20 
in most places sharply marked, islands of sandy soil. One of these, the 
“St. Croix Barrens,” extends in a belt 10 to 20 miles wide from the 
northwest corner of Polk County to the peninsula of Bayfield; the 
other, a V-shaped tract with its southern apex near the junction of the 
Tomahawk and Wisconsin rivers, occupies the greater part of Oneida 
and Vilas counties; and the third, a broad belt like the first, extends 
from the Menominee to about Lake Shawano, and occupies the central 
part of Marinette and a broad strip through Oconto and part of Shaw- 
ano counties. 
In the aggregate the four several sandy districts occupy over one- 
fourth of the entire area under consideration; they are generally Pine 
lands proper, being covered with dense and almost pure forests of pine, 
both White and Red (Norway), and only in small part stocked with Jack 
Pine. The grayish to reddish-gray soil and subsoil of these sandy areas 
are not generally differentiated; they are usually of great depth, of 
medium to fine grain, and contain, over more than two-thirds of the 
area, sufficient clayey matter to deserve the name of loamy sand. These 
-soils support a luxuriant growth of Pine, but are unsuited to Hemlock 
and hard woods, the latter being represented only by the White Birch, 
Poplar (Aspen), and some stunted Maple. The most characteristic 
plants of the cut-over lands of these sandy areas are the Jack Pine, 
Scarlet Oak, and Sweet Fern, while the White Birch is common to all 
loamy sands, but does not thrive on the poorest soils. 
The districts of sandy loam before mentioned, which border for the 
most part on the sandy Jands (fringing this territory on the south) and 
are mere modifications of the same, occupy about 15 per cent of the 
total area. The soil in these districts, though generally quite fertile, is 
extremely variable—quite heavy in places, often very sandy, and a eon- 
siderable portion of the lands is covered in numerous small and large 
patches by layers of black muck, which greatly increase their fertility. 
The soil and subsoil of the large body of gray loam and gray clay lands 
are usually more or less well defined, and generally there is found a 
small amount of humus cover. In most localities the subsoil, especially 
of all knolls, ete., is mixed with gravel, which occurs either in layers of 
irregular thickness and distribution or ismixed promiscuously through 
the ground. Generally, too, stones or bowlders of large size (4 to 50 
inches) occur both on top and in the ground, which, though quite abund- 
ant in places, do not on the whole interfere with agriculture, and are 
even regarded as an indication of good land. The mixture of gravel 
and loam or clay is extremely variable, and in places sufficient sand and 
fine gravel appear on the surface to make a soil classification quite 
difficult. 
These general outlines will require much modification in a detailed 
description. Strips of sandy land follow up the rivers, especially the 
Wisconsin and its tributaries; small islands of loamy soils occur in all 
three of the large sand-land districts, while patches of heavy clays 
