150 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



most parts of the country hay is worth at the lowest 

 $10 per ton, and the expense of their feeding would be 

 $1000. Here is a difference, at the least, of $800. Their 

 other feedins[ would farther diminish the sum total of the 

 expense. In this business of wool growing a farmer may 

 make himself independent for life with $1000 or $2000. 

 The cost of getting it to market at Boston or New York 

 does not exceed one cent per pound, a mere trifle on the 

 value. 



The exports of wheat, hides, wool, beef, and pork from 

 this region may be made to suppl}?" the world. There is 

 even now a larse excess over the consumption of the coun- 

 try. Great quantities of wheat are converted into flour by 

 the mills of the country, which make the best quality of 

 superfine flour. The advantages for milling are not sur- 

 passed, and the making of flour will, in a very short time, 

 become one of the great branches of industry of the coun- 

 try. Butter and lead will also be heavy items of export. 



Mining is one of the principal pursuits of the inhabitants 

 of this region. There are probably from three to four thou- 

 sand, or more, persons digging for lead in the mineral dis- 

 trict. This tract, as has been already stated, extends over a 

 portion of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois. There are about 

 fifty furnaces employed in smelting the mineral. 



The veins vary from one inch to one foot in thickness ; 

 and also diff'er greatly in the depth, or descending extent. A 

 vein of half an inch thick will usually give a profit for 

 working it, in rock digging, where blasting is necessary. 

 The crevices which contain the veins of ore, usually run 

 from east to west, nearly, with a small variation. This 

 direction is very uniform; though some have been found 

 quartering, and a few, chiefly from Mineral Point to Wiscon- 

 sin River, having a north and south direction. Those which 



