Most of the farmers begin with a very small house, containing two or three rooms. They do not start with much furniture. We who are accustomed to hot and cold water, bath-room, and all the modern conveniences of houses in the city, might think it rather hard at first to use a tin wash-basin on a bench out-doors, and ladies might find it rather awkward to go up to their chamber on a ladder; but we can accommodate ourselves to almost anything, especially when we are working towards independence. Settlers start with small houses, for a good deal of lumber is required for fencing. A fence around forty acres requires 1,700 rails, 550 posts, and a keg of large nails. The farmers do not dig holes, but sharpen the lower ends of the posts and drive them down with a beetle. Two men by this process will fence in forty acres in a very short time. Such fences are for temporary use, but will stand for several years,--till the settler has made headway enough to replace them with others more substantial. You will want horses and oxen. A span of good farm horses will cost $250; a yoke of good oxen, $125. Cows are worth from $20 to $50. Carpenters, masons, and mechanics command high prices,--from $2 to $4.50 per day. Farm laborers can be hired for $20 to $25 per month. "What section of the Northwest is advancing most rapidly?" The southern half of Minnesota. As yet there are no settlements in the northern counties. Draw a line from Duluth to Fort Abercrombie, and you will have almost the entire population south of that line. A few families are living in Otter-Tail County, north of that line, and there are a few more in the Red River Valley. Two years hence there will probably be many thousand inhabitants in the northern counties; the fertility of the Red River lands and the construction of two railroads cannot fail of attracting settlers in that direction. There is far more first quality of agricultural land now held by government in the northwestern counties than in any other section of the State. The land-office for that region is at Alexandria in Douglas County. The vacant land subject to pre-emption as per share in the eleven counties composing the district amounts to 10,359,000 acres, nearly the same area as Massachusetts and New Hampshire together. Take a glance at the counties. _Douglas._--Four years ago it did not contain a single inhabitant, but now it has a population of about 5,000! The county has an area of twenty townships, 460,000 acres, and about 250,000 are still held by government. _Grant._--It lies west of Douglas. We passed through it on our way to the Red River. The main line of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad will run through the southwestern township this year. There are 295,000 acres still vacant.