280 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS. 



is drawn. Three of them we have in Minnesota, each in as 

 good form, probably, as in any state of the Union. 



Our forests are being depleted more or less rapidly, but if 

 we would establish some better system of planting trees, I as- 

 sure you that a great many hundreds of thousands of acres of 

 land in the state that will not be profitably used for other pur- 

 poses, might be used for replenishing the loss of our timber that 

 has been so rapidly cut. The trees in Minnesota furnishing 

 saw-timber are practically counted and measured, and the time 

 is not far distant when Minnesota will be like some of the older 

 states. Let us hope, however, that she will be wiser than they 

 and will take some steps to replace the forests which contrib- 

 uted so much to the early wealth and settlement of the country. 



Our iron mines are rich, valuable, and the most easily mined 

 in the world. But only comparatively limited districts in Min- 

 nesota have natural wealth in either forests or mines. The 

 greater part of the state must support its people chiefly by agri- 

 culture. 



The soil of our fields is fruitful; our climate is good; we 

 have an abundance of rainfall, and all the conditions that un- 

 derlie successful farming, in Minnesota. I know of no state in 

 the Union where a great diversity of agricultural employment 

 can more profitably be put into effect than in Minnesota. 



We are near, very near, the northernmost limit of the best 

 growth of wheat. I believe it is an established and accepted 

 principle that the nearer the northern limit animal or vegetable 

 growth can be carried on, the better will be the results. The 

 best of the spring wheat variety is grown south of the northern 

 boundary of this state, and I think I may say that, to find it at 

 its best, you will go thirty to fifty miles south of the northern 

 boundary of the state. Beyond that boundary the wheat ripens 

 before it is mature. Now I will explain what I mean when I 

 say that it ripens before it matures. It has not had time to 

 fill out the kernel and to finish the growth. I know that some 

 of the millers of Minneapolis years ago tried wheat from Mani- 

 toba, raised at Portage La Prairie; and while it was a good 

 sample, fair to look upon, the quality of the wheat did not com- 

 pare with that south of the boundary. The better quality of 

 hard wheat cannot be raised, in its best form, south of the Min- 

 nesota river. You can take a belt running from here to within 



