MADISON. MILWAUKEE. 97 



able one till this year, when the general failure of crops has 

 dried up the source of his trade. He told me that the majority 

 of the emigrants are people from towns who never saw a fur- 

 row turned till they came here, that they have everything to 

 learn, great hardships to endure, but that with prudence and 

 sobriety success is so certain that he had never seen an instance 

 of it otherwise. He said, moreover, that such people, with 

 dear-bought knowledge, turn out tolerable farmers in a short 

 time. 



The country towards Madison, the capital of the State, is 

 dry prairie, lying on gravel for most of the way. The wheat 

 crop here has been only half a crop of inferior quality, oats 

 nearly a failure, but Indian corn good. Madison is prettily 

 situated on a high ridge between two lakes. 



But though this is the capital, Milwaukee, on Lake Michi- 

 gan, is really the chief town of Wisconsin. It is one of the 

 most picturesquely situated towns of any size that I have seen 

 in the west. It is placed on both sides of a river which falls 

 into a fine bay of Lake Michigan, the town rising from the 

 valley of the river on either side to high bluffs facing the lake. 

 The river is navigable from the lake, and vessels discharge and 

 land their cargoes direct into, and from, the granaries and 

 warehouses which line its banks. Tramways from the various 

 lines of railroad run along the other sides of these warehouses, 

 so that the greatest facilities are afforded for the transport and 

 handling of produce and merchandise. The extent to which 

 labour is economised in this way both here and at Chicago is 

 really wonderful. By the aid of steam power half a million of 

 bushels of grain can be daily received and shipped through the 

 granaries of Chicago, the whole of it being weighed in draughts, 

 of 400 bushels at a time, as it passes from the railroad to the 

 vessel. This can be done at a cost of a farthing a bushel, and 

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