It would be a grave error, however, if the mind of the reader was left with the impression that this State was lacking in the fertility of her soil, and in those other elements so essential to the foundation, true prosperity, and greatness, such as can only come from a well-ordered system of agriculture and from prolific fields.  Far from this,—­on the contrary, she is widely known at home and abroad as presenting as many inducements on the score of husbandry alone as any of the most highly favored of States.  There doubtless is a percentage of advantage in richness of soil; but this is more than counterbalanced by the living springs and flowing streams that everywhere dot and cross her surface.  Ask the farmer on the distant plains what consideration he would give for pure and abundant water as against soil.  Her grasses are more tender and sweeter, and her beef better than is that of those localities which rival her in fertility.  Go walk through the waving fields of golden grain in summer-time, spread almost endlessly up and down her beautiful valleys, and far out over the rolling prairies, and then answer if eye ever beheld better, or more of it, in the same space, anywhere this side of the Sierras.

Wheat is the great staple product of the West, and is the chief article of export.  It is this, more than all things else, which puts the thousands of railway trains in motion, and spreads the white wings of commerce on all the lakes and oceans.  This important grain is, in the valley of the Mississippi, nowhere so much at home as in this State.  The superior quality of the berry, and the abundant and steady yield of her acres, long since settled the question of her rank as a grain-producing State.  The future has in store still greater triumphs in this same department for this young and noble commonwealth.  She is at present in her veriest infancy, and, indeed, can scarcely be said to have taken the first step in that career which is so full of brilliant promise and grand capabilities.

Lest it be thought we have an overweening love for our subject, beyond its just deserts, let us add here that the State has, in its geographical position, most extraordinary advantages, which, at present, are little known and of little worth, but which the future must inevitably develop.  The vast and fertile region lying to the northwest of Minnesota, drained and watered by the Red.  Assiniboine, and Saskatchawan Rivers respectively, and well known to be capable of maintaining a dense population, must draw its supplies, and seek outlet for its products, always paying tribute at the gates of this commonwealth in both cases.

Then there is the great national enterprise known as the North Pacific Railroad, on which already the iron horse has commenced his race, and which is being rapidly and determinedly carried forward, giving augury of a successful and speedy conclusion.  This road passes through the central zone of the State, and, with its briearian arms, must cumulate untold wealth and power, only to be emptied into this “lap of empire.”