defined Clayey deposits may characterize one bank of the stream and sandy deposits the other. Sometimes glacial drift or boulder clay occupies one side and sandy deposits the other. The point is that the soil conditions found by an examination of one side of a stream are frequently very unlike those existing on the other side of the same stream. The foregoing remarks apply mainly if not entirely to those portions of streams along which deposition by the stream has taken place, that is to the parts of the stream in which the flow either is or has been sluggish. CLIMATE. Owing to the proximity of the great lakes, the climate of Wisconsin is more temperate than that of other states of the same latitude west of the Mississippi. The mean temperature for Jan. is about 12.8° F. above zero at Bayfield, 15.5° above zero at La Crosse and 19 3° above zero at Milwaukee. For July the mean temperature is 67° at Bayfield, 73° at La Crosse, and 69° at Milwaukee. This indicates that the climate along the lake shore is cooler in summer and warmer in winter than at interior points of the same latitude. The maximum temperature for the state ranges between 90° and 95° seldom exceeding 100° while the minimum temperature ranges between 10° above and 25° below zero and at very rare intervals exceeds 40° below zero in the coldest parts of the state. Rainfall. The average annual rainfall is 31 inches and is quite evenly distributed over the state, being slightly greater along the shores of Lake Michigan than in those sections of the state farther west. The precipitation is greater between July and October than at any other season of the year. Thunderstorms are frequent in summer, but in winter the air is dry and clear; the snow-fall in the northern part of the state is generally heavy while in the southern part it is comparatively light. CHAPTER IL INDUSTRIES OF WISCONSIN. AGRICULTURE. Location, Area, etc. The state lies between 42° 30′ and 47° 3′ north latitude and 86° 49′ and 92° 54 west longitude, and has an area of about 56,040 square miles, of which about 1,590 square miles are covered with water. Of the total area over 66 per cent or about 37,000 square miles are yet unimproved. This means that the State of Wisconsin can as conveniently furnish homes for 1,388,000 families or 6,686,000 people as it is now furnishing homes for 462,814 families or 2,228,949 people, and the wealth of the State could thereby be increased three fold. More than this, when the farmers of the state recognize as they do in the East and in Europe, and as they are beginning to do in Wisconsin, that more wealth can be produced by intensive rather than extensive farming; when capital recognizes that in no other state is there so promising a field for the development of water powers for manufacturing, transportation, and lighting purposes; when our excellent facilities for water and railroad transportation of raw materials and finished products are considered; they will appreciate the fact that the number of inhabitants Wisconsin will support and the industrial possibilities the state affords can hardly be over estimated. No state in the Union possesses a more fertile, soil, and with equal cultivation and fertilization, no state is more productive, according to the reports of the United States Department of Agriculture. The state of Maine produces more wheat, corn, oats, buckwheat and potatoes per acre than Wisconsin or any of the surrounding states. New Hampshire, Vermont, or Massachusetts produces more tobacco per acre than Wisconsin. Yet when it is considered that Maine has but about one-eighth of an acre of corn in every forty acres in farms to Wisconsin's three acres for every forty acres in farms; that for every forty acres in farms in Maine, there is only one-fourth acre of wheat while Wisconsin has three-fourths; that for every forty acres in farms in Vermont there is less than one one-hundredth of an acre of tobacco while Wisconsin has one-twelfth of an acre, the conclusion can easily be drawn that the greater productiveness. of Maine and Vermont for these crops is largely due to fertilization and cultivation. In order to arrive at some conclusion as to the relative standing of Wisconsin as an agricultural state, the following table has been prepared and those states which are, in the main, scbjected to similar climatic conditions and similar methods of farming have been selected for comparison. The following table gives the average number of bushels of grain and amount of hay and tobacco produced per acre, based upon the amount produced for the years 1896-1905 inclusive, for all the states located in the upper Mississippi Valley, together with the average amount produced per acre in the United States for the same period. * Average for years 1901-1905 inclusive. † Averages for the years 1901-1904 inclusive. ŞAverage for the years 1900-1904 inclusive. **For the year 1905 only. No figures for other years obtainable. In this table a comparison of the total amount of products produced in each state has not been attempted, because a knowledge of the productivity of the soil could not thus be Barley. Rye. Buckwhelt **Flax. Ilay, tons. §Tobacco, lbs. obtained. The fact that one state with an area of one-hundred thousand square miles produces one and one-half times as much corn as a state having an area of fifty thousand square miles does not indicate by any means that the soil of the larger state is any more productive than the soil of the smaller or vice versa. But in order to ascertain the relative productivity of the soil for various crops, the average amount produced per acre must be known. Even this knowledge will not be absolute because the amount any soil will yield depends very largely on cultivation, climate, method of farming, etc. Yet, as stated above, by taking those states having similar conditions in these respects, definite conclusions may be deducted. The following tables show that in two essential points, production per acre and earnings per acre, Wisconsin leads all the states that have large areas of undeveloped agricultural lands. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri average about the same le earnings per acre as Wisconsin, while Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas and Minnesota fall below the Wisconsin average in earnings. In six of the nine commodities mentioned Wisconsin is materially above the average for the entire United States in the matter of earnings. But Wisconsin, by reason of her diversified industries makes a better showing still when all farm products are included in the computation. The federal census returns fur. nish the basis for such a computation for the year 1899, in which all farm products inclusive of live stock, butter, cheese, milk, poultry, eggs, vegetables, fruit, and everything sold from the farm is included in the value of the farm products and the acreage of cultivated land is given. By arranging the manufacturing states and the agricultural states in groups, as in the two tables following, the value of a home market to the farmer is made apparent. Earnings per acre advance in due proportion with the number of factories and wage-earners and the amount of money paid out in wages. The table on page 379 shows the influence of the manufacturing industries on the prices paid for specific crops; the next table, the earnings per acre from all farm products. |