INDUSTRY OF COUNTIES. 
407 
Oldenburg, Red Astrachan and Russian apples generally, as well as some 
other kinds, resist the climate; none but the hardiest sorts should be planted. 
The crop of apples in 1870 was about equal to the demand. 
The money value of land in any part of the world is the safest guide to 
its worth as compared with other sections. The average price per acre 
throughout the county is probably $45 to $75 for good improved farms, and 
for two or three miles from the city, from $75 to $100, and even higher in a 
few cases. Wild land, of which there is but litlie, sells at from $10 to $45, 
according to location. 
No mineral of any sort, within the limits of the county, has come to the 
knowledge of the writer, except a bed of iron under the stone ledge in 
Taycheedali, owned by Mr. Belt. Whether it will prove worth working, is 
still in doubt. Indications of lead have also been discovered, but nothing, 
certain. It is highly probable that both l<3ad and iron exist in paying quan¬ 
tities, but it is, as yet, mere speculation. Erratic blocks of copper are oc¬ 
casionally found. 
Within a few years past, great changes have taken place in the system of 
farming in the county of Fond du Lac. Farmers have begun to realize the 
folly of wearing out their lands in the production of wheat, at an average 
cost of one dollar per bushel and selling it for eighty-five cents. Wiscon¬ 
sin men begin to see that the time is past when they could raise wheat for 
fifty cents at a large profit. Only new and cheap lands can do this. That 
belt is now 500 miles west of us. A few years more will see that used up 
also for wheat production; as, successively during the last forty years New 
York and Pennsylvania, then Ohio and Indiana, Michigan and this state, 
have led the list as wheat producing states. The state of New York, which 
thirty or forty years ago, exported many millions of bushels of wheat, now 
raises less than its home consumption of this cereal requires, by from 
twelve to fourteen millions of bushels. Other productions are found more 
profitable and will so remain until the exuberant wheat producing capacity 
of the western plains becomes in a measure exhausted. Wheat is too 
heavy and bulky to be profitably transported to great distances. The rapa¬ 
city of railroad companies aggravates the necessary evil; they charge more 
on transportation to and from those sections which are entirely dependent 
on their roads and less on those that have competing lines. Fond du Lac 
is much favored; from it produce can be sent to either Chicago,Milwaukee, 
Sheboygan or Green Bay by rail, or to the latter place by water, also. It is, 
perhaps, not generally known, that many cargoes of wheat and other pro¬ 
duce have been shipped from the city of Fond du Lac directly to Buffalo 
and other lake ports without breaking bulk. The Fox River improvement 
is about to pass into the hands of the general government, when it is expected 
that the largest class of propellers will reach this point. But for all this, 
our farmers realize that the best market for their produce must be that de¬ 
signed by nature, viz: the home consumption . Our cities already consume 
