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TMDOLOGY

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DE! LUXE

A TEXT BOOK

OF THE

LAND SITUATION

INDEX

Page

Alfalfa 47

Autos, who owned by 10

Beef Cattle 51

Bought Right and Sold Right... 23

Cabbage 67

Canning 55

Cheese Factories and Creameries 38

Churches 12

Clearing not difficult 27

Climate 31-35

Clover 42-45

Co-operation 77

Corn 62-63

Credit 77

Dairying 46-49

Experiment Farm 71

Feeding the World 77

Fishing 74-75

Foreword 3

Free from Frost Damage 35

Fruits 55-58

Gateway to Prosperity 4

Hogs 51-53

Hunting 74-75

Location 21

Page

Marinette County School of Agri-
culture 70-71

Markets 39

New Settlers' Picnic 40-41

Oats 69

Our Sixty-thousand Acres 19

53-55
67
11

Pickles

Population Makes Land Values.

Potatoes 63-67

Poultry ' 71

Prices 80

Railroad Fare Refunded 80

Reliability 79

Roads 36-37

Schools 73

Sheep, a Good Opportunity 58-61

Silos 73

Soils 31

State Funds to Clear Land 17

Sugar Beets 67-69

Terms

Timber Lands Best

Title to Our Lands

Water Power

Wheat .

80
13
79
75
69

Copyrighted 1918, by THE SKIDMORE LAND CO., all rights reserved.

PUBLISHED BY

THE SKIDMORE LAND CO.

MARINETTE, WISCONSIN

AMERICA'S REAL CLOVER LAND.
MARINETTE COUNTY, WISCONSIN

FOREWORD

ARIXBTTE COUNTY, WISCONSIN, has been our home
for many years; it is our home now, and we expect to
make it our home for years to come. We are vitally
interested in the development of Marinette County, and
we could have no possible object in misrepresenting
conditions to you. We know if you are interested in
land that you are a prospective neighbor, and we of
course, realize that you would not decide to purchase land and
locate in Marinette County if you found conditions different than
we had represented them.

Would we, as a matter of business, go to the expense of trying
to interest you in something that you would not buy? Could we
for years prosper in this business if the people to whom we are
selling land were not making good?

TRUTH GOVERNS ALL We have always made much of the

spirit and letter of the word "truth."

We have been guided by the spirit of this word in all previous
editions of LANDOLOGY, and we shall not depart from that policy
in this third DELUXE edition. That is why a large part of the
story of farming in Marinette County is told in pictures. In weigh-
ing in your mind the contents of this book, we ask you to remember
one truth — the camera does not lie. Come and let us show you the
farms and other scenes you will find in this book.

THE DOOR OF SUCCESS IS MARKED "PUSH."

The person who is not ready and willing to push when the
voice of opportunity comes, will never prosper greatly. The world
always has been, and always will be ready to step -aside and make
way for the individual who has the courage to attempt to better
his condition. We could wish no more worthy mission for this
edition of Landology than that it may mean a more prosperous
future for you.

We await your visit.

SKIDMORE LAND CO.

GOOD FARM LANDS MARINETTE, WIS.

The country's where I'd ruther be.
Needn't fence it in fur me;
Jes' the whole sky overhead,
An' the whole earth underneath —
Sort o' so a man kin breathe.

—JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

LANDOLOGY

FACE THE FUTURE. The past lies behind you. You cannot

change it. What has been done, cannot

be undone. Perhaps you have not made the most of your oppor-
tunities— many of us have not.

But the future lies before us. It is an unwritten page on which
we may write what we will. What we have not done, we can do.

You are at the gateway — the future lies just beyond. It is a
gateway to prosperity, limited only by the efforts which you will
put forth to realize that prosperity. It is the gateway to land —
the builder of more snug fortunes than any other form of invest-
ment. To the average man good farm land is the best insurance
for a good living, a modest fortune and a competence for his family.

FEEDING THE WORLD. Never before in the history of mankind

has the problem of feeding the world

been so important. Nor has the world in the past ever held out
such manifold reward to those who devote their efforts to food
production.

Today, no profession and no business offers such certainty of
making a good living and reasonable profit as the profession of
farming.

Farming at this moment is in the early stages of a wonderful
reorganization which is bringing to the oldest of man's occupations
the recognition which is its due. More than that — it is bringing
a reasonable return for labor expended — which is also the just due
of the farmer.

"Let come to each whate'er befall, the farmer still must feed
them all."

The world is being fed today only because we have advanced
in the science of agriculture. Ages of cultivation and the experi-
ments of thousands of unheard of Luther Burbanks have given us
great progress in agriculture, but we must not forget that we are
now approaching the limit of productive lands. The acreage has
always been more limited than the general public has believed.

ONLY ONE CROP OF LAND. Tne basis of the present farm

land situation is the fact that

there is just so much land and there is no more being manufactured,
and that our population is increasing at the rate of hundreds of
thousands per year.

The question before the people today is, shall we continue to be
able to feed our increasing population?

INCREASING POPULATION DEMANDS LAND. In addition

to our in-
creasing population and the continued large percentage which will
demand lands, people in the larger centers are finding it more and
more difficult to earn their bread and butter.

A PAGE OF
SCENES FROM
$ ISO AND
PERACR
FARMS YOU
WILL SEE IN
fJARlNETTE
COUNTY

SWEET CLOVER

LANDOLOGY

Our growth has been beyond precedent or parallel. Our
increase in population, from 4,000,000 in 1790 to 110,000,000 in 1918
is unequaled in the world's history.

Marinette County, Wisconsin, with her splendidly productive
low priced lands, not only offers the greatest farming opportunity
today, but it is one of the few remaining localities where there are
good new farm lands to take care of our ever-increasing population.

NOT ENOUGH LAND FOR ALL. While our population has

— increased by 26 per cent,

during the last decade, the area of improved farm land has
increased less than five per cent, and a further increase of nine per
cent, will include all the remaining land that at present can be
cultivated.

When our fathers were born (and many of them are still
living), there were 17,000,000 people in the United States — in
1840 — but the last count reveals a population of 110,000,000.

Yes, we have multiplied — multiplied by 500 per cent, during
the full time of one life, and before the young men of today are
old men, at our present rate of increase, we will have a population
of over 400,000,000 and when the children of today are in middle
life this country, at our present rate of increase will have a popula-
tion of more than 1,000,000,000. Where will the farm land be
found to feed these 1,000,000,000 people, and what do you think
will be the value of an acre of land which you could buy now for
$25?

In addition to the regular increase of the 110,000,000 — our
present population — we must look forward to the care of our
immigrants of the future. The last Government reports show
10,000,000 immigrants for the past ten years; two and one-half
times as many as for the preceding decade, and 75 per cent more
than for 1880-1890.

LARGE INCREASE IN VALUE OF FARM LAND.

The last few years have witnessed a phenomenal increase in
the value of farm lands. The chief reason for this is, of course,
the increase in population, the fact that nearly all of the public
land suitable for agricultural purposes has been taken up, and the
natural tendency of people in congested centers to get back to
the soil.

There have been less than one billion minutes of time since the
beginning of the Christian Era, and yet farm property in this
country increased in value more than twenty-one billions in less
than ten years, or in other words, more than 118 per cent ; but the
number of farms increased only 11 per cent.

On every hand in Marinette County you see new buildings
going up. You know that means prosperity and profits.

NEWSETTLER MAK-
ING GOOD START.

BUILDINGS LiKETHESE
IRE NOT PUT UP IN A
DOOR FARMING COUNTRY

Farmers could not afford these fine buildings if they were not mak-
ing money. Are you making enough money to satisfy yourself?

10 LANDOLOGY

FARMERS ARE AUTO OWNERS TODAY. The farmers are

profiting by pres-
ent conditions. This is their inning, and the increasingly high cost
of living demands still more farmers all the time. The call is
world-wide for more people to till the land, because their products
are needed by a hungry hoard of consumers.

For the first time in history the manufacturers, merchants, and
professional men are all sending their sons to agricultural colleges.
Farming has become a science because it has become profitable. As
a class the farmers are the most prosperous citizens in the country
today. Go wherever you will in the great farming states of
America and make inquiry in the average towns of ten thousand
population or less, and you will be told that it is a retired farmers'
town. As a rule, you will find it true that a great many of the
better citizens of the town who are living in the best homes are
people who, in middle life, retired from their farms and are now
living on their income. How many towns do you find made up
mostly of well-to-do retired grocers, factory workers, dentists or
doctors? None!

Farmers today own over sixty per cent of the automobiles in
the states of the great middle west. How many bookkeepers, bank
clerks or factory workers own automobiles? Almost none!

There is no reason to believe that prices as high as $400 per
acre will not be reached in America before many years. Such
prices for land are common in several European countries.

GREATER ADVANCE COMING. More and more tne farmer

is putting his work on a

business basis, and in the same ratio the products of the farm are
increasing in price.

As long as there is a demand for gold, gold mines will continue
to be valuable. Just so long as the price of farm products continues
to rise, so will the price of farm lands go higher and higher. Just
so long as our population continues to increase faster than the
increase in the products of farming, just that long will the price of
productive land continue to rise.

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS During the past year government

— figures show that all land in

America increased in value an average of $4.85 per acre. Wiscon-
sin farm lands in the last decade rose from an average value of
$34 per acre to over $60 per acre.

That there will never be any more land on this earth than there
is at the present time, and that our rapidly increasing population
will sooner or later out-strip the productiveness of our soils and
make all productive land practically invaluable is a philosophy so
simple that a child can understand it.

LANDOLOGY 11

POPULATION MAKES LAND VALUES. More actual settlers

— are taking up their

homes on the lands of Marinette County each year than are moving
into any other five counties in Wisconsin. The population of
Marinette County is increasing by leaps and bounds. Over 2500
farmers from the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa,
Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Southern Wisconsin, have
purchased land in Marinette County in recent years. You are well
aware of the fact that it is the increase of population which has the
most to do with the increase in land values. In this regard, no
other upper Wisconsin county can make such a showing as
Marinette.

WHAT OTHERS HAVE DONE, YOU CAN DO. Nine men in

every ten in

any rural community who have accumulated more money than the
average have done it by buying cheap land, and either developing
it or holding it, and their success is generally in proportion to the
quantity of land they bought, Look around you, and you will be
surprised how many men have made their fortunes by this method.
Go through any settled farming community and note the comfort-
able homes, talk with the farmers who own them and ask how they
obtained them. Most of them will tell you that they settled on the
land when it was cheap and the land made a good income for them
from the day they bought it. More people settling in the same
locality brought about the increase in population which, without
any other cause, was sufficient to multiply the value of the land
until the owner was rich.

OPPORTUNITIES OF TODAY. Recently the Saturday Evening

Post said in an editorial, "The

man who wants a farm that is already making good money must
pay a round price. If he is willing to buy the raw material of a
farm and build up the finished product he can still get fairly cheap
land. In that direction some of the best agricultural speculations
lie."

