Prominent among the questions proposed by the immigrant seeking a new
home in a new country, are those concerning the climate, its
temperature, adaptation to the culture of the grand staples of food, and
its healthfulness.
"The climate of Minnesota has often been the subject of unjust
disparagement. 'It is too far north;' 'the winters are intolerable.'
These and other similar remarks have found expression by those who
should have known better. To the old settler of Minnesota, the seasons
follow each other in pleasing succession. As the sun approaches his
northern latitude, winter relaxes its grasp, streams and lakes are
unbound, flowers spring up as if by the touch of some magic wand, and
gradually spring is merged into the bright, beautiful June, with its
long, warm days, and short, but cool and refreshing nights. The harvest
months follow in rapid succession, till the golden Indian summer of
early November foretells the approach of cold and snow; and again
winter, with its short days of clear, bright sky and bracing air, and
its long nights of cloudless beauty, completes the circle."
"Men," says the late J. B. Phillips, Commissioner of Statistics, "suffer
themselves to be deluded with the idea that heat is in some way a
positive good, and cold a positive evil. The world is in need of a
sermon on the gospel and blessing of cold.
"What is there at best in the indolent languor of tropic siestas for any
live man or woman to be pining after? Macauley, after his residence in
India, did not. He said that you boiled there four or five months in the
year, then roasted four or five more, and had the remainder of the year
to 'get cool if you could.' 'If you could!' No way of refrigerating a
tropic atmosphere has ever yet been devised; while you can be perfectly
comfortable in any north temperate zone."
Again he says:
"The healthfulness of Minnesota is one of its strongest points. Having
been, for a long time, a sanitary resort for persons threatened with
pulmonary complaints, it has disappointed no reasonable expectation. It
is equally favorable for those afflicted with liver diseases. Thus for
the two great organs in the tripod of life, the liver and lungs, that
is for two-thirds of life, Minnesota offers the most favorable
conditions. She is more exempt from paludial fevers then any new State
settled in the last half century. The fearful cost of human life it has
required to subdue the soil in the States along the line of lat. 40° has
never been estimated. With a moist, decaying vegetation, and a certain
intensity and duration of summer and autumn heat, sickness of that kind
is certain to come, no matter what they may _say_ about having 'no
sickness here.' It always exists when the requisite conditions are
present. Freed from the depressing influence of this decimating foe, the
average Minnesotian eats with a craving appetite, sleeps well, moves
with a quick step and elastic spirits, and fights his life-battle
sturdily and hopefully to the issue."
The mean yearly temperature of our Minnesota climate, (44.6,) coincides
with that of Central Wisconsin, Michigan, Central New York, Southern
Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine; but in the dryness of its atmosphere
it has, both for health and comfort, at great advantage over those
States. It is well known that dampness is the element from whence come
sickness and suffering, either in cold or warm weather, and the dry
atmosphere of winter in Minnesota, at an average temperature of 16°,
makes the cold less felt than in warmer but damper climates several
degrees farther south.
With the new year generally commences the severe cold of our winter, but
for the last few seasons the old Minnesota winters seem to be giving
place to much milder ones. During last winter the thermometer, in the
most exposed places, scarcely ever marked zero, and now, on the 21st of
December--weeks after they have had fierce snow storms south and
southwest of us--good sleighing in Chicago and St. Louis--we are getting
our first regular fall of snow, (only a slight sprinkling before,) which
is falling unaccompanied with either wind or cold and giving a good
promise of merry sleigh rides during the Christmas holidays.
Whether or not there has come a permanent change in our Minnesota
winters, brought about by causes affected by population and settlement,
we cannot say; but that such a change would not be acceptable to many of
our old settlers we are convinced; not certainly to the enthusiast who
writes as follows of our old, crisp, bright winters:
"Winter in Minnesota is a season of ceaseless business activity, and
constant social enjoyment; and by those accustomed to long wintry
storms, and continued alternations of mud, and cold, and snow, is
pronounced far preferable to the winters in any section of the Northern
States. Here there is an exhilaration in the crisp atmosphere which
quickens the blood, and sends the bounding steps over the ringing snow
with an exultant flurry of good-spirits akin to the highest enjoyment."
Doubtless this was written from the stand-point of warm robes, a light
cutter, a fast horse, and tingling sleigh-bells; nevertheless it is in
the main true. When the surface of the body is warmly clothed, one can
enjoy out-door exercise in the winter with every comfort.
The greatest and only objection that we find against the winter season
in Minnesota, is its length.--It is true that, as a general rule, we
have all our spring wheat in the ground, and for the most part over
ground, before the end of April.--This infringement of winter, as we may
term it, upon the domain of spring, is the draw-back to our climate.
It is a slight one compared to those of other climates, where spring
brings with its flowers, fever, ague, and chills.
The summer months are pleasant. We have hot days, as one can judge by
bearing in mind that our wheat crop is put into the ground, cut and
often threshed, all within three months, but our nights are always
beautiful and cool. Then comes autumn, when the wayside copse, blushing
at the hot kisses of the sun, turns scarlet, and every tint of shade and
color is seen in the variegated foliage of the forest; and then the
hazy, Indian summer--nothing so lovely could last long on earth--when
forest and prairie, dell and highland, palpitate with a hushed beauty,
and to live is happiness sufficient.
Pure air is health, life. Winter and summer, fall and spring, the air of
Minnesota, free from all malaria, is pure. We promise to the new settler
making a home on land in Minnesota, plenty of hard work, and the best of
health and spirits--so far as climate has any effect on those blessings,
and it has a great deal--while doing it. It will not be necessary for
him to get acclimated, but to pitch right in.
Disturnell, author of a work on the "Influence of Climate in North and
South America," says that "_Minnesota may be said to excel any portion
of the Union in a healthy and invigorating climate_."
In connection with this very important subject, health, the following
comparative statement as to the proportion of deaths to population, in
several countries in Europe and States in the Union, will be read with
interest:
Minnesota 1 in 155 | Wisconsin 1 in 108
Great Britain and Ireland 1 in 46 | Iowa 1 in 93
Germany 1 in 37 | Illinois 1 in 73
Norway 1 in 56 | Missouri 1 in 51
Sweden 1 in 50 | Michigan 1 in 88
Denmark 1 in 46 | Louisiana 1 in 43
France 1 in 41 | Texas 1 in 46
Switzerland 1 in 41 | Pennsylvania 1 in 96
Holland 1 in 39 | United States 1 in 74
The above is so conclusive an exhibit in confirmation of the
healthfulness of the Minnesota climate, that it exhausts the subject.