INDUSTRY - OF COUNTIES. 
449 
tages. It is thirty miles in length, north and south, and about twenty in 
width. The southern and eastern portions of the county contain a majority 
of the inhabitants, the northwestern part being composed mostly of heavy 
timbered lands. The number of townships in the county is twenty-two. 
Our agricultural resources, while they cannot, for obvious reasons, com¬ 
pare favorably with those of the older and more thickly settled portions of 
the state, are nevertheless far in advance of the estimate formerly 
plac d upon them. There is very little waste land in the county—the few 
swamps and marshes which it contains being susceptible of drainage, 
whereby they may be made equal or superior to the best farming land in 
this vicinity. The soil in some portions of the county is a light sandy loam 
yet it is quite productive in favorable seasons, and under judicious manage¬ 
ment will doubtless be susceptible of great improvement. In the eastern 
portion of the county the soil is probably as good for farming purposes as 
any in the northern portion of the state. 
The number of acres at present under cultivation in the county is 61,.079- 
Amount of wheat raised during the year ending June 1,1870, 210,139 bush¬ 
els; rye, 59,309 bushels; corn, 64,022 bushels; oats, 152,143 bushels; bar¬ 
ley, 6,137 bushels; potatoes, 113,976 bushels. Amount of wool produced 
during the same year, 25,987 pounds; butter, 199,517 pounds;, cheese, 7,693 
pounds; hay, 9,652 tons; hops, 70,074 pounds. 
The total estimated value of all farm productions for the same year is 
$643,757; the value of manufactures- (chiefly lumber) produced, $522,742. 
Owing to an idea which has prevailed very extensively, that our sandy 
soil and long winters would prove an insuperable obstacle to the raising of 
fruit, very little effort has been made until quite recently, in that direction. 
It has now, however, been proved beyond a doubt, that many of the hardier 
varieties of fruit can be as successfully raised here as in any portion of the 
state. At the last county fair fifteen varieties of apples, all excellent, and 
of fair size were exhibited, from the farm of Hon. George Cate, in the town 
of Amherst. The flourishing orchard and nurseries of Mr. Frank Felcli, 
in the town of Stockton, also affords abundant evidence of the possibility 
of fruit-raising in Portage county. A large number of trees have been set 
out by our citizens, and a few years will doubtless witness a vast increase 
in the amount of fruit raised in this vicinity. 
We have a sufficiency of good stone for building purposes. The white 
and grey sand-stone, of which the court house now nearly completed at Ste¬ 
vens point, is composed, affords a fine illustration of our resources in the 
way of building material. 
The manufactures of the county are thus far confined to the single arti¬ 
cle of lumber, of which a great amount is annually produced. The num¬ 
ber of saw mills in the county is about twenty-five, many of which are 
steam mills of large capacity, employing a great number of workmen. 
The internal improvements of the county are creditable in their character; 
29 —Ag. Tb. 