Any farmer who takes good unimproved land and develops it
can become rich in a few years. That is just what thousands are
doing today and what you can do.

ACT BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. Your own judgment is suffi-

cient to tell you that the

facts we have set forth are the absolute truth. You who are work-
ing for another should work for yourself. Ask any man sixty
years of age who has worked in a city factory all his life what he
would do if he could live his life over. Nine times out of ten he
would tell you that he would have taken up a tract of land in his.
youth and would be worth from $10,000 to $20,000 today instead
of being almost penniless in his old age.

CHURCHES OFALL
DENOMINATIONS WILL
BE FOUND IN NEW
TOWNS ANDSETTLE-
MENTSlNMA£?iN£TTE
COUNTY.

12

LANDOLOGY 13

You who are renting and developing another man's land should
develop your own land. If you do not, the time will come for
regrets — a time too late when you will envy the man who acted
when you did not. You farmers who have had your opportunity in
taking up cheap lands and becoming wealthy by their development,
should see that your sons have the same chance. The land near
home is probably beyond their reach; let them go where they can
get low priced land that will increase in value rapidly.

VALUE OF TIMBER LAND. Today, everyone realizes that

timber land has a very rich soil,

and that it is wonderfully productive after the trees, stumps and
brush are removed.

Farm land can no longer be bought in the older settled parts
of the country at prices which those just starting in their life's
work can afford to pay. Such people must look elsewhere for
land, just as their fathers and grandfathers did. It does »ot require
exceptional reasoning to determine that any land which could
produce such a wonderful crop of timber as did the land of Mari-
nette County, Wisconsin, could not help but be extremely
productive. In other words, timber land is the best land which
can be had today at a reasonable price when the question of
fertility, nearness to markets, schools, highways, churches, railroads
and all other desirable features are taken into consideration.

PROFIT BY THE EXPERIENCE OF OTHERS. Early in the

settlement of

this country our forefathers learned the vital value of water, and
the relative worthlessness of mere land without water. They
settled first in the east where luxuriant natural growth bespoke
productivity. Nearly every acre cultivated by these pioneers
yielded large returns. Such was the land on which America's
tremendous development was started and based — a land well
watered by moderate rainfall and accumulated moisture, generally
well drained by clear streams, and rendered fertile through the
by-products of vegetable growth deposited from the timber during
unnumbered years.

This natural home for a people however, was sadly abused by
short-sighted and greedy farming methods, which have exhausted
the fertility of the soils of the east, but you can take up land in
Marinette County of exactly the same character where there has
been absolutely no depreciation of the original fertility of the land.

LAND WITHOUT WATER WORTHLESS. Water and not land

; sets the limit of

population and production. It has been estimated that if all our
two billion acres in America had rainfall enough to be productive

FOUR TONS
OF HAY ON
SLED AT
Sf6 PER TON.

14

LANDOLOGY 15

the limit of sustaining capacity would be reached in the year 2200,
this being based on our present rate of increase in population. The
limit of our capacity for production lies not in the land, however,
but in the supply of water on which all life depends, for without
water there are no plants, no soil, no people, no lower animals.
This means that the limit of sustaining capacity in this county must
be reached long before the year 2200.

PRAIRIE LANDS OR TIMBER LANDS. Practically all of

the present $100 and

$200 per acre land in Wisconsin was heavily timbered, and
most of the early settlers of this state who located on this land are
rich today, and yet none of them had the facilities for making
money that are offered now. The early settler in Wisconsin had
no market for the timber that remained on his land. He had none
of the modern machinery, and did not know the modern and
inexpensive methods of clearing land. The settler on timbered
land today has a ready cash market for every stick of timber that
he takes off his land, and instances are by no means rare in which
farmers after building their houses, barns and fences have sold
enough wood products from their land to pay for it.

A LEADER IN FARMING. The only states which equal Wiscon-

— sin in production are those that use

a large amount of commercial fertilizer, and states where irrigation
must be practiced in order to get a suitable amount of moisture.
The cost per acre for irrigation is often more than the entire cost
per acre of the land in Marinette County.

In Wisconsin, practically no commercial fertilizers are used or
needed, and no irrigation is ever needed. The average annual
rainfall of the state is thirty-three inches, and a study of the rainfall
records of ten years would disclose the fact that a large part of this
moisture falls shortly before and during the crop seasons.

HOW SETTLERS MAKE MODEST FORTUNES.

Take an average farmer who locates on 160 acres of new land
in Marinette County. Suppose, for instance, that he makes only a
good living during the first two years. By the end of that time he
usually has a fairly well improved farm which is at least half
cleared and which is easily worth from $50 to $80 per acre. When
a farmer can buy a tract of land at from $20 to $30 per acre and
°,an, with his own labor and only the returns from the money made
off of the land, double the value of the land through improving it
in the course of two years, he has not only made $4000 more or less
on a 160 acre tract, but also owns a farm which will thereafter bring
him in a good annual cash income and will steadily continue to
increase in value.

16

LANDOLOGY 17

STATE FUNDS TO CLEAR LAND. Wisconsin now has a law

by which, under proper

procedure, state funds may be drawn on for clearing land. Five
acres each year for three years can be cleared on state funds, the
money to be paid back in taxes over a period of twenty years.
With the land that a settler can clear himself, and the acreage
which can be cleared with state funds, any settler of moderate
means can get his place well developed in a few years.

MARINETTE COUNTY LAND INCREASING IN VALUE.

Land in Marinette County has increased in value from 25%
to 40% during the past year. This upward trend in land prices in
Marinette County has continued for the past ten years, and prices
are going up faster today than ever before. Land which you can
buy at $25 per acre now will cost you $30 per acre by next season.

THE VALUE OF FORESIGHT. The Skidmore Land Company,

is recognized not only as a

company which has been successful in the sale of lands, but a com-
pany that has learned how to combine development efforts with
its sales efforts. This is one of the secrets of the success of settler?
in Marinette County, but back of this success is the fact that many
years- ago when the Skidmore Land Company purchased these great
tracts of land in Marinette County they had first looked over every
great tract of land available for settlement in the entire United
States. They decided finally that the lands of Marinette County
were absolutely the best opportunity to be found, and today they
are able to offer you the advantage which their foresight provided.
Their judgment regarding the lands of Marinette County has been
proven correct. Inquiry shows there are more actual settlers
taking up lands in Marinette County today three times over, than
in any other county in any state in the Union. Your risk in taking
up these lands of Marinette County is practically nothing, for the
land is surrounded by valuable farms. We feel certain there will
never be a better opportunity in land.

WHY THIS OPPORTUNITY? Many ask this question: "If

there are such great agricultural

opportunities in Marinette County, why was the land not taken up
long ago?" You can answer this yourself by glancing back a few
years. . * .«. j

While other regions were giving to the farmer of the past their
prairie lands, Marinette County, Wisconsin, was attracting the
lumberman and the manufacturer. As the farmer passed by the
Wisconsin timber regions, the lumberman was cutting away the
forest. This same lumberman, to carry out his purpose, built
towns, railroads, highways, schools, churches, and the factories

18

LANDOLOGY 19

which he developed were in themselves the means of creating great
home markets which still are able to absorb at topnotch prices the
products of the farms of Marinette County.

SETTLEMENT WAS DELAYED. This land of ours has been

held from the market until

the present time by the interests of the lumber companies which
formerly owned it. It was not to their interest to have any part of
it developed until they were through with it. They realized that
with the coming of settlers the clearing of land might start fires
which would burn millions of feet of valuable timber which they
owned. They would not let these lands be opened for settlement
until practically all of the first growth timber had been cut, and
when fires for land clearing could not possibly spread from the
settlers' lands and destroy valuable timber.

A NEW DAY OF OPPORTUNITY. Today, the lumberman has

for the most part vanished

from Upper Eastern Wisconsin. By the process of evolution the
day of the farmer in Marinette County has arrived. The one great
crop of timber taken from the lands is being replaced by great
annual crops of farm products. The lumbering industry of upper
Wisconsin made a few men immensely wealthy. The farming
industry of upper Wisconsin will in turn make hundreds of people
moderately wealthy.

WHAT NATURE HAS DONE FOR US. Consider for a moment

how kind nature has

been to Marinette County. The mantle of timber that for centuries
covered this land was in itself a protection against wasteful farming
methods such as have destroyed the best lands in many other parts
of the country. Marinette County has been kept for you — a rich
land of opportunity in the very heart of the highest civilization of
this continent. In a circle roughly taking in the states of Iowa,
Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and small
parts of other states bordering on these states, there are 28,000,000
people. These 28,000,000 people make up by all means, the greatest
farmers' market in the world. Our location is just slightly north
of the center of this circle. The center of population of the United
States is in the state of Indiana. Marinette County is within eight
hours' ride by train of the state of Indiana. In other words, we
are practically at the door of the center of population in America.

OUR SIXTY THOUSAND ACRES. We own today, sixty thous

and acres of the best farming

land in Wisconsin, the surface of which varies from level to gently
rolling. The rolling land is for the most part the best farming land
because it provides natural drainage. It is just as near good
markets as any land that sells today for $100 per acre. It is better

THE FOEESTS of Marinette County were a
great crop, proving the fertility of the land.
The timber crop made a few men very wealthy, but
the rich land, free of the forests, is making hundreds
of men moderately wealthy.

20

LANDOLOGY . _ 21

land for it is virgin land, and there is no better soil to be found
in the entire state of Wisconsin. It has fifty years the advantage
of land that was settled fifty years ago, for it is that much farther
away from the condition of the worn out New England farms. You
can raise anything on the lands of Marinette County which can be
raised on the $150 per acre lands elsewhere, and usually two or
three times as much.

LOCATION OF OUR LANDS, We own today practically all of
- the good available unimproved
farm lands in Marinette County. Our tracts include lands in every
township of the County, but the best lands available today are in
the central, western, and northwestern parts of Marinette County.
There are some lands available near to Marinette. but the better
farm lands of the county are not in the vicinity of Marinette.

The tracts of land which we are settling are traversed from
north to south by the main line of the C., M. & St. P. Ry., and the
northwestern part. of these lands are also given transportation ser-
vice by the Soo Line. Several branches make up complete railroad
service. The network of railroads in Marinette County gives the
settler in this locality the markets of Marinette and the city of
Menominee, Mich., adjoining, which together have a population of
35.000 ; Milwaukee and Chicago to the south with a practically
unlimited population ; the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to the
west, and the copper and iron regions to the north. It is safe to say
that at the present time at least one-third of all the food products
raised in this locality are bought by the copper and iron countries at
prices usually at least ten per cent above Chicago prices. The
cities of Marinette and Menominee are in themselves capable of
absorbing all of the crops raised in this locality. The stores, banks
and schools of the city of Marinette are metropolitan. It is a manu-
facturing center of great and growing importance, and with natural
advantages which in less than ten years are almost certain to make
it the second or third city in the state of Wisconsin.

