Latest / History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier, Part 1 / 039 - Commerce through the St Mary's Falls Canal Agriculture Dairying The University of Minnesota and Its

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039 - Commerce through the St Mary's Falls Canal Agriculture Dairying The University of Minnesota and Its · History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier, Part 1

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty nine of the History of Minnesota and Tales
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  Speaker 1: of the Frontier, Part one. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The
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  Speaker 1: History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier, Part one
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  Speaker 1: by Charles E. Flandrau, Section thirty nine Commerce through the
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  Speaker 1: Saint Mary's Falls Canal, Agriculture dairying, the University of Minnesota
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  Speaker 1: and its School of Agriculture. Commerce through the Saint Mary's
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  Speaker 1: Falls Canal. Another very interesting and instructing element in considering
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  Speaker 1: the growth of Minnesota is the commerce passing through the
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  Speaker 1: Saint Mary's Canal, which connects Lake Superior with Lakes Huron
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  Speaker 1: and Michigan, the greater part of which is supplied by Minnesota.
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  Speaker 1: No record of the number of sailing vessels or steamers
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  Speaker 1: passing through the canal was kept until the year eighteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty four. During that year, there were one thousand, forty
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  Speaker 1: five sailing vessels and three hundred sixty six steamers. The
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  Speaker 1: last report for the year eighteen ninety eight shows an
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  Speaker 1: increase of sailing vessels to four thousand, four hundred forty
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  Speaker 1: nine and of steamers to twelve thousand, four hundred sixty one.
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  Speaker 1: The first record of the net tons of freight passing
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  Speaker 1: the canal was opened in eighteen eighty one, which showed
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  Speaker 1: an aggregate of one million, five hundred sixty seven thousand,
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  Speaker 1: seven hundred forty one net tons of all kinds of freight.
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  Speaker 1: In eighteen ninety eight it had grown to the enormous
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  Speaker 1: sum of twenty one million, two hundred thirty four thousand,
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  Speaker 1: six hundred sixty four tons. These figures, like distances in
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  Speaker 1: astronomical calculations, require a special mental effort to fully comprehend them.
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  Speaker 1: An incident occurred in September eighteen ninety nine in connection
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  Speaker 1: with this canal traffic that assists in understanding its immense proportions.
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  Speaker 1: By accident to a steamer. The channel of the river
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  Speaker 1: was blocked for a short time until she could be removed,
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  Speaker 1: during which time a procession of waiting steamers was formed
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  Speaker 1: forty miles in length. I have been unable to obtain
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  Speaker 1: any reliable figures with which to present a contrast between
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  Speaker 1: the commerce of this canal and that of the Suez,
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  Speaker 1: connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, but it is
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  Speaker 1: generally estimated that the Saint Mary's largely exceeds the Suez,
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  Speaker 1: although the commerce of the world with the Orient and
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  Speaker 1: Australia largely passes through the latter. Agriculture. In the early
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  Speaker 1: days of Minnesota, its agricultural population was largely centered in
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  Speaker 1: the southeastern portion of the state. The soil was exceptionally
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  Speaker 1: fertile and produced wheat in unusual abundance. The western farmer
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  Speaker 1: of early days was a careless cultivator, thinking more of
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  Speaker 1: the immediate results than permanent preservation of his land, even
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  Speaker 1: if he was of the conservative old New England stock.
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  Speaker 1: The generous soil of the West, the freedom from social restraint,
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  Speaker 1: and the lessened labors of the farm led him into
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  Speaker 1: more happy, go lucky methods than he had been accustomed
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  Speaker 1: to in the East. It was Mark Twain who once
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  Speaker 1: said that if you plant a New England deacon in Texas,
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  Speaker 1: you will find him in about a year with a
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  Speaker 1: game chicken under his arm, writing a mule on Sunday
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  Speaker 1: to a cockfight. When farms were opened in the southeastern
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  Speaker 1: counties of Minnesota, it was not an unusual thing to
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  Speaker 1: be rewarded with a crop of from thirty to forty
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  Speaker 1: bushels of wheat to the acre. The process of cultivation
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  Speaker 1: was simple and required scarcely any capital, so it was
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  Speaker 1: natural that the first comers should confine their efforts to
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  Speaker 1: the one product of wheat. They did so regardless of
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  Speaker 1: the fact that the best soil will become exhausted unless reinforced.
