CONTENTS

INTRODUCTORY.
AGRICULTURAL LIFE.
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL VIEW OF THE QUESTION OF IMMIGRATION TO THE LAND.
A STATEMENT IN REGARD TO THE RELATIONS WE HOLD TOWARDS IMMIGRANTS. WHAT THEY MAY EXPECT.
MINNESOTA.
GENERAL STATE STATISTICS.
CROP STATISTICS.
FARM STATISTICS.
GENERAL REMARKS.
CATHOLIC COLONIES IN MINNESOTA.
      SWIFT COUNTY COLONY.
      GRACEVILLE COLONY.
      ST. ADRIAN COLONY.
      AVOCA COLONY.
THE BEST TIME TO COME.
A CHAPTER FOR ALL TO READ.
HOW TO SECURE GOVERNMENT LAND.
ADVERTISEMENTS.
Transcriber's Notes.

CATHOLIC
COLONIZATION
IN MINNESOTA.

REVISED EDITION.

PUBLISHED BY THE

CATHOLIC COLONIZATION BUREAU OF MINNESOTA.

UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE RIGHT REV. JOHN IRELAND,
COADJUTOR BISHOP OF ST. PAUL.

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, JANUARY, 1879.

THE PIONEER PRESS CO.

INTRODUCTORY.

The increase in the number of our Catholic Colonies in Minnesota, and the changes which population and other causes have brought about, make it necessary to publish a revised edition of the Immigration Pamphlet, issued by the Catholic Colonization Bureau of Minnesota, in 1877.

We are pleased to notice the increased interest which is manifested all over the country, by Catholics, in the matter of Catholic immigration from the cities to the land.

The sympathy, aid, and words of cheer, we are continually receiving from friends totally unconnected with our local work, assure us of this pleasing fact; which we attribute, in a great measure, to the honest, intelligent advocacy, and generous support our Catholic newspapers have given to the question.

For ourselves, we are glad to gratefully acknowledge the liberal support the Catholic editors have given to our work: the confidence which they placed, from the very beginning, in the purity of our motives and the soundness of our business arrangements, is an indorsement of which we are justly proud.

They have recognized that our aim is to do good to the many; and in all cases where our advice has been taken, our instructions followed, our warnings heeded, we do not fear that we have injured one.

The approbation of our co-religionists, conveyed to us from all parts of the country, the success which God has been pleased to give to our humble labors, are cheering guarantees that we are on the right road; and we pray God that He will continue to bless our efforts, enlighten us in our present task, and keep our ardor in the cause we have espoused strictly within the bounds of truth.

It is an axiom that "they who own the soil own the country."

Happily, in this country, the people's title to the land is recognized, they are invited to take possession of their own, and the tall, luxuriant grasses of the broad prairie are the messengers it sends forth from its virgin bosom, telling of the wealth it has in store to reward honest, patient labor.

There is no angry contest here for the possession of the soil, but there is, and should be, a noble, wise emulation among the various races that have emigrated to these shores, for their just portions of it. The surplus populations in our cities, the depression of business, the scarcity of employment, the poverty, suffering and discontent attending thereon, the magnitude of labor strikes, and the dread of their repetition, have made the question of immigration to the land from our over-crowded cities of pressing, national interest. The policy of our people immigrating in large numbers to the lands of the West, is no longer a theory to discuss, but a necessity, calling for the active support of every good, intelligent Catholic.

It is not necessary to review the many causes which have heretofore retarded the immigration of our people to the land. Among those causes was one which should endear them to every Catholic heart, and which stands out in bright contrast to the irreligious indifference of the age.

They feared that if they came West, they would be beyond the reach of church and priest.

The danger of a Catholic settling in any of the Western States now, and finding himself entirely isolated, by distance, from his church, is scarcely to be apprehended, for the West has now its handsome churches, its priests and Catholic schools; but it might come to pass, that coming undirected, and without any Catholic organization to which he might apply, the Catholic