Advantages of Waupaca County

Waupaca County may justly claim to be the ''banner county" for the raising of that favorite esculent, the potato. While we are not behind other counties in a great share of the agricultural products successfully cultivated in northern latitudes, the potato seems peculiarly adapted to our soil, our climate, and our tastes. Large fields are yearly cultivated, ten, twenty, and even forty acres are not uncommon, bringing fair returns to the cultivators when a reasonable price is secured. Years ago many predicted the ruin of our favorite fruit, and a speedy return to a turnip diet, when our common enemy, the Colorado beetle, vulgarly called the "potato bug," first made our acquaintance. But paris green saved us, and our fears proved groundless.

To give an estimate of the total number of bushels of potatoes annually shipped from this county would test the nerve of even an honest historian. A careful estimate by one of our principal shippers places the amount for the season of 1889 at two thousand car loads of six hundred bushels each; total, twelve hundred thousand bushels!

The cultivated grasses do well in the timber, better than in the openings. Red clover thrives, and is getting to be extensively cultivated, not only for stock, but to turn under as a renovator of the soil. The wild grasses are plentiful, very rich and nutritious, proving a great blessing to the hardy pioneer who has to depend upon them for his stock to subsist on during the summer, and for his winter's supply of fodder until he can clean up his farm and raise a supply of the tame kinds. Our woods are full of a species of bean which is eagerly sought after by our stock. There is also a kind of wild pea, which grows on the uplands, much relished by stock. It is likewise very plentiful in many of our natural meadows, often growing from three to four feet high, and making excellent hay. Although we can let our cattle run at large only a part of the year, and are obliged to fodder them more than half the time, stock raising pays well, and much money is made in the business. Of late, our people are taking more pains in the breeds, and much that is good is being introduced. Many prefer the "short horns." They and their crosses are becoming quite popular, although some cling to the Devons. For butter, the Jerseys and Alderneys cannot be easily beaten, and the breeds in some localities are becoming the favorites, especially when crossed with the short horns to improve the size.

Taking it all in all, this is an excellent dairying county. Much superior butter and cheese are produced, which will compare favorably with any made in Wisconsin. Numerous cheese factories are in successful operation, producing as good an article as can be found anywhere, as the premiums and medals received by our citizens will attest. In horses we have some fine stock. Some of our horsemen are expending much money in that direction, and with a good prospect of success.

Many of our farmers and others are becoming convinced that it costs but little, if any, more to keep a good horse than a stunted Indian pony or a miserable "scrub," and the clumsy, raw-boned "critter" of the slow past is being replaced by the highbred carriage horse, or the reliable roadster. Sheep do remarkably well. Our native grasses agree with, and keep them always fat. They are seldom found diseased. Sheep raising would pay, provided wool brought remunerative prices. But while we have to depend upon the eastern market so much, the business is rather hazardous. Eighteen or twenty cents a pound does not and cannot be made to pay. We need more home markets, more factories in the West, more encouragement for home industry.

Fruit formerly did well, especially apples. Plums and cherries never were sure crops, although somewhat extensively cultivated in some localities.

But the very severe winter of 1873-74 injured all of the fine orchards of Wisconsin, and nearly ruined many of them. At that time excellent orchards were being started in different parts of our county, but that winter discouraged many. Such a winter was never before known in this section of the country, and it is to be hoped that such a one will never again be experienced in Wisconsin. The very cold weather of that long-to-be-remembered winter, following so close upon the unprecedented droughts of the preceding seasons, was undoubtedly the cause of such general ruin in our apple orchards.

Railroads

Our railroad facilities are good. The Wisconsin Central enters the county near the southeast corner, and passes through it in a northwesterly direction, on its way towards Lake Superior. The Green Bay, Winona & St. Paul road enters the county at New London, running westward, and making connection with the Central at Amherst Junction, in Portage County, a few miles west of the west line of Waupaca County. The Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western passes through that portion of the city of New London lying in Outagamie County, touches two sections in Lebanon, cuts off the northeast corner of Bear Creek, and crosses the towns of Larrabee and Dupont. Fremont, Weyauwega, Waupaca and Sheridan are on the Central; New London, Northport, Ostrander, Royalton, Manawa, Ogdensburg and Scandinavia on the Green Bay, Winona & St. Paul; and New London, Clintonville, Buckbee and Marion on the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western.

Some towns in the county are settled mainly by emigrants from the Middle and Eastern States. A few have a large proportion from Germany, Denmark, Norway and other parts of Europe. Sober, intelligent, industrious and enterprising, as the majority of them are, it is no wonder than our county is so rapidly improving in wealth and real prosperity, and that it already ranks among the leading counties of Northern Wisconsin.

In every neighborhood are found free schools, where the children of the poor, as well as the sons and daughters of the wealthy, enjoy all the advantages of a liberal education. Our school code is one of the best in the world.

Wisconsin counties are becoming rapidly settled. In a few years the man of small means will be obliged to ''go farther west." Our farms will materially increase in value, villages will spring up, and many of them will become important cities. Manufactories will be needed, mechanics will prosper, and the man who this year or the next invests his small capital in Wisconsin property may in a few years be ranked among the wealthy men of the great and rapidly growing Northwest!

Wisconsin AHGP | Waupaca County