GENERAL PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



125 



Soils and subsoils.] 



Lake St. Croix, 672 



White Bear lake, 910 



ELEVATION OF HILLS, VALLEYS AND PLATEAUS. 



Red river flats at Moorhead, 913 



Red river flats at St. Vincent, - 800 



Coteau des Prairies, 1800-1900 



Prairies of the Minnesota valley, - 1000-1200 



Prairies of Waseca and Steele counties, - 1100-1200 



Prairies of Freeborn and Mower counties, - 1200-1400 

 The valley lands of the Mississippi and its tributaries 

 in the counties of Houston, Fillmore, Winona, 



Wabasha and Goodhue, - 650- 900 



The upland prairies of the same counties, - - 1000-1200 



The wooded region of the upper Mississippi, - 1200-1500. 



The wooded flats between Cass lake and lake of the 



Woods, - 1100-1400 



The summits of the Giant's range, 2100-2200 



The summits of the Mesabi range, - 2100-2200 



The summits of the Sawteeth range, - 1800-2000 



Rolling plateau surrounding Itasca lake, - - 1500-1700 



Leaf hills, in Otter Tail county, 1500-1750 



V. THE KINDS AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE SOILS AND SUB-SOILS. 



There is an element in the arable soils of Minnesota which gives them 

 a general uniform similarity whatever be their origin or chemical qualities. 

 They are seldom stony. The materials are almost everywhere finely com- 

 minuted, constituting a clay, or a loam, or a sandy loam, or a pebbly clay. 

 Even where the till rises to the surface and constitutes the soil, the chief 

 ingredient is clay, and the stones that naturally belong to the till are so 

 few that none are found to interfere with agriculture. The areas of stony 

 soils are restricted to the broken tracts associated with the great moraines 

 that cross the state, and to the slopes or tops of hills where drainage has 

 so denuded the till-surfaces that the stones it contained have been 

 concentrated. 



