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timber — maple, oak, ash, elm, and hickory. The exceptions tu this general 

 remark would be, the patches of openings which lie along the river at many 

 points, (being most abundant in the northern part of the county,) and the mag- 

 nificent and apparently inexhaustible pineries which extend along either bank of 

 the Wolf River. The marshes found in many parts of the county, produce now 

 a fine quality of grass, and are capable of very profitable cultivation, with em- 

 phatically but little expense for drainage. 



Outagamie county is twenty four miles in length one way, by twenty seven 

 miles in breadth the other way, containing 648 square miles. It is bounded on 

 the north by Oconto county and the Indian Reservation, on the east by Manito- 

 woc and Brown counties, on the south by Calumet and Winnebago counties, and 

 on the west by Waupaca county. I have no doubt that six hundred square miles 

 of good tillable land are to be found in this county. 



As to its soils, and their constituent elements, there appears to be a bed of 

 limestone rock underlying the whole county — upon this is a bed of red marl, 

 generally about seventy feet deep, with occasionally a streak of blue clay, and 

 very rarely a little hardpan. On the surface of the marl is from three to six inches 

 of decayed vegetable matter, making a rich blue mould. The limestone is less 

 apparent in the western part of the county, and the soil assumes on the surface 

 a drier and lighter character, and of course is a very retentive and extensively 

 productive soil. 



The farmers have had barely time since taking possession of their land to bring 

 it into condition to I'eceive crops ; and, so far, they have only succeeded in raising 

 what was sufficient for their own use, and the partial supply of a limited though 

 regular home market. A practical farmer who passed through the county during 

 the summer of 1851, mentioned a forty-acre field of winter wheat, three miles 

 west of Appleton, as by far the best he had seen in the course of a journey 

 through the whole southern and western part of the State. Our agricultural 

 existence has been so brief, that the science has as yet assumed no definite form ; 

 and there is not sufficient data to enable me to say anything more, than that all 

 the common crops which have yet been tried here have succeeded beyond the 

 expectation of the farmer. One piece of land which has been regularly planted 

 for many years back by a half-breed family without receiving any kind of manure, 

 now yields abundantly under the worst possible cultivation. The next two years, 

 however, will show the capabilities of the county. 



The most approved time for clearing land is during the summer months; and 

 the first crop is generally put in without ploughing. Farmers generally have 

 but limited means, and are compelled to get all they can out of their lands, with 

 the least possible outlay, for the first two years. 



The market for agricultural products is as yet entirely at home — nor is that 