With five great railroad systems forming a network in
Marinette County, there is very little of our land that is more than
seven miles from a railroad shipping point, nor more than the same
distance from a town. Our land overlooks a vast well settled
country divided into some of the finest farms to be found in the
state. The developed lands throughout our tracts, and immediately
adjoining- have already proven this to be the most productive land
in the state.

THE OLD TIMES AND THE NEW. Y°u envy the farmers
- •~—~ - who started like this
years ago, and who have a competence now. But note how they
started. Civilization was far away from them and they suffered

THE ROADSIDES
ARE LINED WITH
CLOVER AND
OTHER GRASSES \H
MAR I N ETT E CO U NT Y,

22

LANDOLOGY 23

the hardships of the early pioneer. No schools were established
and they built their churches in the wilderness. The cities and
markets were distant.

The man who comes here has all of their prospects and none
of their disadvantages. Great railroads run by him; large cities
and unlimited markets are right at his door. Schools and churches
surround him; good neighbors are near by. He starts with cheap,
virgin, uncleared land in the midst of a settled community.

There is no other way for a man to get rich on a farm.

To buy high-priced land one needs to get rich beforehand, and
a man cannot do that by farm labor, nor by renting, nor by working
for others.

It is always the advance in land that gives the well-to-do
farmer his competence ; and no one can doubt that here the advance
is bound to be the greatest and quickest.

BOUGHT RIGHT AND SOLD RIGHT. When a wholesaler

buys a product which

is to be resold to consumers, he is in duty bound to buy it at such
a price that he can resell it to the consumer for a reasonable sum.
The Skidmore Land Company bought these lands years ago from
the lumber companies when those companies found it absolutely
necessary to have additional capital to continue their lumber busi-
ness. Land was very cheap at that time in tracts of two and three
hundred thousand acres, but even under such circumstances the
Skidmore Land Company bought these lands at what was generally
considered a sacrifice price. The result is that today land is selling
here at from $10 to $35 per acre which will produce acre for acre
just as much or more than land selling in Illinois or Iowa at from
$150 to $250 per acre. Land in other parts of Wisconsin no closer
to the best markets of America, and with scarcely half the' produc-
ing capacity, bring $150 to $200 per acre.

In a few years all the land here will be just as well settled and
improved as the lands of southern Wisconsin. It will be worth
just as much as the neighboring land, and that means from $40 to
$80 per acre more than you pay for it. All that it lacks today is
the clearing. A large part of this has been done for you in that
the timber has been cut, and on most of these tracts the stumps
have rotted for from eight to fifteen years4 We did not put these
lands on the market until the stumps had rotted sufficiently to begin
clearing operations.

The clearing cost will vary on different tracts of land, but for
the most part it will not cost more than from five to fifteen dollars
per acre, running somewhat above that figure on some of our best
lands. On much of this land a man who does his own clearing can
make excellent wages out of what he gets for the down timber,

PASTHF

CLEARED

J Modern inventions such* as stump-pullers and tractors have
u made land clearing simple and comparatively inexpensive.1 /

N E W L AN D 6E FOR E J EiNG C4_ E A

ONCE GONE,$TUMP$ ARE GONE FOREV

A one-man stump-puller, which costs little, will
Jfife- clear any land to be found in Marinette County.

J^' COUNTY HAS

STATIONS O.NFIVEDIFFEREN
RRILROAD. LINES.

26

LANDOLOGY 27

CLEARING NOT DIFFICULT. There was a time fifty years

ago when it used to be said

that it took a man a lifetime to clear eighty acres of timber land.
There was a time when the mails of the United States were carried
by men on horseback; today you can mail a letter and have it
delivered the following day in a city five hundred miles distant at
an expense of two cents.

The same advance has been made in clearing land. It is noth-
ing unusual today for settlers to move into Marinette County in the
month of March and have forty acres ready for crops the same
season. The grub-hoe methods of clearing land are today just as
much behind modern methods as the cradle and reaper are behind
the modern binder. A better knowledge of cheap modern land
clearing machinery is today making farms out of the lands of
Marinette County twice as fast, and at half the cost of ten years
ago.
THE COLLEGES HELP. Today the great Agricultural College

of the state of Wisconsin is maintain-
ing a land clearing department. This department several times
each year organizes a special train and makes trips of six weeks or
more throughout the cut-over lands giving demonstrations of the
proper methods in land clearing. It has been found that the prob-
lem of clearing land is more simple and less expensive than anyone
had supposed.

The one-man stump puller which can be bought at one-half the
cost of a good horse will efficiently clear any land to be found in
Marinette County. The machines with which one horse or a team
are used can be operated somewhat faster, and such machines can
be had at about the cost of a horse.

CO-OPERATION IN CLEARING. Before we leave this subject

we want you to thoroughly

realize the fact that the land clearing bugaboo no longer exists.
Co-operative methods are being carried out among the settlers by
which a given neighborhood will buy a stump pulling machine, each
sharing his part of the cost proportionately. In many cases all of
the neighbors who jointly own the stump puller work together as
a crew and clear land on first one farm and then another. When
handled in this way the cost to each settler for clearing operations
is greatly lessened.

One thing which it is well to keep in mind is the fact that when
stumps are once gone — they are gone forever.

LOCATION OF OUR LANDS. Marinette County borders on

Green Bay and the great Menom-

inee River, and is on the forty-fifth parallel, being just half way
between the Equator and the North Pole.

There are five railroad lines serving the county — The C. & N.

UUUU UMIKY

CATTLE ARE
BOUGHT FOR
SETTLERS WITH
OUT ANY PAY-
MENT DOWN AT
TIME OF PUR-
CHASE.

LANDOLOGY 29

W., C., M. & St. P., W. & M., Soo Line, and Ann Arbor. Most of
these roads p;iss through the county to the iron and copper coun-
tries where a half million people are engaged in mining.

Mariuette has one of the best harbors on the Great Lakes, and
because of this water competition the railroads are forced to give
Marinette County points advantageous freight rates.

Boats operating between Chicago and Marinette make the trip
in eighteen hours.

Marinette County is in the upper eastern part of the state of
Wisconsin. The county seat and principal city of Marinette County
is Marinette, which is located upon the shore of Green Bay near
Lake Michigan, and on the south side of the great Menominee River.

The second largest place in Marinette County is the incorporat-
ed city of Peshtigo with a population of about 2500.

Some idea of the number of towns and cities in our county will
be gained from a list of them : Marinette, Peshtigo, Coleman,
Pound, Beaver, Loomis, Sunset, Harmony Corners, Bagley Jet.,
Porterfield, Miles, Kinsman, Goll, Wagner, McAllister, Packard,
Crivitz, Konsted, Left Foot Lake, Middle Inlet, Peshtigo Harbor,
Wausaukee, Cedarville, Intervale, Athelstane, Girard Jet., Phillips-
burg, Dunbar, Amberg, Marek, Martindale, Beecher Lake, Holmes
Jet., Pembine, Van Horn and Niagara.

New towns and settlements are springing up each year, and in
each case the lands in the vicinity of these towns and settlements
increase in price very rapidly.

POPULATION. The population of Marinette County is in excess

of 45,000, and is increasing steadily. Over half

of these thrifty people are farmers or residents of the smaller
settlements. A great many of them have been residents of this
county but a very few years, coming here from great farming states
such as Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. Within the past few years
many of them have built up fine farms with modern buildings, and
are very comfortable, and in every way well pleased with this
country.

The city of Marinette has a population of about 18,000.

DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND. Tne lands are almost exclusive-

ly hardwood lands with an

occasional scattering of pine. The uplands or rolling lands are large-
ly a very rich clay loam yielding large crops. The level or lower
lands are a lighter sandy loam, rich and easity worked, and have
a clay subsoil. This lighter soil has made Marinette County famous
as a potato growing district, and also for the growth of other root
and garden products.

A person standing on a high ridge on the shore of Green Bay
can look northwest thirty-six miles in a direct line and see the high
land known as the Thunder Mountain country, and twenty miles

PRACTICAL FARMING
AND MAN UAL TRAIN-
ING ARE TAUGHT INALl
HA RINETTE COUNTY
RURAL SCHOOLS.

MILK TESTING

30

LANDOLOGY 31

farther northwest is a still higher country known as the Silver
Range, where the mineral range crosses the state in a northeasterly
and southwesterly direction. This lay of the land is advantageous
to the county in several ways. First, it gives perfect drainage
through two very large rivers, the Menominee and the Peshtigo,
and their numerous branches; second, in providing a very mild
climate, the climate in the lower land being about the same as
northern Illinois. The force of the north and northwestern winds
is broken by the high ranges, these winds passing high up over
the valleys which escape the severe cold that is encountered on the
north and west sides of the range of hills farther west in the state.

SOILS. Marinette County soils vary from a clay loam on the

uplands to a dark soil in the meadows.

A soil expert from the state of Illinois, who recently examined
the soil here, states that the chemical composition is very much the
same as what is known as clay loam found in the corn belt of
Illinois. The soil is of a different color, being generally a reddish
clay loam and is richer in mineral contents than the Illinois or
Iowa soil.

Phosphorus and nitrogen are the two soil elements in which
the farmer is most interested. Our soils are more than ordinarily
well supplied with phosphorus, and are generally well supplied with
nitrogen. Nitrogen however, is drawn upon more extensively than
phosphorus in plant production, but its supply can always be
restored where clover can be grown successfully, and Marinette
County is the real Cloverland of America. As a matter of fact,
the soils of Marinette County, because of their ability to produce
clover, alfalfa, sweet clover, peas, soy beans, and other leguminous
crops, with little trouble and expense, and in great quantities, will
outlast the heavy black loam soils of other states for the reason
that the soils are supplied with mineral contents and have the
ability to produce the nitrogen needed in crop production. Nitrogen
is provided by the growing of any legume, and when an additional
supply is needed the turning under of a second cutting of clover
gives the soil the full benefit of that crop. This does away with
the need of any commercial fertilizer in Marinette County.

CLIMATE. A man recently remarked, "There are parts of the

world where I would like to live three months in the

year, other parts for six months, but since I have to live 365 days
each year, give me Marinette County, Wisconsin."

Why go thousands of miles away at a tremendous expense in
search of health? Right here in Upper Eastern Wisconsin you can
find the most healthful and invigorating climate in the country.
We have no extremes of weather. During the summer months we
have long sunny days, not too warm, and the nights are cool and
delightful.

APPLES,CHERRf£S,
PLUMS AND ALL OTHER
SMALL FRUITS YIELD
HEAVILY IN HARINETTE CO

LANDOLOGY 33

Located along Green Bay are many summer resorts, and
hundreds of summer cottages. People from all parts of America
spend their summer vacations here.

