CLEAIiING A FARM. 661 



J. W. WOOD, 



BARABOO, SAUK COUNTY. 



Clearing a Farm in the Woods — Soil — Cutting — Burning. 



Skillet Creek farm lies about two miles southwest from 

 Baraboo, in Sauk county, Wisconsin, in the midst of a heavily 

 timbered region, consisting of oak, maple, elm, basswood, 

 hickory, and butternut, with all tlieir common varieties, and 

 this is thickly set with the ordinary brushwood of such regions. 



Every foot of its tillable land has been hewn out of these 

 heavy forests, entailing a vast amount of labor in the past, and 

 with no prospect of its speedy abatement. The farm contains 

 two hundred and forty acres, of which about one-half is already 

 cleared and is mostly in crops. A small creek, which rises in 

 the Baraboo bluffs, to the west of Devil's lake, runs through 

 it, affording excellent water privileges for stock, and falling 

 over rocky ledges for about twenty-five feet, forms the Skillet 

 creek falls ; a beautiful spot, attracting the attention of tourr 

 ists, and which is made the scene of many picnic and other 

 festivities. 



The underlying rock is the Potsdam sandstone of the 

 lower Silurian formation. It is heavily covered with drift, but 

 outcrops at the falls, and in neighboring localities, exhibiting 

 tho characteristic fossils of that formation. 



An elevated ridge on the south side of the farm is capped 

 with the lower magnesian limestone, which can be burnt into 

 a strong, gray quicklime. 



A slight dam across the creek, three feet in hight, gives 

 a head which irrigates about ten acres of the farm. This is 

 devoted to gardening and small Iruit. 



SOIL. 



The soil of these timbered lands, is found to be a rich 

 clay loam, extremely well adapted to general farming and 



