HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY. 
 
be grain growing. The fertile prairie cover- 
ing large portions of the southern part of the 
State had but to be plowed and sowed with 
grain to produce an abundant yield. From the 
raising of cereals the pioneer farmer could get 
the quickest returns for his labor. 
There is the same struggle for existence, and 
the same desire for grain the world over, and 
hence the various phases of development of the 
same industry in different civilized countries 
is mainly the result of the widely varying eco- 
nomical conditions imposed upon that industry. 
Land is thoroughly cultivated in Europe, not 
because the Europeans have any inherent love 
for good cultivation, but because their land is 
scarce and costly, while labor is superabundant 
and cheap. In America, on the other hand,and 
especially in the newer States, land is abundant 
and cheap, while labor is scarce and costly. In 
its productive industries each country is alike 
economical in the use of the costly element in 
production, and more lavish in the use of that 
which is cheaper. Each is alike economically 
wise in following such a course, when it is 
not carried to too great extremes. With each 
the end sought is the greatest return for the ex- 
penditure of a given amount of capital. In ac- 
cordance with this law of economy, the early 
agriculture of Wisconsin was mere land skim- 
ming. Good cultivation of the soil was never 
thought of. The same land was planted suc- 
cessively to one crop, as long as it yielded enough 
to pay for cultivation. 
The economical principle above stated was 
carried to an extreme. Farming, as then prac- 
ticed, was a quick method of land exhaustion. 
It was always taking out of the purse and never 
putting in. No attention was paid to sustain- 
ing the soil's fertility. The only aim was to 
secure the largest crop for the smallest outlay of 
capital, without regard to the future. Manures 
were never used, and such as unavoidably accu- 
mulated was regarded as a great nuisance, often 
rendering necessary the removal of stables and 
outbuildings. Straw stacks were invariably burn- 
 
ed as the most convenient means of disposing 
of them. Wheat, the principal product, brought 
a low price, often inot more than fifty cents a 
bushel, and had to be marketed by teams at 
some point, from which it could be carried by 
water, as this was, at an early day, the only 
means of transportation.  On account of the 
sparse settlement of the country, roads were 
poor, and the farmer, after raising and thresh- 
ing his wheat, had to spend, with a team, from 
two to five days, marketing the few bushels that 
a team could draw, so that the farmer had every 
obstacle to contend with except cheap and fer- 
tile land, that with the poorest of cultivation 
gave a comparatively abundant yield of grain. 
Better tillage, accompanied with the use of 
manures and other fertilizers, would not, upon 
the virgin soils, have added sufficiently to the 
yield to pay the cost of applying them. Hence, 
to the first farmers of the State, poor farming 
was the only profitable farming, and conse- 
quently the only good farming, an agriculturo- 
economical paradox from which there was no es- 
cape. 
Notwithstanding the fact that farmers could 
economically follow no other system than that 
of land-exhaustion, as described, such a course 
was none the less injurious to the State, as it 
was undermining its foundation of future wealth, 
by destroying the fertility of the soil, that upon 
which the permanent wealth and prosperity of 
every agricultural community is first dependent. 
Besides this evil, and together with it, came the 
habit of loose and slovenly farming acquired by 
pioneers, which continued after the conditions 
making that method a necessity had passed 
away. With the rapid growth of the northwest 
came better home markets and increased facili- 
ties for transportation to foreign markets, bring- 
ing with them higher prices for all products of 
the farm. As a consequence of these better 
conditions, land in farms in the State increased 
rapidly in value. With this increase in the 
value of land, and the higher prices paid for 
grain, should have come an improved system of 
 
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