Creameries, about 700 Creamery patrons 55,000 Capital invested $3,000,000 Cows supplying milk 410,000 Pounds of milk received in 1898 1,400,000,000 Pounds of butter made, 1898 63,000,000 Pounds of butter exported 50,000,000 Gross receipts, 1898 $10,400,000 Operating expenses, 1898 $1,100,000 Paid to patrons $8,600,000 Since 1884 Minnesota butter has been exhibited, in competition with similar products from all the states in the Union and the butter-making countries of the world, at all the principal fairs and expositions that have been held in the United States, and has taken more prizes than any other state or country. Its cheese has kept pace with its butter. There are in the state, in active operation, ninety-four cheese factories. This industry is constantly on the increase, and Minnesota is certainly destined to surpass every other state in the Union in this department of agriculture. While this new and valuable branch of industry was gradually superseding that of wheat in southern Minnesota, the latter was not being extinguished by any means, but simply changing its habitat. About the time that wheat culture became unprofitable in southern Minnesota, the valley of the Red River of the North began to attract attention, and it was at once discovered that it was the garden of the world for wheat culture. An intelligent and experienced farmer, Mr. Oliver Dalrymple, may be said to have been the pioneer of that enterprise. Lands in the valley were cheap, and he succeeded in gaining control of immense tracts, and unlimited capital for their development. He opened these lands up to wheat culture, and gave to the world a new feature in agriculture, which acquired the name of the "Bonanza Farm." Some of these farms embraced sixty and seventy thousand acres of land, and were divided by roads on the section lines. They were supplied with all the buildings necessary for the accommodation of the army of superintendents and employes that operated them; also, granaries and buildings for housing machinery, slaughter houses to provision the operatives, telephone systems to facilitate communication between distant points, and every other auxiliary to perfect an economic management. These great farms, of course, produced wheat at much lower rates than could the lesser ones, but did not materially interfere with wheat production by the smaller farmers, as the output of 1898 of nearly 79,000,000 bushels sufficiently proves. There seems to be no need of apprehension about the lands of the Red River Valley becoming exhausted, as they appear to be as enduring as those in the valley of the Nile. THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA AND ITS SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE.