rich, fertile country of prairies and oak openings, watered by numerous rivers, the largest of which are the Grand, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, and Saginaw.

The adaptability of the soil and climate of Michigan to agricultural pursuits is complete, the former being rich and inexhaustible, the latter much milder than the country occupying the same latitude on the Atlantic coast, no doubt owing to the proximity of such vast bodies of fresh water. Visitors or emigrants coming from the severe climate of New England, or from the enervating latitudes of the extreme south, find themselves suddenly in possession of fresh muscular forces, and welcome the invigorating atmosphere.

The population of the State in 1851 numbered 397,654; in 1860, 751,110; in 1864, 803,745; and at this time will reach nearly 1,200,000, an increase of 60 per cent. in ten years.

The agricultural and other material prosperity of Michigan has kept pace with the rapid increase of population, and the advances made in the way of popular education are truly wonderful.

The common schools are fostered by the State, and the system is on the most progressive plan, having won the encomiums of those best acquainted with the different systems, not only in this country but in Europe; while the seminaries and colleges rival those of the older States where such institutions have long been established. During 1868, the number of children attending the public schools amounted to 249,920; the number of teachers, 9,608; while the sum expended in the advancement of educational interests was $2,449,356 77.

Among the schools of a higher class may be mentioned the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, having twenty-eight professors and more than 1,000 students; the State Normal School at Ypsilanti, and the State Agricultural College at Lansing, all holding high rank among the institutions of learning.

In the list of agricultural productions which Michigan possesses, none are omitted which can be raised in the Middle or Eastern States, while the grape and peach on the lake shores arrive at a great degree of perfection.

While we have not at hand accurate estimates of the quantities of different crops raised, value of live stock, and dairy and orchard products during the past year, it is not to be doubted that the results of the next census, when compared with that of 1860, will show an unprecedented increase in these respects.

The State has made gigantic strides in the progress of railway construction, the number of miles in operation in 1851 being only 357, and on the 1st of January, 1870, 1,325. The demands for these requisites of modern travel and transportation are increasing, the process of extending this network of intercommunication being at present more vig. orous and active than ever. The next decade will unquestionably witness an extension of these lines of travel far surpassing anything heretofore existing.

The mineral deposits are on an immense scale, especially those of copper and iron, the former being found in the upper peninsula in several varieties, mostly in the primitive formations. These copper deposits are undoubtedly the richest in the world, occupying a belt one hundred and twenty miles long and from two to six miles wide. The quantities produced annually since 1865 range from 8,500 to 15,000 tons, and during the twenty years prior to 1865 aggregated 76,107 tons. The development of the copper mines has been rapidly accelerated since the

close of the war for the suppression of the rebellion, progress in that respect having been temporarily interrupted during that period.

The deposits of iron in Marquette County, on the upper peninsula, are rich in the extreme, yielding in steadily increasing quantities year by year. This mineral exists in other portions of the State, but as yet capital has only been directed toward developing the stores of wealth in the region referred to.

The coal field of Michigan is estimated by geologists to cover an extent of 7,000 square miles, and the mining of bituminous coal is prosecuted successfully, the annual yield being steadily on the increase.

The manufacture of salt is destined to become one of the leading interests of the State, large quantities being now annually produced. In 1869 the product was 577,569 barrels. The amount of capital invested in its manufacture is reported at $2,432,500, representing 57 different companies. The saline regions are principally within Saginaw, Bay, and Kent Counties, East Saginaw being the most important.

The forest wealth of the State will compare favorably with any other of the Union, and the lumber trade has expanded into prodigious dimensions in a manner overshadowing every other industry.

The number of feet shipped in 1867, principally to Chicago and Milwaukee, was 1,400,000,000; in the past year, 2,100,000,000 feet.

Manufacturing interests are considerable and advancing with great celerity to a position commensurate with the vast resources of the State. Fish of various kinds abound in the lakes, and the wealth derived from the trade is enhancing every year. The agricultural and mineral resources, so briefly noticed here, assisted by the remarkable commercial position of the State, with its 1,400 miles of lake navigation and water communication with the Atlantic Ocean, through that long alternation of river and lake, the reservoir of half the fresh water on the globe, far eclipsing in the heart of a continent the peculiar boast of ancient Corinth as the mart of two seas, are destined, at no distant day, to raise the State to the front rank in manufactures, population, wealth, and general material prosperity.

The area of public lands undisposed of in Michigan, on June 30, 1870, was 3,660,530.31 acres.

WISCONSIN.

This State, between latitudes 42° 31′ and 47° north, and longitude 87° 20' and 92° 30' west of Greenwich, contains 53,924 square miles, or 34,511,360 acres.

