270 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Depere is situated on the same side of the Fox river, and 
about 5 miles above Green Bay: its site is high and com¬ 
manding. As this point is the head of navigation for large 
steamers and sail craft, it is one of importance; it is here that 
the first dam and lock, a part of the Wisconsin and Fox River 
Improvement, are constructed. This dam has created a water 
power equal to any in the West; and at this place are erected 
several large and extensive manufacturing establishments — 
grist mills, saw mills, and lath and shingle mills. There is 
also a good Fishery, which yields annually several hundred 
barrels of fish, consisting of white fish, trout, pickerel, stur¬ 
geon, and every variety of the smaller kinds. 
The original “ settlement at Green Bay,' 5 extending from 
the outlet of Fox river, on both banks to Depere, is of much 
older date than the town of the same name. Green Bay was 
first visited and settled by the whites (Jesuits) in the year 
1672, and is the oldest settlement in Wisconsin. It was 
established a Military Post by the Americans in 1816, and 
continued as such for about 35 years,, but the fort is now 
evacuated. 
The country embraced in Brown County is generally heavily 
timbered with beech, maple, oak, pine, ash, elm, birch and 
basswood; the surface is generally level, but not flat — gently 
undulating — and on the borders of the streams there are con¬ 
siderable patches of low prairie, serving for hay and pasture 
land. There is very little waste land or such as cannot be 
cultivated. The soil is generally of good quality, consisting 
of clay and black rich loam, and sand. Wheat (both spring 
and winter), oats, barley, corn and peas can be, and are, grown 
to profit and advantage. All parts, even the most broken and 
elevated, produce good crops of timothy, clover and other 
grasses; and vegetables of all varieties, that can be raised in 
any of the Northern or Middle States, are raised here in great 
abundance and perfection. All of the crops mentioned yield 
a full average in quantity and quality. 
Fruits such as apples, plums, cherries, grapes, currants and 
all varieties of berries do well, and of late the attention of 
