6. Descriptions of the Collections


during the first half of the 19th century. However, once the value of the forest lands and rich soils was
realized, farmers and lumbermen from New England led the first large wave of permanent white settlers.
In 1860, Minnesota was home to only 172,000 but the population increased rapidly. The first major
immigrant groups in the latter half of the 19th century were German, Swedes, and Norwegians. By 1870,
the population had increased to 439,000, and by 1880 there were 92,386 farms in Minnesota. The most
rapid period of settlement was during the 1880s when homesteaders rushed into western and southwestern
Minnesota. During the same period, lumbering was at its peak and flour milling was becoming
important.

Beginning in 1854 and until about 1870, agricultural experimentation, instruction, extension and
recreation was carried out by agricultural societies through state and local fairs. The first territorial fair
was held in 1854 and that same year saw the organizational meeting of the Minnesota Territorial
Agricultural Society, later the Minnesota State Agricultural Society. The Minnesota Horticultural Society
was founded in 1866 and the State Farmers' Club in 1868. Similar organizations quickly followed for
poultry, stock breeding, dairy, and butter and cheese. The effect of these organizations on rural life and
the economy of the state is documented in publications such as the Annual Report of the Minnesota State
Agricultural Society (1887-1923), History of the Minnesota Horticultural Society (1873), and The
Minnesota Horticulturalist (1866-present).

By 1890, more than 1,300,000 people lived in Minnesota. Additional immigrants arrived from Finland,
Poland, Ireland, France and French Canada, Holland, Belgium, and Iceland. Danes, Swiss, and Welsh
settled in scattered pockets. Immigrants changed Minnesota from a raw frontier to a thriving agricultural
state. The tremendous appeal of Minnesota to the foreign born is demonstrated by the fact that census
figures during the period show that more than two-thirds of the population were foreign born or the
children of foreign born. Minnesota's pioneer days and life on the homesteader's farm are remembered
in the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Ole R^lvaag.

Agriculture during the early years was subsistence farming, but as farmers cleared land, they increased
the acreage they could devote to crops. In 1858, wheat was shipped commercially from the state for the
first time. Extreme climate conditions in Minnesota--bitter cold, heavy snowfalls, and long, hot summers-
-fostered the development of hardy crop strains and other innovations. German immigrant Wandelin
Grimm developed an alfalfa acclimatized to Minnesota and superior to other forage plants for the
Northwest. Peter M. Gideon moved to Minnesota in 1853 and spent forty-five years developing fruit that
could withstand the cold weather--including the Wealthy apple. When the hard spring wheat from the
Minnesota prairie could not compete with the winter wheat grown further south, the traditional flat
grinding process was replaced with smooth millstones that ran more slowly, minimizing heat discoloration
and bran specks. Other techniques to improve processes and profits followed, including scientific
methods of testing wheat and flour and new procedures for bleaching. Works such as The Earth Brought
Forth: A History of Minnesota Agriculture to 1885 (1949) and Grimm Alfalfa and Its Utilization in the
Northwest (1911) describe the early years of agriculture.

Wheat was king in Minnesota and was shipped by rail and boat to markets all over the East and Europe.
From the 1880s to about 1920, Minneapolis was known as "the Mill City," producing more flour than any
other city in the world. The early mills--General Mills and Pillsbury--evolved into multi-national
conglomerates. Important resources detailing this era include The Northwestern Miller published in
Minneapolis 1873-1973, The Decline of Northwestern Flour Milling by Victor G. Pickett and Roland S.
Vaile (1933), and The Medal of Gold: A Story of Industrial Achievement by William C. Edgar (1925).
The Minnesota wheat crop was 2 million bushels in 1860 and reached 95 million in 1890--far more than
the yield from any other crop.

Profits in wheat raising created a special kind of farmer in the prairie lands of western Minnesota. Access
to the railroads, improvement of the flour industry, and improved machinery made it both possible and