Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1917-10-31
FARMERS PARADISE
SOUTHERN WISCONSIN LAUDED
AS AGRICULTURAL CENTER BY
FARM PAPER WRITER
(Drovers' Journal)

Where the trolley car winds a Sinu-
Gus path over the country, a rather &C
curate estimate of agrarian conditions
is possible. Just as efficient a method
of getting on speaking terms with the
soil, it's occupants and its products, is
by the agency of the motor car. Ly-
ing to the north and northwest of
Chicago within a few hours ride is a
picturesque, progressive and pOpulOus
region of vast producing capacity. A
twO-hOur ride across the lake region
Of northern Illinois whisks the high
way traveller across the Wisconsin
line into tier Of rich counties stretch
ing from Lake Michigan to the Mis-
sissippi river. It is Well-WOOded
and watered country, carefully man
tended even to it's streams and high
ways, land of comfortable farm
steads and cities that put on metro
politan airs, while the landscape rivals
scenic beauty that of the middle coun-
ties of England. 1t is land of black
soils and perennial streams, of my
RAD industries furnishing local mar
kets, and so interlaced with rock
roads and rail lines that no transpor-
tation problem exists.
Land of Special Crops
Wisconsin is essentially a country of
special crops. Dairying is the main
reliance of the southern part Of the
state and here the Holstein predomin-
ates. There are many milk condens-
ing plants, the cheese factory and
creamery decorate the landscape and
! the feedlot is not entirely absent. In
some areas potatoes are the speciality
h 10 hn +nhn IND tn
their production by the huge barns in
which the leaf is cured and the gigan-
tic warehouses clustering at such
railroad stations as GAINESVILLE and
Edgerton. Another speciality rapidly
developing is sugar beet culture,
which now makes inroads on the to-
bacco area. Although not rated
among the commercial corn states,
Wisconsin is nevertheless a heavy pro
Queer of that cereal, most of which
goes to market either as beef, pork
or milk.
Wherever the eye turns new barns
or barns under construction greet it.
Where corn is the principal crop and
the elevator it's destination, farm i'm
provements are Of secondary impor-
lance. When wheat is threshed from
/
few outbuildings other than needed to
shelter horses and few head of
stock suffice But southern Wisconsin
is a land of substantial homes and
still more substantial barns. The
country presents the same we'll
groomed appearance as the towns
and in the ownership changing pro-
cess the landscape does not suffer.
Tn 4Oh Il,
marked disposition to reduce the acre
age, though the revenue frequently
exceeds 500 an acre in a single sea-
son. A Rock county man who has been
growing tobacco since boyhood de-
! clared that while it looks as though
tobacco growers were on an avenue to
wealth, he did not know a farmer in
southern Wisconsin who ever got
rich at it. He called tobacco growing
slavery and weather gamble pure
and simple, with no end of work and
worry in curing the crop.
Beet Culture Is Growing
Beet culture is expanding. The
Rock county factory at GAINESVILLE is
one OF the largest in the world The
area in sugar beets in southern Wis
consin this year will exceed all pre-
VlouS records. Last season the yield
OF one six-acre field brought a cheek
for approximately $1,000. At present
beets are shipped to GAINESVILLE by
growers within a radius of 100 miles
and within a few years the sugar beet
industry is more than likely to eclipse
tobacco in Importance.
Wisconsin is easily first among the
states in veal production and those
we'll intentiOned theorists who now
urge legal repression of calf slaught-
er as means Of increasing beef sup
ply would abandon that campaign if
able to realize the utter worthliness
OF 80 per cent of these calves for beef
making purposes.