230 



TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

 CULTURE AND CURING OF TOBACCO IN WISCONSIN. 



A lino extending northwest from Milwaukee will nearly mark the limit between the small timber of the 

 openings and the heavily timbered regions of the north, and the same line will almost mark the boundary between 

 the agricultural and the lumbering districts. 



The soils of central Wisconsin, are divided, according to their origin, into drift, sandstone, limestone, and 

 crystalline rock soils, and all partake of the character of the rocks from which they are derived. The Potsdam 

 sandstone, which occupies a large district in central Wisconsin, gives a very poor, thin soil, and even where the 

 material of the drift is of an arenaceous character the soil is often of the same nature. 



If the drift material is of a calcareous and argillaceous character, though it may overlie sandstone, the soil i.- 

 ofteu good, as in the southern part of Adams and the eastern part of Waushara counties. Some few local areas 

 of moderate fertility occur on the Potsdam formations, but they result from the accidental accumulation of other 

 material, and are exceptions to the general rule. 



A bed 30 feet thick, which rests above the lowest sandstone, is composed of a clayey or sandy magnesian 

 limestone, called the Mendota limestone, and where the soil has been derived from this, as in portions of Columbia 

 county, it is fertile. Upon this is another sandstone, with a thickness of from 30 or 40 feet, to which the name of 

 Madison sandstone has been given. In its disintegration it makes a very poor soil, being nothing more than a bed 

 of loose saiid. This occurs in a part of Columbia county. The Lower Magnesian rests upon the Madison sandstone, 

 and gives rise, by its crumbling, to a very fertile, durable soil. This limestone is from 8 to 200 feet in thickness, 

 and is composed largely of siliceous and clayey matter. The elevated prairie, belt of northern Dane and eastern 

 Columbia carries this soil, and is one of the most productive regions in the state. 



The Saint Peter sandstone rests upon the Lower Magnesian, but it rarely forms the surface rock, and is- 

 therefore of no importance as a soil-former. But few areas in central Wisconsin have soils derived from Trenton 

 limestone or from the Galena. 



The lead region embraces three of the most southwesterly counties of the state, viz: Grant, Iowa, and 

 La Fayette. In the eastern part of La Fayette county the soil is sandy, owing to the disintegration of the 

 calcareous sandy shales belonging to the Galena limestones. 



South of the principal water-shed of the district the soils rest upon a strong, deep clay. These soils have been 

 derived from the crumbling of the Galena limestones and the Cincinnati shales, and are remarkable for their 

 fertility and strength. In other places, especially north of the water-shed, the soil abounds in flint on the higher 

 points, derived from the Galena limestone. 



TIMBER. 



Nearly all the northern counties of Wisconsin abound in white pines, balsams, hemlocks, and other conifers. 

 The widely extended prairies of western Illinois reach into several of the southern counties of Wisconsin, 

 and between these prairies and the heavily timbered districts of the north are what are called "oak openings", in 

 which the burr oak (Quercua ma^rocarpa) is the principal growth. Associated with this burr oak are the white oak 

 (Q. alba), red oak (Q. rubra), and pin oak (Q. palustria). The chestnut oak (Q.priiws) occurs in the region around 

 Janesville and Edgerton, the very center of the tobacco district. 



CLIMATE. 



In the southern and thickly-settled portion of the state the mean annual temperature varies from 45.3, on the 

 shores of lake Michigan, to 46.0, on the Mississippi river, the average being about 4C. 



For the tobacco-growing region around Janesville, Edgerton, and Madison the following table will give a fair 

 idea of the prevailing meteorological changes : 



The rainfall, including melted snow, averages for this region about 32 inches annually, of which about one-half 

 falls in May, June, July, and August. The prevailing winds for the spring months are from the northeast; of 

 summer, southwest; of autumn and winter, west. The mean of the prevailing winds for the region of the Mississippi 

 river is south; for lake Michigan, northwest. The winters are usually cold, clear, and dry; springs, backward; 

 summers, hot; and antumns, mild and pleasant. 

 824 



