Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-09-16

Gu ltlYaton. But this district covers
the principal range Of this large dis
trict perhaps one-half is covered with
cranberry marshes, of which one fifth
is susceptible of high production. The
yield per acre, reaches from one to four
hundred bushels, and the fruit brings
at the stations, SIS per bushel quite as
ready as greenback dollar commands
IS IL cents in gold. The net profit is
probably sixty per cent. of this. and
the incomes from some of these marsh
es are simply fabulous, and have slim
ulated values of improved marshes to
from 800 to $1,000 per acre. The
cost Of improving and flooding these
marshes is only about the usual cost
of thorough draining, say IS per acre
The soil is full Of seeds which have
accumulated for ages, and within two
years after fowage begins. the vines
crowd out the native grasses, and
carpet of fruit-bearing foliage appears.
In company with Judge Powers and
DIR. Witter [ visited the marshes of
Messrs. Dutruit & Lyon (3OO acres)
which are only partly improved, and
found the above statments more than
attested by the promise of most boun-
tiful crop. How far the late frost NAV
affect this promise [ have not learned
If it shall prove to have been harmless,
the gross income of this district
of which rot five per cent. is in careful
culture-will this year reach $780,
600. If the great petroleum fields of
Pennsylvania and the Virginian City
silver iodes are excepted there is no
other district in the world, of equal
extent, that possesses equal essential
value with this cranberry range of
Northern Wisconsin. The wild marsh
es selling at $40 and 500 per acre to-
day will exchange ownership, many of
them, at no distant day, at from $500
to 81, 500 peracre. Things drift that way
rapidly. In proof Of these statements,
L could give names, products an d trans
actions enough to fill the AdUertiser.
My space is limited, however, and [
must devote few lines to the deposit
of
which is found here in almost illimita-
bic quantity. This kaolin is white
clay, destitute of grit, Of similar kind
and quality as the clay from which the
Europeans and Mongolians manufact-
ure the white pottery and china ware
1t is decomposed granite and is only
found where the granite csops out from
the everything sandstone. There are
several beds of great extent within and
near the town having depth of four
to fifteen feet. 1t is a wonderfully
tenacious clay and is being transported
for brick to the best furnaces in
the country, where the severest tests
have been applied. That it will come
into enlarged and multiplied uses and
its manufacture become of primary
account here, is easy enough to see.
With other manufacturing interests
that are steadily passing from exclu-
sive foreign control to their great
market fields in the New World /;
queensware, chinaware, porcelain and
other elegant types of pottery, will
find beside these inexhaustible deposits,
chemical processes of refinement, great
furnaces and skilled men and women
equal to the task of their perfect re-
production. In these uncommon and
and almost singular resources, Grand
Rapids is indeed fortunate. The de-
preston attending the lumber trade
since the panic of 1868 has partially
paralyzed trade here It is largely
numbering town, and al else seems in
sympathy with that traffic They haye
the noble river with its wealth of
waterfall, and though it mock the
mutations of men and their work with
the "Song of the brook"
| Men may come and men may go,
| But go on forever
Men of great heart and grander
nerve will come and build here, by the
beautiful waters, a city upon which
their boys and maidens may look with
pride. May this contamination be not
delayed too long.
OVER THE RIVER
is another town of 1000 souls with
mills for lumber, shingles, furniture
and house furnishing, and mills for
grain. There are stores, too, and
shops and pleasant homes by the score,
and they live serene and selfsatisfed
life ''over there and 1 have found
myself their debtor by all sorts of
pleasant attentions. [ have no thought
of writing their obituaries for half a
century to come, but [ have a good
word for dozen or so of them, and
for the edifcation Of twenty thousand
readers Of the Commercial Advertaser.
Stop that Cough MANY hesitate