Catholic Colonization in Minnesota: Revised EditionCatholic Colonization Bureau
History
Catholic Colonization in Minnesota: Revised Edition
Catholic Colonization Bureau
Agriculture -- Minnesota; Catholics -- Minnesota
In official reports before us, we find many interesting extracts from
the writings of well-known public men, agriculturists, geologists,
professors in various branches of science, engineers, surveyors and
government officials, who have visited Minnesota at various times on
business or pleasure, and who have borne enthusiastic testimony of her
resources, the fertility of her soil, the healthfulness of her climate
and the beauty of her scenery.
A few sentences from all these writings will suffice for us in this
place.
In the official report of General Pope, who was commissioned by the
government to make a topographical survey of portions of the State, we
find the following sentence, which embraces almost all that can be said
in praise. He says:
"I KNOW _of_ NO COUNTRY _on_ EARTH _where so_ MANY _advantages are
presented to the_ FARMER AND MANUFACTURER."
The adaptability of our rich soil for all the staple crops, as proven by
experience, the large yield per acre in wheat, oats, potatoes, &c., &c.,
the immense quantity of good land in large bodies, the truly magnificent
water power within the State, and so beneficently located in its
different sections; all these advantages, seen beneath a sky always
bright, and in a climate at all seasons healthy, may well account for
the enthusiasm which inspired the above eulogy on Minnesota.
The accredited correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, who visited this
State some three years ago, is equally enthusiastic in his published
letters to his paper. We give two extracts from those letters.
"No wonder the people here wear such smiling countenances. They are
full of hope. I have yet to see the first despairing or gloomy
face. Melancholy belongs to the overcrowded cities, and there is
plenty of it in Chicago.
"Is it not astonishing that so many able-bodied men should hang
about our large cities doing nothing, because they can find nothing
to do, and nearly starving to death, when these broad and fertile
prairies are calling upon them to come and release the treasures
which lie within the soil.
"The resources or this State are immense. It has every variety of
wealth, and every facility for profitable exchange. There is no
more productive soil in the world. Then the State has an abundance
of pine timber. It has a vast amount of available water power, and
offers every facility and encouragement to manufacturing industry.
It has mineral wealth on Lake Superior of iron and copper, in
inexhaustible abundance. There is no region in this country, or any
country, that I am aware of, that is so well watered. And the water
is everywhere clear and pure. It is a land of great rivers,
pellucid lakes, and sparkling streams.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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