INDUSTRY OF COUNTIES. 
275 
part of the county; but I do not think that more than one- 
tenth part of the land is fit for cultivation. 
The timber is principally pine, of small size, and but a sniaU 
portion of it is large enough for sawing. In some places the 
lumbermen have culled out all the pine that was large enough 
to saw. Fire has run through this timber and killed all that 
was left. The greater portion of the timber killed by the fire 7 
is still standing; in some places there are hundreds of acres of 
trees thus killed, and their blackened trunks presents to the 
eye a dreary picture of desolation. There are also in these 
townships a great many windfalls; some of which are miles in 
length. Here can be seen thousands of acres of trees that 
have been blown down or broken off, the stubs of which are 
still standing. The fire runs through these windfalls every 
year or two, and kills all the vegetation, leaving nothing but 
the blackened timber that lies upon the ground, or the stubs 
of those that were broken off. 
That portion of the county that lies in townships 24, 25, 26 
and 27, Ranges one East and one and two West, is well-wa¬ 
tered by Black river and several large creeks that empty into 
Black river. The timber on the bottoms along these creeks 
is principally white pine of excellent quality; some of it is 
very large; it is no uncommon thing for trees to be cut on the 
banks of these creeks that yield from three to five thousand 
feet of inch lumber each. The timber on the ridges between 
these creeks is sugar maple, basswood, butternut, oak, elm and 
black birch. The surface of the country is rolling, and lies 
well for farming purposes. Seven-eighths of the land in these 
townships would be tillable if cleared up.. The soil is very 
rich, heavy loam, resting on a clay subsoil, and produces good 
crops of hay, oats, wheat, rye, corn, potatoes, turnips and all 
kinds of garden vegetables. 
The north-east portion of the county is flat and swampy; 
the timber is pine, hemlock, cedar, balsam, spruce and white 
birch. There is very little land that is fit for cultivation. 
The west and north-west portions of the county are varied 
in character; some parts are rolling and timbered with maple. 
