316 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
forming some of the high bluffs which bound that great water. 
The soil varies from two to five feet in depth. Much of the 
high land affords a ton to a ton and a-half of good blue-joint 
hay per acre. The timbered portion has a larger proportion 
of clay in the formation of the soil. It is a table-land of about 
two hundred and fifty feet above the Mississippi, and has a 
flooring of thirty to forty feet of blue limestone, fossil-bearing 
rocks. Passing down into the prairie, a thin layer of sand¬ 
stone is found. The flooring of the prairie is composed of 
magnesian limestone, from which good lime is burned, and 
building stone obtained. 
Agriculture. —Wheat is the staple product. Oats, corn, 
barley, and other small grains also enter into the list of farm 
products. As to the quality of grain, I would refer to the 
exhibition at Milwaukee in 1859, and also to that at Madison 
in 1860. Average of the land crops was forty, and in some 
few cases over fifty bushels per acre. Corn is raised to a con¬ 
siderable extent; varieties, King Philip, Dent and Flint, all 
of which are considered sure, with a moderate yield of forty to 
sixty bushels per acre. 
As there is but little marsh in the county, the farmers 
depend upon straw and hay raised upon the high lands. Tim¬ 
othy upon deep plowed land yields well and stands the winter; 
but upon light plowing is liable to winter kill. Upon our 
prairies we have the “ pocket gopher,” which is about twice 
the size of a house rat, and burrows twenty inches to two feet 
in the ground, throwing up numerous little mounds of sub-soil, 
on which timothy grass grows so rank as to fall down. From 
this I conclude that with deep sub-soil plowing, we may expect 
our prairies to afford a reliable supply of hay. 
Of the root crops we are successful with every variety 
grown in Wisconsin. Potatoes are of a superior quality and 
the yield large. 
Fruit can hardly be said to have had a trial yet. Mr. D. 
B. Bailey has done more than any other farmer in this line. 
He has raised apples for two or three years. Other farmers 
have met with like success. One-half of the trees set in the 
