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The rapids of these streams furnish abundant water power for the manufacture of lumber, and on the annual spring rise, and occasional freshets at other seasons of the year, the yield of the mills is floated from the Wolf into Lake Winnebago and the lower Fox; and from most of the other streams into the Mississippi. Scarcely ten years have elapsed since the Alleghany pine of Western New York and Pennsylvania, had undisputed possession of the market, not only of the Ohio Valley, but of the Mississippi and its tributaries, above New Orleans, at which point it competed with the lumber of Maine and New Brunswick.

The course of the lumber trade may now be considered as permanently changed. The pineries of Wisconsin now control, and will hold exclusive possession of the market of the valleys of the Mississippi and its great western affluents.

The amount of pine lumber estimated to be sawed in Wisconsin annually, is as follows:

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Aside from the manufacture of pine lumber, reaching as it does nearly 400,000,000 feet per year, saw mills driven by both steam and hydraulic power, are now in operation in every section of the State where timber is found, and large quantities of oak scantling and plank, and basswood siding and lath, are yearly manufactured.

Considerable attention has of late been paid to the raising and culture of flax, and this has caused the necessity of oil mills, and machinery for breaking and manufacturing the straw into dressed flax.

Scattered over the State in different localities, are manufactures of various kinds, which are rapidly increasing both in number and respectability. Woollen, flax and cotton mills will soon become fixed facts in Wisconsin. The raw material for the two

former will be among the more profitable home productions of her agriculture, while the supply of cotton will, through the channel of the Mississippi, be more direct, safe, and easy, than by sea to towns on the Atlantic border. Several paper mills are now in operation, and more than 300,000 pounds of paper was made in the State during the year 1852. For all of these operations there are abundant water powers in suitable localities.

The great number of railroads, in progress of construction in Wisconsin, have directed the attention of capitalists to the building of locomotives and other railroad fixtures.

During the past year more than 100,000 pounds of shot have been made in this State. For the year ending June 1850, over 130,000 bushels of grain was manufactured into spirituous and malt liquors; of the former there was made 127,000 gallons, and of the latter 31,300 bbls. During the same period, 14,900 skins and 59,600 sides of leather were tanned The value of agricultural implements was estimated at $1,641,568; fourteen hundred tons of iron cast and 1000 tons of pig iron made; 134,200 pounds of wool was manufactured into cloth.

TRADE.-Bordered on three sides by navigable waters, every portion of the State has easy access to the ocean, and a complete command of the eastern and southern markets, which command will be greatly increased by the completion of the several railroads in progress of construction in this State. The small sums for which these can be built, owing to the uniformity of the surface and easy grade, which will also permit their construction to any desired point, together with the rapidity of transit upon them and their superiority in every respect over water conveyance for passengers and light freight, must bring them in successful competition with the lake and river business, and ultimately supersede it. Trade, then, instead of following arbitrary lines will run where business requires. The location of important depots of trade and market towns will also conform to the same necessity, and will consequently be built at the great central points of production.

EDUCATION. The bounty of congress has set apart the 16th section of every township in the State for the support and maintenance of common schools. From this source, nearly 1,000,000 acres will accrue to the State, the proceeds of the sales of which are to constitute a permanent fund, the income of which is to be annually devoted to the great purpose of the grant.

This magnificent foundation has been widely enlarged by constitutional provisions, giving the same direction to the donation of five hundred thousand acres, under the act of 1841, and the five per cent. reserved on all sales of Government lands within the State. The donations for educational purposes to the State have now reached 1,004,728 acres. A still larger addition will accrue from the grant of the swamp and overflowed lands, which the settlement of the country, the lapse of time, and easy processes of reclamation, will convert into the best meadow land in the world, and a large portion, ultimately, into arable. It is estimated that this grant will amount to 5,000,000 acres, of which the selection of 1,259,269 acres has already been approved. For the support of a State University, seventy-two sections of choice land, comprising 46,080 acres, have been already granted, and it is not improbable that this provision may be also enlarged by subsequent grants. If these trusts are administered with ordinary wisdom, the educational funds of Wisconsin, cannot be less, ultimately, than $3,000,000, and may reach $5,000,000.

The University is already chartered and in successful operation. The school system has been wisely designed, and the progress of organization, under the law, keeps pace with the progress of settlement. There are already not far from 3,000 school districts in the State.

The system contemplates, by the introduction of union schools, to extend academic instruction to each town in the State.

In addition to this munificent public provision for common and liberal education, there are, in different parts of the State, educational incorporations, both academic and collegiate, founded on private subscriptions. The most promising of these are the

College at Beloit, well endowed, and in successful operation: and similar Institutions at Milwaukee, Racine and Waukesha in Eastern Wisconsin, and at Appleton, in the North.

Indeed, in none of the new States, even in the Northwest, will the means of education be more ample; and in none is there a more rational appreciation of the importance of this paramount public interest.

In Wisconsin, as in the other States of the Union, there is, and ever will be, an entire freedom of ecclesiastical organization, and an equal protection of every religious institution and arrangement, conservative of good morals, and protective of the highest and most enduring interests of man.

In consideration of all these elements of prosperity, economical and social, such as have never, till now, gathered around the opening career of a new political community, there is little ground for wonder that the early growth of Wisconsin has been without a parallel in the history of States; and it may be very safely assumed, that the advent of men and capital to that favored portion of the Northwest, will continue, in increasing volume, for many years to come.

University Lands.-The following statement shows the counties in which the lands granted by Congress to the University of the State of Wisconsin, comprising two townships, or seventytwo sections, are located:

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These lands are being offered for sale at their appraised value, at the office of the State Treasurer, in Madison; ten per cent. being required in advance, and the interest at seven per cent. in advance, annually, on the balance, upon which ten years time is given.

School Lands.-The following table exhibits so much of the sixteenth sections as have been appraised, and are now for sale on the same terms and at the same place as University Lands:

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The grant of section 16, in each town, by Congress, to the State of Wisconsin. for Common School purposes, estimated upon an area of 55,404 square miles, the one thirty-sixth part of which is 1,539 square miles or sections, at 640 acres each, amounts, in acres, to....

Deduct amount already offered for sale

Leaving..

Nearly all of which is yet among the unsurveyed lands of the State.

984,900

539,060

445,900

State Lands.-The following lands have been selected as a part of the 500,000 acres granted by Congress to the State of Wis consin, and located in the following counties, to wit:

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