IT seems to have been more difficult for countries which abound in
precious metals to attain to great prosperity than for a rich man to
secure eternal felicity.
Witness, for instance, the sluggish growth
and degenerate civilization of the South American states. But timber
is a fundamental element of colonial growth. The mines of Potosi
cannot compare with it in value. An abundance of timber and a
superabundance of it are two very different things. Some of the
Middle, and what were once Western States, were originally covered
with forests. So of the greater part of New England. In Ohio and in
Michigan timber has been an encumbrance; for there was great labor to
be performed by the settler in clearing the land and preparing it for
the plough; and at this day we see in travelling through each of those
states, as well as in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, fields
planted amidst heavy timber trees which have been belted that they may
wither and die. By an abundance of timber I mean an ample supply not
only for domestic but foreign market; and with this understanding of
the word I will repeat what has often been said, and what I suppose is
well known, that Minnesota has an abundance of excellent timber.
Unlike the gorgeous forests in New Hampshire, which behind high cliffs
and mountain fastnesses defy the woodman, the timber of Minnesota
grows in the valleys of her great rivers and upon the banks of their
numerous tributaries. It is thus easily shipped to a distant market;
while the great body of the land, not encumbered with it, but naked,
is ready for the plough and for the seed. Most of the timber which
grows in the region below this point is hard wood, such as elm, maple,
oak, and ash.
There is considerable scrub oak also thinly scattered over large
portions of fertile prairie. To a casual observer these oaks, from
their stunted appearance, would be taken as evidence of poor soil. But
the soil is not the cause of their scrubby looks. It is the devouring
fires which annually sweep over the plains with brilliant though
terrific aspect, and which are fed by the luxuriant grass grown on
that same soil. If the oaks did not draw uncommon nourishment from the
soil, it must be difficult for them to survive such scorchings. It is
a consoling thought that these fires cease in proportion as the
country is settled up. The rock maple is indigenous to the soil; and
the Indians have long been in the habit of making sugar from its sap.
The timber most used for fences is tamarack. The pineries may be said
to begin at the mouth of the Crow Wing River; though there is a great
supply on the Rum River. For upwards of a hundred miles above here on
the Mississippi more or less dense, the pine forests extend. Captain
John Pope, in the interesting report of his expedition to the Red
River of the North, in 1849, says " The pineries of the upper
Mississippi are mostly upon its tributaries, and I think are not found
on the west side further south than the parallel of 46 degrees N.
latitude." (The latitude of this place is 46 degrees 16' 50".) "They
alternate, even where most abundant, with much larger tracts of
fertile country." Again he says "As might be expected from its
alluvial character, there is no pine timber in the valley of the Red
River, but the oak and elm there attain to a size which I do not think
I have ever seen elsewhere." In another place he remarks that "the
pineries along the Crow Wing River are among the most extensive and
valuable found on the tributaries of the Mississippi." Mr. Schoolcraft
says of this river, "the whole region is noted for its pine timber."
In speaking of the country on the St. Louis River, a few miles from
where it empties into Lake Superior, the same gentleman remarks:
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