H
- ■ v
/ 7
V
TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
WISCONSIN ACADEMY
OF
SCIENCES, ARTS AND LETTERS
VOL. XXX
j NATURAE SPECIES RATIOQUE
MADISON, WISCONSIN
1937
TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
WISCONSIN ACADEMY
t-
OF
SCIENCES, ART AND LETTERS
VOL. XXX
MADISON, WISCONSIN
1937
OFFICERS OF THE WISCONSIN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES,
ARTS AND LETTERS
President
Chancey Juday, University of Wisconsin
V ICE-PRESIDENTS
In Science: Paul W. Boutwell, Beloit College
In the Arts: S. C. Wadmond, Delavan
In Letters: Julia Grace Wales, University of Wisconsin
Secretary-Treasurer
R. R. Shrock, University of Wisconsin
Librarian
Gilbert H. Doane, University of Wisconsin
Curator
Charles E. Brown, State Historical Museum
Council
The President, ex officio
The Vice-Presidents, ex officio
The Secretary-Treasurer, ex officio
The Librarian, ex officio
E. A. Birge, past president
Charles S. Slichter, past president
Louis Kahlenberg, past president
Henry L. Ward, past president
M. A. Brannon, past president
L. J. Cole, past president
S. A. Barrett, past president
Charles E. Allen, past president
Rufus M. Bagg, past president
Committee on Publication
The President, ex officio
The Secretary, ex officio
H. A. Schuette, University of Wisconsin
Committee on Library
The Librarian, ex officio
A. L. Barker, Ripon college
Ira A. Edwards, Milwaukee Public Museum
W. S. Marshall, University of Wisconsin
L. E. Noland, University of Wisconsin
Committee on Membership
The Secretary, ex officio
E. F. Bean, Geological and Natural History Survey
P. W. Boutwell, Beloit College
W. E. Rogers, Lawrence College
Correspondence relating to publication in the Transactions or to other Academy business should
be directed to the Secretary, Loyal Durand, Jr., 318 Science Hall, Madison, Wisconsin. Publications
intended for the Library of the Academy should be sent directly to the Librarian, Gilbert H. Doane^
University of Wisconsin Library, Madison, Wisconsin.
73
■ /AJ 7 Od 63
CONTENTS
Page
Notes on Parasitic Fungi in Wisconsin. XX. J. J. Davis ................ 1
Preliminary Reports on the Flora of Wisconsin. XXV. Arales. (The
Lemnaceae in collaboration with Lawrence E. Hicks). (10 text
figures) . Norman C. Fassett . . . 17
Preliminary Reports on the Flora of Wisconsin. XXVI. Convolvulaeeae.
(10 text figures) . Sidney O. Fogelberg _ _ _ .......................... 21
An Acquired Partial Immunity to the Tobacco Streak Disease. (6 text
figures) . James Johnson ............................................. 27
Fossil Evidence of Two Prairie Invasions of Wisconsin. (2 text figures) .
Harry V. Truman .................................................... 35
Combined Nitrogen and the Nitrogen Fixation Process in Leguminous
Plants. P. W. Wilson and F. C. Wagner . . . 43
Conductimetric Titration of Organic Bases in Glacial Acetic Acid.
(2 text figures) . Norris F. Hall and Willard F. Spengeman .......... 51
Emergency Values of Some Winter Pheasant Foods. Paul I. Errington ... 57
The Chase Journal: An Early Record of Wisconsin Wild Life. (1 text
figure) . Aldo Leopold ............................................... 69
Teaching Wildlife Conservation in Public Schools. (1 text figure).
Aldo Leopold ........................ . . . . 77
Some Earl Bird Records of Wisconsin and Neighboring Territory to the
West and North (1896-1900) and of Indiana (1876-1877). M. E.
Pinney and J. F. MacNaughton . . . 87
The Range of the Bison in Wisconsin. (Plate I and 1 text figure).
A. W. Schorger . . . . . . . .117
Genetic History of Cattle in Wisconsin. (5 text figures). George
Walter Woolley . . .131
Geography of the Northwest Dairy Region of Wisconsin. (9 text fig¬
ures) . Warren Strain ...... . . . . . . .179
State Geological Surveys of Wisconsin. E. F. Bean . . . .203
An Unusual Pitting in Niagara Limestone. (Plate II). O. L. Kowalke ...221
Preliminary List of the Hydraearina of Wisconsin. Part V: (Plates
III VIII) . Ruth Marshall . . . .225
George Sandy’s Relation. Russell H. Barker ................ _ ........ 253
The Rise of Professionalism in Switzerland. John Paul von Grueningen ..275
Amleth’s Shield: A Comment on the Pictorial Elements of the Hamlet
Story. Julia Grace Wales _ _ .......................... _ ...... .303
A Suggestion for a History of Shakespearian Criticism by Plays. Julia
Grace Wales ............................ . . . . . . .313
Spenser as an Historian in Prose. Rudolph B. Gottfried ..... _ ....... .317
Proceedings of the Academy . . . . . . . . . . 331
Correspondence relating to publication in the Transactions or to other Academy business
should be directed to the Secretary, Loyal Durand Jr., 318 Science Hall, Madison, Wisconsin.
Publications Intended for the Library of the Academy should be sent directly to the Librarian,
Gilbert H. Doane, University of Wisconsin Library, Madison, Wisconsin.
NOTES ON PARASITIC FUNGI IN WISCONSIN. XX.
J. J. Davis
Peronospora floerkeae Kell, was collected by Holway in
northwestern Wisconsin in 1904. When taking a collection of
Entyloma on Floerkea from the press it was found that two
small plants bore the Peronospora. The collection was made near
Racine in southeastern Wisconsin May 15, 1983.
