FRONT
A Brief Circular Relating to Rice County, MN showing its resources, advantages, and the inducements it offers to those seeking homes in the West.

“To the West, to the West, to the land of the Free, Where mighty Missouri rolls down to the Sea, Where a man is a man, if he’s willing to toil, And the Poorest may gather the fruits of the soil”

PREFACTORY
The object of this circular is to give to those contemplating a removal to the West, the general characteristics and attractions of Rice County.  The aim is to give ungarnished facts, and to state nothing but what may be seen and realized by any who may see fit to visit this county.  The writer has traveled repeatedly through the different counties of Southern Minnesota, which is generally conceded to be the best portion of the State, and is willing to stake his reputation for truthfulness in the assertion, that there is no county, superior, or equal, taking everything into consideration, to Rice County… C. Williams.

SOIL (p.4)
The soil is a warm, rich, black, sandy loam, with a clay subsoil, from 2 to 4 feet deep, and it is remarkably uniform throughout the county.  There can be no soil more perfectly adapted to gardening purposes, and that too, without the laborious and expensive preparation which is required in the old States, it needs no manure, or guano, or plaster, or compost.  Those not familiar with Western soil, would be astonished at the quick and mammoth growth of all kinds of garden vegetables, as well as the speedy maturity of the cereals and the root crops.  This is characteristic of the entire state of Minnesota, the growth of everything is remarkably quick, thus avoiding the frosts, which usually occur about the 25th of September.

CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE  (p.5)
The population is composed of Americans, Germans, Swedes, French, Irish, Scotch, and Norwegians; the predominating class are, however from the Eastern States.  The foreign population occupy portions of the county mostly by themselves; the Irish are mostly settled in the town of Shieldsville, and the French in Wheatland, in the north and timbered part of the county.  The Norwegians and Germans occupy the Township of Wheeling, while the remaining eleven Towns are mainly settled by people from the Eastern States, as far as settled at all.

TIMBER AND WOOD (p. 9)
To those seeking homes in the west timber and wood is a great consideration.  There can hardly be a better distribution of wood, water, and prairie, than in Rice County.  As has before been stated almost every “eighty” has living water, so a very large proportion have wood on or near them.  It is believed that there is no prairie farm over two and a half miles from some grove, the Straight River timber, or the “Big Woods”.  The predominance of the maple in the “Big Woods” and in the Straight River timber, furnishes ample opportunities for the making of large quantities of maple sugar.

CHEAP FARMS (p.12)
There is in Rice County, an area of 330, 240 acres, most of which is arable land.  There are 775 improved and occupied farms scattered over the county, averaging about 80 acres each, many of these farms have but little improvement.  Taking 1/5 of the whole area of the county as water and untillable land, leaves 202, 192 acres of arable land still unoccupied.  This will give 2527 farms of 80 acres each, of good arable land…

Also mentions farms bought at $150-$500 each