458 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
throughout the whole household, making home more pleasant and 
attractive. 
SAINT CROIX COUNTY. 
BY DK. OTIS nOYT, HUDSON. 
This county contains 454.400 acres of land. It is watered on the west by 
the Saint Croix river; from the northeast corner, running west to the Saint 
Croix, is Apple river, and about ten or twelve miles south is Willow river, 
running from the east to the west side and emptying itself into the Saint 
/ 
Croix at Hudson. On the east side of the county is the Eau Galle river, 
running from the north to the south side of the county, through its whole 
extent. From near the center of the county r ise the Kinnickinnick and 
Rush rivers, then running in a southwesterly direction through Pierce 
county, the former discharging into the Saint Croix, and the latter into Lake 
Pepin. All of these streams furnish numerous good water facilities for 
manufacturing purposes. 
Our industrial interests are somewhat varied, agriculture being the most 
important, for which our soil is second to no other county in this state. Of 
the 454,000 acres of land 101,000 are under cultivation, or less than one- 
quarter of the whole. Wheat is the principal crop, which yields a fair re¬ 
muneration for the labor to secure it, although some other crops are culti¬ 
vated such as oats, barley, corn, potatoes, etc. 
For the year 1870 there was produced, 903,572 bushels of wheat; 68,700 
bushels of barley; 414,000 bushels of oats; 59,000 bushels of corn; 62,000 
bushels of potatoes; 1,000 head of beef cattle; 1,300 fat hogs; 7,253 tons of 
cultivated hay; 9,400 pounds of hops; which we flatter ourselves is doing 
quite satisfactorily with a population of less than 12,000 people. 
In fruit culture we are doing something, and are succeeding very well 
with some kinds of the apple, such as Duchess of Oldenburg, and what 
is called the Russian crab—which is the New England Early Harvest apple, 
with another outlandish name—and some of the hardy winter apples. Cur¬ 
rants, gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries and other small fruits, are a 
sure crop. In the culture of grapes little has been attempted; but we find 
the more hardy varieties do well with judicious cjire. The Concord, Hart¬ 
ford Prolific, Clinton, Ives Seedling and Delaware do finely. 
In breeding of cattle some of our farmers are fast improving their herds 
by crossing the natives, or what we call scrubs, with the Durliams and De¬ 
vons. In horses we are doing something with the Black Hawk, Morgans 
and Brignolias. Sheep husbandry has not proved remunerative, probably 
because we started with the small Merinos. The Soutlidowns, Leicester- 
shires and Cotswolds do finely. Pork production is steadily on the increase. 
A cross of the White Chester and Suffolk makes excellent hogs. 
