Corn grows throughout the western half of the state, and especially in the south-western parts, in Lincoln, Clay, Union, Yankton and Bonhommie counties, the largest crop in 1899 being that of Lincoln county, 3,914,840 bush., nearly one-eleventh of the state crop. Oats has a distribution similar to that of corn, the largest crop in 1899 being that of Minnehaha county, 1,666,110 bush., about one-nineteenth of the state crop. Barley grows principally in the eastern and southern parts of the state - Minnehaha, Moody, Lake and Brookings counties - the largest crop in 1899 being that of Minnehaha county, 932,860 bush., more than one-seventh of the state.
Among the parks are Loring, near the centre of the city, in which is a statue of Ole Bull; Lyndale, in the south-west part of the city; Interlachen, just north-west of Lyndale; Glenwood, in the west of the city; Van Cleve, Logan, Windom and Columbia in the part of the city east of the Mississippi river; Riverside, on the south-west bank of the Mississippi; and Minnehaha Park, in which are the Minnehaha Falls, a beautiful cascade of the Minnehaha Creek (the outlet of Lake Minnetonka), near the Mississippi, with a fall of 50 ft., well known from Longfellow's poem " Hiawatha."
Adjoining Minnehaha Park are the grounds (51 acres, given to the state by the city) and buildings of the Minnesota state soldiers' home (1887); and 2 m.
The state institutions consist of state hospitals for the insane at St Peter (1866), at Rochester (1877), established originally as a state inebriate asylum under a law taxing liquor dealers for that purpose, which was subsequently held to be unconstitutional, at Fergus Falls (1887), at Anoka (1900) and at Hastings (1900); the state institute for defectives at Faribault, consisting of the schools for the deaf (1863), blind (1874) and feeble-minded (1879); the state public school for dependent and neglected children at Owatonna (1886); a sanatorium for consumptives at Walker; a hospital for indigent, crippled or deformed children (1907) at St Paul; the state training school for boys near Red Wing; a similar industrial school for girls (established separately in 1907) at Sauk Center; the state reformatory at St Cloud (1887), intermediate between the training school and the state prison, for first offenders between the ages of sixteen and thirty years, in which indeterminate sentences and a parole system are in operation; the state prison at Stillwater (1851), in which there is a parole system and a graded system of diminution of sentence for good conduct, and in which, up to 1895, prisoners were leased under contract (especially to the Minnesota Thresher Company), and since 1895 have been employed in the manufacture of shoes and of binding twine, and in providing for the needs of the prison population; and the state soldiers home occupying fifty-one acres adjoining Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis.