584 Wisconsm Academy of Sciences,, AriSj, and Letters. 



Chapter II. 



TOPOGRAPHY AND SOILS. 



Before taking up a discussion of the population of this 

 county, it ^vill be necessary to state something of its geology '} 

 The county forms part of the great watershed passing from 

 Madison to the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi riv- 

 ers. The western branch of this watershed separates the rivers 

 that flow into the Fever river from those that flow into the 

 Pecatonica. Entering at the town of Belmont, it passes through 

 Shullsburg in a southeasterly direction, leaving the county 

 through Monticello. The highest point on this divide is the 

 Platte Mounds, in the northern part of Belmont. 



La Fayette is well watered by the Pecatonica, East Pecatonica 

 and Fever rivers and their branches. Springs also abound, espe- 

 cially in the towns of Willow Springs, Centre, Wiota, White 

 Oak Springs, Shullsburg, Benton and New Diggings. They are 

 scarce on the prairie lands of Kendall, Belmont, Elk Grove, 

 Wayne, Gratiot and Monticollo.^ 



The soil is well adapted to agricultural purposes and unus- 

 ually large successive w^heat crops have been raised with no 

 regard to rotation. A belt of rich, black loam extends through 

 the western and central parts, including the greater parts of 

 Seymour, Shullsburg, Darlington, Gratiot, White Oak Springs 

 and Monticello ; also large parts of Elk Grove and Belmont. 

 There is also a much narrower belt passing through the westr 

 central part of Fayette, which curving through the west-central 

 parts of Wiota, enters the southern part of Argyle. The subsoil 

 is clay underlaid witli limestone, which forms in ridges along 

 the larger streams, affording some valuable quarries. Sand is 

 found in the eastern part to some extent and along the rivers.^ 



1 Geology of Wisconsin, vol. 11, part IV, 1873-1877. 



2 Taken from the United States Census for 1850, manuscript records, 

 in the office of the Secretary of State. 



3 See Plate XLIII. 