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  Speaker 1: They became accustomed to think that land could always be
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  Speaker 1: had for the taking, and in twenty or twenty five years,
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  Speaker 1: the goose that laid the golden egg ded and six
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  Speaker 1: or eight bushels was all they could extract from their lands.
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  Speaker 1: About eighteen seventy seven or eighteen seventy eight, they practically
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  Speaker 1: abandoned the culture of wheat and tried corn and hogs.
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  Speaker 1: This was an improvement, but not a great success. Many
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  Speaker 1: of the farmers of the pioneering and roving class sold
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  Speaker 1: out and went west for fresh lands dairying. About this time,
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  Speaker 1: the dairy business had become quite profitable in Iowa, and
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  Speaker 1: the Minnesota farmers turned their attention to that branch of industry.
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  Speaker 1: Their lands were excellent for pasturing purposes and hay raising.
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  Speaker 1: They began in a small way with cows and butter
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  Speaker 1: making but from lack of experience and knowledge of the business.
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  Speaker 1: Their progress was slow, but it improved from year to year,
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  Speaker 1: and now in the year eighteen ninety nine, it has
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  Speaker 1: become one of the most important, successful, and profitable industries
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  Speaker 1: in the state. And the farmers of Southern Minnesota constitute
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  Speaker 1: the most independent and well to do class of all
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  Speaker 1: our citizens. It was not very long ago when a
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  Speaker 1: mortgage was an essential feature of a Minnesota farm, but
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  Speaker 1: they have nearly all been paid off. And the farmer
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  Speaker 1: of Southern Minnesota is found in the ranks of the
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  Speaker 1: stockholders and depositors of the banks. And if he has
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  Speaker 1: anything to do with mortgages, he is found on the
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  Speaker 1: winning side of that dangerous instrument. A brief statement of
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  Speaker 1: the facts connected with the dairy business will demonstrate its magnitude.
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  Speaker 1: There are in the state creameries about seven hundred creamery patrons,
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  Speaker 1: fifty five thousand capital invested, three million dollars, cows supplying milk,
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  Speaker 1: four hundred ten thousand pounds of milk received in eighteen
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  Speaker 1: ninety eight, one billion, four hundred million pounds of butter exported.
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  Speaker 1: Sixty three million pounds of butter made eighteen ninety eight
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  Speaker 1: fifty million. Gross receipts eighteen ninety eight, ten million, four
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  Speaker 1: hundred thousand, rating expenses eighteen ninety eight, one million, one
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  Speaker 1: hundred thousand paid to patrons eight million, six hundred thousand.
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  Speaker 1: Since eighteen eighty four, Minnesota butter has been exhibited in
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  Speaker 1: competition with similar products from all the states in the
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  Speaker 1: Union and the butter making countries of the world, at
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  Speaker 1: all the principal fairs and expositions that have been held
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  Speaker 1: in the United States, and has taken more prizes than
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  Speaker 1: any other state or country. Its cheese has kept pace
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  Speaker 1: with its butter. There are in this state in active
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  Speaker 1: operation ninety four cheese factories. This industry is constantly on
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  Speaker 1: the increase, and Minnesota is certainly destined to surpass every
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  Speaker 1: other state in the Union in this department of agriculture.
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  Speaker 1: While this new and valuable branch of industry was gradually
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  Speaker 1: superseding that of wheat in southern Minnesota, the latter was
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  Speaker 1: not being extinguished by any means, but simply changing its
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  Speaker 1: Habitat about the time that wheat culture became unprofitable in
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  Speaker 1: southern Minnesota, the valley of the Red River of the
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  Speaker 1: North began to attract attention, and it was at once
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  Speaker 1: discovered that it was the garden of the world for
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  Speaker 1: wheat culture. An intelligent and experienced farmer, mister Oliver Dalrymple,
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  Speaker 1: may be said to have been the pioneer of that enterprise.
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  Speaker 1: Lands in the valley were cheap, and he succeeded in
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  Speaker 1: gaining control of immense tracts and unlimited capital for their development.
