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gious, are American. The people are as sober, industrious, intelligent, moral 

 and law-abiding, as in any other portion of the State, or perhaps of the Union. 

 Much attention is given to education, intellectual and moral ; and the fact that 

 Walworth county orders have always been on a par with specie, speaks favorably 

 for the honesty, and pecuniary ability of the inhabitants. The population in 

 1850, was 17,866— in 1838, it was 1,019— in 1840, 2,611— in 1842, 4,618 — 

 in 1845, (by estimate,) 10,000 — and in 1847, it was 15,039. 



Area, Boundaries, Surface, &c. — It is twenty-four miles square, embracing 

 an area of 576 square miles, and is composed of sixteen surveyed townships, each 

 of which constitutes an organized town, which with Elkhorn, the county seat, 

 composed of four contiguous sections in the centre of the county, make in all 

 seventeen towns. It is bounded on the north by Waukesha and Jefferson coun- 

 ties, on the east by Racine and Kenosha, on the south by the State of Illinois, 

 and on the West by Rock County. Its southern limit io in north latitude 42| 

 degrees. It is situated nearly midway between Lake Michigan and Rock River, 

 and presents a pleasing variety of surface and scenery. Its surface is for the most 

 part undulating, though often level or sloping. Here it swells into gentle hills, 

 and there it stretches away in broad levels, or slight inclinations. This graceful 

 outline of surface generally prevails, but in a few localities, particularly in the 

 south-eastern portion of the county, the land is in many places broken by knobs, 

 or small, irregnlai-, and abrupt hills. A chain of these, from one half to one mile 

 wide, enters the county from the north, a little west of the centre line, and runs 

 in a south-westerly direction across the north-western poition of the county. A 

 large portion of the hills are arable land, of a warm and prolific soil, and all will 

 afford good pasturage. 



There are some marshes in all portions of the county, most of which afford 

 excellent meadows and are in present use; while the residue can, for the most 

 part, be reclaimed by draining. The bottoms along the streams also furnish 

 excellent meadow land, while much of thein is of the richest quality for tillage. 



Probably it may be safely affirmed of Walworth County, that it has less waste 

 land, and, for its size, moi-e that is adapted to agricultural purposes than any 

 other in the State. Indeed, it would be difficult to find, in the aggregate, half a 

 dozen sections of waste land in the county. 



Soil. — This varies with the localities. On the prairie and bottom lands it is 

 either a dark vegetiible mould, or muck, varying from two to four feet in depth. 

 In the heavily timbered hand it is loam, covei'ed more or less deeply with decayed 

 vegetation. In the white and black oak " openings," it is a light clay, and among 

 the burr oaks it partakes largely of the ingredients of the prairie soil, mixed how- 

 ever with more sand and loam, This county presents, throughout every portion 

 of it, a choice and desirable variety in its soil, adap^ting it to the vaiious pursuits 