The general outline of the country and lay of the land makes
this a favored spot for those seeking health and comfort.

THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR WINTERS. There is very little

wind and no winter
conditions which are not conducive to health and enjoyment.

The snow comes generally in December and covers the ground
with a warm blanket until the month of March. There are no
January thaws such as kill clover in the states of Illinois and Iowa
almost every year. We have just clear crisp sunshiny weather —
the kind that gives one an appetite at almost any hour of the day.

The snowfall is ordinarily from twelve to eighteen inches, or
in other words, a sufficient amount to provide good sleighing for
the heavy hauling of farm products, etc., during the winter

It is the warm blanket of snow covering Marinette county dur-
ing the winter that provides crop insurance for each coming year,
and this same blanket of snow is one of the reasons why the north-
west can be relied upon year after year for its full share of crop
production.

Never a breath of malaria has swept this splendid northern
country. The air. is laden with the odor of hemlock, pine, cedar,
spruce, balsam, and fir, borne on life-giving breezes from the Great
Lakes.

Come to an enjoyable winter climate where there are no
blizzards, no January thaws, no winter rains, no sleet, slush or mud,
no radical changes of temperature, but seventy days of reliable
winter weather with sleigh-bells ringing, frost in the air, the farmer
in the woods or on the road, the mercury varying from 15 to 30
degrees above zero, ' and the crisp balmy air bringing abounding
health, spirits and vigor to men and animals.

There are days in the winter of course, when the thermometer
registers below zero, but if you will watch temperature records you
will be surprised to note that on such days the temperature in states
like Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, and Nebraska, is very apt to be
lower than the temperature in Marinette County.

Talk to any of the many Illinois, Iowa, or Indiana people now
living here and they will tell you that the winters of Marinette
County are much more comfortable than the winters in their home
states.

OUR HEALTH RECORD. Marinette County has practically

• - led the health records of the state
of Wisconsin for many years, and the fact that this record is almost
continuous is an argument that should be of great importance to
the new settlers thinking of locating in our county.

YOU CAN
MAKE MONEY
WITH BEEF
CATTLE IN
M A R I N E T T E
COUNTY.

34

LANDOLOGY 35

NO CROP FAILURES. M;irineite County is a country where

the greatest returns arc made by

diversified farming. The fact that we have no tornadoes in
summer, blizzards in the winter, or malaria in our water; plenty of
rainfall and no insect pests to destroy our crops, is the reason why
a total crop failure in Marinctlr County has never been known.

The average annual rainfall varies from 32 to 40 inches
and a large part of it is distributed through the growing
months. The well water is soft and free from alkali, and can always
be obtained at a depth of from ten to thirty feet.

FREE FROM FROST DAMAGE. Marinette County, Wiscon-

sin, is ordinarily free from

frost damage. During the last few years killing frosts were report-
ed from many localities in this country doing immense damage to
fruit, corn and garden crops. No loss of consequence was sustained
in Marinette County.

The long growing season of our locality is due to the fact that
two-thirds of the border line of Marinette County is either on the
great Menominee River, or Green Bay, which is a part of Lake
Michigan. This location between Green Bay and the great Menom-
inee River means that the county is practically surrounded by
water. This, together with the low elevation, are the two causes
underlying our very desirable climatic conditions.

Another point to be taken into consideration is the fact that in
a comparatively northern latitude plant life grows faster during
the growing season than it does in more southern latitudes. For
instance, during the heat of the summer corn will make a greater
growth in Marinette County than it will during the same length of
time in Illinois or Iowa. This is a provision of nature to provid-
suitable plant life for middle northern latitudes, and it has long been
recognized by expert agriculturists as one of the reasons why
upper Wisconsin is developing into one of the greatest and most
prosperous farm localities in America.

OUR GROWING SEASON. Marinette County has 140 to 150

days of growing weather. Northern

Illinois, as far south as LaSalle and over to LaPayette, Indiana, has
150 to 160 days of growing weather, but the farther north we go
we find the days in summer longer, so the days in Marinette County
are longer in the summer and correspondingly shorter in the win-
ter than in Illinois or Indiana.

In comparing the hours of sunshine with Springfield, Illinois,
we have six days more sunshine during the growing season, and
as plants breathe only when the sun shines, we have here practically
the same number of hours of sunshine during the growing season
as in Illinois, north of LaSalle; Lafayette, Indiana, or Des Moines,
Iowa.

ITS HARD
SURFACED
ROADS BUILT
AT SMALL EXPENSE
FROM THE NATURAL
GRAVEL DEPOSITS
OF THE COUNTY.

36

LANDOLOGY 37

In some parts of upper Wisconsin, in the higher altitudes, we
find that the average number of days of growing weather is only
100. The United States Climatological map for 1910 shows
150 days of growing weather for Marinette, while in some places
farther south and west and within 100 miles there were only 94
days between frosts.

ROADS. Marinette County has a good auto road through every

township, and in all of the townships there are a large

number of cross roads usually on section lines which can be trav-
ersed at all seasons of the year with the heaviest team loads of farm
produce. It has been said that a good road is the key to almost
every kind of rural progress. Wisconsin, according to government
reports, stands third as a good road state, Indiana being first, and
Ohio second. It has always been recognized that Marinette County
is even more progressive in the matter of good roads than the
southern part of the state. People who come to Marinette County
from other states in the middle west to look for land always express
surprise when they travel over the splendid macadam roads of this
locality.

EVERY SETTLER MUST HAVE A ROAD. One feature of the

• = Wisconsin state law

which has proved of great benefit is the "force provision," whereby
a group of free-holders of any town, by subscribing fifty per cent
of the town's share of the estimated cost of improving roads, may
thereby force the town to contribute the other fifty per cent.

WATER. The year book of the Department of Agriculture, states

that a pound loaf of bread requires two tons of water

in the making; that is, that amount of water is required in raising

the wheat, etc., entering into the making of a pound loaf of bread.

The year book states further that a pound of beef requires
from fifteen to twenty tons of water, and that a ton of hay takes
500 tons of water from the soil before it is ready for cutting.

The food required by an adult human being in one year repre-
sents an acre of water five feet deep — one million and a half
gallons. •

If these figures mean anything they mean that farmers ( aght
to locate where there is ample rainfall and plenty of good pure
water. Marinette County is known throughout the country for its
supply of good pure water for man and beast.

In Marinette County within ten to thirty feet of the surface
with a driven well you can get the purest spring water. This water is
soft enough to use for washing clothes, and it is consequently not
necessary to have a cistern. So much depends upon an unlimited
supply of good pure water that this is something you surely must
not overlook in choosing the location of a farm home.

ii

MAR1NETTECCX
f1A530CHEESEr
FACTORIES AND
CREAMERIES.

T0PN0TGH PRICI
ARE PAID FOR MILK
BUTTEI?FAT

38

LANDOLOGY 39

MARKETS FOR EVERYTHING. In !ess than twenty-four

hours, any produce raised in

Marinette County can be placed in the great central market,
Chicago, and we have a cheaper freight rate to Chicago than has
Springfield, Illinois. These low freight rates are due to the fact
that Marinette has one of the greatest harbors on Lake Michigan,
and the railroads have to meet this water competition in making
freight rates.

Taking Chicago as a center you have within a radius of 300
miles the greatest industrial development of this country — the
center of the farming industry, the center of manufacturing, popu-
lation, banking, best home markets, and the center of railroading.
Marinette County lies within this circle, which makes up the great-
est market district of America.

HOME MARKETS ALWAYS BEST. You, of course, will rea-

lize however, that the

best market for any farming community- is a local market, and the
prices paid in local markets have a great deal to do with the value
of farm lands. In reality, markets have more to do with the value
of land from an agricultural standpoint, than soil or climatic condi-
tions. It is not the number of bushels per acre that a farmer can
raise so much as it is the net return per acre which he can realize
from that crop. Official reports show the entire state of Wisconsin
receives a greater net return per acre for its crops than any other
state in the Union.

If you have made a study of the advantages offered by the
cut-over land districts where lumbering formerly flourished, you
are already aware of the fact that the markets were first created by
the towns built during the prosperous days of lumbering, and long
before the settlers took up the land.

The great cities of Marinette and Menominee, which are really
one town, but are on opposite sides of the Menominee River, had a
joint population of over 30,000 before the farming lands of this
locality had been developed to any great extent. Previous to that
time the food supply for all of these 30,000 people as well as the
thousands of people in the smaller towns and villages, had to be
si lipped in from the great central markets of Chicago and Milwau-
kee. These home markets- are today able to absorb all that is
grown on the farm lands in this locality, and Chicago market prices
less freight prevail at practically all times at these home markets.

AVOID LACK OF MARKETS. Without regard to the crop

you raise, if the land on which

you raise that crop is so located that it costs you more to market it
than the crop is worth, the land is absolutely valueless. Thousands
of farmers have in the past few years paid dearly for this informa-

Scenes at Marinette County's Annual New Settlers' Picnic.
This big event is attended by over 10,000 people each; year.

Note the fine live-stock and the many other evidences
of steady prosperity on every hand in Marinette County.

ALLGFTHESE
SCENESTAKEN
ONMARINETTE
COUNTYLA?
CLEARED LESS I
THAN FIVE
YEARS AGO.

42

LANDOLOGY 43

tion through the expensive experience of locating on the isolated
lands of the far west and Canada. It is one thing to be able to
raise something to sell, and it is quite another thing to sell it.

No lands in any part of the world are more favored in the
matter of good markets than those of Marinette County. With
direct railway and water lines in every direction the products of
this locality can within a few hours reach more than half the
population of this country.

Should the time ever come when the farm products raised in
tliis county were in excess of the local needs we have immediately
to the north of us more than half a million consumers in the copper
and iron mining districts, who do not produce hardly any of their
food. They pay higher prices than the Chicago market, and even
today we are shipping great quantities of food products to this
mining country because of the very high prices which the markets
there are willing to pay.

Marinette County is absolutely the nearest developed farming
locality to this great northern market which stands ready at all
times to take any food surplus which the Marinette County farmer
may have to offer.

CLOVER. It is a recognized fact today that there is something
lacking in any agricultural locality where clover can-
not be grown successfully. It is recognized that a rotation of crops
is necessary to keep up the fertility of any soil and produce the
greatest profits each year. Clover is, by all odds, one of the most
important crops in any system of rotation, and where clover cannot
be grown successfully nothing can take its place except the contin-
ued use of very expensive commercial fertilizers. The cost of
commercial fertilizers has been constantly increasing every year,
the price today being almost prohibitive to many farmers.

There is no clover country to equal Marinette County anywhere
between Boston Harbor and the Golden Gate. You can scatter
clover seed from March to August in oats, peas, fodder corn, and
even on the unbroken wild land among the brush, and never fail
in getting a stand.

