WIREWORM 



6329 



WISCONSIN 



WIRE 'WORM, the name applied to the 

 hard-skinned, cylindrical grubs of click beetles, 

 which live in the earth, usually two or three 

 years, often doing great damage to crops by 



terminated, though with difficulty, by treating 

 the soil to clear it of insects before se< 

 sown, and by rotation of crops. For an illustra- 

 tion of the wireworm, see the article CLICK 



feeding on the plant roots. They can be ex- BEETLE, page 1428. 



THE STORY OF WISCONSIN 



ISCONSIN, tcufcm'tm, one of the 

 north-central states of the American Union, 

 popularly known as the BADGER STATE, from the 

 animal formerly abundant in its northern woods. 

 The state is named for its principal river, the 

 Wisconsin. The word is of Indian origin, and 

 its probable meaning is "wild and rushing 

 river," or "gathering of the waters;" another 

 meaning sometimes given is "great rocks." The 

 state has adopted the violet of its woody dells 

 as its flower emblem. 



Wisconsin was the northernmost and last 

 state formed from the Northwest Territory, 

 and its situation proved to be of great com- 

 mercial significance. It is bounded by Ameri- 

 ca's two greatest inland highways for water 

 traffic; the Mississippi and its tributary, the 

 Saint Croix, form all but about forty miles of 

 the western boundary, and Lake Superior and 

 Lake Michigan, of the Great Lakes and Saint 

 Lawrence system, border the state on the 

 north and east for over 430 miles. These 

 water facilities, the power furnished by the 

 many streams and the wealth of natural re- 

 sources combine to place the state among the 

 leading commonwealths of the Union in com- 

 merce and industry, and its people have made 

 it a political and educational leader as well. 



Size. Covering 56,060 square miles, of \\ Im-li 

 810 square miles are water surface, Wisconsin 

 ranks twenty-fifth in size among the states. It 

 is only eighty-one square miles smaller than 

 the state of Iowa, and is a little more than 

 twice the siie of New Brunswick, Canada. 



The People. In the Federal census of 1910, 

 Wisconsin, with 2,333.860 inhabitants, ranked 

 thirteenth in population among the states. The 

 average number of inhabitants per square mile 



was 42.2, which was 11.3 per square mile ^ 

 than the average for the United States as a 

 whole. The population has steadily increased, 

 and on January 1, 1917, it was estimated by 

 the Census Bureau to be 2,513,758. 



The native Indian tribes formerly inhabiting 

 the territory of the present state were the Pota- 

 watomies, and the region was the meeting 

 ground of the Algonquin and Dakota tribes. 

 After the Black Hawk War in 1832 the rem- 

 nants of the Indian tribes were sent to reserva- 

 tions in the Western states. A small number 

 have remained on the Lac du Flambeau and 

 the Lac Court D'Oreilles reservations in tin* 

 northern woods, and these are occasionally seen 

 in the towns, selling their beads, baskets and 

 other trinkets. 



About one-fourth of the population is of for- 

 eign birth; of this class, the Germans, Norwe- 

 gians, Austrians, Russians and Swedes are most 

 numerous. About forty-three per cent of th. 

 inhabitants live in cities or towns of 2.500 or 

 more. The largest city in the state is Mil- 

 waukee, whose population in 1916 was esti- 

 mated to be 436,535. Superior, Racine, Osh- 

 kosh, Madison, the capital, La Crosse and She- 

 boygan are cities of over 30,000 inhabitants, 

 and Green Bay, Kenosha, Fond du Lin 

 Claire and Appleton are next in importance. 

 Each of these is described under its title m 

 these volumes. 



About one-half of the inhabitants are mem- 

 bers of the Roman Catholic Church, more than 

 one-fourth arc Lutherans, and the Methodist. 

 Congregational, Baptist, Presbyterian, German 

 Evangelical and Episcopal denominations are 

 well represented among the religious organiza- 

 tions of the state. 