Petrak has proposed the genus Metacoleroa to receive Ven-
turia dickiei (R.&C.) Sacc. (Ann. My col. 25: 332).
As there was some question as to whether the Taphrina that
has been collected in Wisconsin on Onoclea Struthiopteris is T.
STRUTHIOPTERIDIS Nishida or T. hiratsukae Nishida a Wiscon¬
sin specimen was sent to Prof. Hiratsuka, who determined it as
the former.
Myrioconium comitatum var. salictarium “Notes” IV, p.
286 is probably connected with Sclerotinia follicola Davidson
& Cash ( Mycologia 25: 266-7 & 270).
In “Notes” XIII, pp. 171-2 Gloeosporium niveum was de¬
scribed as occurring in ascomata of Rhytisma on Ilex verticillata
and on species of Salix. There was discrepancy in the size and
shape of the conidia on Ilex and in those on Salix and while both
forms were described and figured under the binomial their spe¬
cific relationship was left open. Dr. John Dearness has kindly
sent material on Ilex verticillata collected near London, Ontario
in which the conidia are like those on Salix but more acute.
Similar collections on Ilex have also been made in Wisconsin
and it seems clear that but one species is involved the conidia of
which are somewhat variable in size and form.
Marssonina thomasiana (Sacc.) Magn. sometimes develops
acervuli on the twigs. Young conidia are pyriform but the lower
cell broadens with maturity.
In “Notes” XVII, p. 296 Colletotriehum on leaf spots on
Streptopus, Oakesia, Smilacina and Uvularia was treated as
parasitic and referred to C. peckii Sacc. It now seems more
probable that the spots were not caused by the Colletotriehum
'm 85 193f
2 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
but that it followed as a saprophyte. In May, 1933 Colleto-
trichum was found at Racine on leaves of Trillium recurvatum.
The host plants were in a low place and had apparently been
submerged after the heavy spring rains. They looked sickly
and there were dead areas on the margins of the leaves some¬
times extending toward the center. On the dead tissue Colleto-
trichum occurred. A specimen was sent to Dr. L. R. Tehon who
reported that the fungus was like Colletotrichum trillii
Tehon but that the spots were different. In June, 1933 Colleto¬
trichum was found on dead and dying leaves of Allium canadense
in the same region. A Colletotrichum on dead spots on leaves of
Smilax hispida was found at Coon Valley in August, 1932. Per¬
haps these are all saprophytic and should be referred to Colleto¬
trichum liliaceorum (Schw.) (V ermicularia liliaceorum
Schw.). Colletotrichum circinans (Berk.) Vogl. on bulb
scales of Allium Cepa perhaps belongs in the same group. How¬
ever, in 1934 collections of Colletotrichum on leaves of Clintonia
borealis were made at Hayward and Mellen, in which the fungus
appears to be parasitic. The black acervuli are scattered on pale
brown to cinereous spots which are sub-circular to oblong, 1-4 X
1-2 cm. sometimes confluent. Death of surrounding leaf tissue,
especially distally, soon occurs. The setae are black, terete, up
to 140 X 6-10 fjL. Conidia hyaline, fusoid, slightly curved, acute,
about 20 X Bju. It is probable that on full maturity of the fungus
the entire leaf is dead. (See Burt Johnson, Am. Journ. Bot. 19:
12 et seq.)
In Wisconsin a leaf spotting fungus on Smilax has been re¬
ferred to Stagonospora smilacis (E.&M.) Sacc. which was
published in the American Naturalist in 1882 as Ascochyta
smilacis E. & M. with the sporules characterized as “sub¬
hyaline” “triseptate” hence Saccardo transferred it to Stagono¬
spora in the Sylloge Fungorum. In Wisconsin the sporules are
usually hyaline and continuous when collected but colored and
uniseptate sporules occur in some pycnidia. The sporules as
ordinarily found in the pycnidia appear immature and the spots
soon become lacerate and the tissue disintegrates. As septation
so often comes but with maturity it was assumed that the para¬
site is the one that Ellis & Martin were dealing with. For further
information the type specimen of Ascochyta smilacis E. & M.
Davis — Parasitic Fungi
3
was sought but without success as it is not in the Ellis herbarium
in New York or at Cambridge or Washington. Dr. Seaver kindly
sent a portion of a specimen in the Ellis herbarium labeled As-
cochyta smilacis E. & M. which is in the state usually found
with hyaline continuous sporules. It was on Smilax hispida col¬
lected in Ohio by Eellerman. Archer states that in a culture from
Smilax hispida “some of the spores were hyaline and 1-celled but
most were 1 or 2-celled and brownish in color.” ( The Fungi of
Iowa parasitic on Plants, p. 434.) Spores having a median sep¬
tum sometimes develop later a septum in each cell and it may
have been this condition that led Ellis & Martin to describe the
sporules as triseptate considering that to be the mature state
(compare Stagnospora baptisiae (E. & E.) Davis “Notes”
XVII, p. 295). Of Phyllosticta smilacis E. & E. the authors
stated: “Specimens occur with uniseptate spores ( Ascochyta )
but usually there is no septum.” They also stated: “This has
been observed on various smooth-leaved species for twenty years
or more but does not appear to have been described.” {Bull.
Torr. Bot. Club 27: 575 (1900).) Phyllosticta smilacis E. &
M. appears to have been a herbarium name, at least I have seen
no published description, of it except in North American Phyllo -
stictas 221 where Ph. smilacis E. & E. is given as a synonym.
