first year of operation, more than 2,000,000 bushels of grain went by rail, and the transportation costs were figured to have cost 6c less per bushel. The ox-carts disappeared with the arrival of the railroad in the Red River valley, and the river boat traffic on the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers began to decline.

The population increased rapidly. In 1850 it had been 6,077 persons, but a decade later it was already 172,023, of whom 259 were Negroes and 2,369 were Indians. In 1870 the population was 439,706, of whom 759 were Negroes and only 690 were Indians. There had been no urban population in 1850, but a decade later there were 16,223 persons living in towns, and in 1870 there were 70,754 urban residents. 10 Even so, in these 1870 statistics, only in the capital city and its vicinity was there a population density of more than 45 persons to the square mile, while the area along the Mississippi from St. Paul to Red Wing and continuing on to the southeastern corner of the state had a density of 21-45, and other parts of the southeastern corner, reaching toward the central part of the state, varied between 5 and 15, and beyond that thinned out to 2 to 5 persons to the square mile. All the rest of Minnesota, the southwest corner, the west, the center and the north were almost deserted, with less than two persons to the square mil• 11

While the foreign-born population of the United States as a whole amounted to 13.2 percent in 1860, in Minnesota it was 34.2 percent. Ten years later, the entire country had 14.4 percent foreign born; Minnesota, 36.5 percent. 12 The first immigrants were Scots arriving from Canada, and Irish and Swiss. 13 By 1860, the leading national groups were as follows

10. The population of Minnesota reached the one million figure in the late 1880s. During World War II, the urban population for the first time exceeded the rural population. The 1950 Census statistics indicated a population of 2,982,483, of whom 1,607,446 were urban. There were then 14,022 Negroes and 12,:33 Indians.

11. Nelson, Lowry and Clampitt, Hazel, Population Trends in Minnesota. St. Paul, 1940. p. 7, chart 2.

12. For Minnesota this was the maximum. For the United States as a whole the high point came in 1890, when 14.8% of the population was foreign-born. Cf Nelson and Clampitt, op. cit. p. 11.

13. Nelson, Lowry; Ramsay, Charles E.; and Toews, Jacob, A Century of Population Growth in Minnesota. St. Paul, 1954. p. 13.

14. The Finns gained 6th position in 1910, rising to 4th in 1920, a status they maintained until 1950, when they fell to 5th. Cf Nelson, Ramsay, Toews, op. cit. p. 13.

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