60 WISCONSIN AGRICULTUEE. 



from reports of surveys, and various autliorities — all on different 

 scales perhaps — agreeing in some points, and in others likely 

 entirely dissimilar, — making all to harmonize in one, is a more 

 serious matter. This can be done by the exercise of good judg- 

 ment, a discriminating knowledge of the country to be delineat- 

 ed, and an intimate acquaintance with the authorities necessary 

 to be consulted, sufficient to enable one to determine what is 

 reliable and what mere "guess work;" to which must be added 

 experienced artistic skill. All these requisities are indispensable 

 to compile a good reliable map. 



" But we were to give an outline of the process by which 

 maps are produced. First then, a drawing is to he made. This, 

 it will be understood, pre-suppose the proper collection of sur- 

 veys and other authentic materials, of which the map is to be 

 the summary. Hundreds of letters may have been written to 

 obtain information respecting the names and locations of towns, 

 courses of streams, distances from place to place, etc., etc., for a 

 single map. Some of our readers may perhaps have received 

 letters from the very establishment spoken of above, instituting 

 such inquiries, and have very likely, in such cases, laid them 

 aside unanswered, little thinking how much the simple reply to 

 the questions propunded might save of perplexing inquiry. 

 With the appropriate materials on hand, the draught is made, 

 combining in one all the ficts that have been collected, and 

 making a perfect picture of the items of knowledge the circum- 

 stances of the case, and progress of geographical investigation 

 admit of, and presenting a full and beautiful map, all drawn by 

 hand, and costing days and months of incessant artistic labor. 



" The drawing completed, the second step is to engrave it upon 

 sheets of steel, or copper-plate. This requires the utmost deli- 

 cacy of touch, as will be apparent upon the examination of an}^ 

 skillfully executed map. Every letter, from the largest to the 

 smallest — every line in the water — every one of the minute cuts 

 representing mountain-peaks and ranges, requiring a magnifying 

 glass to exhibit them, are cut by the hand, without the aid of any 

 kind of machinery, by artists skilled in their particular depart- 

 ments. Nor can the different kinds and departments of work 



