302 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEREITOEIES. 



From Saint Paul to Lake Minnetonka the land is rolliug and somewhat 

 broken and sparsely covered with small oaks. There are here, as on 

 'he east side, a number of small lakes, but I noticed several small basins 

 which appear to have contained formerly small lakes, but which are now 

 only empty basins. After we pass this point the country is less hilly, 

 though still slightly rolliug ; the soil is generally rich and quite fertile ; 

 the forests are heavy, and timber large, chiefly oak, elm, and ash, with 

 some maple aud aspen. Of the oak there are two or three species, among 

 which I noticed what I supposed to be the burr-oak or over-cup {Q. 

 macrocarpa) and the scarlet oak, {Q. coccinea-,) but I may have been mis- 

 taken as to the species. As I have heretofore remarked, this timber- 

 section has a very dark, rich soil, very little of it being interrupted by 

 swamps or too wet for cultivation. I noticed here both white and red 

 clover growing luxuriantly. The few swampy flats seen were generally 

 clothed with the gloomy tamarack. These characteristics continue 

 until we come near to Darwin, where we enter upon a somewhat open 

 country, having a prairie-like appearance, though we have not yet 

 emerged upon the true i)rairies. The surface-soil is still dark and rich, 

 and the surface slightly undulating, but the subsoil where exposed 

 begins to show a heavy intermixture of gravel. At Darwin, or rather 

 a short distance beyond it, we enter upon the prairies, though a consid- 

 erable body of timber can still be seen to the north. The surface here 

 is somewhat undulating, but less broken than at the corresponding 

 IDoint on the Northern Pacific line ; there are also here scattered over 

 the country numerous small lakes, indicating an approach to the divide 

 between basins. The subsoil is still graveUy, but this character appears 

 to be gradually disappearing as we move westward. When we reach 

 Morris we enter upon a level plain, which continues without interruption 

 to Red Elver ; it is, in fact, an expansion of the valley of that river, 

 and as far north aud south as the eye can reach the same unvarying 

 level is seen; and here for forty miles is a line of railroad as straight 

 horizontally and vertically as possible to make it, without a cut or fill 

 worthy of mentioning. The soil is much the same as at Gl^ndon, on 

 the Northern Pacific; in fact, there is but little variation in the char- 

 acter of this valley its entire length. I am -satisfied that along the Saint 

 Paul and Pacific Railroad niue-tenths of the land can be cultivated and 

 will yield abundant crops of such cereals as are adapted to the climate. 

 And I may be allowed to digress here for a moment to give an idea of 

 the future prospects of this road from the grain-trade. 



Take the length in round numbers at two hundred miles and a strip 

 twenty miles wide, giving an area of four hundred square miles, or 

 2,560,000 acres ; deduct one-fifth as unfit for cultivation, and suppose 

 one-half of the remainder to be annually planted in wheat, 1,024,000 

 acres, at 17 bushels to the acre, (the average yield in Minnesota,) 

 amounts to 17,408,000 bushels. Allowing 400 bushels to the car, it would 

 take 43,520 cars, or six trains per day of 24 cars to the train, (300 days 

 in the year,) to move this immense yield of but a twenty-mile strip of 

 country. As a matter of course, it is not probable that this proportion 

 of the laud will ever be cultivated in small grain, but certainly these 

 figures do not overestimate its capability, and give us an idea of the 

 bread-producing resources of this portion ot the West. It is true the 

 ratio assumed will not apply generally, but with a moderate deduction it 

 will apply to the western half of Minnesota, the greater portion of Iowa, 

 a considerable area in Southeastern Dakota, and Eastern Nebraska. 



I should have stated that at Morris, on this line, there is a flowing 

 well of good water. The well was being dug for ordinary purposes, and 



