420 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
is indicated by the number of acres of improved lands (35,217). The soil 
is mostly clay or loam, and is well adapted for general cultivation. A very 
superior quality of wheat is raised, which is pronounced as good as any in 
the market. Excellent crops of oats, rye, barley, corn and potatoes are 
raised, which find a ready market among the lumbermen of this and neigh¬ 
ing counties. We have some very fine blooded stock, and very fair grades. 
The good qualities of the former have been largely instrumental in improv¬ 
ing our common stock. 
The surface of the country is good; in the western and northern portions 
it is high rolling land, with oak timber on the ridges. Scarcely a section 
of the county but has abundance of water. The Trempealeau and Black 
rivers are the principal streams. These, with their tributaries, and, in fact, 
all the streams are lined with pine, tamarack and other valuable timber. In 
the northern part of the county are a number of cranberry marshes. 
Above Black River Falls is an extensive deposit of iron of an excellent 
quality; also occasional mounds of iron, and indications of the mineral, are 
found scattered over the northern part of the county. There is a great 
abundance of the ore, and it must ultimately be a great source of profit to 
this section of our state. 
The population of the county, as given by the last census is 7,712. There 
is here a large and promising field open to the laborer or capitalist, and one 
that will yield large returns at no distant day. 
JEFFERSON COUNTY. 
BY D. W. BALLOU, WATERTOWN. 
Jefferson is an interior county in Wisconsin, not exactly central as re¬ 
gards territory, but nearly so as to population. Its surface is gently rolling, 
or undulating, interspersed with woodlands, prairies, natural pastures, and 
“ openings,” with no deep valleys or barren hills, but abundantly watered 
with lakes, rivers, creeks and springs, and thickly covered with heavy for¬ 
ests containing a choice variety of timber, fully sufficient not only for fuel 
but for manufacturing purposes. An examination of any good map will 
show that it is amply supplied with admirable railroad facilities, being 
penetrated with lines running in almost every direction—furnishing con¬ 
venient means for travel, trade and transportation. Taking the city of 
Watertown as the pivotal point, the communication with Chicago, Milwau¬ 
kee, Green Bay, La Crosse, Prairie du Cliien, and the intermediate places, 
is direct and permanent. 
In few counties in the state can so many attractive and flourishing vil¬ 
lages be found as in Jefferson. Aside from the city of Watertown, which, 
with its population of nearly 8,000, ranks first in importance, there are Jef- 