THE GREAT NITROGEN GATHERER. The value of nitrogen

contained in the air, if

computed on the basis of the price paid per pound in commercial
fertilizers would be about $11,000,000 for every acre of the earth's
sin-face. Marinette County, Wisconsin, has the most favorable
climatic conditions for the growth of clover, sweet clover, alfalfa,
soy beans, peas, and all legume crops that have the faculty of taking
this nitrogen from the air and storing it in the ground where the
farmer will realize the benefit from it.

ALFALFA
FOUR TO FIVE TONS PER-
CRE ON THE LANDS OF H
M ARINETTE COUNTY. 1

44

LANDOLOGY 45

CLOVER THE BASIS OF AGRICULTURE. It is a well known

fact today that

where clover or other leguminous plants are grown, the fertility of
the soil cannot only be maintained, but increased, and continued
heavy crops are insured. It means that farmers increase their
prosperity each year, and land increases steadily and rapidly in
value. It really passes belief how the clovers and grasses grow in
the strong, retentive, moist, and matchless soils of Marinette
County. Clover not only never winterkills in this region, but it
never "heaves out" or freezes out. It sleeps under the snow and
comes out late in March or early in April green and fresh, a thing
of beauty and a joy forever. It is the basis of the great success in
agriculture in Marinette County. It will hold its own with timothy,
red top, or any hay grass, reseeding itself, and like Tennyson's
brook, "goes on forever."

All of this may seem to be strange talk to the farmers of the
older states where clover cannot be grown successfully, but it is as
true as the Holy Book, and we want you to come and verify that
fact for yourself.

Clover, timothy and blue grass are found growing everywhere.
Often through the wild lands one will find a growth of clover and
blue grass that forms a dense heavy grassy carpet not excelled
anywhere in America. The practical farmer will rapidly realize
the importance of the ability of the soils of Marinette County to
grow grasses, as it enables him easily and quickly to transform his
new land, even without first removing the stumps, into pastures
that have no superior anywhere. Ideal pastures are easily obtained
by stirring the soil slightly with a spring tooth or disc harrow and
then sowing the seed. Nowhere have we ever seen such pastures
as there are in Marinette County. With our pure spring-fed brooks
and unlimited supply of the best water obtainable, our conditions
are ideal for dairying and stock raising of any kind. All along
the roads, or wherever stock travel, and even scattered through the
unimproved land, you will find a growth of blue grass, red clover,
and white clover which will surprise you.

CLOVER SEED A VALUABLE CROP. In many localities

when a farmer desires

to raise a cash crop he faces the problem of depleting the fertility
of the soil. Clover seed is a great special and cash crop in
Marinette County, and instead of depleting the fertility of the soil,
it increases fertility. This includes the medium red and alsike
varieties on the heavier soils, and the mammoth clover on the
lighter soils. You can cut the first crop of clover for hay, getting a
yield of from one and one-half to three tons per acre, and let the
second crop go to seed and obtain a cash return of from $20 to $50
per acre.

46

LANDOLOGY 47

The state figures for 1916 credit Marinette County with a
larger average clover seed production per acre than any other
county in the state — four bushels. The price last year varied from
$10 to $15 per bushel.

LOCATE IN AN ALFALFA COUNTRY.

Indications are that even before the dawn of modern civiliza-
tion alfalfa was grown extensively, and made up a considerable part
of the food, not only of animals, but of mankind. To this day it
has continued to be a plant held in high esteem wherever the best
agricultural methods are in use. The earliest English colonists
brought it to this country, and therefore alfalfa is far from being
new in the United States, but it is only within recent years that its
culture in this country has been well understood.

Alfalfa, wherever it is grown successfully, has made the land
worth from $100 to $200 per acre. There are now, according to
official reports, no less than 60,000 acres grown in the state of
Wisconsin, and Marinette County is one of the most successful
alfalfa counties.

DAIRYING. Once upon a time little was thought of farming the

timber lands of Wisconsin. If rich gold mines had

been found in Upper Wisconsin there would have been a tremendous
rush to that section of the state. Today the dairy products of the
great state of Wisconsin sell for more than all the gold mined in
California, .Nevada, Colorado and Alaska. The Wisconsin farmer
who first began dairy farming opened up an industry in our state
worth more to the world than the native of South Africa who dis-
covered the great diamond fields of that part of the country. The
diamond and gold mines yield but one crop — the dairy yields an
annual crop of ever increasing value, and it is a form of farming
which makes it possible to get larger and better yields of all crops
each year.

GRASS AND DAIRYING. The cheapest feed grown on any

farm, and the feed that is producing

1h<> most beef, pork, mutton and milk, is grass. It is the natural
crop of the soil and may be established and maintained at less
expense than any other product that the land can produce. The
grass crop produces more live-stock food, and is a greater factor in
the maintenance of the live-stock industry of the entire country
than all other feeds combined.

Marinette County can truly be called the "Grassland of
America," because there is no locality where grass flourishes any
better than it does here. It is because of the marvelous pastures
which abound in this locality that Marinette County is already
known far and wide as a great livestock locality.

PIGS, PEAS, C

AND CLOVER

A GREAT HON

MAKING PROP

OSITfON IN

NETTE CO U

LANDOLOGY 49

WISCONSIN'S DAIRYING PRE-EMINENCE. In 1916 the to-

tal dairy pro-
ducts of the state of Wisconsin brought $110,242,382. Wisconsin
has one-eighth of all the cows in the United States. This state
produces half of the nation's cheese supply, and one-twelfth of all
the butter produced in the country. Wisconsin leads in the produc-
tion of creamery butter as well as in cheese. The cream industry
of Wisconsin exceeds that of any other state, and the state also has
the largest breeding centers of pure-bred dairy stock.

In 1910 the Wisconsin Dairy and Food Department credited
Marinette County with seven cheese factories, and in 1917 we had
twenty-eight, a gain of twenty-one in six years. In 1910 Marinette
County was credited by the state with two butter factories, and in
1917 we had five, a gain of three.

OUR GAIN IN DAIRYING. On tne basis of our population no

other county in the state has made

such rapid gains in dairying as Marinette County. In 1909 Mari-
nette County produced 323,248 pounds of cheese, and in 1915
827,136 pounds, or almost a million pounds per year. In 1909 the
amount received for cheese manufactured in Marinette County was
$46,000. In 1915 the amount had risen to $114,000. In 1909
Marinette County produced 85,760 pounds of butter, and in 1915
the output had risen to 497,552 pounds. The amount received for
butter in 1909 was $24,000 and in 1915 it was over $141,000.

These are the latest figures available from the state, but it is a
fact that the greatest development in dairying in Marinette County
has taken place since 1915, and it is a safe estimate to say that the
dairy output of the County has risen at least one-third since 1915.
Figuring in milk and cream sold on milk routes and shipped to
outside markets gives Marinette County an annual revenue now
from its dairy cows of more than $500,000.

HELPING SETTLERS TO START. While other states point to

the coming greatness of the

dairy industry in their domains, Wisconsin points to her past record
and her brilliant present. The advantages of dairy farming in
Marinette County are so many, and the returns are so large, and
the future of the industry so well assured and so full of promise
that young people who intend to farm cannot do better than to
take up dairy farming in our county.

Marinette County has the first successful co-operative associa-
tion which has as its purpose 'the supplying of new settlers with
good dairy cattle without any payment down being required at
the time of purchase. The plan is so arranged that settlers pay
for the cattle as the money is earned by their cows, the usual pay-
ments being from three to five dollars per month per head. This

WISCONSIN HAS MORE PtA CANNERIES THAN ALL
OTHER STATES COMBlMrrv

ANY HOG WILL MAKE A PIG OF;
HIMSELF IN MAR! NET IE COUfP!
TYPEAS

LANDOLOGY 51

plan has been in operation in Marinette County for four years, and
its success has caused many other localities to copy the plan.

A new settler coming to Marinette County can fence in part of
his land, get some dairy cattle through this credit association, or
purchase them outright and they will find their own living during
the summer with no expense to him. Whenever the sun shines
clover and other grasses grow in abundance.

On an average a good cow will make $100 per year for her
owner. Here are a few examples of good profits received by Mari-
nette County dairy farmers last year: One dairy farmer received
for his June milk, a check for $484; one received for July $475;
another received for July $300. One well known dairy farmer
received for one month's milk last year the sum of $500, and there
are a great number of farms in Marinette County where the
monthly rate is from $200 up.

BEEF CATTLE. Wisconsin is so well known for its leadership

in dairy farming, and in the number of dairy

cows to be found in the state that the great beef cattle industry of
our state is somewhat overshadowed. It is a surprise to most
people to know that while Wisconsin has about 1,750,000 dairy
cows, that it also has about 1,250,000 beef cattle. It can be seen
from this that the beef cattle industry is developing hand in hand
with the dairy industry, and other forms of live-stock farming.
Some of the greatest beef cattle show herds in America are owned
in Wisconsin.

Recently, one of the best authorities on the beef cattle business
in America was called to the Wisconsin University to talk on the
subject of producing beef in Wisconsin. He said the day had
passed when the greatest corn regions of America could show the
greatest profits in beef production. "The hope of the beef cattle
industry of the future," said this authority, "lies in the cheap
cut-over lands like those of Upper Wisconsin. I say this because
it is the place which can produce grass and rough forage at the least
expense which will in a few years show the greatest profits in beef
production. On the thousands of acres of rich grass land in Upper
Wisconsin enough beef can be produced profitably to feed a large
part of the nation."

BIG PROFITS IN HOG RAISING. America spends more money

for pork than it does for

education and religion. The first investment in hog raising is
small and the pig is the quickest money maker on the farm. He
will live and grow fat on waste products that other stock will not
eat. He is ready for the market almost any time and will bring
the top price if fat. He multiplies rapidly and if we only furnish
him with good pasturage, forage crops, pure water and a little

SURPAS
MARINE
FORTRUC

MUG1% CELERY IS RAISii:

62

LANDOLOGY 53

concentrated feed, he will do the rest. By all odds, the most
important question in hog raising is not the concentrated feed but
the question of cheap forage and good pastures.

The country where great quantities of forage can be produced
at low cost is always an ideal hog-raising locality. These are the
conditions which make Marinette County a country where hog
raising can be made to show splendid profits.

Cow peas and soy beans are more than equal to corn for
feeding and fattening hogs and you can also ripen corn in Marinette
County practically every year. Cow peas and soy beans are grown
in Marinette County with remarkable success, and together with
the corn which is raised here, they make up a very plentiful supply
of the concentrates needed in finishing hogs.

But greater than all other reasons for choosing Marinette
County for hog raising, is the fact that we have no cholera, which
makes this one of the best locations in America for the production
of pork.

