830 WISCONSIN AGEICULTUEE. 



level of tlie river, raised on the same, 75 bushels of corn to the 

 acre, in 1855, and 300 bushels of potatoes per acre, in 1856. 



From these few facts, it will be seen that La Crosse county 

 possesses agricultural resources of a high order, which time and 

 labor will soon bring into requisition. 



SOILS AND SURFACE. 



Not having at hand the results of chemical analysis, it may 

 suffice to say, that to the eye of a superficial observer, the soils 

 in this county may be classed under three general divisions. 

 The first, is a dark muck or loam, found in our vallies ; the sec- 

 ond, is a mixture of humus, clay, and sand, seen on our hills 

 and table lands ; and the third, is that near our rivers, in which 

 sand predominates. Our hill and valley lands have an excel- 

 lent subsoil. Many travelers, for the want of proper discrimi- 

 nation, have spoken diminutively of the land in La Crosse coun- 

 ty, in consequence of some high hills with narrow elevations on 

 their summits ; not seeming to reflect, that these narrow table 

 lands give place to vallies, broad, rich, and almost innumerable. 

 Probably no portion of Wisconsin is better adapted to variety in 

 agriculture, than La Crosse county, nor does any section afford 

 more encouragement to the skillful, scientific husbandman. 

 Every hill-side is capable of being a rich pasture for grazing, and 

 living streams, peopled with speckled trout, glide through these 

 vallies. 



LUMBER. 



The situation of La Crosse county on the Mississippi, and at 

 the mouth of Black river, makes it in reality a lumbering dis- 

 trict, without any of the social, agricultural, commercial, and 

 manufacturing disadvantages always experienced in the heart of 

 a lumbering country. Ten steam saw-mills have already been 

 erected within sight of the city of La Crosse, and others are un- 

 der contract. It must be admitted that these mills are far from 

 perfect specimens of the kind, the best constructed, having cut 

 only about two million feet of lumber during the year ; and yet 

 it is astonishing, but still true, that such is the demand, that seas- 



