INDUSTRY OF COUNTIES. 
421 
erson, the county seat, Fort Atkinson, Lake Mills, Waterloo, Palmyra, 
Ixonia, Hebron, Milford, Aztalan and Rome—all handsomely located and 
rapidly improving; their educational interests carefully attended to, with 
school buildings that would be creditable to the taste and liberality of any 
community. 
The population of Jefferson county has steadily increased from the date 
of its organization in 1839, to the present time—each national or state • 
census testifying to the fact that its growth, if gradual, has been contin¬ 
ual. It now contains 34,050 inhabitants, according to the official returns 
of 1870. When this is the case, through a series of decades, progress 
may be expected to be equally uniform in other respects, and conse¬ 
quently the years that have brought an increase of numbers have also 
brought with them an increase in intelligence, refinement, culture and 
activity. Churches, academies, school houses and newspapers abound, 
and these sources of moral and intellectual development are universally 
cherished and generously encouraged. At Watertown the Northwestern 
University has been established and provided with an able Faculty, while 
at Jefferson, a Liberal Institute is in successful operation, affording oppor¬ 
tunities for the youth of both sexes to pursue a collegiate course of study, 
where the means and desire for classic and scientific acquirements prevail. 
The public schools of the county maintain a high standard of excellence, 
and are under the control of teachers of tried qualifications. 
The past ten years have witnessed a marked and favorable change in all 
departments of industry in Jefferson county. More of the productive soil 
everywhere met with, has been brought under cultivation, and the tillage 
is more thorough and systematic. The quality as well as the quantity of a 
crop is much more properly appreciated than formerly. The farmers, as a 
general rule, have shown an eager and commendable disposition to promptly 
avail themselves of the many inventions and labor-saving implements 
which American genius and skill are constantly providing to lessen the 
toils of the husbandman. As the sickle disappeared a generation ago, so 
the cradle is now more and more rarely seen in the broad, waving grain 
fields; but the swifter and surer reaper has taken its place, accomplishing 
in a day the hard and exhausting work of a week, during the busy and 
pressing harvest season. The ponderous threshing machine has superced¬ 
ed the light and slow flail. 
The cultivation of fruit is receiving much more attention than formerly. 
The causes of previous failures are investigated and practical remedies 
proposed. Some portions of the county, as a matter of course, are better 
adapted to experiments of this kind than others, and where the soil and cli¬ 
mate have proved suitable, large and thrifty orchards beautify the land¬ 
scape, yielding plentifully, and supplying for home consumption a large 
proportion of the apples, pears, plums and cherries that once had to be 
procured from abroad. Grapes, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries 
