York, but a large part of it was carried to that port, either for domestic consumption or for export; and it is fair to assume that it would cost, on the average, as much in local freights and handling charges to distribute the other portion to the consumers throughout the country as to carry it through to New York. The cost of carriage to New York by all rail is about 24 1-2 cents per bushel; partly by rail and partly by lake and canal it is about 20 cents. Basing the calculation on a rate of 21 cents (arbitrarily found, for it is difficult to figure on an average rate for the year accurately, owing to the fluctuations in the lake and canal rate, or to ascertain the amount shipped by that route and the amount shipped by rail), the added value is $10,104,728. This increased value is properly assigned to the wheat, for the wheat pays the whole cost of marketing it. This large sum of ten million dollars was earned by the railroads, elevators, inspectors and weighers, boats, transferers, etc., which gave employment to large numbers of men. Thus the wheat produced in 1898, by the farmers of these twelve counties, which include the part of the Red River valley in the United States, added to the wealth of the country some thirty-nine millions of dollars; and in the year 1899, just past, it is probably nearly as much.

An explanation is needed, however, as to the actual cash price received by the producers for their crop of wheat for the year 1898. I find upon a careful examination of the price paid at Moorhead that the average price for the year was about 57 cents per bushel; that its average price for the four months of September, October, November, and December, 1898, was 55 cents; and for the remaining eight months of the year, from January to August, 1899, the average price was 59 cents, making an average for the year of 57 cents per bushel. It is a fact which must be recognized that the producers in the section I am treating of sell the bulk of their crop in the four months prior to January 1; so that I will make the calculation of value of the crop produced in the twelve Red River valley counties on this basis of its average local price for that period, which shows as follows: 48,117,756 bushels at 55 cents is $26,464,765.80. This is the minimum amount of value, as, for such part of the crop as was sold by producers after January 1, 1899, four cents more per bushel on the average was realized. This explanation does not affect the foregoing argument so far as it relates to the increased value of the

wheat at points of consumption and export, all of which must be included in any calculation as to the wealth-creating value of the crop.

LETTER FROM HON. CHARLES CAVALIER.

I have mentioned Charles Cavalier, of Pembina, who has taken great interest in my labors in gathering materials for this paper, and who has given me much valuable assistance. In further acknowledgement thereof, and in compliment to him, I desire to embrace herein a portion of a recent letter of his to me as follows:

"It would be a pleasant thing for me to be present with them [meaning this annual meeting of the society] and see some of the old faces of fifty years ago, but alas, the infirmities of eighty-one years forbid it. Present my respects to them, and tell them that though far away, I am with them in mind if not in body. I still keep up an occasional correspondence with my old friend, A. L. Larpenteur, and through him I hear from Bill Murray and others of the old timers, and I see occasionally the name of Ex-Governor Ramsey, for whom I have a high regard and a warm spot in my heart. He appointed me first territorial librarian, and has in many instances aided and befriended me. May he live until he learns to enjoy the good things of this footstool of God, and then, after his life of usefulness and goodness, tranquilly fall asleep and awake in the kingdom prepared for him and all of us who have kept God's commandments or tried to do so. Such is the wish of this old settler whose mundane existence of close onto eighty-one years has been one of pleasure and enjoyment far exceeding its many ills and misery. My health is now tolerably fair."

GREATNESS OF THE RESOURCES OF MINNESOTA,

I have not found it practicable to treat wheat-growing as a state-wide industry, owing to its magnitude, and have confined myself strictly to the subject assigned to me, which has necessita-· ted as much labor and research as I have been able, while editing a daily and weekly newspaper, to devote to it. With more abundant leisure I might properly have touched upon the expansive prairies of the state, both level and rolling, and told something

of their productions, not only of their wheat, which makes the best bread ever eaten by man, but of their rye, oats, barley, corn, flax-seed, and potatoes; of their green meadows, which abound with luxuriant grass and furnish food for countless flocks and herds, and of the Minnesota cow, whose milk, after being treated in the creameries, makes the very best butter known to civilization; of the fruit orchards, gardens, flowers, shrubbery, etc., together with the neat and cozy dwellings that dot them o'er and are the homes of a hardy, happy, and prosperous people.

I might have touched upon the great extent of forests, from which have been taken so many millions of feet of the best white pine and hardwood lumber, adding largely to the wealth of the state, and which are not yet exhausted.

I might have told of the iron mines, which, for richness and extent, have been one of the marvels of the closing part of the nineteenth century, and which are yet, maybe, to exceed the most sanguine expectations of enthusiasts; of the mighty river having its rise in our state, whose commerce has been so great a factor in the making of the history of the North American continent, and advancing its civilization; and of the smaller rivers, which are interesting in other ways.

I might have dwelt at length upon the surpassing beauty of the state's landscape, whose ten thousand lakes are bordered by a superb growth of primeval forest timber, through whose foliage the pure air of a wholesome climate sings a ceaseless lullaby to exhausted humanity, which seeks quiet and rest upon their bosom. In these lakes the finny tribe leap and splash and entice the skill of the expert angler, as well as the efforts of the novice, affording the most exquisite enjoyment and the most health-giving and recuperative recreation that man is blessed with, and whose skill, good luck, or patience is rewarded by the catch of as good food fish as swim.

And, lastly, I might have said that this great, resourceful and fertile state of ours, at the age of fifty years, contains a population of nearly two millions of as intelligent, generous, brave, and at the same time as gentle, industrious, progressive and patriotic people, as can be found in any state in all this broad land.

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HISTORY OF FLOUR MANUFACTURE IN

MINNESOTA.*

BY COL. GEORGE D. ROGERS.

PROGRESS IN METHODS OF MILLING.

It is recorded, and is probably true, although it does not come within the milling experience which it is my privilege to review here tonight, that the first mill operated in Minnesota was the hand mortar of the Indian aborigines. This make of mill seems to have been much on the plan of that described in the Bible, the mortar used by Moses in grinding corn and manna in the wilderness within sight of Canaan. Speaking of Moses and milling, you will pardon me, if in passing I call attention to the fact, that this great law-giver of Bible record, the first legislator of historic repute, exempted the mortar or mill of that day from being taken in pawn, because, said he, it would be like taking a man's life to take the mill from which proceeds life's staff. But the hand mortar of Moses and the red man is no longer used in the flouring industry of Minnesota, and its further history we will leave with our friends, the apothecaries, who long since secured the monopoly for the use of this kind of milling machine.

The next step in the evolution of milling in the Northwest was the introduction of the hand-mill by the early territorial pioneers. The hand-mill was the prevailing mill in use among the ancient Britons down to the time of the Roman conquest. It is

*An Address at the Annual Meeting of the Minnesota Historical Society, January 21, 1901. The author was aided in the preparation of this paper by Mr. Frank N. Stacy, who also read it at this meeting.

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