Of this Ellis & Everhart state: “This species is found on various
species of Smilax in different parts of the country and varies
considerably in size and shape of the sporules. . . .” SPHAEROP-
SIS SMILACINA Pk. (33d Report, p. 24) was placed in this group
by Dearness and taken as the type with the binomial Phyllo¬
sticta SMILACINA (Pk.) Dearness ( Mycologia 9: 351.) This
was referred to Phoma by Saccardo ( Syll . Fung. 3: 160) As¬
cochyta smilacis E. & E. was described as having smoky-hya¬
line, uniseptate sporules 6-8 x 4^ {Journ. My col. 8: 12.) As¬
cochyta confusa E. & E. was described as having smoky-hya¬
line sporules 7-12 x Zy^A1/^. To the description is added the
statement: “Ascochyta smilacis E. & M. Am. Nat. Dec. 1882,
p. 1002 has sporules 11-22 X 6-7/*.” Septation is not mentioned
in the description of A. confusa. Of Diplodia smilacina Berk,
on dead tendrils or branches of Smilax from Ohio and North
Carolina little seems to be known in America. European speci¬
mens have been referred to it. Sphaeropsis smilacis E. & E.
on dead stems of Smilax develops sporules similar to those that
4
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
are found on leaf spots. From their examination of a specimen
of this species Gilman & Archer reported: “comparatively few
of the spores were brown, still fewer were 1-septate, the ma¬
jority were hyaline with granular contents thereby resembling
the spores that are produced in the leaf spots.” This appears to
be about what one might expect from material not wholly ma¬
ture. Of the variety latispora Pk. on dead branches of Smilax
hispida Dearness stated : “Exceptional spores vary from 12-25/*
in length and in shape from globose to oblong-elliptic.”
From examination of collections on living leaves of Smilax
herbacea from Canada, sent to him by Dr. John Dearness, Bubak
published the following species (Hedwigia 58 : 15 et seq.
(1917) ) :
Phyllosticta londonensis Bubak
& Dearness Sporules 4.5-7. 5 X 2.5-3. 5 /*
Phyllosticta pellucida B. & D. ”
Phyllosticta smilacigena B. & D. ”
Macrophoma pellucida B. & D. ”
Macrophoma smilacis (E. & E.)
B. & D.
Ascochyta londonensis B. & D. ”
Ascochyta fuscopappilata
B. & D.
Ascochyta smilacigina B. & D. ”
Stagonospora pellucida B. & D. ”
Stagonospora smilacigena B. & D. ”
Sphaerella pellucida B. & D.
Pleosphaerulina canadensis
B. & D.
The character of the spots, as described, is similar in all of
these. Bubak suggested that Macrophoma smilacis (E. & E.)
B. & D. may be conspecific with Sphaeropsis smilacina Pk.
which was referred to Phoma, not Phyllosticta, by Saccardo in
the Sylloge Fungorum 3 : 160 where Sphaeropsis brunneola B.
& C. on branches of Smilax rotundi folia was also referred to
Phoma. Spots similar to those on Smilax are sometimes abun¬
dant on leaves of Oakesia sessilifolia but are largely sterile at
the time when they have been observed. The pycnidia which
they bear are those of Phyllosticta oakesiae Dearn. & House,
and this seems to be closely related to the form on Smilax. The
5-7.5 X 2-3.5/*
4-6 X 1.5/*
15- 20 X 4-5.5/*
16- 28 X 4-8/*
11-15 X 3.5-4/*
15-22 X 2-3/*
19- 28 X 4-8/*
20- 25 X 3.5-4/*
17- 24 X 4-7/*
Davis — Parasitic Fungi
5
condition on both hosts suggests that the thin leaves are not
good substrates for full development. What is probably a more
mature state of this was given the name Diplodia uvular-
IAE n. sp. in “Notes” I, p. 87. This has brown, uniseptate spor-
ules 12-20 X 6-7/*. A form on Uvular ia grandiflora with smaller
sporules was given the name Phyllosticta discincta in Trans .
Wis. Acad. J+th Supplementary list , pp. 747-8. This was later
referred to Ph. cruenta (Fr.) Kx. as a variety based on a later
collection with larger sporules (16 X 6/*). A still later collec¬
tion on this host has sporules about 23 X 6-7/*. What is perhaps
a microconidial state of Diplodia uvulariae on Uvularia grandi¬
flora was recorded in “Notes” V, p. 693.
It is of interest that while there is much diversity in the
sporules in different collections on Smilax, Oakesia and Uvularia
there is similarity in the leaf spots, except in Phyllosticta sub-
EFFUSA (E. & E.) Tehon & Stout ( Mycologia 21: 186) which
does not appear to be a member of the group.
Gilman & Archer in the Fungi of Iowa parasitic on Plants
( Iowa State Journal of Science 3: 433-4) included Smilax with
Polygonatum and Smilacina as a host of Sphaeropsis cruenta
(Fr.) Gilman & Archer. There seems to be no evidence that
the sporules of Phyllosticta cruenta (Fr.) Kx. on Polygona¬
tum or those of Ph. pallidior Pk. on Smilacina acquire color or
septation at maturity. The forms on Oakesia and Uvularia
however may be conspecific with that on Smilax. Melanops
cruenta was described by Petrak as the ascigerous state of
Phyllosticta cruenta. {Ann. Mycol. 25 : 226, not 296 as in¬
dexed.)
Phyllosticta pallidior Pk. has been given varietal rank in
Wisconsin publications but there is constant difference in the
sporules, no intermediates having been found. Macrophoma
SMILACINAE Tehon & Stout ( Mycologia , 21: 187,), on Smilacina
ptellata was described as having sporules 11-22 X 3V£-6/*. Spore
color and septation are useful characters in classification but
they sometimes cause confusion.
