Speculators have located a great many land warrants in Minnesota.  Some have been located on lakes, some on swamps, some on excellent land.  Of course the owner, who, as a general thing, is a nonresident, leaves his land idle for something to “turn up” to make it profitable.  There it stands doing no good, but on the contrary is an encumbrance to the settler, who has to travel over and beyond it without meeting the face of a neighbor in its vicinity.  The policy of new states is to tax non-resident landholders at a high rate.  When the territory becomes a state, and is obliged to raise a revenue, some of these fellows outside, who, to use a phrase common up here, have plastered the country over with land warrants, will have to keep a lookout for the tax-gatherer.  Now I do not mean to discourage moneyed men from investing in Minnesota lands.  I do not wish to raise any bugbears, but simply to let them know that hoarding up large tracts of land without making improvements, and leaving it to increase in value by the toil and energy of the pioneer, is a way of doing things which is not popular with the actual settler.  But there is a great deal of money to be made by judicious investments in land.  Buying large tracts of land I believe to be the least profitable speculation, unless indeed the purchaser knows exactly what he is buying, and is on hand at the public sale to get the benefit of a second choice.  I say second choice, because the preemptor has had the first choice long ago, and it may be before the land was surveyed.  What I would recommend to speculators is to purchase in some good town sites.  Buy in two or three, and if one or two happen to prove failures, the profits on the other will enable you to bear the loss.  I know of a man who invested $6000 at St. Paul six years ago.  He has sold over $80,000 worth of the land, and has as much more left.  This is but an ordinary instance.  The advantage of buying lots in a town arises from the rapid rise of the value of the land, the ready market, and withal the moderate prices at which they can be procured during the early part of its history.

To such persons as have a desire to come West, and are not inclined to be farmers, and who have not capital enough to engage in mercantile business, there is sufficient employment.  A new country always opens avenues of successful business for every industrious man and woman; more kinds even than I could well enumerate.  Every branch of mechanics needs workmen of all grades; from the boy who planes the rough boards to the head workman.  Teaming affords good employment for young men the year round.  The same may be said of the saw-mills.  A great deal of building is going on constantly; and those who have good trades get $2.50 per day.  I am speaking, of course, of the territory in general.  One of the most profitable kinds of miscellaneous business is surveying.  This art requires the services of large numbers; not only to survey the public lands, but town sites and