WISCONSIN AS A HOG STATE. It will be a surprise to many

people to know that Wis-
consin has an annual output of 325,000,000 pounds of dressed pork
and that $35,000,000 worth of hogs are sold every year. When you
get to looking up the subject, you find that in most parts of Wiscon-
sin cows and hogs are big sources of income. Meat is one of the
state's most valuable products with a yearly production of 4600
car loads. There are 2,500,000 swine in Wisconsin, which means
fourteen on the average for each farm. Enough pork is produced
each year to feed all the people of the state for twenty-six months.

PEAS FOR CANNING. Recent figures show that Wisconsin

produces more canned peas than all

other states combined. There is a reason for this : It is recognized
that in producing peas for canning, there must be a combination of
climate, soil, etc., especially suitable for the business. Throughout
America in the pea canning industry, it is a recognized fact that
Wisconsin has this combination, and that nowhere can such good
peas for canning purposes be produced — and they can be produced
at as low or lower cost here than elsewhere. This is only one of the
many special cash crops which the Marinette County farmer can
grow, and on which he can realize very high returns for the acreage
and labor involved.

Marinette County farmers can produce twenty bushels and
u p ward of peas per acre which sell on the market at from $2.50 to
$4 and upward per bushel. More new pea canneries are being
started in Wisconsin than in all other states combined. At the
present time, there is probably no other location more desirable

ROST;
BOXWOO
AND 01
WILL
ENTfF
LAND

54

LANDOLOGY 55

for the production of canning peas than Marinette County. The
land is new and it is well known that peas do exceptionally well
on new lands, and our climate is also especially well adapted for
this business.

MARKET FOR CANNING PRODUCTS. N° matter how favor-

able any locality may

be for raising high-priced canned products, there is no money in
the industry unless you have a suitable market.

We have here one of the largest canning and preserving plants
in America which gives the farmer a market right at his door. You
will always find that the canning industry grows and finds its
greatest developments where the climatic and soil conditions are
suitable, and where factories exist so that the products for canning
can be readily sold at good prices.

Because we have both of these conditions here, Marinette
County offers a special opportunity in the canning of peas, corn,
all kinds of garden products, small fruits, etc.

Among the products canned by the local factory are tomatoes,
corn, peas, pork and beans, sauerkraut, beets, wax beans, string
beans, pumpkins, squash, apples, strawberries, blueberries, rasp-
berries and plums. This canning company also puts up cider, cider
vinegar, mincemeat, catsup, sauces, chili sauce, preserves, and maple
syrup. In addition to the large canning factory which pays high
prices for all of these special crops, Marinette County has many
pickling and salting stations, paying high prices for cucumbers for
pickling, cauliflower, etc.

FRUITS.

Hand in hand with the canning industry goes the
fruit raising industry.
The Marinette County fruit lands can be bought, planted, and
brought to bearing at less than the first cost of the irrigated lands
of the West, and the Marinette County lands will bring a higher
percentage of profit. The trouble has been that our farmers,
because they can get such great quantities of wild fruit here, have
never taken the culture of fruit seriously, and have never looked
after their orchards with that intelligence which they have brought
to bear in other departments of agriculture.

FRUIT GROWS WILD HERE. A splendid source of income to

— — new settlers in Marinette County

is the wild fruit. Each year thousands of quarts of raspberries,
blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, gooseberries, cranberries,
plums and currants are picked by the settlers for their own use and
for sale.

These fruits which are found wild throughout Marinette
County bring high prices in the town markets, and are the means
of a very helpful cash income to a great many of our settlers.

THE FIRST YEAR,

These scenes give you an idea of how many of our set-
tlers start. You can be very comfortable in a log house.

LOG HOUSES ARE
CHEAP AND COMFORTABLE

, BOXWOOD AND FUEL
HELPPAY COST OF CLEARING LAND.

In three years most of our settlers have splendid modern
farms with fine buildings and other good improvements.

58 LANDOLOGY

Some variety of wild berries can be picked on the unimproved
lands of Marinette County at any time between the strawberry
season in the spring and the first frost in the fall. In many cases
families have made very large sums of money during the summer
picking wild berries for the market.

Marinette County orchardists can grow fruit and put it on
the market in most cases for less than the far westerner has to pay
for freight alone.

TAME BERRIES A BIG BUSINESS. Our location on the shore

- of Lake Michigan is grad-
ually making this a great country for raising strawberries, rasp-
berries, blackberries, cherries and other small fruits.

SHEEP, A GREAT OPPORTUNITY. For many years farmers

^~~"""~~" — ^^^^— — — ^^— -— ^^— — on comparatively small
tracts of land could not compete in sheep raising with the western
ranchers who were able to have the benefit of the open range. The
day of the open range has passed .however, and today sheep can
be raised profitably on practically any farm. The Wisconsin farmer
no longer needs to fear the competition of the western sheepman,
because he can raise sheep with greater profit than the ranchers
of the "West, due to the difference in freight rates in his favor in
shipping to the great sheep markets of the country.

Wisconsin is the greatest pure-bred sheep state in the Union.
There are some other states which have more sheep, but it is in
Wisconsin that the business has seen its greatest development in
the formation of pure-bred herds.

Sheep provide two pay days a year, one when the wool is sold,
and one when the mutton is turned into meat. America needs
nearly 750,000,000 pounds of wool annually for domestic consump-
tion. Nearly two-thirds of this supply must be bought abroad
despite the fact that we have the soil, climate, and all other neces-
sary conditions to raise enough sheep to supply our country with
all its wool and mutton, and also to export great quantities. The
United States today has only fifty million sheep, whereas we should
have one hundred and fifty million.

In the past ten years prices for mutton and wool have advanced
tremendously and now there are such remarkable profits possible
in this industry that the number of sheep kept on farms in the
United States will increase very rapidly.

DO NOT DELAY. In 1917 a convention was held at Chicago to

- consider the adaptability of the cut-over lands
of the Great Lakes region for profitable sheep production. Facts
were brought out at that meeting showing no other locality in the

LANDOLOGY 59

United States offers such splendid opportunities in sheep farming
at the present time as localities like Upper Wisconsin. The most
experienced sheep men of the far West are turning to Upper Wis-
consin, and sheep men of other localities are rapidly taking up
large acreages of Upper Wisconsin land for sheep farming purposes.
No place in the cut-over land region is better adapted to success
with sheep than Marinette County, because in no locality will such
a wealth of grass be found on the cheap, unimproved land. There
is such a demand at this time for sheep land in Marinette County
that parties interested in getting land for that purpose ought not
to delay visiting us and making a selection before many of the best
tracts have been sold.

AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT. A Wisconsin state bulletin has

the following to say in regard

to raising sheep on the lands of Upper Wisconsin: "Conditions for
growing healthy, vigorous sheep are very favorable in this section.
There are thousands of acres of stump land in the northern and
other counties that have become self-seeded to clover and timothy
which afford the best grazing for sheep. In many locations not
only can sheep be raised and fattened with profit on such land, but
the sheep help to clear the land of small brush and other vegetation,
thus clearing the way for more intensive agriculture."

It takes less feed, and feed of less cost to produce a pound of
mutton than any other meat produced on the farm. Sheep fit in
well with other classes of livestock, especially with dairy cows.
This industry also calls for only a small amount of capital for
breeding stock and buildings, Sheep raising can be started on a
small scale and the flecks be cared for by boys. A limited amount
of labor is required as compared to other forms of livestock farm-
ing. Experienced sheep men state absolutely no grain is needed
for finishing sheep in Marinette County.

An Upper Eastern Wisconsin farmer tells of his experience in
raising sheep, and states the lambs he marketed were sent to market
directly from pasture without any grain being fed for finishing.
This farmer says, "I sold them directly, taking them out of a clover
pasture, and they brought me the top price over all lamb sales made
in the market for that day. These lambs made an average of 70
pounds each."

FREIGHT RATES. The remarkable advantage which Marinette

County has over many other sections in this

country where sheep raising is engaged in extensively, in the matter
of freight rates, can readily be understood.

The difference in freight rates to the Chicago market in favor
of Marinette County points as against points in western sheep states
like Montana practically amounts to a subsidy in favor of farmers

60

LANDOLOGY 61

who raise sheep in Marinette County. It is also true that the
shrinkage in weight is much less in shipping sheep to market from
Upper Wisconsin than from far western points.

SHEEP BIG HELP IN CLEARING LAND. Wherever sheep are
pastured in Mari-
nette County on unimproved land blue grass, timothy and clover
spring up rapidly.

It is said that twenty-five sheep are the equal of one man in
clearing land, and that they do a more thorough job, so that one-
hundred sheep can be made to do the work of four hired men in
clearing every season.

One acre of pasture land will feed three to five sheep during
the summer, and if the hay is allowed to mature this same acre will
produce two and one-half to four tons of hay which will take care
of eight to twelve sheep during the winter.

Positively one of the greatest opportunities in Marinette
County today is the production of mutton and wool on the low
priced new farm lands to be had here.

CORN, Marinette is on the forty-fifth parallel. There was a
time when the county was considered by the uninformed
as too far north for the profitable production of corn. This may
be true of land farther west in the state in this same latitude, and
in Minnesota and South Dakota, but here in Marinette County on
Lake Michigan, with an elevation of only 560 feet, and 140 to 150
days of growing weather as compared with 100 days farther west
in Wisconsin corn is annually producing from 40 to 75 bushels per
acre. The day temperature in Marinette County is about the same
as northern Illinois, although of course the night temperature is
somewhat cooler. This accounts for the heavy weight of grains
produced in this climate, but retards the ripening of unacclimated
corn.

Our state university in the last ten years has developed varieties
which entirely overcome this difficulty, and we produce about the
same quality of corn as Southern Wisconsin or Northern Illinois.
Any good corn farmer can grow all the corn he wants in Marinette
County, Wis.

At the 1916 state grain show held at Madison which was open
to the competition of the entire state, a Marinette County farmer
took first on Wisconsin No. 25 corn. In 1917 Marinette County
farmers took first, second and third places in the same show on
Wisconsin No. 25 corn, and took second place on Wisconsin No. 7
corn.

Corn raised for silage in Marinette County gives a weight per
acre of 11 to 13 tons per acre. One farmer states that he filled two
silos from fifteen acres. The silos were 12 by 37 and 12 by 32. In
many localities it takes 10 to 12 acres of corn to fill one silo.

CORNISONEOFTHEGR
STAPLE CROPS OF MAR]
ETTE COUNTY EVERY

ilil.

62

L AND 0 LOGY 63

For years Wisconsin has produced more than twenty-five
million bushels of corn annually, and each year leads all states of
the Union with the highest average yield, usually attaining an
average yield of forty bushels to the acre or more. Against this
Illinois produces only about 27 bushels per acre on the average,
Iowa 34, and Nebraska 15. These are of course, average yields and
not the highest yields, and these figures demonstrate conclusively
that Wisconsin is a real corn state.