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  Speaker 1: He opened these lands up to wheat culture and gave
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  Speaker 1: to the world a new feature in agriculture, which acquired
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  Speaker 1: the name of the bonanza farm. Some of these farms
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  Speaker 1: embraced sixty and seventy thousand acres of land and were
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  Speaker 1: divided by roads on the section lines. They were supplied
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  Speaker 1: with all the buildings necessary for the accommodation of the
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  Speaker 1: army of superintendents and employees that operated them, also grainaries
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  Speaker 1: and buildings for housing, machinery, slaughterhouses to provision the operatives,
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  Speaker 1: telephone systems to facilitate communication between distant points, and every
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  Speaker 1: other auxiliary to perfect an economic mind. These great farms,
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  Speaker 1: of course, produced wheat at much lower rates than could
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  Speaker 1: the lesser ones, but did not materially interfere with wheat
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  Speaker 1: production by the smaller farmers, as the output of eighteen
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  Speaker 1: ninety eight of nearly seventy nine million bushels sufficiently proves,
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  Speaker 1: there seems to be no need of apprehension about the
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  Speaker 1: lands of the Red River Valley becoming exhausted, as they
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  Speaker 1: appeared to be as enduring as those in the Valley
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  Speaker 1: of the Nile. The University of Minnesota, in its School
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  Speaker 1: of Agriculture, the University of Minnesota, for the establishment of
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  Speaker 1: which the United States donated to the state nearly one
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  Speaker 1: hundred thousand acres of land, and the Agricultural College, which
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  Speaker 1: was similarly endowed, have been consolidated, and both have long
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  Speaker 1: been in successful operation. The University proper opened its doors
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  Speaker 1: for the admission of students about the year eighteen sixty nine,
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  Speaker 1: and has since attained such proportions as to entitle it
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  Speaker 1: to a place among the leading educational institutions of the States.
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  Speaker 1: Its role of students for the last college year numbering
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  Speaker 1: over three thousand. Its curriculum embraces all studies generally taught
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  Speaker 1: in the colleges of this country, professional and otherwise. The
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  Speaker 1: state of efficiency and high standing in the University of
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  Speaker 1: Minnesota is largely attributable to the work of its president,
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  Speaker 1: Honorable Cyrus Northrop, a graduate of Yale who had attained
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  Speaker 1: eminence in the educational world before being called to the university.
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  Speaker 1: The School of Agriculture is of the highest importance to
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  Speaker 1: the welfare of the state, the influence of which will
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  Speaker 1: soon remove its chief industry from dependence on the crude
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  Speaker 1: methods of the uneducated western farmer, and place it upon
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  Speaker 1: a basis of scientific operation and management. Every branch of
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  Speaker 1: the art of farming is taught in this institution, from
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  Speaker 1: a knowledge of the chemical properties of the soil and
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  Speaker 1: its adaptation to the different vegetable growths, to the scientific
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  Speaker 1: breeding and economical feeding of stock. Much of the success
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  Speaker 1: in the dairy branch of farming is the direct result
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  Speaker 1: of knowledge gained at this school. It is well patronized
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  Speaker 1: by the young men of the state who intend to
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  Speaker 1: devote themselves to agriculture as a profession. Quite recently a
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  Speaker 1: new department has been added to the Institution for the
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  Speaker 1: instruction of women. In all that pertains to the proper
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  Speaker 1: education of the mistress of the farm. It goes without
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  Speaker 1: saying that when Minnesota farming is brought under the management
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  Speaker 1: and control of men and women of scientific and practical education.
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  Speaker 1: In that particular line, there will be a revolution for
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  Speaker 1: the better. The methods of instruction in this school are
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  Speaker 1: not merely theoretical. It possesses three experimental farms for the
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  Speaker 1: practical illustration and application of its teachings, the principal one
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  Speaker 1: of which is situated at Saint Anthony Park, and the
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  Speaker 1: other two, respectively, at Crookston and Grand Rapids. Work is
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  Speaker 1: also done in an experimental way in Lyon County, but
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  Speaker 1: the state does not own this station. End of section
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  Speaker 1: thirty nine. Recording by Jessica Louise, Saint Paul, Minnesota,