Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1902-02-11

y
little cost, while southern W;scCn-
sin farmers must pay high prices
for their lumber. Iu this snutht rn
part of Northern Wisconsin, IA
transformation is going on. Our
farmers " lio used 10 raise hay and
oats for he logging camps. and
many uf whom used TO he half
farmer amt half logger. are now
devUting all their energies to the
farm and modern methods are
being adopted. They are going
into the dairying and stock rails
ing aud a manure heap has now IA
value in it. Good schools, roads,
aud bridges are now the rule III
this section. The climate is also
changing; the winters are milder
and not so long. Where We used
to have at least five months OF
sleighlng, eight weeks of good
sleighing is now fair average.
We can raise to advantage almost
any crop which can be raised in
southern Wisconsin. This section
has become much better known
during the last few years to farm
ers in the southern part of this
state and the neighboring states of
the northwest, and they are now
coming in large numbers and es-
tablishing good farms in our new
north. Forty years ago, when the
e., h
such conditions in this district
Ewonld have been considered i'm
possible.
| believe the northern portion of
Northern Wisconsin, which today
4 is little more developed agricul-
turally than the section | have
spoken of was forty years ago, has
nearly as great future. There
thousands of acres of land await
the settler, with timber for their
buildings and winter wood on the
ground, and markets for their pro-
duce. at top prices, in the lumber
camps, mining towns and lake
ports near by. In the winter,
hardwood timber, henlock bark,
hemlock and spruce pulp wood,
railroad ties and pilIng, cedar
poles, posts and shingle bolts,
which in many places cannot now
be profitably handled, will furnish
work for the settler and his teams
for years to come, making this
season the most profitable of the
year. And as the land is cleared,
the climate and other unfavorable
conditions will change as they
have in the section first spoken of.
With these general remarks as
to what Northern Wisconsin once
was and what it is now, we will
look more particularly to its agri-
cultural resources.
The greatest of these is surely
DAIRYING AND STOCK RAISi Nc. If
any country was ever naturally in
tended for these purposes, that
country is Northern Wisconsin.
The first requisite, a good water
supply, is there found in abund-
dance. The geological map of the
state shows 1910 laAes in this
region. There are hundreds of
other small lakes, not touched by
sectional lines, never seen by the
government surveyors who plated
| the country. Almost all these
lakes supply creeks and streams
which flow to swell the rivers.
emptying into the Mississippi and
into Lakes Michigan and Superior.
Many other small streams origin
ate in swamps and 60 the same
way, while innnmerable rivulets
start from springs and contribute
their portion TO make most of
Northern Wisconsin a stockman's
paradise, so far as water is con
cerned. Well water is also ob-
taiuable at little depth in most
sections.
All over this region grasses and
clover thrive. To illustrate This,
we will look first at places where
agricultural pursuits have never
been tried. Visit the old lumber
camps and logging roads, all over
this territory. Along all these
roads and among the stumps,
where the trees were cleared away
to keep them from falling on the
camps, You will find grasses and
clovers, of all varieties, growing
up spontaneously. How the seed
ever got so distributed is prob.
lem. You eau account for it ON
the tote roads where the lumber
men hauled in their supplies of
hay, but it is wonderful the way it
has spread over the logging roads
and clearings. 1t seems to follow
as naturally as second growth of
timber. A great many lumber
men turn their horses out to pas
ture along these old roads and
clearings, after the winters logs
are put in.
Last spring l was up in towns
43 and Al, range 2 east, about
twenty miles south of Hurley
Here the grass and clover around
these clearings were equal TO any
have seen in the best parts of Mar
athon county, There wasn't
farm within ten miles. | was told
that Hurley people cut the hay
every fall; il was theirs for the
cutting. Way up in Douglas
county | saw the same conditions
last year. For two weeks last
July stopped with farmer in
Price county, in town SO, range
east. He homesteaded there seven
teen years ago and for years was
the only settler. They were hay
ing while ! was there, a field of
some fifteen acres. which had been
seeded twelve years and had never
hppn hrnLpp nj nntfrh If had baan