48 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Oak Openings, however, are among the most productive por¬ 
tions of the State, being especially adapted to the continued 
production of wheat. They are, moreover, the most beautiful 
portions of the varied and picturesque surface of the country. 
Grouped here and there, like so many old orchards, on the 
summit of a gentle swell of land, or on the border of marsh, 
prairie or lake, there is nothing in the whole catalogue of 
American sylva that equals these Burr Oaks for the charming, 
homestead-like expression they give to the landscape. The 
timber they furnish is brittle and of but little worth, except for 
fencing and fuel; still, abounding as they do in in what would 
otherwise be a prairie country, and constituting so charming a 
feature of Wisconsin scenery, they possess a value which is 
beyond computation. 
It has been already remarked that the evergreens occupy 
the northern portion of the State. Mention was also made of 
the different genera which belong to them. It only remains to 
be said, in this connection, that the White, Red and Yellow 
Pines, the Double Spruce, the Tamarack, the Hemlock, and the 
Red and White Cedar, are the most valuable, and that they 
abound to an almost inexhaustible extent all along the great 
number of streams which pour their waters into Green Bay on 
the east, and the Mississippi on the west. It will thus appear 
that for a State containing so much prairie, and so large an 
aggregate area of other lands ready for the husbandman’s plow¬ 
share, Wisconsin has been very remarkably favored in the 
quantity, variety and distribution of its timber. 
Fauna .—Inasmuch as the plan of this discussion embraces 
simply what is of direct economical interest, it will be sufficient 
to say, under this head, that the woods and prairies of Wis¬ 
consin abound in the usual wild game of the West, while its 
waters are filled with the the most desirable species of fish, in¬ 
cluding that most delectable member of the whole finny tribe, 
the Speckled Trout. At certain seasons of the year the deer, 
the prairie chicken, the quail, the duck and other game are taken 
in great numbers and shipped to the eastern markets. And at 
some points on Lake Michigan, fisheries have been established 