In “Notes” XIX, pp. 183-4 it was stated that the parasite
referred to Pestalozziella subsessilis Sacc. & Ell. should
find place in the Sphaerioidaceae. Judging from the description
its place is in Dilophospora geranii Schroet. Through the kind¬
ness of Dr. C. W. Dodge I have examined a Wisconsin specimen
6 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
from the Trelease herbarium at the Missouri Botanical Garden
and find it to be of the same character. In Ellis & Everhart’s
North American Fungi 1223 the sporules are also borne in pyc-
nidia. P. subsessilis Sacc. & Ell. is the type species of the genus
Pestalozziella. P. geranii-pusilla C. Massal. is of the same
character as far as can be determined from the poor specimens
available. The type specimen of Pestalozziella subsessilis
Sacc. & Ell. presumably in the Saccardo herbarium, should be
reexamined and full development of the sporules should be ob¬
served in comparison with those of Dilophospora alopecurt
Fr. = D. GRAMINIS Desm. as described and figured by Dr. Ernst
A. Bessey in Journal of Mycology 12: 157-8. The setulae are
distal only as stated by Schroeter.
In 1913 a parasite on leaves of Carpinus caroliniana was col¬
lected the character of which did not agree well with any of the
genera that had been established and was described in “Notes”
II, p. 107 under the binomial Fusarium carpineum n. sp. Fur¬
ther notes and reference to its occurrence also on Carya cordi-
formis in small quantity were published in “Notes” XIII, p. 170
and XIV, p. 183 where it was suggested that it should be re¬
ferred to Septoriopsis as that genus had been treated. Because
of a previous use of the name by Fragoso and Paul this was
changed to Cercoseptoria by Petrak (Ann. My col. 23: 69). In
“Notes” X Cylindrosporium caryigenum Ell. & Ev. was re¬
corded as occurring in Wisconsin on Carya cordiformis. This
species was referred to Cercosporella by von Hoehnel. The
form on Carpinus and that on Carya are now considered to be
conspecific and are labeled in the herbarium Cercoseptoria
caryigena (E. & E.) n. comb.
In an article in the Journal of Agricultural Research 44 : 139
et seq. entitled, “The Downy Spot Disease of Pecans,” Demaree
& Cole treat the fungus as a cause of disease of pecans and de¬
scribe the ascigerous state as Mycosphaerella caryigena (E.
& E.) n. sp. In this connection it is of interest that FUSICLA-*
DIUM effusum Wint., referred to Cladosporium by Demaree, oc¬
curs on Carpinus as well as on Carya (“Notes” XVI, p. 285-6).
Aecidium mesadeniae Arth. on Cacalia reniformis was re¬
corded in the provisional list as A. compositarum. The only
Wisconsin collection was made in Kenosha Co. 1894. The local¬
ity is in south eastern Wisconsin, not north eastern as given in
North American Flora.
Davis — Parasitic Fungi
7
Additional Hosts for Wisconsin
Albugo Candida (Pers.) 0. Kuntze
On Brassica juncea. Madison (I. E. Melhus).
Plasmopara halstedii (Farl.) Berl. & De Toni
On Eupatorium purpureum. Blue River. Killing the leaves
which bear saprophytes, especially Alternaria.
On Helianthus giganteus. Westby.
Microsphaera alni (Wallr.) Wint.
On Lonicera oblongifolia. Wind lake, Racine Co.
Erysiphe CICHORACEARUM DC.
On Verbena hastata. Madison.
Phyllachora vulgata Theiss. & Syd.
On Muhlenbergia tenui flora. New Glarus.
Davisiella ely mina (Davis) Petr, occurring in the locules
of Phyllachora on Elymus was described as having sporules
7-10 X 21/2-3/a (“Notes” V, p. 701). Petrak from examination
of Wisconsin material gave the sizes of the sporules as 8-13 X
3-4 {Ann. Mycol. 22: 134). In “Notes” XIII, p. 166 there
was reference to a form on Calamagrostis with sporules 10-20m
in length. In a collection from De Soto Sept. 2, 1932 on Muhlen¬
bergia racemosa the sporules are 10-16 X 2-3 [i. A collection on
Oryzopsis asperifolia from Crivitz Aug. 25, 1931 shows sporules
12-20 mostly about 17/x long, nucleate but not yet septate. Da¬
visiella domingensis Petr. & Cif. was described as having coni-
dia 13-20 X 2-21/^ {Ann. Mycol. 30: 277). In collections on An -
dropogon furcatus from Sauk Co. (Greene & Davis) the sporules
are 3- septate.
Septoria didyma Fckl. var. santonensis Pass. (Marsonia san-
tonensis ( Pass. ) Bubak ) .
On Salix fragilis. Princeton. This is quite different in ap¬
pearance from the type as represented in Wisconsin on Salix
longifolia and from FuckeFs Fungi rhenani 1 677. The spots are
angular, limited by the veinlets but confluent, dark brown be¬
coming cream color or sordid white, the pycnidia sparse and
imperfect. The sporules measured were 23-33 X 21/2-3 Vw uni-
septate. In August 1933 this was collected south of Black Earth
on Salix alba with well developed pycnidia the sporules, dis¬
charged in cirrhi on both leaf surfaces, 3-4 n in diameter.
8 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
Septoria rumicicola Allesch.
On Rumex mexicanus. Madison. This name was proposed
to replace S. RUMICIS Ellis on the supposition that it is distinct
from S. RUMICIS Trail. ( Rabh . Krypt. FI. Die pilze 6: 848).
