134 
OPENING A NEW FARM. 
BY BENJ. F. ADAMS, FITCHBURG. 
Every wild and unsettled country Las its peculiarities botli of soil ana 
climate, and these cannot be fully ascertained until tested by the expe¬ 
rience of at least several years of permanent residence ; when these are 
satisfactorily understood, its settlement takes place in proportion gene¬ 
rally to its agricultural resources. The rapidity with which Wisconsin 
has been peopled, for the last ten years, by citizens from almost every* 
State in the Union, and multitudes from the old world, furnishes abun¬ 
dant evidence that a high estimate is set upon its agricultural advantages. 
It is not boasting to say, that this State is deserving of an excellent repu¬ 
tation for farming purposes—the vast amount of produce that is even 
now yearly shipped from her Lake ports to the Eastern markets is the 
best evidence of her fertile soil and extensive resources which as yet are 
almost undeveloped beyond the mere commencement. The vast tracts 
of wild land yet remaining here contain millions of acres, and the greater 
part of these are susceptible of being converted into most productive 
farms. Why should those seeking a home in the West go beyond the 
limits of Wisconsin ? I do not deny that a soil, equally fertile, may be 
found elsewhere, and wild lands at a less price, but these are more re¬ 
mote from good markets, and some years must elapse ere public improve¬ 
ments can be successfully pushed forward. In this State public works 
are progressing rapidly—a market is already at hand for all that can be 
produced—wild lands, though held above the original government price, 
are yet to be had at low prices—and the country has been settled long 
enough for farmers to have adopted a system of farming by which new¬ 
comers can profit. The importance of a knowledge of practical farming, 
in a newly settled country, is as essential as a knowledge of the best me¬ 
thods of renewing lands that have been long tilled. Those who have 
taken the prairie and oak-opening lands of Wisconsin in their native 
state, and gone through the process of making a farm, have some means 
of judging the best means of making, as well as managing, a new farm. 
Say what we may of the facility with which wild lands in this region can 
be cultivated, it is no easy task to change a wilderness into fruitful fields, 
whether that wilderness be composed of dense forests, like those which, 
once covered all the hills and valleys of New England and New York, 
