CLIMATE AND DRAINAGE. 
5 
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 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 tamarack, cedar, spruce, 
or hare 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 land 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 difficulty 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 1 in the Settler’s Handbook of North¬ 
ern Wisconsin, by W. A. Henry, Dean of the College of Agriculture, 
University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1895. 