Gloeosporium salicis West, has been collected at Omro on a
host identified as Salix lucida which is possibly a hybrid with
S. fragilis.
Marssonina martini (Sacc. & Ell.) Magn.
On Quercus bicolor. Blue River.
Stagonospora meliloti (Lasch) Petr.
On Melilotus officinalis. This parasite has become quite com¬
mon on M. alba.
Cylindrosporium crescentum Barth.
On Pastinaca sativa Westby. The conidia have a median
septum.
Ramularia pratensis Sacc.
On Rumex britannica . Omro.
Cercospora panici Davis
On Panicum Boscii. Crivitz. I have not had an opportunity
to compare this with C. fusimaculans Atk.
Cercospora desmodii Ell & Kell.
On Desmodium nudiflorum. Durand.
Uromyces plumbarius Pk.
Aecia on Oenothera rhombipetala. Blue River.
Puccinia muhlenbergiae Arth. & Hoi.
On Muhlenbergia tenui flora. New Glarus.
An Aecidium on Desmodium grandiflorum occurring with
Aecidium on Amphicarpa on Ferry bluff in Sauk Co. is thought
to be connected with Puccinia andropogonis Schw.
Puccinia rubigo-vera (DC.) Wint.
Telia on Elymus striatus. New Glarus.
Puccinia heucherae (Schw.) Diet.
On Heuchera sanguinea (cult.). In a neglected rock garden
at Baraboo.
Davis— Parasitic Fungi
9
Cronartium ribicola F. de W.
On Ribes nigrum (cult.). Sturgeon Bay (E. C. Blodgett).
This locality is in north eastern Wisconsin.
Additional Species
not previously recorded as occurring in Wisconsin.
Phyllachora melicae Dearn. & House
On Melica striata. Crivitz. Asci 65-70/z spores 9-10 X
5-6 As stated by the authors this is near Phyllachora
VULGATA Theiss & Syd. and perhaps not distinct from Ph. gram-
INIS (Pers.) Fckl. Collection of immature material on this host
was referred to in “Notes” VIII, p. 418.
Dermatea phyllophila Pk.
Specimens on needles of Abies balsamea from Door County
have been referred to this species.
Phomopsis callistephi Tehon & Daniels.
On Callistephus chinensis (cult.). Madison, Randolph and
Milwaukee. (L. R. Jones & Regina S. Riker.)
From a scanty collection of living leaves of an undetermined
species of Panicum from Crivitz the following notes were made :
Spots fusoid, dark purple with an arid whitish center ; pycnidia
in the arid portion few, dark, depressed-globose thick-walled,
opening by a pore, 100-130 X 80-100 sporules hyaline, cylin¬
drical to fusoid-cylindrical, straight, becoming 3-septate, 24-30
X 3 Y2 —5 fi. This has not been determined.
A poorly developed Septoria on Heliopsis scabra was col¬
lected at Coon Valley in August and has been, referred to Sep¬
toria HELIOPSIDIS Ell. & Dearn. The sporules are but about 1/*
thick. In the infected leaves are also what appear to be imma¬
ture perithecia.
Septoria krigiae Dearn. & House
On scapes and on involucral bracts of Krigia virginica. Mazo-
manie June 20, 1932. The black firm-walled pycnidia are prom¬
inent often breaking through the epidermis.
COLLETOTRICHUM HEPATICAE Pk.
On Hepatica acutiloba on dead spots caused by Plasmopara
pygmaea fusca (Pk.) Davis. This is very doubtfully parasitic.
10 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters .
A specimen on dead leaves of (?) Elymus was collected at
Racine June 25, 1888 and labeled Vermicularia denudata Schw.
As it was not recognized as a parasite it was not recorded. Ex¬
amination of the leaves shows that the acervuli are on light col¬
ored spots. This should now be referred to Colletotrichum but
the specific name and the parasitism are open to question. The
conidia seen were about 20 X 3^.
Cylindrosporium solitarium Heald & Wolf
On Robinia Pseudo-acacia. Princeton. Perhaps a form of
the species on this host in Europe which has been referred to
various genera.
Botrytis hypophylla Ell. & Kell, was described as occur¬
ring on leaves of Teucrium canadense which also bore Cerco¬
spora “ferruginea.” Manneval reported it on Cercospora hy -
dropiperis on Polygonum hydropiper, (Univ. of Mo. Studies 1:
85.) In Wisconsin it appeared to be parasitic on Cercospora cla-
vata on leaves of Asclepias incarnata.
Cercospora setariicola Tehon & Daniels
On Setaria glauca. Black Earth. In this collection the fasci¬
culi are not usually as large as in the type as described and some¬
times occur on the upper surface of the spots. Slender curved
conidia up to 150/z in length are found. The conidia become
pluriseptate.
Melampsora euphorbiae-gerardianae W. Mueller
Uredo on Euphorbia commutata. Beloit (Fassett).
Phragmidium rosae-arkansanae Diet.
Uredinia and telia on Rosa pratincola. Black Earth.
PUCCINIA BATESIANA Arth.
Aecia and telia on Heliopsis scabra in “Spring Coulee” be¬
tween Westby and Coon Valley.
Cercospora senecionicola n. sp.
Spots indeterminate, hypophyllous, becoming ferruginous;
conidiophores hypophyllous, fasciculate on small scattered
brown stromata, usually curved or tortuous and nodulose, more
or less brown or fuscous, sometimes branched, 15-30 X 3/x con¬
idia hyaline obclavate-cylindrical, usually straight, septate, 30-
80 X 2%-314/i. On Senecio aureus. Coon Valley, Wisconsin,
Davis — Parasitic Fungi
11
August 13, 1932. Apparently distinct from CERCOSPORA SENECI-
onis Ell. & Ev.