Without commercial fertilizers, Wisconsin boys have in a
number of instances produced yields of one hundred bushels of corn
per acre. A yield of 133 bushels of corn per acre is reported in
one instance in Northeastern Wisconsin.

PURE-BRED SEED CORN INDUSTRY In recent years pure-

bred northern grown

seed corn from Marinette County has been sold at top notch prices
in practically all corn growing states of the middle west and east.

POTATOES A GREAT CASH CROP. Potatoes constitute one-

fourth of all the food con-
sumed in this country. There is probably no single article of food
which, if the supply were cut off, would cause more suffering than
if the potato crop of the world happened to be a complete failure
for one season.

The winter of 1916-17, when the retail price of potatoes went as
high as $4 per bushel will long be remembered. During that winter
the farmers of Marinette County, Wisconsin, who held their
potatoes in storage sold at wholesale prices of as high as $3.50 per
bushel.

It is of course, not to be expected that the price of potatoes
will be so high very often, but on the other hand there is very little
likelihood of potatoes ever again selling as low as twenty-five cents
per bushel from the farmers' fields.

Wisconsin is one of the greatest states in the Union in the
production of potatoes entering interstate commerce; Marinette
County is one of the greatest potato producing counties in Wiscon-
sin. The total of the crop in Marinette County annually at the
present time is estimated at $875,000, a gain of one hundred per
cent in the past three years. So remarkable have been the profits
made in growing potatoes by some farmers who have located here
on new lands that the figures appear almost unbelievable.

THE GREAT NEW POTATO MOVEMENT. Wisconsin has

lead the world in

producing pure-bred potatoes, both for seed and table use. Not
only does the state produce tremendous yields with no commercial
fertilizers, but because of the production of pure-bred potato stock,
a premium is paid for quality on practically all potatoes from the
Badger State.

POTATO
WAREHOUSE

ETTECCXS
POTATO CROP
NOW AMOUNTS

TO OVER
1675,000 AN-
NUALLY,

NEW LAND I65BU.PERACRE
3EED POTATOES

64

LANDOLOGY 65

The great Wisconsin State Potato Show held at Marinette
recently was recognized as the largest show of its kind ever held
up to that time in this country. Buyers were present from all parts
of the country and paid prices considerably above market quota-
tions for potatoes raised in Upper Eastern Wisconsin. Marinette
County has an active County Potato Growers' Association which is
a branch of the state association. This county association is a
co-operative body which not only is of great value in bettering the
potato stock raised in the county, but is of great service to its
members in getting the highest market price for their potatoes.
The average production is considerably more than 125 bushels per
acre, and where skill in selection of seed, cultivation and care of the
crop is exercised, yields in excess of 200 and 300 bushels are very
common. The cost of production depends upon the yield and labor
saving devices used, but in ordinary cases is not more than the cost
of producing an acre of corn in Illinois or Iowa. The modern
potato grower in Marinette County handles his potato crop with
horses and machinery just the same as corn is produced in this and
other parts of the country.

The most important fact in connection with this great crop is
that it does especially well on new lands. To the man developing
hew land the potato is second in importance only to the dairy. In
Marinette County the great bulk of the potato crop is grown by new
settlers on new lands developed within the past few years. Mari-
nette County's potato crop is practically as large as is grown in
the entire state of Florida.

Potatoes can be planted here among the stumps, if desired, and
will produce enough in one season to pay for the clearing of the
land, and in many cases also the cost of the land.

A man can buy eighty acres of good land at $2,000, clear and
plant twenty acres to potatoes and make enough on the crop in most
seasons to pay for the eighty acres the first year.

There are from one to three commercial potato warehouses in
every farming town in the county, where the crop is purchased from
the farmer at market prices, and in many cases at higher sums
because of the quality of potatoes grown here.

MODERN METHODS MAKE BIG MONEY. A man by the old

fashioned method

of using the hoe in raising potatoes, while his horses enjoy the
pasture, could raise about five acres of potatoes a season, which
are ordinarily worth about $700. A man with about $200 worth
of machinery, a team, and possibly a little extra help at times can
raise forty acres of potatoes worth about $4,000. A man with about
$4,000 worth of machinery and some extra help at times can raise
400 acres of potatoes, which, with a fair crop and a fair price would
be worth about $40,000.

LANDOLOGY 67

A POTATO SEED CENTER. Marinette County has become

oiie of the greatest potato seed

producing centers in the great potato state of Wisconsin, and our
settlers are realizing the profits which they deserve for their work
in the development of this great industry.

CABBAGE. IQ the winter of 1916-17 cabbage was worth almost

its weight in gold. There was a time when a price of

$11 per ton for cabbage would create a sensation in any produce
market. In the winter of 1917 however, the price of single heads of
cabbage went as high as fifteen cents, and the price per ton was
over $100.

The average yield of cabbage in the United States is 4.9 tons
per acre. Wisconsin leads all states in the production of cabbage
with an average yield of nine tons per acre.

Cabbage is rapidly becoming a great crop with Marinette
County farmers. Buyers are here every fall to take all the cabbage
raised at a good price, and you can get yields here of
just as good quality and running just as heavy per acre on the
lands being sold at $25 per acre as you can on the lands priced at
$200 per acre in southern Wisconsin.

PICKLES. Marinette County is a great pickle growing section,

and this industry is growing greater every year.

Pickles grown here are free of disease. The Chicago companies
engaged in this business constantly seek to encourage the growing
of more cucumbers in Marinette County, because it is here that they
get a cucumber which is crisp and firm, and best suited for the
business. The cucumber grows quickly, and no other crop from
so small an outlay will produce such quick returns. You spend
very little money for seed or work until you commence to pick up
the money, and you are picking up money every day you are
picking pickles. It is a crop that gives work to everybody. The
children will earn $5 a day if you have a good crop of pickles for
them to work in, and the work is easy and healthful.

A good crop of pickles will return from $100 to $175 per acre.
Many of our new settlers in recent seasons got from $100 to $150
per acre for their pickles. Marinette County has eight commer-
cial buying and pickling stations and several new stations are being
built in the county at the present time.

SUGAR BEETS. Marinette County is already widely known as

a center for the growth of sugar beets. It

pays to grow this crop on our lands. We have the third largest
sugar beet factory in the United States as a market for beets grown
here. The price paid for sugar beets is constantly increasing. In
1917 the price was $8.00 per ton as a minimum, with a dollar more

MARINETTE CQI
SUGAR BEETS
THE*1,000,00
FACTORY TH
BUYS THEM.

68

LANDOLOGY 69

per ton for every cent per pound wholesale over eight cents. A
fair yield of sugar beets per acre is twelve tons, which means about
$75 to $100 per acre gross.

There used to be an old fashioned notion among farmers that
growing sugar beets exhausted the fertility of the soil. This notion
has been disproved by the Federal Agricultural Department and
other authorities.

Today it is a well known fact that in localities where large
quantities of sugar beets are grown the farmers are more prosperous
than in other localities, and their soil is in better condition for
cultivation and yields larger returns of all other crops.

Sugar beets are a crop which in Marinette County have never
been known to be a failure.

The manager of the local sugar beet factory states that the
soils of this locality are especially adapted for the culture of sugar
beets, and that the percentage of sugar in the beets raised here is
higher than in those raised in any other locality.

In the growrth of sugar beets Wisconsin makes the best showing
of all the non-irrigated states, and when allowance is made for the
cost of irrigation, the best showing of all.

The last report of the Menominee River Sugar Company shows
that the sum of $485,000 — nearly a half million — was paid out to
farmers for beets in one year. A total of twenty-three carloads was
received by the factory from the town of Loomis, in Marinette
County. This town is settled almost entirely with people who have
bought land from the Skidmore Land Co., in recent years. Five
years ago not one carload of beets was shipped from this town of
Loomis. This is only one indication of the great development of
the beet growing industry in Marinette County. It is a cash crop
here, second in importance only to the potato growing industry.
You can make big money every year growing sugar beets in
Marinette County.

WHEAT. Wisconsin now ranks third in the United States in the

production of wheat. The soil and climate of Mari-
nette County are well adapted to the profitable raising of wheat of
a superior quality, and with present high prices the acreage is being
increased every year.

OATS. Oats are one of the great grain crops of Marinette

County. They are a never failing crop in this locality,

and instances are common in which Marinette County lands have
yielded from 100 to 120 bushels per acre of this grain. The cool
nights keep the grain headed out nearly twice as long before ripen-
ing as in warmer countries. The result is a much heavier yield,
often from two to ten pounds per bushel heavier than oats raised
elsewhere. Yields of from 50 to 80 bushels per acre are common.

•COUNTY '•HAS A

ism/.

! :OOL

§ MILK TESTING

70

LANDOLOGY 71

Among the sixteen states growing ten million bushels or more
of oats during the past ten year period without irrigation, Wiscon-
sin stands first.
POULTRY. There is a saying, "Take care of the hens and the

hens will take care of you." This is particularly

true in Marinette County, and all that is required to he successful
with poultry in this County is to take advantage of natural condi-
tions and follow good business methods. Because of her markets,
Marinette County offers great opportunities to the poultry raiser,
and the price paid for eggs and poultry in the cities and towns in
this locality is at all times practically equal to what they pay in
cities like Chicago and Milwaukee.

OUR SCHOOL OP AGRICULTURE. One of the institutions of

great importance in the

development of the farming lands of Marinette County is the county
school of agriculture. With this agricultural school is combined a
training school for teachers. The school not only offers the farmer
and the farmers' sons and daughters the opportunity of studying
such practical farm subjects as the more profitable types of farm
animals, farm machinery, animal breeding, blacksmithing, fruits
for Marinette County, concrete on the farm, farm engineering,
corn judging, production of milk, milk testing, alfalfa culture, etc.,
but each year short courses are held for farmers and farmers ' sons
at places where it is most convenient for them to attend.

In addition to its work in agriculture, this school also gives
instruction in all common branches, and has a special domestic
science department for farmers' wives and daughters.

It is not alone in its courses of instruction at the school that
this institution has been of great value to Marinette County farmers.
The corps of instructors throughout the year hold meetings at
rural schools and other advantageous places, and by this means
have helped the new settlers to get started in the right forms of
farming and by the right methods.

The school loans forms for building silos and has been directly
responsible for the construction of no less than two hundred silos
in Marinette County. In addition to loaning these silo forms
without charge to the settlers, the school will send one of its
instructors, or a capable student to assist the farmer in building a
silo.

