404 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
depth of fifty-five feet, and sometimes even more. When water is obtained at 
such great depth, it is always very permanent. All that part of the county 
which includes the basin above spoken of, west and north of the ledge, can 
obtain running fountains by boring artesian wells at an average depth of 
forty-five to one hundred and twenty feet in extreme cases. Some fine flow¬ 
ing fountains in Byron are not more than twenty-five feet deep. The theory 
is that water percolates the land beneath the surface, in the same way that 
blood circulates through the animal system, and the water accumulated in 
the ground in the ledge uplands, through percolation, asserts its tendency 
to come to a level as soon as a vent-hole is dug, whereby its pressure forces 
the water above the lower-basin surface. In this way, innumerable artesian 
wells have been successfully bored in and around the city of Pond du Lac, 
and to this fact, as is well known, that city owes its name of Fountain 
City. 
It may surprise some persons that the writer should enlarge so much 
upon the subject of water supply; but water is so absolutely indispensable 
to the successful prosecution of farming operations, that its abundant 
supply is a matter of paramount importance, and the wise man will avoid 
locations otherwise most desirable, when the supply of water is involved in 
doubt; for without such a supply, farming must necessarily be attended 
with failure. 
The uplands, i. e., the lands above the ledge, are either oak openings or 
heavily timbered land, mostly oak and maple, which existed in the state of 
nature in large unbroken forests. But, for the last twenty years, the wood¬ 
man’s unsparing ax has been busily at work, so that probably not more 
than one-third of those magnificent woods are left standing; and it may be 
easily foreseen that, if the same wholesale destruction is carried on, but 
little wood will be left in a dozen years. Beside the portion required for 
the use of the owndr of the timber, immense quantities are carted every 
winter to the city of Fond du Lac, probably not less than 20,000 cords every 
year, being disposed of at prices ranging from $3.00 to $5.00 per cord, 
according to quality and demand. Many of the prairie farmers own tim¬ 
bered lots at convenient distances, but some have to buy their wood. 
Throughout the timbered section, there are several saw mills, where the 
finest white oak, ash, basswood and cherry timber are sawed into plow- 
beams, wagon tongues and felloes, carriage lumber and chair bottoms, or 
furniture lumber, and in that shape taken to the city manufacturing shops, 
where these articles meet with ready sale at remunerative prices. Staves 
and wagon spokes are drawn in large quantities. 
The prairie portion of the county, as has been before said, has a rich, 
deep alluvial soil, mostly free from stones, with generally a clayey subsoil. 
It is adapted to the raising of the cereals. Corn and oats thrive especially 
well on the soil of the prairie. Manure is not absolutely necessary for 
many years after breaking, during which good crops are produced. These 