CERCOSPORA SENECIONICOLA Sp. nOV.
Maculis indeterminate, hypophyllis dein ferrugineis; conidi-
ophoris hypophyllis, fasciculatisque in parvis stromatibus brun-
neis dispersis, plerumque curvatis vel tortis alque nodulosis, plus
minus brunneis vel fuscis, interdum ramosis 15-30 X 3^; con-
idiis hyalinis, obclavatis-cylindratis, plerumque rectis, septatis-
que, 30-80 X 2^-3 ^ on Senecionihus aureis.
University of Wisconsin Herbarium, Madison, Wisconsin
April, 1934.
Addenda
July 20, 1911 a Cercospora on Spiraea salicifolia was col¬
lected at Spooner and a description written under the binomial
Cercospora laxipes n. sp. As there was some question as to its
being a form of Cercospora rubigo Cke. & Harkness the descrip¬
tion was published in the Appendix to the Provisional List as
Cercospora rubigo Cke. & Hark. ( ?) Another collection from
Nekoosa was described and the original description repeated in
“Notes” VIII, pp. 428-9. This is now considered to be distinct
and labeled Cercospora laxipes n. sp. Another collection was
made at Caryville.
In “Notes” XVI, p. 292 an Aecidium on Galium tinctorium
was published as Aecidium sparsum n. sp. This binomial is
antedated by Aecidium sparsum Haszlinsky 1877 and Dr. J. C.
Arthur considers that the Aecidium is not distinct from Aecidi¬
um houstoniatum Schw. which as it occurs on Houstonia coerulea
was connected with a Uromyces on Sisyrinchium by Sheldon
and by Arthur. Sheldon however failed to demonstrate the con¬
nection with Aecidium on Houstonia purpurea. In Wisconsin
Aecidium occurs on H. longifolia which is closely related to
H. purpurea but no Uromyces has been seen on Sisyrinchium in
the state although it has been looked for where the Aecidium oc¬
curred. An attempt to infect Sisyrinchium with aeciospores
from H. longifolia in Wisconsin was without result. “Notes”
XVI, pp. 283-4.
In the suppl. list p. 171 Leptothyrium periclymeni var. ameri-
canum E. & E. {Trans. Wis. Acad. 9: 171) was recorded. This
12 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , cmd Letters .
is now referred to Kabatia lonicerae (Hark.) Hoehn. but the
Wind Lake, Racine county specimen is Kabatia mirabilis Bubak.
(Jour. Mycol. 6: 116.)
Puccinia bartholomaei Diet, has been kept distinct from P.
vexans Farlow because of the absence of amphispores and the
development of aecia on Asclepiadaceae while the aecial stage
of P. vexans was unknown. Development of aecia on Asclepms
tuberosa and A. syriaca in the greenhouse through the agency of
teliospores of P. vexans indicates that P. bartholomaei should be
considered to be a form of P. vexans in which amphispores are
not developed.
Phyllosticta similispora Ell. & Davis was described as occur¬
ring on Solidago rigida. It was later described as Leptothyrium
tumidulum Sacc. on the same species of host. In Notes XVIII it
was stated that hypophyllous pycnidia pushed into the meso-
phyl and were globose. The species has since been found on
Solidago serotina which has firmer leaves and the pycnidia are
similar on both leaf surfaces. It is perhaps best then to follow
Saccardo and refer the species to Leptothyrium. If one takes
the older specific name the binomial would be Leptothyrium
SIMILISPORUM (Ell. & Davis) n. comb.
Additional Hosts
Bremia lactucae Regel. On Hieracium aurantvacum . Mira¬
bel and Stoney Creek, Kewaunee Co. Greene & Davis.
Peronospora hedeomatis Kell. & Su. On Hedeoma hispida.
Blue River. Greene & Davis.
Sphaerotheca humuli (DC.) Burr. On Potentilla fruiti -
cosa . Bailey’s Harbor.
Erysiphe polygoni (DC.) On Polygonum ramosissimum.
Lone Rock. Perithecia not mature.
Stagonospora meliloti (Lasch) Petr. On Trifolium hy -
bridum. Coon Valley. (F. R. Jones.) Very scanty.
Ustilago utriculosa (Nees) Tul. On Polygonum Careyi .
Tomah.
Cronartium ribicola F. deW. On Ribes nigrum (cult.).
Sturgeon Bay. (E. C. Blodgett.)
Davis — Parasitic Fungi
13
Tranzschelia pruni-spinosae (Pers.) Diet. Aecia on Ane¬
mone caroliniana. Hager City. (Fassett & Hanson.)
Puccinia ARGENTATA (Schultz) Wint. Aecia on Adoxa
Moschatellina. Ontario, Wis. (N. C. Fassett.)
Puccinia extensicola hieraciata (Schw.) Arth. Aecia on
Hieracium longipilum. Blue River. (Greene & Davis.)
CERCOSPORELLA NIVEA Ell. & Barth. On Solidago hispida.
Hancock.
Sphaerotheca humuli fuliginea (Schlecht) Salm.
On Bidens cernua. Black Earth.
On Bidens vulgata, Muscoda.
Stagonospora meliloti (Lasch) Petr.
On Medicago sativa (cult.). Madison. (F. R. Jones.)
CERCOSPORELLA NIVEA Ell. & Barth.
On Solidago hispida. Hancock.
SOROSPORIUM SYNTHERISMAE (Pk.) Farl.