In addition to this County Agricultural School, Marinette
County also has a state agricultural experiment farm. The County
Agricultural School together with the state experiment farm in our
county, and the State Agricultural School at Madison, are doing
wonders for the farmers of Marinette County. The State Agricul-
tural School at Madison is recognized as the greatest agricultural
school in America, and its field men and experts in all departments
visit Marinette County many times every year and are always ready

RYE AND BARLEY YIELD
HEAVILY ON NEW LANDS

$JE AR

NEAR ATHELSTANE

72

LANDOLOGY _ 73

and willing to extend assistance in any way possible to the new
settlers of our county.

RURAL SCHOOLS SECOND TO NONE. If it is true that roads

- • - are a key to progress
in any given locality, it is probably more true that country schools
are a key to the degree of civilization in any given locality. No
matter where you go in America you will not find better country
schools on the average than you will in Marinette County — not even
in such older settled states as Illinois, Iowa and Ohio. Marinette
County rural schools do much special work in the teaching and
promotion of agriculture. Every school in the county does special
work in agriculture as it relates to the development of Marinette
County. In some of the schools classes in stock judging are taken
once or twice a week to farms in the neighborhood where they are
taught stock judging. Fifteen of the rural schools of the county
possess their own Babcock milk testers, and test milk for the
farmers in the district free of charge. In many other schools corn
seed is tested for the farmers free of charge.

Wisconsin's policy in regard to both the construction of rural
schools and the training which takes place in the rural schools has
always been recognized as far in the lead of most other states in the
Union. This policy is carried into effect by withholding" state aid
from any school which will not keep up with the march of progress.

There are five rural high schools in Marinette County in addi-
tion to the city high schools.

SILOS. Wisconsin has 60,000 silos, which is several times more

- than the number to be found in any other state in the
Union. The silo has been the "watchtower of prosperity," in
Wisconsin and there is no question but what it accounts in a large
measure for the remarkable success of farming in our state. No
county is more progressive in building silos than Marinette, and
each year the number built is larger. In older settled parts of our
county many farms already have two silos, and there are large
districts where at least one silo is found on every farm. It is
estimated that Marinette County now has well over 500 silos and
150 or more are being put up each year.

HOW OUR SETTLERS BEGIN. The farmer who comes here
- — with considerable means has
the advantage of course; he can get started more quickly; he can
hire part of his land cleared. To such men the start is not difficult,
but the man with a little money and plenty of pluck can get along
very well. He can build his first home of logs taken from his land
at a cost of from $5 to $50, and it will be a comfortable home. Fuel
and fence posts can be had on his land for the labor of cutting them.
One can raise plenty of food right from the start for the livestock

74

LANDOLOGY 75

he may have. Pasturage is good from April 10 until November 15,
and in many years far into the month of December.

The man who wants to earn money can find plenty of opportun-
ities — more chances than there are men to fill them. He can work
at lumbering in the winter, or in the factories of the towns. The
opportunities are many and the wages are good. In summer, help
is employed on a great number of the older farms, and many of the
new settlers with plenty of means engage help in clearing their
lands.

THE NIMROD'S PARADISE. If y°u are a lover ?f the rod and

- — - gun, come to Marinette County.
Its streams abound with trout, pickerel, bass, pike and muskellunge.
The streams are spring-fed, clear and cool, and on an idle day you
cannot select a more inviting pastime than to take your rod or
gun and hike to the nearest stream or stretch of woods.

Marinette County is one of the greatest deer hunting localities
in the state of Wisconsin, and every year hundreds of sportsmen
from Chicago and other localities come here for the deer hunting.

Due to a wise policy of game protection the deer are on the
increase in Marinette County despite the large number bagged
every year during the deer season. Practically every settler gets
his deer in Marinette County every fall.

Other animals, such as bear, fox, coon, rabbit and muskrat, are
also quite numerous, and a good income can be made during the
winter season in trapping these animals.

Ducks are also plentiful during the migrating season in the
fall. On the numerous smaller lakes in the county, and on Green
Bay thousands of ducks and geese spend from one to four weeks
before they fly south for the winter.

Only a short trip from Marinette by either train or wagon will
place you on some of the finest duck-hunting grounds in America.

WATER POWER. The days of coal and steam are passing so

- far as power for industrial purposes is con-
cerned. The industrial power of the future is electrical power
generated from water power. That is why Marinette County is
destined to become a great manufacturing center. The water
power of Marinette County is practically unlimited. There are two
tremendous water power developments in this locality already, and
several smaller ones, but there are many other very good water
powers still to be developed.

One great Marinette County water power is at this time
furnishing power not only for factories in our own county, but for
the city street car and interurban systems of large cities immediate-
ly south of us such as Green Bay, Kaukauna, and Manitowoc.

Some idea of the possibilities of great increase in our popula-
tion can be gained from the fact that probably as many people will

ARtNETTE COUNTY
HAS MODERN RURAL
SCHOOLS EQUAL TO
THOSE OFAMY OTHER
LED LOCALITY -

CONSOLIDATED
SCHOOLS

76

LANDOLOGY 77

be drawn to Marinette County to make their homes as the result
of our water power development as will come because of our great
agricultural opportunities.

SUCCESS THROUGH CO-OPERATION. We see a great deal in

the farm papers at the

present time in regard to co-operation. Unfortunately in older
settled farming communities it is difficult to bring about any real
co-operation. In newer farming localities like Marinette County
however, the new settlers are naturally drawn together, and the
result is very effective co-operation in farming work, social endeav-
ors, etc.

In many parts of our county the Grange organizations have
very large memberships, and are very active in agricultural affairs.
The annual state Grange meeting was held here recently, and the
delegates were so well pleased with Marinette County that they
voted to meet here again.

All farmers ' organizations flourish in Marinette County because
we have a very progressive class of farmers. If you are progressive
and believe in co-operation among farmers you ought to make your
home in Marinette County.

CREDIT TO FARMERS. Everyone knows that interest rates

even in some of the older settled parts

of Missouri and Kansas are often as high as eleven and twelve per
cent. It is usually true that in newly settled localities the interest
rate is higher than in the older settled farming localities.
Fortunately this is not true of Marinette County The normal rate
of interest on loans to farmers here is six per cent. This is due to
a large extent, to the fact that Marinette County has a State Land
Mortgage Association. This association makes a business of loan-
ing funds to farmers for the improvement of their farms. This
association was formed under Wisconsin's Farm Credit Law, which
was in effect long before the Federal Government took action on
this important matter.

Credit to farmers in the purchase of dairy cows, pedigree grain,
grass and potato seed is very liberal, and has been told of in detail
in preceding chapters of this book.

LISTEN. You can always buy land cheaper of a large land com-
pany than you can of an individual. Land companies
buy in large tracts at low prices, and when you buy land of an
individual you pay two profits, the land company's profit, for they
originally sold the land, and the individual's profit, but you can
buy better land at a lower price of us than you can buy of any
other land company, for the reason that our lands have been held
by us for a number of years and were not purchased in recent years
at present land prices. We bought them right and are giving you
the benefit of our foresight and experience by selling them right.

NOLOCALl
SURPASSES HARH
NETTE COUNTY
INYIELD PER ACRE
OFSHALLGRAINSs

78

LANDOLOGY 79

We are this year offering lands never before placed on the
market. On any new proposition did you ever notice that men
were a great deal like a flock of sheep ? They will chase each other
round in circles and huddle together, but just as soon as one jumps
over the fence the balance follow. Don't be the last o'ne over the
fence in buying these lands.

COME AND SEE. We want you to come and see Marinette
- - County, Wisconsin. If you wish to make a
change and want the best opportunity you will be one of them.
There are chances to make money in other localities, but the chances
here are double those of any other locality we know of.

We hereby extend a special invitation to you to visit Marinette
County, Wisconsin, that we may have the pleasure of taking you
over our county and showing you the many beautiful homes you
find illustrated in this book; we want you to talk with the owners
of these homes, and let them tell you just how they acquired them,
just what they are doing, and just what any ordinary man can do
under ordinary circumstances.

CONFIDENCE. We are confident that you are actually interested

- in knowing the truth in regard to Marinette
County, Wisconsin, and we trust that you will reciprocate by having
enough confidence in us so that you will take no one else's word
for any statement you find in this volume, but that you will investi-
gate the conditions personally.

RELIABILITY. The Skidmore Land Co. is one of the oldest and

- most reliable land companies in the business to-
day having been in the general colonization business for 18 years,
and having been one of the great forces for making Marinette Coun-
ty, Wisconsin, what it is today, and they are proud of the hundreds
of farmers they have helped to own their homes. You can talk to
these farmers and learn what they think of the company. We also
refer you by permission to the Stephenson National Bank, the
Farmers' Savings & Trust Co., the First National Bank, and the
Farmers' & Merchants' Bank, all of Marinette, Wis.

Your decision is of vast importance to you. Don't make a
change until you see Marinette County and see what it offers you.
We know that a man who is willing to work can make more money
in ten years on a farm of his own in this section than on any other
farm land or in any other employment.

The opportunities for industrial development and the possibili-
ties of agriculture for Marinette County, Wisconsin, challenge the
imagination.

TITLE TO OUR LANDS ABSOLUTELY GOOD. Before we put

- our money into

our lands we had the abstracts to all lands examined and passed on

80 LANDOLOGY

by the most competent attorneys in this state, who pronounced the
titles absolutely good, and we give warranty deeds and guarantee
the title to all our lands.

PRICES AND TERMS OF SALE. Prices from $10 to $35 per

acre. One-third cash, the

balance in three or five equal annual payments drawing 6 per cent
interest ; but the purchaser has the privilege of paying the deferred
payments (or any part of them) before they are due, so as to save
interest.

RAILROAD FARE REFUNDED TO PURCHASERS.

Write us when you can make the trip to Marinette County and
we will arrange your trip with as little expense to you as possible.
We will write you fully as to best route to take, time to leave, etc.,
and when you buy land we credit your railroad fare.

We have offices at Marinette, Wis., and Wausaukee, Wis., both
Marinette County towns. You can, if coming by way of Chicago,
take either the C., M. & St. P. R. R. or the C. & N. W. R. R. The
railroad fare from Chicago to Marinette is $6.29. In most cases it
is better to go directly to our office at Wausaukee, taking the C., M.
& St. P. R. R. from Chicago, the fare being $6.26. By going directly
to Wausaukee you can save time, because our Wausaukee office is
nearer to the lands open to settlement.

We have tried to answer honestly every question that might
occur to the prospective land buyer, but it will be a pleasure to us
to write you should you want any additional information. We
have enough confidence in you to be glad to make this effort to give
you the truth in regard to the land situation, and we trust that you
will return the favor by honestly investigating our properties
personally. Your opportunity is today, and it may never come
again. Read every word in this book now, and let us prove it to
you by showing you the land tomorrow.

THIS IS ALLTHELAND
THERE IS ON THIS OLD EARTH
AND THERE /S NO MORE I
BEING MANUFACTURED

SKIDMORE LAND CO.

GOOD FARM LANDS MARINETTE, WIS.

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