328 



The Indian title is extinguished, I believe, to all the land in the State 

 except a small reserve to the Oneidas, near Green Bay, and the public sur- 

 reys are progressing with great rapidity. To them we are mainly indebt- 

 ed for all we know of the country. 



The rivers before named traverse and expose a great variety of soil ; 

 their banks, and those of most of their tributaries, are clothed with the 

 evergreen timbers, the white pine prevailing. The settlements have, 

 hitherto, ascended the streams, mostly in quest of the pine — lumbering 

 being the chief incentive thus far — to the penetration of the forests. The 

 energy with which this business has been prosecuted for the last ten 

 years, has opened the country up these several streams for hundreds of 

 miles. A heavy business is done on all the tributaries of Green Bay ; 

 up the Wolf, the lumbermen have opened as high as town 28 ; on the 

 Wisconsin, to town 30 ; on the Black river, to town 28 ; up the Chippe- 

 •wa (and one of its tributaries, the Red Cedar,) to town 30 ; and up 

 the St. Croix, to Kettle river. 



I have no means of estimating with any accuracy the amount of capital 

 invested in this trade, or the quantity of the annual product. The vast 

 extent of prairie country, in all Illinois, Iowa, and a great part of Mis- 

 souri, are wholly dependent on Northern Wisconsin for pine boards. 



A general notion seems to prevail, that the lauds of these pineries are 

 only valuable for their timber, and that it never can become an agricul- 

 tural district. But the facts are otherwise. Whoever recollects Western 

 New York, as it was forty years ago, may have a very good idea of 

 Northern Wisconsin as it now is ; and whoever sees Wisconsin forty years 

 hence, may behold its prototype in Western New York at this moment. 



That Northern Wisconsin is destined to become an agricultural country, 

 of the first character, not only "self sustaining" but sending off im- 

 mense surplus products, is, not only apparent from its formation generally, 

 but is daily being shadowed forth by experimental facts. Not every man 

 in these pineries is engaged in lumbering ; many are already proving up 

 the capabilities of the soil and climate, by actual farming operations, every 

 effort at which, is repaying the outlay of labor, and fortifying the essayist 

 in his hopes of ultimate success. It must not be forgotten, that but a small 

 portion, comparatively speaking, of this immense region, known as bear- 

 ing the evergreen timbers, such as the pine, hemlock, <fec., is, in fact, 

 clothed with these timbers; nearly all the ridges lying a short distance 

 back from the streams, are clothed with the several varieties of hard 