On Panicum dichotomiflorum and Panicum capillar e. Muscoda.
Melampsora abietis-canadensis (Farl.) C. A. Ludwig.
( M . populi-tsugae , “Notes” IV, p. 676.)
Telia on Populus balsamifera. Bailey's Harbor.
Puccinia graminis Pers.
Uredia on Cotabrosa aquatica. Hudson. (Fassett.)
Additional Species
Cylindrosporium robiniae (Lib.) Died. Septoria curvata
(Rabh. & A. Braun) Sacc. is considered to be a synonym.
On Robinia pseudoacacia. Muscoda. In this collection the
sporules are 2-4 ^ thick and 3-10 septate. The pycnidia are
inconspicuous.
Septoria sonchifolia Cke.
On Sonchus asper. Hancock. Spots definite, becoming sor¬
did white usually 3-6 mm., on dead areas ; sporules 23-33 X
l-li/2^.
14 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters .
Melanopsichium austro-americanum (Speg.) Fisch.
On Polygonum lapathi folium. McCartney. (Fassett & Ev¬
ans.)
PUCCINIASTRUM SPARSUM (Wint.) Fisch.
Uredia on Arctostaphylos uva-ursi. Bailey’s Harbor.
The American records of this rust are confined to the Pacific
coast region. There is no record of its occurrence in Ameri¬
ca on this host.
Ravenelia epiphylla (Schw.) Diet.
Uredia and telia on Tephrosia virginiana. Muscoda.
Apparently spreading from the railroad right of way.
PUCCINIA HYSSOPI Schw.
On Agastache scrophulariae folia. Viroqua. A single station
in western Wisconsin.
Phyllachora boutelouae Rehm. On Bouteloua hirsuta. Poy-
nette. (Greene & Davis).
Of a collection on Artemisia serYata, Tomah, September 25,
1935 the following notes were made : Spots dark reddish brown,
angular, variable in size, pycnidia amphigenous, globose, ca.
100/*; sporules curved, acute mostly 50-70 X 3-4 /*. On leaves
of Artemisia serrata, Tomah, Wisconsin, September 25, 1935.
The majority of the pycnidia have undifferentiated contents.
This is labeled in the herbarium as Septoria artemisiicola n.
sp. A very destructive parasite of the leaves of Iris lacustris has
been observed at Bailey’s Harbor. In September leaves were
brought to Madison and over-wintered outside. In the spring
the perithecia developed asci 50-60 X 13/* and uniseptate hya¬
line ascospores 17 X 5-7/*. The material was lost so no descrip¬
tion of this Mycosphaerella is published. Apparently no con-
idia are developed.
Colletotrichum VICIAE Dearn. & Overholts. On Vida vil -
losa. Arena and Muscoda. Greene and Davis.
Phyllosticta anemonicola Sacc. & Syd. On Anemone ?
canadensis. Sauk Co. Oct. 15, 1935.
PUCCINIA simulans (Pk.) Barth. Uredia on Sporobulus
cryptandrus. Spring Green, Muscoda, and Lone Rock. In vil¬
lage streets.
Davis — Parasitic Fungi
15
Ophiocladium hordei Cav. On Phalaris arundinacea. Lone
Rock and Durand. Distinguished from Ovularia by the tortuous
conidiophores. Spring Green and Durand.
Fusicladium robiniae Shear. On seedling Rubinia pseudoa¬
cacia. Lone Rock.
University of Wisconsin Herbarium,
Madison, Wisconsin.
February, 1937.
PRELIMINARY REPORTS ON THE FLORA OF
WISCONSIN. XXV. ARALES
Norman C. Fassett
University of Wisconsin
( The Lemnaceae in collaboration with Lawrence E. Hicks)
This report is based on the material in the Herbarium of the University of
Wisconsin, and of the Milwaukee Public Museum. For the loan of the latter, the
writer is indebted to Mr. A. M. Fuller.
ARACEAE — Arum Family
Arisaema triphyllum (L.) Schott. Jack-in-the-Pulpit. (Fig. 1). Probably
throughout the state. Forma viride (Engler) Farwell, Am. Mid. Nat. xii. 53 (1930),
with the spathe entirely green, is found occasionally.
A. Draconttum (L.) Schott. Green Dragon. (Fig. 2). Much less common, in
wet woods and river-bottoms across the southern half of the state. Not usually
found where the Jack-in-the-Pulpit grows.
Calla palustris L. Water Arum. (Fig. 3). In bogs, mostly northward and
eastward. Southwestward, in the Driftless Area (on the map enclosed by a broken
line), where bogs are rare and becoming dry, it is occasionally found persisting after
the ground has become fairly firm.1
Symplocarpus foetidus (L.) Nutt. Skunk Cabbage. (Fig. 4). Probably
throughout the state; the apparent rarity in the northern part of the state may be
due to lack of collecting in that region in the early spring.
Acorus Calamus L. Sweet Flag. (Fig. 5). Mostly northward and eastward;
apparently nearly absent from the Driftless Area (on the map enclosed by a broken
line) except rarely along the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers.
LEMNACEAE — Duckweed Family
The material in the Herbarium of the University of Wisconsin has been identi¬
fied by Dr. Lawrence E. Hicks, who has also supplied the sketches here reproduced.
The maps show the ranges very inadequately, for these plants are seldom taken by
most collectors; they are presented in hope of stimulating activity which will fill
the gaps and help to give a more complete picture of the occurrence of these plants.
The following key is adapted from one made by Dr. Hicks; names of species
which have not been found in Wisconsin but may yet be collected are in brackets.
