276 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
basswood, butternut, oak, elm, &c., with a rich soil, and are 
well watered. Other parts are flat and swampy. In this 
portion of the county there are vast quantities of white pine 
of excellent quality. One-fourth of the land would be fit for 
the plough if cleared up. 
The first settlers in Clark County were lumbermen, w r ho 
paid but little interest to Agriculture; some of them cleared 
up small farms near the saw mills, and raised such large crops 
of grass, oats, corn and potatoes, that in 1856 many persons 
came into the county for the purpose of opening farms, and 
since that time there has been a steady increase of the farming 
population. 
The soil appears to excel in the production of grass and 
oats. It is the remark of almost every one that they never 
saw such crops of grass. I know of pieces of land that 
yielded three tons to the acre the past season—land that three 
years ago w r as covered with a heavy growth of timber, and the 
stumps not yet rotted out. I think, from the best information 
that I can get, that the hay crop of this county the past sea¬ 
son averaged more than two tons to the acre. Oats do well in 
this county. It is no uncommon thing for a field of oats to 
average from seventy to eighty bushels per acre. Wheat and 
rye yield well. The wheat crop the past season yielded from 
twenty to forty bushels per acre. 
This county offers great inducements to settlers. Thousands 
of acres of choice land can be entered at the Land Offices at 
Eau Claire and La Crosse at government prices ($1.25 per 
acre). Roads have been opened through the county, bridges 
built, and school houses, saw mills, grist mills, stores, blacksmith 
shops, wagon shops, and furniture shops. The pineries afford 
a good market for hay, flour, corn, oats, beef and pork; and 
will for a great many years to come. Nine-tenths of all the 
provisions consumed in the pineries, is hauled from the counties 
south of this. There are hundreds of men and teams at work 
in the pineries in this county this winter. It is estimated that 
there will be logs enough cut in Clark County this winter to 
make seventy-five millions feet of inch lumber. This county 
