480 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
mill streams, on wliich are several saw and grist mills. In addition to 
these streams, almost every farmer lias what he calls a fountain, or flowing 
well, the water never freezing in the coldest weather in winter, and always 
sufficient to supply any amount of stock. These wells are from fifty to one 
hundred and fifty feet deep, and cost from five to twenty-five dollars. Pass¬ 
ing from the three eastern towns, we come to the worst abused, most des¬ 
pised portion of Waushara county, simply because the soil is sandy. 
In regard to this portion of our county—and I speak from some five years 
experience—taking into consideration the price of the land, and the 
amount of labor bestowed upon it, I do not know of any land in this 
state or any other, where a man can get as good returns for his labor as he 
can here. Of wheat, we raise from five to thirty bushels per acre, but I 
think, take the county as a whole, the average crop would be about eight 
bushels. It never fails to be of good quality, plump, white berry, with thin 
hull or bran—making up in quality what it lacks in quantity. We always 
have good rye, and no part of the state can beat us on vegetables of all 
kinds; potatoes, we raise from 150 bushels to 500 bushels per acre. In fact, 
there is no kind of vegetable raised in Wisconsin but what we can raise 
cheaper, with less labor, more per acre, and a better quality, than they can 
in what is considered the more favored regions of our state. Corn does 
well here—the soil seems to be just adapted to its growth. It ripens 
as early as it does in the south part of the state. Clover does well; 
it never winter kills, and yields from two to three tons per acre, worth the 
price of unimproved land. In the middle and western portions of the 
county, such land is worth from three to five dollars per acre. 
We have plenty of good flouring mills scattered all over the county. Our 
facilities for schools and school houses will compare favorably with the 
older settled portions of the state. The settlers were, most of them, for¬ 
merly from the eastern states, and take a lively interest in schools and all 
kinds of improvements. In fact, I think we have got all the elements that 
are needed to make a rich and prosperous county. We have large beds of 
marl, equal to the green sand-marl of New Jersey, that we can use as 
fertilizer with very little expense. We have also large beds of clay thfc 
make cream colored brick, and with the same facilities for manufacturing, 
would be equal to the Milwaukee brick. We have potters’ clay that can¬ 
not be surpassed by any in the state for stone ware; all we need to develop 
our resources is railroads to give us a market; I think WAushara county 
would then take rank among the best agricultural counties in the state. 
No county in the state can beat us in small fruits, and where the people 
have given their attention to raising orchards, they have succeeded beyond 
their most sanguine expectations. 
