CLIMATE AND DRAINAGE. 5 



detailed description. Strips of sandy land follow up tlie rivers 

 especially the Wisconsin and its tributaries, small islands of 

 loamy soils occur in all three of the large sand districts, while 

 patches of heavy clays and lighter gravelly soils occur in all 

 portions covered by, gray loams. The swamps include all poorly 

 drained tracts, either stocked with tamai-ack, cedar, spruce, 

 or bare grass marshes and moss bogs. They occupy nearly 12 

 per cent, of the area. They have for the most part a clay bot- 

 tom, and furnish a good soil, especially suited to hay crops.* 



Grouping the laad from the farmers' standpoint, it would ap- 

 pear that about 20 per cent, of the area is good farm land, about 

 40 per cent, medium, while nearly 40 per cent, is either not at 

 all suited to farming or only doubtfully so and should by all 

 means be left to forest. In such classification great divergence 

 of opinion naturally prevails. Most estimates increase the pro- 

 portion of good farm land at the expense of the medium land, 

 but we have preferred to adhere to the above conservative class- 

 ification. 



Climate and Drainage. — The climate is cold, the winters 

 are long, springs almost wanting, summers short but warm and 

 the fall long, cool, and delightful. To illustrate the climate it 

 may be said that the black walnut and hickories are wanting, 

 the timber oaks, both white and red oaks, are replaced by birch 

 in all but the southern and southwestern part of this territory. 

 Corn is raised with dif&culty except in the south and the drier 

 western part, while fruit trees, even apples, do not prosper in 

 the greater part of North Wisconsin. The precipitation 

 over the State is about 32 inches per year of which 60 per cent, 

 falls in summer and autumn. The territory under considera- 

 tion is well supplied with streams and has a far better drainage 

 than is generally supposed. 



*For a fairly accurate account and map of the soils of this state see 

 the account by Prof. F. H. King in the Settler's Handbook of North- 

 ern Wisconsdn, by W. A. Henry, Dean of the College of Agriculture, 

 University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1895. 



