No. 4.] FARMERS' NATIONAL CONGRESS. 597 



with Lakes Harriet, Como and other places of interest, should 

 not be overlooked by the visitor to St. Paul and Minneapolis. 



A few facts in relation to the State of Minnesota may not 

 be out of place in closing this report. 



Minnesota, in the Lidian language, signifies " sky-tinted 

 water, " or ' ' clear blue water ; " and when we consider that 

 within the borders of the State there are more than 10,000 

 lakes, great and small, whose clear waters were appreciated 

 by the aborigines, we see the appropriateness of the name. 



These lakes are said to cover an area of 2,500,000 acres, 

 or 4,000 square miles, not including the area of its great 

 rivers. The largest of these lakes, not including Superior, 

 on its eastern border, are Lake of the Woods, 612 square 

 miles ; Red Lake, 342 ; Mille Lacs, 198 ; Leech, 194 ; Rainy, 

 146 ; Winnebigoshish, 78 ; and Vermillion, 63 square miles. 



Minnesota has also many rivers, such as the Mississippi, 

 w^hich takes its rise in Lake Itaska, and its tributaries, direct 

 and indirect, are numerous ; and there are the Crow Wing, 

 Hum, Crow^, St. Croix, Minnesota, Mankato, Elk, etc. The 

 St. Louis and others discharge their waters through the Great 

 Lakes into the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; the Red River through 

 Lake Winnipeg into Hudson's Bay ; while the Mississippi 

 and its tributaries discharge theirs into the Gulf of Mexico. 

 The water-shed divide of this part of the continent is in 

 Minnesota. 



The State has an area of 83,365 square miles, — larger 

 than all New England l)y a surphis equal to twice the area of 

 Massachusetts, with that of Rhode Island included once. To 

 a New Englander the proportions and area of this great State 

 of the west seem gigantic. 



Minnesota east of the Mississippi River was a portion of 

 the original domain of the United States, and has belonged 

 successively to the North-west Territory and to the Territories 

 of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. 

 That part west of the Mississippi was included in the Louis- 

 iana purchase from France, and has belonged in turn to the 

 District of Louisiana, to the Territory of Louisiana, and to 

 the Territories of Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minne- 

 sota. Part of the south-eastern section was for a time in- 

 cluded in the State of Iowa. 



