in excess of the 

 cost of the work. 



Timber Frauds. Frauds having been 

 charged in the business of selling the pine 

 stum page on the public lands, the Legislature 

 directed the Governor to make an investigation 

 of a sale made by the Auditor in Mille Lacs 

 County. According to the law, no timber other 

 than pine can be sold apart from the land, and 

 pine timber can only be sold after a board, com- 

 posed of the Governor, State Auditor, and State 

 Treasurer has determined that the timber is in 

 danger of being destroyed. After such deter- 

 mination the timber must be duly estimated and 

 then sold at public sale to the highest bidder. 

 It was charged that the pine had been sold to 

 lumber companies at much less than its value 

 and the State thereby defrauded. The commit- 

 tee found that, according to the evidence, the 

 sales had been conducted in the interest of the 

 buyers of stumpage, and that, while some of the 

 evil was due to defects in the law, much also was 

 due to official negligence. They also found that 

 hard wood had been sold from the school lands, 

 a transaction wholly unauthorized by law, and 

 that the same negligence had been shown in 

 reference to ascertaining its value and the cor- 

 rectness of the reports of the cutting. In the 

 charge in reference to leases of mineral lands, 

 that in many cases where these lands were cov- 

 ered with valuable timber five-year prospector's 

 leases had been taken out to secure the timber, 

 the committee found that, while there were rec- 

 ords of 3,200 leases, only 331 mining contracts 

 had been issued. The report says: 



In view of all the foregoing facts, this committee 

 believes that not one single sale of pine stumpage 

 upon the school lands of the State made by Auditors 

 Braden and Biermann between March 7, 1885, and 

 Jan. 1, 1893, were legal and valid sales; that not one 

 legal or valid approval of any estimate and appraisal 

 has been made by the Governor, Auditor, and Treas- 

 urer during that period embraced in said dates. 



