Minnesota lies between the latitudes of 43 degrees, 30 minutes, and 49 degrees north, and the longitudes of 89 degrees, 29 minutes, and 97 degrees, 15 minutes west. Her extreme dimensions are therefore about 380 miles from north to south and 350 miles from east to west. Her situation is not far from the geographical centre of the North American continent, and the drainage from the Itascan plateau falls into Hudson’s Bay, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the Gulf of Mexico. The lowest land is at the head of Lake Superior, whose surface is 602 feet above sea-level. The highest land, a granite peak of the Misquah hills in Cook County, is 2230 feet above sea-level. The annual mean temperature is 44 degrees Fahrenheit; that of the summer months, 70 degrees. The climate has proved favorable to health and industry. By the state census of 1905 the total population of Minnesota was 1,979,912, including 10,920 Indians, 171 Chinese, and 50 Japanese. The native born were 1,424,333. Of the 537,041 foreign-born persons, 262,417 came from the Scandinavian kingdoms, 119,868 from Germany, 84,022 from English-speaking countries. The average yearly increase for the decade closing in 1905 was 40,529; for the five-year period, 22,852. The urban population was 1,048,922, equal to 53 per cent. of the total. In the same decade the urban population had increased 38 per cent., while the rural population had augmented but 14.5 per cent. The most notable examples of urban development are in the “twin cities” of Minneapolis and St. Paul, their aggregate population in 1905 being 458,997. If the suburban dwellers within easy “trolley” ride be added, that number rises to more than half a million. Although the two municipalities have long been coterminous, they may remain politically separate for many years, if not indefinitely. POPULATION OF MINNESOTA FOR TWELVE CENSUS YEARS. -----+-----------------+--------------- | FEDERAL CENSUS. | STATE CENSUS. -----+-----------------+--------------- 1850 | 6,077 | 1857 | | 150,037 1860 | 172,028 | 1865 | | 250,099 1870 | 439,706 | 1875 | | 597,407 1880 | 780,773 | 1885 | | 1,117,798 1890 | 1,301,826 | 1895 | | 1,574,619 1900 | 1,751,394 | 1905 | | 1,979,912 -----+-----------------+--------------- INDEX Accault leads expedition to upper Mississippi, 18. Acton murders, 197. Agricultural college, established at Glencoe (1858), 160. Agricultural school at Lake Calhoun, 67. Aldrich, Cyrus, M. C., and candidate for U. S. senator, 248; champions homestead act, 253.