The early settlers first raised food for their own families and fodder for their stock with a little surplus to sell or barter for such food, staples, clothing, and supplies as they could not produce. Soon wheat was the principal crop, although the acreage of corn and potatoes increased and there was a growing interest in dairy cattle, oxen, and swine. In 1879, Scott County led the state in the production of flax. About that time, coincident with a diminishing yield per acre of wheat, attention was turned more and more to diversified farming, a trend which was particularly marked after the introduction of cooperative creameries in the nineties. In 1934, the principal field crops were corn and oats, but enough winter wheat was raised to give the county third place in the state in acreage of that cereal.
Major attention is paid to cattle and swine raising, and dairying.
For a period the sugar beet crop was important but the acreage has gradually declined. The principal industrial establishments in the county in 1930, were flour mills, breweries, creameries, print shops, a wagon shop, a bottling works, a foundry and range factory, a lime kiln, and a brickyard.