It was originally embraced in the territory ceded to the United States by Virginia, and has successively formed parts of the Territories of Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan before those commonwealths were admitted as States.

It became a member of the Union on the 3d of March, 1847, being the thirtieth of our political divisions.

Its northern boundary is formed by Northern Michigan and the waters of Lake Superior; its eastern by Lake Michigan, separating it from the Michigan southern peninsula; its southern by Illinois and its western by Iowa and Minnesota, from which it is divided by the Mississippi River.

The greatest length of the State is 302 miles; breadth, 258 miles, though on its southern boundary it measures only 146 miles.

The surface of Wisconsin is uniformly elevated, the land mostly level and of undulating characteristics, the whole expanse of country, with

few exceptions, being a vast plain, varied occasionally by low ranges of bluffs, ridges, and cliffs, bordering the rivers and lakes.

The State, however, has a southern inclination, the waters finding their way to the Mississippi River. Yet, in the northwestern part, in an extent of country 50 by 80 miles, the land inclines to Lake Superior and the rivers of that region flow north,giving their waters to that lake. The only elevations in the State assuming the proportions of mountains are in this region, and obtain a height of from 1,800 to 2,000 feet, of which the most important is the Iron Range, in Ashland County.

On the peninsula jutting out between Green Bay and Lake Michigan is a range of calcareous cliffs, forming, in many places, bold escarpments, some of the higher points of the range being 1,400 feet above the sea.

South of the forty-fifth degree of north latitude the lands are well adapted to a great variety of crops, notwithstanding occasional backwardness of the spring, as vegetation generally comes forward on the approach of summer with great rapidity, causing the crops to ripen in due season. The soil is very fertile, gradually changing, however, from the vegetable mould of the prairie in the southern and southeastern portions to a sandy loam north of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers and Green Bay, where the timber begins to increase.

In the settled portions of the State agriculture is the chief source of wealth, and must continue to be the principal object of industry with the people, who, being, in part, immigrants from foreign countries, especially from the great Germanic confederation and the Scandinavian Peninsula, have been educated in the tillage of the soil. The extent of this industry is shown by the fact that four millions of acres of land are now under cultivation, this vast area having been thus redeemed, in comparatively a brief period, from its wild condition.

The principal crops are wheat, oats, Indian corn, potatoes, rye, barley, buckwheat, tobacco, hay, and hops. The fruits are raised in as great variety as in the East, while its reputation as a great grain-growing State is well established. The total value of all the crops for the past year amounted to $73,200,000, while the number of live stock is computed at 2,550,000, representing an aggregate value of $31,092,000. Personal property is valued at $83,000,000, and the real estate at $254,870,000, making a grand total of $442,172,000.

Wisconsin has a very genial climate, and though its summers are of short duration, the dryness of the atmosphere during winter renders it one of the most healthy portions of the United States. The winter temperature is 20°, spring and autumn, 47°, summer, 720; the mean annual temperature of the southern part being 46°. The isothermal line of 50° runs near the southern extreme of Lake Michigan, while that of 40° is near the north shore of Lake Superior, thus bringing the whole State within the intermediate ten degrees. The waters of Lake Michigan moderate the excessive heat and cold of the eastern shore of Wisconsin by absorbing the heat of summer and exhaling the same during winter.

In consequence of the snow always falling in the northern part of the State before the ground is frozen, roots and plants are comparatively sheltered from the severe frosts of winter and their growth hastened in the spring. In the southern part some winters pass almost entirely without snow, though generally it lies on the ground to the depth of from twelve to eighteen inches during the greater portion of winter. The country is plentifully supplied with rain, the average fall being 30 inches, though northward, on the shore of Lake Michigan and on the

banks of the Mississippi, the quantity of rain is much less than in the central portion.

A great source of wealth for the future of Wisconsin is its timber, for while the southern part of the State is an extensive prairie, without native tree or shrub, except on the banks of the streams, yet in the northern and western the forests are of immense dimensions. Over sixty kinds of native trees have been found, the more common of which are the basswood, maple, wild cherry, elm, ash, hickory, black walnut, butternut, oak, birch, poplar, hemlock, cedar, and pine.

The most extensive and valuable of this timber is the pine, which has become an immense source of wealth, and must continue so to be for a century to come.

The multitude of streams draining these extensive forests affords excellent facilities for ready flow of rafts on the opening of spring navigation, and carry the timber, at little cost of transportation, to the many hundred mills scattered along their banks.

Thousands of men and teams are already employed in the lumber business, and hundreds of millions of feet of timber are annually carried to a market; yet so rapidly is this industry increasing that the demand for labor is far in excess of the supply.

The principal outlets from these extensive pineries are the Chippewa, Wisconsin, and St. Croix Rivers, and their tributaries, to the south, and the Bois, Brulle, Bad, and Montreal Rivers to the north. The former carry their freight to the Mississippi, while the latter open the way to Lake Superior.

