Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1902-02-11
NORTHERN WISCONSIN.
Paper Read by L. K. Wright at the
Agricultural Mass Convention
Held at Madison.

Wright at the Agricultural Mass Cou-
vention, held at Madison last week.
This paper will be printed in the Farm
Bulletin, of which thousands of copies
are distributed free throughout the
country. 1t will also BE- published in
many of the leading farm journals. 1t
is such papers as read by MIR. Wright
that Is helping to spread the fame of
our northern counties
Residents of our county, even the
most enthusiastic, have no idea what
interest the people in Southern Wis
cousin are taking in this question.
Down there, for the last two years, the
drouth has created great havoc with
crops, and especially with pastures.
Many have gotten around their troubles
by disposing of their stock. The far
mers of that section of our state are
well posted and for years have been
learning scientific methods and have
done much to keep up their incomes by
planting substitute crops for those des-
troyed. This winter has been very cold
and no snow down there and their
clover is practically killed out. On the
other hand the farmers of Northern
Wisconsin have had good crops. These
are the conditions as they exist, and
~NOiinC1u W lStOuSIu IL itOuuu W Stt ttlC
greatest movement of farmers into her
borders that has ever been known, and
of very desirable class.
Mr. Wright's paper was largely dis
cussed, as is as follows:
Mr.. President, Ladies and Gentle
men:
When asked to prepare a paper
on the Agricultural Resources OF
Northern Wisconsin, it seemed to
me [ was getting threadbare
subject. A few days later, | read
in Milwaukee paper, that the
lumbeImen of Northern Wiscon-
sin were aiding the state to stamp
out smallpox By fumigating their
camps weekly and that the men
were taking frequent baths. |
made up my mind that if an editor,
one of IA class Supposed To know
everything, could stand for fire
quent baths" in a lumber camp, /
might find farmers who knew but
little of the agricultural resources
VI Jul
WHERE Is NORTHERN VISION
SIN THE southern part of Wis
consin has long been famous as an
agricultural country. North OF
this rich belt, but nearly all in the
southern half of the state, strip
of sand land, of varying width,
runs east and west across the state.
Years ago this was spoken OF AS
Northern Wisconsin, and was
looked upon AS the beginning OF
the poor farming country, which
was supposed to grow worse the
farther north one went, A few
years ago the legislature author
lied the preparation of a hand
book, setting forth the agricultural
conditions of the northern part of
the state. This book was prepared
under the direction OF Prof. Henry.
who was one of the first to fOrcibly
call attention TO the fine agricul-
tural district north of this sand
belt. In general way this hand
book speaks of Northern Wiscon-
sin as lying north OF a line drawn
east and west from Green Bay to
Hudson. No arbitrary boundry
can be made, but, generally speak
ing Northern Wisconsin may be
said to embrace all of the original
great timber belt of the state.
TIMBER AND SoIL.-Prof. Henry,
in The book referred to, groups the
soil of this section under seven
heads. l will class the soil under
four heads, Identical with the tim
Der growth. a farmer who sees a
growing crop can form good idea
of the soil it grows on. in the
same way crop of timber is a
sure index to the soil. This should
be born in mind by those buying
stump lands.
HARDWOOD LANDS.-A great
many people have looked upon
Northern Wisconsin as originally
timbered almost wholly with pine,
but large part of this section of
the state was covered with great
forests of the finest hardwood, and
through a great deal of this hard.
wood were scattered immense
white pine. This hardwood land
is the best agricultural land we
have and runs largely TO clay
soil. 1t is often stony, generally
small surface stone, which can be
easily removed.
WHITE PINE LANDS. he finest
white pine in the world grew in
Michigan and Wisconsin. Great
forests of it covered much of the
region of which We are speaking.
Such pine is never found on poor
land. This soil is IA mixture of
clay and sand. Where hemlock
grows with the hardwood, the clay
is not so heavy as in the purely
hardwood forests and where it is
mixed with pine, the soil has more
clay than is found where pine
grows alone. The two soils blend
into each other, often on the same
farm.
NORWAY AND JACK PINE
LANDS. This class of lands were
covered with Norway and jack
pine. Some of this timber was
large and the soil it grew ON fair;
some of il was poor and Serubby,
and the timber was like the soil.
This land is all of a sandy nature,
often with gravelly snb-soil.
Eventually. l think it will nearly
all be used for agricultural pur-
poses, but IL is the poorest land we
have.
SWAMP LANDS-The fourth class
is our swamp land, where the tim
Der was principally cedar, tama.
rack, spruce and black ash. Some of
the swampS are of considerable
extent; others are small, just put
i'm oD,onu tho hisSh iaul IA mail a