INDUSTRY OF COUNTIES. 
853 
from Lake Michigan, and the Upper Fox and the Wisconsin 
admitting ingress from the Mississippi and its far reaching 
tributaries, leave little further to be desired. 
Its natural position, however, has been much enhanced by 
the improvement of the Lower Fox, by the Fox and Wisconsin 
Improvement Company, effecting an uninterrupted communica¬ 
tion through to Green Bay. The business on this route is in¬ 
creasing very fast, and I am informed by a shipping merchant 
of Oshkosh that the freights of 1860 were ten times as great as 
those of 1859. That the entire exportation of wheat from this 
section of the State must eventually be made through this 
route, cannot be doubted. The fact is significant that last sea¬ 
son the wheat buyers at Oshkosh who shipped by this route, 
were enabled to offer the farmer five cents per bushel higher 
than those who shipped to Milwaukee and Chicago by railroad. 
I am informed that steam freight tugs are now building de¬ 
signed for the more successful prosecution of this business in 
future. In railroad communications the county has the advan¬ 
tage of the Chicago and Northwestern (now completed to Ap¬ 
pleton,) and also a road running to Omro, (shortly to be exten¬ 
ded to the Wolf river at Winneconne,) connecting with the 
Milwaukee and Horicon road at Ripon. 
The surface of Winnebago County may be said to be gently 
undulating, and about equally divided between timber, prairie, 
openings and marsh. A sub-soil of red clay underlies the sur¬ 
face of nearly the whole county. The upper soil varies from 
a rich black muck to a light sand, although the latter occupies 
but a small space relatively; an intermediate may be said to 
predominate. On the prairies we have the usual black sur¬ 
face, rather light, with the red clay sub-soil. As we approach 
the openings, we have a heavier soil, not as rich as the prairie, 
but perhaps better adapted to wheat, which is the main crop 
with the farmers. It is difficult to generalize in respect to the 
soil of the whole county, when there is scarcely a farm that 
has not two or three varieties of soil. It is, however, the sub¬ 
soil which gives character to the land, and it may be said to 
equal the requirements of the farmer in that particular. When 
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