The water privileges are extensive; almost the whole surface is traversed by numerous rivers and streams. The principal rivers have a drainage surface of 51,815 square miles, permeating the most fertile portions of the State, affording extensive facilities for navigation and manufacturing purposes, the rapids with which many of the streams abound giving ample opportunity for water-power.

The Fox River, in its descent from Lake Winnebago to Green Bay, a distance of 38 miles, has a fall of 170 feet, forming one of the most valuable water-powers in the West, which is already greatly improved at Menasha, Appleton, and De Pere. This river, 225 miles in length, navigable almost to its source, has been improved by the construction of locks and dams between Lake Winnebago and Green Bay, and is likewise connected by a canal and lock with the Wisconsin at Portage City, thus effecting an uninterrupted water communication from Lake Michigan and Green Bay through to the Mississippi, and from thence to the Atlantic.

The largest river is the Wisconsin, which, taking its waters from Vieux Desert Lake on the northern boundary, traverses the State in a southern direction, dividing it into two parts, mingling its waters with the Mississippi at Prairie Du Chien, after a course of 370 miles, with a descent of two-thirds of a foot per mile. Eleven thousand square miles of country are drained by this river, it passing through some of the richest pine lands of the State. Next in importance to the Fox and Wisconsin are the St. Croix and Chippewa, the former taking its source within 25 miles of Lake Superior, forming a part of the western boundary of the State, and also furnishing an outlet to the Mississippi for the Iumber of the region in which it heads.

The Chippewa, with its six branches all heading in the midst of timber, drains the country midway between the Wisconsin and St. Croix Rivers, giving its waters to the Mississippi. Thus the utilization of this immense wood region is made comparatively easy, for all these waters

flow to the Mississippi, opening an easy and never-failing outlet to the Atlantic and the markets of Europe.

The most fully developed of this great timber region is that bordering on the eastern line of the State and in Oconto and Shawanaw Counties, the lumber being shipped through the Menomonee, Peshtego, Oconto, and Pensaukee Rivers to Green Bay and Lake Michigan, and to Chicago, the lumber market of the West.

Portions of Wisconsin abound in the minerals of general utility, such as lead, iron, and copper, as also in various kinds of stone.

The lead mines of the State, situated in the counties of Grant, Iowa, Lafayette, and Green, in the southern part, have been worked for over thirty years, and continue to be a source of profit to the owners. They give employment to over 3,000 men and yield one-eighth of all the lead produced in the world, the annual production being over half a million of dollars.

Iron-ore deposits are extensive, and furnaces have already been erected in Sauk, Jackson, and Dodge Counties. The iron ridge of Dodge County is of considerable magnitude and the ore of excellent quality. This ridge attains a height of 50 feet, and is nearly 30 miles in length, and the whole of it is supposed to contain ore.

Extensive beds of iron ore and mines of copper occur in the region of Lake Superior, but, owing to the heavy forest and sparse settlement, it has not been thought profitable fully to develop them. In the course of time, as better means of intercommunication are established and the country becomes cleared, these mines will add another source of wealth to the interests of the State.

The most remarkable of the iron beds is the Penokee Iron Range, in Ashland County, which is destined to become one of the best, as it is one of the most extensive, in the United States, being advantageously situated 18 miles from La Pointe, on Lake Superior, which pos sesses one of the finest harbors upon the shores of that lake. This portion is the least improved, settled, and developed, but it contains rich mines, extensive pineries, unrivaled water-power, and, with its elevated surface traversed by numerous streams, affords so many natural advantages that the capitalist and others cannot but realize wealth and substantial prosperity.

Kaolin is found at Grand Rapids, on the Wisconsin River, and is used in the manufacture of fine pottery.

The limestone underlying the coal fields of Illinois forms the immediate basis of the alluvion of Southern Wisconsin; hence we do not find coal.

The Niagara group of limestone, of the upper silurian formation, is found underlying the surface from the entrance of Green Bay south along the shore of Lake Michigan to Illinois, affording excellent material for building and for the manufacture of quicklime.

The rocks of the State are covered with the remains of the glacial or drift period, except that portion comprising the lead region and the counties bordering upon the Mississippi. To this deposit of the glacial period is due the uniform character of the soil over the larger portion of the State.

Zinc and copper are found in the lead region. The zinc is made from the black-jack and dry-bone ores formerly considered useless. Clay, for the manufacture of the very best of brick, as well as for the coarser kinds of pottery, is abundant in different places, and the bricks of Milwaukee, made of a straw-colored clay of a very durable character, are second to none. Gypsum has been found on Sturgeon Bay. Peat and marl exist in