387 
INDUSTRY OF COUNTIES. 
** 
Very great improvement in cultivation lias been made by the farmers in 
the county generally in the past four years. The slip shod, free and easy 
style of farming, so prevalent not many years since, has given place to a 
more careful and thorough cultivation. More system prevails. The best 
modern, improved farm implements are extensively used, and the fields 
present a cleaner, better appearance by far than they once did. Tasty 
farm houses, and substantial barns and out-buildings, surrounded with 
thrifty gardens and orchards, are seen on every side. 
With general improvement in other things., there has also been an im¬ 
provement of the stock. The ungainly mongrels that were wont to servb 
as a substitute for cattle, are fast being supplanted by the neat, trim, Dur¬ 
ham and Devon. There are now some splendid herds of these cattle in 
the county. The same is true of hogs, horses and sheep. Pork, with our 
farmers is a great staple, and great pains are taken to get the best improved 
breed of hogs. 
Improvement of the flocks of sheep has received its due share of atten¬ 
tion.. Importations of some of the best Vermont bucks and ewes have 
been made, and wool-growing has become a pleasant and profitable branch 
of agriculture. 
Apples head the list of our fruits. We now raise very nearly, or quite 
enough for our own consumption, and the quality, both in size, fairness and 
flavor, is very superior. We have had several discouraging pull-backs, by 
way of hard winters, troublesome insects, etc.; but in spite of these our 
fruit-growers have persevered; trees that were winter-billed have been re¬ 
plenished by others more hardy—enemies have been met and conquered, 
and now young bearing orchards are to be seen all over the county. There 
are several orchards that yield annually from five hundred to a thousand 
bushels each. 
Pears are raised by the amateur only, but can, in many parts of the 
county, be raised as successfully as apples. On our sandy loam about 
Portage, some most splendid Bartletts, Flemish Beauties, Belle Lucrative 
are raised, 
Plums are natives of all the groves and thickets in the county, and are 
produced in the greatest abundance, and many of the best varieties of the 
cultivated plums are raised in all parts of the county. 
Small fruits are everywhere raised in abundance.. Cranberries grow 
wild in many marshes, and some of our enterprising citizens are endeavor¬ 
ing to improve and extend these fields by cultivation. Grapes are culti¬ 
vated all over the country. They, however, need winter protection, and 
where this is given, and the vines properly pruned in the fall, they yield 
abundantly every year. The lighter soils and the limestone, gravelly bluffs 
along the Wisconsin river are better adapted for raising grapes than the 
heavier, richer soils of the county. 
The manufacturing interests of the county are not yet much developed. 
There are several small water powers, on which are grist mills sufficient for 
