BLUE EARTH COUNTY. 421 



Trees an.l shrubs.] 



hydrated sesquioxide. .A considerable proportion of carbonate of lime is 

 present in the soil of all this region, adding much to its fertility and mak- 

 ing the water of wells hard; but no appreciable amount of the bitterly 

 alkaline magnesic and sodic sulphates are found. 



Aboiit five-sixths of this county was naturally prairie, and supplied 

 magnificent pasturage for the herds of the first immigrants. This region 

 is now entirely occupied by farms, and is mainly under cultivation. It 

 generally has a good supply of timber, which fills its numerous river val- 

 leys with a stately growth, and forms frequent groves on the shores of its 

 lakes, and occasionally upon the general surface of the country at some dis- 

 tance from lakes and streams. The northeast part of the county is cov- 

 ered by a heavy forest, which was originally continuous but has now many 

 clearings and excellent farms. The soil has the same character and pro- 

 ductiveness as upon the prairies. This timbered district includes the town- 

 ships of Lime (excepting the terrace in its west part), Jamestown, Le Ray, 

 Mankato, and portions of McPherson, Decoria and Rapidan, reaching south 

 to the Le Sueur river. It is the southern end of the Big Woods, which 

 thence extend north nearly a hundred miles. 



The trees which make up the woods of Blue Earth county are mostly 

 more valuable for fuel than for lumber for building purposes or wooden 

 manufactures. The white pine, which supplies the greater part of the 

 lumber used in this region, is not found in this county. The principal trees, 

 according to Messrs. Ellison and Ford, owners of a saw-mill in sec. 29, Le 

 Ray, arranged in their estimated order of abundance, are the white or 

 American elm, bass, and iron wood, very plentiful; bur oak, slippery or 

 red elm, black ash, box-elder and willows, common; sugar maple, white 

 ash, black oak, wild plum, June-berry. American crab-apple, common pop- 

 lar or aspen, and hackberry, somewhat common; butternut, and bitternut, 

 soft or red maple, black cherry, large-toothed poplar, cottonwood, water 

 beech, yellow or gray birch, paper or canoe birch, red cedar, black walnut 

 and the Kentucky coffee-tree, rare; but no red nor white oak, nor tama- 

 rack. Among the shrubs of the county are the frost grape, Virginia creep- 

 er, climbing bitter-sweet, hazel, smooth sumach, prickly ash, choke cherry, 

 nine-bark, meadow-sweet, thorn, rose, red and black raspberries, high black- 

 berry, prickly and smooth wild gooseberries, black currant, wolf berry, com- 



