Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1848-06-23
AREA OF WISCONSIN.

Call US young as mnch as you like, gentlemen
but we must not be called small. Several of orr
late exchanges have had something TO say about
us, regards position, the legislature now
in session, the politics of the people, in respect to
state and national affairs, who and what are our
representatives and Senators to Congress, &c &c.
These notices from abroad generally of as
friendly and complimentary character as we
could reasonably expect; bat they often eyince ann
ignorance, of the State and its people and their az
fairs, which remi ds US how often and how mate
rally the public press may be in error even with
all the abundant facilities for obtaining and crcu-
latng intelligence for which the times are dstin
! gushed. As one example of the Careless, stupid
errors of the presses referred to- we have met with
several newspaper notices of the territorial extent
CT the new State of Wisconsin, representing it to
be about thirty thousand square miles. And then,
though tie publication of what a child at school
ought to be ashamed of were not enough. they tell
us, in the same little paragraph, that the thirty
thousand square miles which Wisconsin contains
are equal to ttco such States as Neic York. Que
paper gives us 10000 square miles, and then calls
us as large New York and Pennsylvania. An
other gives us 10000 square miles, and then calls
us as large as New ork New Jersey, and Penn
| sylvania. &c. 1t is too bud, that there should be
editors who allow such bunders TO 90 abroad en-
dorsed with their responsibility; but to see the
blunders deliberatelymade the basis of comparison
! and calculation by figures, and blunders piled up
in this way, and even about States two hundred
years Old and the most populous and wealthy
| States in the Union too, is despicabe as well as
amusing.
If our State were equal in extent to New York
| Pennsylvania and New Jersey, it would contain
considerably over hundred thousand square miles.
| leaving out New Jersey, the other tro States said
| to be untedlY of equal even less extent than
! Wisconsin have an area gilmore than ninety three
| thousand square miles. We have never seen the
area of Wisconsin made less than about ninety
| thousand square miles by any one who seemed 10
| have a di stinct idea fwhat he was stating. Oar
statistical table of the United States for the year
1917, made out from official returns makes the
area of Wisconsin one hundred and five thousand
| square miles. We have no; ascertained with sui
fcient exactness TO the alterations o! boundaries
made last winter but take it for granted that they
did not deprive of any large extent of territory.
! If we put our presen area at ninety five thousand
square miles, We Shall be reasonably certain OF not
getting it too largo. This would make the
statement correct which represents our area
as being equal to the united areas of New
York and Pennsylvania. Allowing for what IS
! covered with water and for what is, from other
causes incapable Of being used for agricultural pur-
poses, (say 10000 square miles, we will have
! something like 10000 square miles which can be
made into farms. After making all necessary de-
| auctions for waste land, may safely call eighty
acres enough for an average sized farm. This
would give 100000 farms. That number Of FAM
lies at six persons each would afford population
almost million greater than that of New York
! by the last census Allowing for merchants, trades
! men, mechanics manufacturers. miners professions
al men, and allother classes which are not devoted
to agriculture, Wisconsin, by the time it has grown
to maturity, can hardly have less than seven or
eight millions oiinhabitants.
Give It as dense population as Massachusetts now
has, and it comes we'll nigh up to ten millions or
something more than the present population Of
New England, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The school sections of Wisconsin afford an ares
one fourth greater than the State Of Delaware, or
twice as great as the State Of Rhode Island.