The New York Times, January 17, 1855, p.2:

Crops in Minnesota--Where to Spend the Hot Weather.

[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT]

STEAMER GRANITE STATE, MISSISSIPPI RIVER Friday, July 3, 1857.

I have been up to Minnesota to look at the crops and other things, but only took a short look at the "other things." As for the crops, I could not hear of any worth going to see anywhere near St. Paul. The people there all talked of good crops "out West," some hundreds of miles.
After considerable direct inquiry I came to the conclusion that there is some gammon in the reports which have set all the West-country, and some of the Eastern, wild after speculating in Minnesota farming lands. If the "splendid farms" back of St. Paul a few miles, now held at $1.50 an acre, minus the buildings, are a fair specimen of what lies beyond, the owners, in futuro, may, like paddy, reckon their poverty by the number of acres in their possession.
There is, without doubt, however, a "power" of good land in Minnesota. But not having gone far into the inchoate State, you can put me down as only a superficial observer, who has derived his opinions from a little nearer view than is enjoyed by Eastern people.

I heard much of extensive ravages of grasshoppers in Northern Minnesota, and I saw a few specimens, say thirty or forty on every square foot, near St. Anthony's Falls, nine miles above St. Paul. Their "line of march" was very plainly to be seen. Whole gardens, as well as fields, around St. Anthony were stripped of the last vestige of a green thing, while five miles this side, scarcely a "hopper" was to be found.

A word to those who have not yet gone to the "Springs." The inevitable newsboy just now came on board with an armful of DAILY TIMES of July 1, which is a pretty fair indication that we are here (near Prarie du Chien) less than three days from New-York. St. Paul is only a day's ride above this point, and at the risk of repeating an oft-told story, I will say that neither the Rhine of Europe nor our own Rhine--the Hudson--can compare with the Mississippi, all the way from this to the Falls of St. Anthony, for magnificent river-scenery.

If one is cramped for time, let him start from New-York City on Monday, and thirty to thirty-five hours will land him in Chicago. Thirty-four hours more will carry him to St. Paul. The same number of hours will take him back, so that it is now not only possible, but practicable, to go from New-York City to St. Paul and back during a single week, without encroaching upon the Sabbath.
Such rapid traveling would, however, furnish no time for rest or relaxation, save the two days going up and down the Mississippi. But set apart barely two weeks for the trip, and you have abundance of time to "lie over" at nights along the railroads, to take a stroll through Chicago, Milwaukee, Janesville and Madison, Wis., and visit Dubuque, Iowa, and Galena, &c. Ill.

To do this, choose any one of the main routes to Chicago, thence go up to Janesville and Madison by the Fond du Lac Railroad, and round by Milwaukee, to Madison, and then west over the Milwaukee and Prarie du Chien Railroad to the Mississippi, where you will find one of the finest steamers in the world waiting to carry you up the river. I can speak for the excellence of one of them, the Milwaukee.
Having spent, say Saturday and the forenoon of Monday in visiting St. Anthony's Falls and adjacent scenery, at 1 P. M. you can take one of a line of six fine steam packets, (I am on one of them, as noted above,) running to Dubuque, Iowa, and Dunleith and Galena, Ill. From this point you can go direct to Chicago, and from thence home on a different route from the one you came on. Or you can go south from Galena on the Illinois Central Railroad to Mendota, or Bureau, and visit Rock Island and Davenport, and even Iowa City or Burlington, and also ride on the magnificent prairies of Northern Illinois, and still arrive in New-York Saturday night of the same week.

The whole trip will not cost a hundred dollars, and in no way can you travel so far and see so much worth seeing at so little cost of time and money.

P. S.--At St. Paul or St. Anthony's Falls, don't put too much reliance on the statements of the "Northwestern Stage Company." I depended upon them yesterday to bring me down the Falls to St. Paul, in time for this steamer.
At the last moment the stage, promised for an hour before, did not start, and I was obliged to charter the first conveyance at hand, a heavy freight wagon, and then, by feeing the driver, applying the whip myself, and running abend on foot the last two miles, barely reached the boat, which, strange to say of a Mississippi steamer, started--as usual with this line--promptly at the advertised minute; though, in this case, the gentlemenly and obliging Captain GARRETT waited for me some three minutes, for which he has, and will have, my everlasting gratitude. May he ever, as to-day, have a rousing load of passengers.