that the advent of men and capital to that favored portion of the Northwest, will continue, in increasing volume, for many years to

come.

MINING.

To the practical miner, as capitalist or operative, the lead region of the Upper Mississippi offers the most substantial inducements to settlement. The exceeding abundance and richness of the mineral; the comparative ease with which it may be mined; and the high price it commands the moment it is brought to the surface, open to the industrious and prudent operator a highway to wealth.

New leads of the richest promise, have been recently discovered in the mineral district, and an increasing emigration to that section of the State, promises to replace the California draft, and to meet the growing demand for the mineral.

The steady advance in the price of lead which has prevailed for five years past, is indicative of a gradual but decided extension of its uses in the arts.-There is no ground for apprehension, that the supply will outrun the demand, or be able to work a reduction of the wages of labor and profits of capital in this industrial occupation, for some years to come.

The copper mines of Lake Superior are of established celebrity throughout the world, and open an inviting field for enterprise. The mining interest in that region is fast losing its character of adventure, and is attracting the attention of the prudent capitalist and the practical miner, as a remunerative branch of business.

The iron mines of Wisconsin have not yet been opened to any extent, but are worthy of the attention of the immigrant. There are rich localities of ore near the head waters of the Rock, and on the Upper Mississippi and its branches.

LUMBERING.

To the lumberman, the pineries of Wisconsin present inducements for investment and settlement, which can be hardly overrated. That of the Upper Wisconsin and its tributaries, is the most extensive; and distinguished still more for the fine quality, than the inexhaustible quantities of its timber. The other localities of the white pine and other evergreens, are mainly on the Wolf, the great northern affluent of the Fox, and on the La Crosse, the Black and the St. Croix, branches of the Upper Mississippi.

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 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 soon hold exclusive possession of the market of the valleys of the Mississippi and its great western affluents.

AGRICULTURE.

But it is to that great body of emigrants who are seeking a home in the West, as cultivators of the soil, that the natural capabilities of Wisconsin most of all, address themselves.

The prairies of Wisconsin, unlike those of Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota, are none of them extensive; and are so skirted and belted by timber, as to be adapted to immediate and profitable occupation and improvement to their very centre.

The openings, which comprise a large portion of the finest land of Wisconsin, owe their present condition to the action of the annual fires, which have kept under all other forest growth, except those varieties of oak which can withstand the sweep of that ele

ment.

This annual burning of an exuberant growth of grass and of under brush, has been adding, perhaps for ages, to the productive power of the soil, and preparing it for the plough-share, without the life-long process which was necessary to bring the densely timbered lands of Ohio to the same advanced point of preparation, for immediate and profitable cultivation.

It is the great fact, that nature has thus "cleared up" Wisconsin to the hand of the settler, and enriched it by yearly burnings, and has at the same time left sufficient timber on the ground for fence and firewood, that explains in a great measure, the capacity it has exhibited, and is now exhibiting, for rapid settlement and early maturity.

There is another fact important to be noticed in this connection. The low level prairie, or natural meadow, of moderate extent, is so generally distributed over the face of the country, that the settler, on a fine section of arable land, finds on his own farm, or in his immediate neighborhood, abundant pasturage for his stock in summer, on the open range; and hay for the winter, for the cuttingthe bounty of Nature supplying his need in this behalf, till the cultivated grasses may be introduced and become sufficient for his

use.

It is this very rapid transition of a quarter section of government land into an old farm, without a tithe of the privations and hardships which hung around the life time of the early pioneers of Ohio, which distinguishes the early settlement of Wisconsin.

Every description of husbandry suitable to the latitude, may be successfully prosecuted. In addition to the usual routine of crops, the business of stock-raising, of dairy, of wool growing, and the culture of flax, are beginning to engage the attention of settlers, with promise of eminent success.

The steady and exclusive prosecution of agriculture on the fertile soil of the mineral district, has the advantage of an active home market and ready pay.-Hitherto, in consequence of the tempting and absorbing nature of the mining business, the cultivation of the soil has given place to "prospecting" for mineral. Agricultural lands, therefore, though of the very first order of fertility, have been neglected, and may be purchased at very low

rates.

The same general remarks apply to the agricultural lands in the pineries. Though of different elements from the soil which prevails in the limestone region, it is easily worked, and of undoubted productive power. The home market is still more importunate in its demands, and as promptly remunerative.

And of the millions of acres comprised in the area of Wisconsin, by far the greatest portion may still be entered at the land offices at $1.25 per acre, paid down, in specie, or in land warrants.

Several hundred thousand acres of school lands, in the older counties, are now open to entry at their appraised value, at the office of the Secretary of State, at the capitol in Madison; onetenth of the purchase money down, and the residue on a long credit at seven per cent. per annum.

Choice lands, located for the maintenance of the State University, may also be entered at their appraised value, at the office of the Secretary of State, on even better terms of payment than the school lands.

