INDUSTRY OF COUNTIES. 
315 
the lumbermen of the St. Croix and Mississippi; 1860 is the 
first year in which we have raised a full supply of pork and 
beef. 
The county contains about six hundred square miles, and has 
a water front on the Mississippi and St. Croix of fifty miles. 
The w T est half is composed of rolling prairie and burr oak 
openings; the east end, with the exception ot a few miles along 
Lake Pepin, is covered with forest timber, consisting of oak, 
ash, sugar maple, walnut, butternut, elm, basswood and linn. 
The prairie is traversed by several streams of sufficient size 
for milling purposes. The high lands are moderately well sup¬ 
plied with springs, some of which furnish sufficient water for 
mills. Mr. J. Fuller has one, falling twenty-two feet while 
crossing his yards, which rises almost at his door-sill. Its vol¬ 
ume is about two hundred inches under ten feet pressure. The 
streams of the county abound in fish, the speckled trout being 
found in abundance. The timber land is more generally sup¬ 
plied with springs; few quarter sections of which have not a 
full supply of good spring water. 
The Climate has been much discussed by persons desirous 
of emigrating to north-western Wisconsin and Minnesota. The 
prevailing winds are from the west and south-west, which 
bring a dry atmosphere from the great plains west of the Mis¬ 
souri and New Mexico. Weeks of cloudless sky, summer and 
winter, are common. Winter sets in from the middle to the 
last of November, after which we expect very little mud and 
rain. The average depth of snow is six to twelve inches, 
affording about three month’s sleighing ; the culminating point 
of winter is about the 20th of February. Plowing is com¬ 
menced about the 1st of April. There is perhaps no part of 
the United States where so little time is required to mature 
grain as in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. Sowing done 
in May is harvested in July: making the seed time and har¬ 
vest within three months. We are very little troubled by 
early and late frosts. 
Soils. —The prairie soil is a black sandy loam, underlaid 
with clay and lime rock. Near the Mississippi drift is found, 
