receives several rivers of considerable length, the most important of which are the Chippewa and the Black. The Wisconsin river rises on the Upper Michigan border and flows S. and W. for 600 m., joining the Mississippi near Prairie du Chien. It is navigable as far as Portage, some 200 m. from its mouth. The Fox river (more than 260 m. long) rises in the south central portion of the state, flows N. and E. by a circuitous route through Lake Winnebago, and thence N. into Green Bay, and is the longest and most important stream draining into Lake Michigan. The Wolf river is its most important tributary, joining it from the N., in its upper course. Besides the Fox several smaller streams drain into the Lake Michigan basin. Among these are the Menominee and Oconto, which flow into Green Bay, an arm of Lake Michigan, and the Sheboygan and Milwaukee rivers emptying directly into the lake. The southern portion of the state is drained by several streams flowing across the Illinois boundary and finding their way eventually through other rivers into the Mississippi. The largest of these are the Rock, Des Plaines, Fox (of the Illinois), or Pishtaka, and the Pecatonica rivers. On account of glacial disturbance of the drainage, Wisconsin's many streams provide water-powers of great value that have contributed much to the industrial prosperity of the state. The most valuable of these are the Fox, the Rock and the upper Wisconsin and its tributaries. Wisconsin has more than 2500 lakes, mostly in the glaciated N. and E. parts of the state. Of these the largest is Lake Winnebago, between Calumet, Outagamie, Fond du Lac and Winnebago counties, with an extreme length of 30 m. and a breadth of 10 m., and one of the largest bodies of water lying wholly within any state in the Union. On its banks are the important manufacturing cities of Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, Neenah and Menasha, and through it flows the Fox river. In the S. and E. portions of the state the lakes are beautiful clear bodies of water with sandy or gravelled shores, and, as a rule, high banks heavily wooded. Many of them are famous as summer resorts, notably Lake Geneva, Green Lake, the lakes in Waukesha county and the famous “four lakes” near Madison.
Flora and Fauna.—Wisconsin was originally the native home of most of the wild fowl and animals found in the other North Central states. Deer were found in large numbers in all sections of the state, bear were common in the central and northern parts, bison were found in the south-west, wolves, lynx (“wild cats”), and foxes and other smaller animals particularly of fur-bearing varieties. The streams abounded in fish. The abundance of game made the region between the lakes and the Mississippi a favourite hunting ground of the Indians, and later a productive field for the trapper and fur trader. Bear, deer and lynx are still to be found in the less settled forest regions of the N. parts, and the fisheries are still important.
The avi-faunal life of Wisconsin is exceedingly varied; C. B. Cory (see Bibliography) enumerates 398 species for Wisconsin and Illinois, and of these probably not less than 350 occur in Wisconsin. The more characteristic and useful birds include many species of the sparrow, such as the song, swamp, Lincoln's chipping and field sparrow; the bank, barn, cliff, white-bellied and rough-winged swallow, as well as the purple martin and the chimney swift; ten or more species of fly-catchers, including the least, arcadian, phoebe, wood pewee, olive-sided and king bird; about ten species of woodpeckers, of which the more common are the downy, hairy, yellow-bellied and golden-winged (flicker); about thirty species of warblers, including the parula, cerulean, Blackburnian, prothonotary, yellow Nashville, red-start, worm-eating and chestnut-sided; and four or five species of vireos. The song-birds are well represented in the hermit thrush, wood thrush, Wilson's thrush (or veery), brown thrasher, robin, blue bird, bobolink, meadow lark, gold finch, &c. Among the game birds are the ruffed grouse (partridge), quail, prairie hen and wild turkey. The birds of prey include the red-shouldered, red-tailed, broad-winged, Cooper's, sharp-shinned and sparrow hawk and the bald eagle; the great horned, barred, barn, snowy, short-eared and screech owls. The ducks include the mallard, black duck, canvas-back and red-head; the Canadian goose, the snowy goose and the blue goose also appear during the migrating seasons.
Originally the greater portion of what is now Wisconsin was covered with forests, although in the S. and W. there were considerable tracts of rolling prairie lands. In the S. portion the predominating trees were hickory, elm, oak and poplar. Along the shore of Lake Michigan, and extending inland a quarter of the distance across the state and northward through the Fox River Valley, there was a heavy belt of oak, maple, birch, ash, hickory, elm and some pine. From the N. shores of Green Bay there stretched away to the N. and W. an enormous and unbroken forest of pines, hemlocks and spruce.
