163 



time on your farin. Corn husks will make beds superior to feathers — the sugar 

 beet will make sugar equal to the cane — your sheep will clothe you in the winter. 

 "Why then plunge into debt? Our country is well adapted to agricultural pur- 

 poses. It is true that the great disproportion in wages, between professional 

 and agricultural labor, falls most heavily on the producing classes. If the farmer 

 is crushed beneath the pressure, under which he now lies, the crash, if it comes, 

 will react on the other classes, and all oth^r interests will be buried in his 

 ruin. 



AGRICULTURE OF DODGE COUNTY. 



Dodge Center, December 31st, 1861. 



Dear Sir — Your favor of the 1st inst. was duly received; but other occu- 

 pations have prevented an earlier reply. And my means for acquiring the infor- 

 mation called for by your inquiries have not been such as to eaable me to go into 

 detail, but must be confined to generalities. 



The soil of this county is well adapted to the growing of all the usual pro- 

 ductions of the northern States. During the first few years after the settle- 

 ment of this county, wheat was the principal crop, and yielded in abundance, 

 and of the first quality; but the last two seasons have been unfavorable to 

 wheat, the winters have been severe on the plant, succeeded by rust, which has 

 ruined what escaped the severity of the winter. As summer crops, corn, oats and 

 barley, are grown pretty extensively, the soil being well adapted to the growth of 

 these grains, and the vicissitudes of our climate appear to affect them less fatally 

 than the wheat crop, hence they are beginning to be looked upon by our farmers 

 as the reliable grain crops upon which they must depend ; and mucfi less winter 

 wheat is sown now than was sown a few years past. Spring wheat has been 

 pretty generally substituted for winter wheat; but the distance from Milwaukeee 

 (that being the principal mart for our surplus,) and the low price of the article, 

 renders it not a valuable crop for this section of the State. 



When the county was first settled, the principal attention of the farmer was 

 given to the raising of wheat; and a bad system was followed, that is, sowing 

 wheat on the same ground for several years in succession. This seemed to be the 

 result of necessity, in the first instance, in improving a new farm, rather than an 

 approval of the course under different circumstances; but as the amount of land 

 broke and put under cultivation has increased, they are enabled to commence a 

 system of rotation, which, where it has been tested, has produced very satisfac- 

 torv repults. 



