INDUSTRY OF COUNTIES. 
469 
tliis county from east to west, making us a market for our produce as well 
as our timber. The two principal places of business in this portion of the 
county are Hillsborough, in the valley of the Baraboo, and Ontario, in the 
Kickapoo valley. Each of these places are supplied with mills and ma¬ 
chine shops of all kinds to supply the wants of the country, stores, with a 
supply of goods sufficient in quantity and quality for the market. 
The raising of stock in this portion of the county has become a promi¬ 
nent feature with the husbandman, producing the best quality of grass fed 
stock that finds its way to Milwaukee or Chicago market. 
The first attempt to raise fruit was attended with little success; many were 
disheartened and gave up, others preserved and have met with success. 
We have a few “iron clad” varieties that do well. The first is the Haas, 
next Tetofsky and Duchess of Oldenburg. Some others have proved valu¬ 
able. Of grapes the Concord and Delaware have done nobly. 
The population of Vernon county is 18,673; in I860 it was 11,007. Im¬ 
proved lands, of which we have 94,907 acres, are worth from $15 to $30 per 
acre; unimproved cost from $3 to $10. We raised in 1870 of wheat 526,098 
bushels; rye 2,759 bushels; corn 272,424 bushels; oats 236,436 bushels; po¬ 
tatoes 74,504 bushels; wool 61,000 pounds; the total value of our produc¬ 
tions was $470,765. Our citizens are intelligent and industrious, but we 
need thousands more, both laborers and capitalists, to develop our resources. 
WALWORTH COUNTY. 
BY DAVID WILLIAMS, DARIEN. 
The past ten years have been, quite eventful in modes, methods, charac¬ 
ter and profit of agriculture and the kindred arts in this county. While 
the past internecine war greatly changed the character of some of our po¬ 
litical institutions, it did not fail to work many changes in agriculture and 
manufacture. In this county the demand for able bodied men to fill the 
ranks of our patriotic armies, caused a paucity of laborers, and at the same 
time the increased demand for farm products and manufactured articles, 
stimulated production in every branch of industry. This combination of 
circumstances induced the introduction of machinery, wherever it could be 
made to serve in the place of human muscle—and this demand in turn 
quickened the manufacture of agricultural machinery, and challenged the 
best inventive genius of the age. And our agricultural machinery to-day 
seems to have approached perfection. Tillers of the soil are to-day far 
more indebted to applied science than it was believed they would have been 
but for the quickening forces of the necessities and demands incident to 
war’s exactions. Ten years ago the mower was common, it is true, but so 
was the scythe—and so of the reaper and cradle. Now the mower and 