Climate.—The climate of the whole state is influenced by the storms which move eastward along the Canadian border and by those which move northward up the Mississippi Valley, and that of the eastern and northern sections is moderated by the Great Lakes. The winters, especially in the central and north-western sections, are long and severe, and the summers in the central and south-western sections are very warm; but the air is so dry that cold and heat are less felt here than they are in some humid climates with less extreme temperatures. The mean annual temperature for the state is 44° F. July, with an average temperature for the state of 70°, is the warmest month, and February, with an average of 15°, is the coldest. Within a period of thirty-eight years, from 1870 to 1908, extremes at Milwaukee ranged from 100° to -25°, while at La Crosse, on the western border and less than 60 m. farther north, they ranged during the same period from 104° to -43°. The greatest extremes recorded at regular observing stations range from 111° at Brodhead, in Green county and near the southern border, on the 21st of July 1901 to -48° at Barron, in Barron county in the north-western part of the state, on the 10th of February 1889. The average annual precipitation for the state is 31.5 in. Two-thirds of this comes in the six growing months from April to September inclusive, and the rainfall is well distributed over all sections. There is an annual snowfall of 53 in. in the northern section, 40 in. in the southern section and 36 in. in the central section, which is quite evenly distributed through the months of December, January, February and March. In the northern section the heavy snowfall is caused by the cyclonic storms along the Canadian border, and in the southern section the snowfall is increased by the storms which ascend the Mississippi Valley. All sections of the state are subject to tornadoes. They occur more frequently in the western portion than in the eastern portion, but one of the most destructive in the history of the state occurred at Racine on the 18th of May 1883. This storm killed 25 persons, injured 100, and destroyed considerable property.
Agriculture.—Hay and grain are the most important crops. In 1909 the acreage of hay was 2,369,000 and the value of the crop $34,800,000. In the production of the hardy cereals, barley, rye and buckwheat, Wisconsin ranks high among the states of the Union; but oats and Indian corn are the largest cereal crops in the state. The crop of oats was 79,800,000 bushels (raised on 2,280,000 acres and valued at $31,122,000) in 1909; of Indian corn, 50,589,000 bushels (raised on 1,533,000 acres and valued at $30,353,000); of barley, 24,248,000 bushels (raised on 866,000 acres and valued at $13,579,000—a crop exceeded only by that of California and that of Minnesota); of wheat, 3,484,000 bushels (raised on 179,000 acres and valued at $3,345,000); of rye, 4,727,000 bushels (raised on 290,000 acres and valued at $3,214,000—a crop exceeded only by that of Pennsylvania and that of Michigan); and of buckwheat, 221,000 bushels (grown on 18,000 acres and valued at $172,000). The potato crop is large, 26,724,000 bushels being raised in 1909 on 262,000 acres, a crop exceeded only in New York, Michigan and Maine. Tobacco also is a valuable crop: in 1909 37,170,000 ℔, valued at $3,419,640, were grown on 31,500 acres. In 1909 14,000 acres of sugar beets were harvested and 34,340,000 ℔ of sugar were manufactured in the four beet sugar factories in the state. In the south-central part of the state there are valuable cranberry marshes. Orchard fruits, especially apples, are of increasing importance.
The raising of live-stock, particularly of dairy cows, is an important industry. In 1910, out of a total of 2,587,000 neat cattle, there were 1,506,000 milch cows. The total number of horses in the state was 669,000 in 1910, when they were valued at $80,949,000. There were 1,034,000 sheep, and 1,651,000 swine.
Manufactures.—The growth of manufacturing has been rapid: in 1850 the value of the manufactures was $9,293,068; in 1860, $27,849,467; in 1870, $77,214,326; in 1880, $128,255,480; in 1890, $248,546,164; and in 1900, $360,818,942. The product under the factory system, excluding hand trades and neighbourhood industries, was $326,752,878 in 1900 and $411,139,681 in 1905. The most important of the state's manufactures in 1900 and in 1905 were lumber and timber products, valued in the latter year at $44,395,766 (Wisconsin being second in rank to the state of Washington). About 60% (both in quantity and value) of the lumber sawed in 1905 was white pine; next in importance were hemlock (more than one-fourth in quantity), basswood (nearly 4%) and, in smaller quantities, birch, oak, elm, maple, ash, tamarack, Norway pine, cedar and spruce. The value of the product of planing mills was $11,210,205 in 1905; and other important manufactures based on raw materials from forests were paper and wood pulp ($17,844,174) and furniture (11,569,591). Second in value in 1905 were cheese, butter and condensed milk ($29,994,791), in the product of which Wisconsin ranked second to New York in 1900 and 1905. In 1905 Wisconsin ranked first of all the states in the value of butter, second in the value of cheese and fifth in the value of condensed milk; the dairy product of Wisconsin in this year was 17.8% (by value) of that of the entire country. Foundry and machine-shop products ranked third in value in 1905, when they were valued at $29,908,001, and when iron and steel manufactures were valued at $10,453,750.
Among the other important manufactures in 1905 were: malt liquors ($28,692,340) and malt ($8,740,103, being 113.7% more than in 1900); flour and grist-mill products ($28,352,237; about 60% was wheat flour); leather ($25,845,123); wholesale slaughtering and meat-packing ($16,060,423); agricultural implements ($10,076,760); carriages and wagons ($7,511,392); men's clothing ($6,525,276); boots and shoes ($6,513,563); steam railway cars, constructed and repaired ($6,511,731); hosiery and knit goods ($4,941,744); cigars ($4,372,139); mattresses and spring beds ($3,527,587); and electrical machinery, apparatus and supplies ($3,194,132).
In 1905, out of a total factory product of $411,139.681, $259,420,044 was the value of goods made in factories in the twenty-two municipalities of the state, with a population (1900) of at least 8000; but only 36.3% of the total number of factories were in urban districts. More than one-third of the value of factory products was that of the manufactures of Milwaukee ($138,881,545). Racine ranked second with a factory product valued at $16,458,965. The manufacture of
