The opportunities of getting wild hay in the localities where our Catholic colonies are located, are not surpassed in any part of the State; and it will be borne in mind that if there is extra expense and trouble in raising cattle here, there is also extra good prices to get for them. A steer that will sell for $10 in places where, like Topsey, he "just grows," will sell here for from $30 to $40.
The following, taken from a late report of a committee of the Chamber of Commerce, St. Paul, will be read with interest:
"Our climate and soil appear to be peculiarly adapted for grazing purposes. Its healthfulness for cattle of every kind is well established. The abundant and prolific yield of both tame and wild or natural grasses, of every description incident to the West, affords abundant and cheap pasturage during the summer, and the choicest of hay for winter, which is produced at less expense per ton than in most of the States in the Union. If necessary, your committee could refer to countless instances in regard to the profit of raising stock in the State. The demand for horses has always been in excess of the supply. Thousands are introduced into our midst every year from the adjoining States. The demand will increase as the country west of us becomes settled. Choice herds of cattle have been imported into the State during the past few years, attended in every instance, as far as your committee have been able to learn, with much profit to the enterprising parties who embarked in the lucrative business. The dairy is being introduced in the shape of cheese and butter factories in many neighborhoods and attended with much success. It appears that shipments of both these home products have been made to England with satisfactory results. The sheep-fold to some extent has been neglected, but those who have engaged in wool-growing are greatly encouraged. Flocks of sheep brought from the East have, with their progeny, improved to such an extent by the influence of our climate, that they have been repurchased by those from whom they were originally bought, and transported back East to improve the breed of their stock. The wool becomes of a finer texture when produced in our State, also an increase in size of the carcass of the sheep."
The advantages which our present Catholic colonies afford, abounding in nutritious grasses and the best quality of wild hay lands, will we trust turn the attention of settlers to stock raising, butter packing and cheese factories, and we are informed that some enterprising parties are going to establish one of the latter at Clontarf, in Swift County Colony. Farming to be prosperous the industry on the farm must be diversified; there should be rotation of crops. It will not do to depend altogether on wheat or to be too ambitious to have a great breadth of it under cultivation; not an acre more than the farmer knows he will be well able to have out of the ground in good season, making no chance calculations.
[CROP STATISTICS.]
WHEAT, OATS, POTATOES, CORN, HAY, SORGHUM, FRUITS.
In 1849, Minnesota was organized into a territory, and the following year, 1850, she had under cultivation 1,900 acres of land. In 1877, she had 3,000,000 acres. In these twenty-seven years, during which the breadth of her cultivated lands has increased over one thousand five hundred fold, the quality and average quantity per acre of all the great staple crops have been equally satisfactory, until we find her to-day, taking the foremost place as an agricultural State.
To quote from the writings of the Hon. Pennock Pusey, than whom there is no more upright gentleman nor one more qualified to deal with statistics, we find that
"According to the census of 1870, the entire wheat product of New England was sufficient to feed her own people only three weeks! That of New York sufficient for her own consumption six months; that of Pennsylvania, after feeding her own people, afforded no surplus; while the surplus of Ohio was but 3,000,000 bushels for that year, and for the past six years her wheat crop has fallen below her own consumption. In the ten years ending in 1870, the wheat crop of these States decreased 6,500,000 bushels.
"In the light of these facts, the achievements of Minnesota in wheat growing, as well as her untaxed capacity for the continued and increased production of that grain, assume a proud pre-eminence."