It is worth while to add, that the California emigration and other temporary causes have thrown in market, at reduced prices, many improved farms in choice locations in the older counties. The opportunity for investment thus offered, is worthy of the attention of the emigrant; and facts relative thereto may be easily ascertained on inquiry at private land offices in the larger towns in the State.

MANUFACTURES.

The artizan will find a fair field for his labor, and for the employment of capital in Wisconsin.

For the ordinary mechanic arts which are inseparable from agricultural thrift anywhere, the demand is importunate. Builders of every class and degree are liberally paid in the larger towns. Millwrights are sure to find employment in town or country, whether the mill power be water or steam. Carriage making, from the manufacture of the railroad car to the simple vehicle, whether useful or tasteful, is greatly in demand and cannot fail to do well.

Among the larger operations of manufacture, those of flour and lumber are becoming sources of profit to the capitalist and laborer, and beneficial to the farmer. Woolen, flax and cotton mills must soon become fixed facts in Wisconsin. The raw material for the

two former, will soon be among the larger and 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. For all these operations there is abundant water power in suitable locations.

For the construction of steamboats and every variety of lake craft, the western coast of Lake Michigan is eminently adapted; and it may be reasonably anticipated that a large share of the ship and boat building for these inland waters, will be done in the ports on that shore. The iron and lumber of Northwestern Wisconsin, will attract to that quarter much of the boat building for the Mississippi and its branches.

Nor is it to be presumed that Wisconsin will be long tributary to Buffalo or Pittsburgh for its engines, whether for the steamer, the locomotive or the mill. No point on the Lakes presents more advantages than Milwaukee for foundries, for castings and machinery of every description.

All these, and the thousand unenumerated arts which go to constitute the social maturity of a State, will be hospitably entertained, and meet an early development in Wisconsin.

TRADE.

Bordered on the east and the west, throughout its entire length, by Lake Michigan on the one hand, and by the Mississippi on the other, every portion of the State has easy access to the Ocean, and a complete command of the eastern and southern marketsan advantage which will be appreciated by those who are acquainted with the mutations, as well as the fixed laws of trade.

On the Michigan side, have sprung up the towns, Milwaukee, Racine. Kenosha, Ozaukee, Manitowoc, Sheboygan and Green Bay, all flourishing and promising.

The growth of Milwaukee, like that of the State of which it is the commercial mart, has been unexampled in the history of American cities. Scarcely visited by the white man in 1835, it has now, (1852,) a population of twenty-five thousand souls.

On the Mississippi border, the elements of wealth, bountiful as nature has been, have scarcely begun to be developed; and the question is still open, as to the position of its principal commercial mart. The more prominent points at present, are Potosi, Prairie du Chien, Prairie La Crosse, and Willow river.

Of the interior towns, there are in the lead district, Mineral Point and Platteville; in the basin of the Fox and Lower Wiscon

T

Be

sin, Fort Winnebago, Oshkosh, Fond du Lac and Menasha. On the banks of the Rock, Watertown, Janesville and Beloit. tween the Rock and Lake Michigan, Whitewater and Waukesha. Madison, the Capital of the State, the seat of justice of Dane county, and the seat of the University, is beautifully located in the basin of the Four Lakes, midway between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi.

Janesville, the most populous of the interior towns, is the seat of the State Institution for the education of the Blind.

The population of the villages of the interior above enumerated, ranges from twelve hundred to four thousand each. The list of towns might be greatly enlarged, did it fall within the scope of this article to do more than to present to the emigrant a general view of the natural capabilities, and the present aspects of Wisconsin.

All around is in rapid, though unequal progression, and the town unenumerated to-day, may take its place in the first class to

morrow.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

Plank roads are in process of construction, connecting the leading towns of the interior with each other, and all with the Lake and the River. Most of the towns on Lake Michigan are penetrating the interior with these facilities of trade and intercourse, to the mutual advantage of themselves and the country.

Of the several railroads projected and chartered, most of which are destined to completion at an early day, two-the "Milwaukee and Mississippi," and the "Rock River Valley roads" are already under progress.

Cars are already running over the track of the former, from Milwaukee to Eagle Prairie, nearly forty miles. It will be finished to Rock River this season, and to the Wisconsin during the summer of 1853. Another year will carry it through to the Mississippi. The track is laid with heavy T rail, and the road, with all its appurtenances, will be a work of the first class. This road will pass through Madison, the Capital of the State, and terminate at or near the mouth of the Wisconsin.

The Rock River Valley road, connecting Fond du Lac with Janesville, and to be ultimately extended to Chicago, has been commenced simultaneously at Fond du Lac and Janesville. Several miles have been graded, and are nearly ready for the rail.

A road has been chartered, to run from Fort Winnebago, through Madison and Janesville, to Beloit; there to connect with a branch from the Chicago and Galena road; thus furnishing a continuous route from the valley of the Fox and Wisconsin, through the Capital of the State, to Chicago. This route is attracting the attention of capitalists; and the business of the country demands