* See Hansen, The Tamarack Bogs of the Driftless Area of Wisconsin, Bull. Pub. Mus.
of City of Milwaukee, vii, no. 2: 296 (1933).
18 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
a. Plants with roots b
b. Each plant of a group with several roots in a fascicle from the
the node; plants usually red below and with a red eye
spot (the node) above .......................... ........Spirodela polyrhiza (L.) Schleid.
b. Each plant of a group with but one root c
c. Plants submerged, each feather-shaped with the basal por¬
tion narrowed into a petiole-like stem . . . . . ...Lemna trisulca L.
c. Plants usually floating, each oval to oblong, without petiole¬
like stems, when connected appearing sessile d
d. Plants symmetrical or nearly so e
e. Plants deep green, obscurely 3 -veined, convex on both
surfaces, cavernous throughout, appearing medium
thick when pressed . . . . . . . . ...Lemna minor L.
e. Plants pale green, obscurely 1 -veined, flat on lower
surface, cavernous in the middle portion only, appear¬
ing membranous when pressed . . [Lemna minima Philippi.]
d. Plants asymmetrical /
/. Plants obliquely obovate, medium thick, usually deep
green with some reddish purple, distinctly 3 -veined
Lemna perpusilla Torr.
/, Plants linear-oblong, thin, pale green, obscurely 1-
veined . . . . . . . . . [Lemna valdiviana Philippi .]
a. Plants without roots g
g. Plants globose or nearly so, not punctate, loosely cellular ;
upper surface convex with 3 usually inconspicuous papules
Wolffia Columbiana Karst.
g. Plants more or less flattened above and gibbous beneath,
brown-punctate, more compactly cellular h
h. Plants round ovate, strongly gibbous, slightly asymmetrical
[Wolffia papulifera Thompson.]
h. Plants more or less oblong with an upturned acute tip
(peanut-shaped), slightly gibbous, symmetrical
Wolffia punctata Grisebach
20 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
♦ Wolffia punctata
Spirodela polyrhiza
Lemna trisulca
Lenina minor
Lemna minima
Lemna perpusilla
Lemna valfliviana
^Crrcr
Wolffia Columbiana
Wolffia punctata
Wolffia papulifera
PRELIMINARY REPORTS ON THE FLORA OF
WISCONSIN. XXVI. CONVOLVULACEAE.
Sidney 0. Fogelberg
The maps of Cuscuta and Convolvulus are compiled from
specimens in the herbarium of the University of Wisconsin and
the herbarium of the Milwaukee Public Museum. The writer
gratefully acknowledges the guidance of Dr. Fassett throughout
the course of the work, the courtesy of Mr. Fuller for the loan
of the Museum specimens and the suggestions of Dr. E. T.
Wherry in regard to the problem of C. spithamaeus var. stans.
Cuscuta
a. Flowers subtended by several closely appressed bracts; styles very
slender and much longer than the ovary.
b. Bracts squarrose; floral masses tightly twined about host like
a rope . . . . . . ..C. glomerata
b. Bracts not squarrose, generally cuspidate; floral masses looser,
irregular . . . . C. cuspidata
a. Flowers not immediately subtended by several bracts; styles short¬
er than or only slightly longer than the ovary.
c. Corolla lobes acute.
d. Tips of corolla lobes indexed ; breadth of infra-staminal
scales exceeding or about equalling the length,
e. Calyx lobes acute, not overlapping; infra-staminal scales
reduced to two small wings near the base of the corolla
tube; whole perianth fleshy, papillose . C. Coryli
e. Calyx lobes obtuse, overlapping to form angles, giving
the calyx a pentagonal appearance; infrastaminal scales
very prominent, becoming exserted; median portions of
perianth segments generally glandular . . ...C. pentagona
d. Tips of corolla lobes not indexed; flowers not fleshy or
glandular; infrastaminal scales oblong, several times as long
as broad, truncate or bifid . . . C. Polygonorum
c. Corolla lobes obtuse
f. Capsule capped by the withered corolla; infrastaminal scales
narrow, generally less than twice the breadth of the anther;
flowers generally 4-parted . . . . . ...........C. Cephalanthi
f. Corolla not carried to the apex of the capsule; infrastaminal
scales generally more than twice the breadth of the anther;
flowers mostly S-parted.
g. Infrastaminal scales rounded or truncated and usually
about as long the the corolla tube; styles about as long
as the ovary or somewhat shorter; capsules seldom as
much as 6 mm. in diameter .
.C. Gronovii
♦ Cuecuta curta
Fogelberg — Flora of Wisconsin
23
g. Infrastaminal scales much shorter than the corolla tube,
bifid or truncate; styles mostly considerably shorter than
the ovary; capsules large, often 6 mm. or more in diam¬
eter . .......... . . . . . C. curta
C. glomerata Choisy. (Fig. 1) Across the southern end of
the state.
C. cuspidata Engelm. (Fig. 2, dot) The only specimen is
one from Boscobel, Grant County, collected by C. H. Sylvester,
July 31, 1886, now entered as No. 22107 in the Public Museum,
Milwaukee.
24 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters .
C. Coryli Engelm. (Fig. 3) Mostly southern but one collec¬
tion from Polk County. Quite common.
C. pentagona Engelm. The only representative of this spe¬
cies seen from the state is the collection of N. C. Fassett from a
sandstone ledge three miles south of Mt. Ida, Grant County.
(Fig. 2, circle)
C. Polygonorum Engelm. (Fig. 4) Southern. Not common.
C. Cephalanthi Engelm. (Fig. 5) Common in the southern
half of the state.
C. Gronovii Willd. (Fig. 6) The most common species.
C. curta (Engelm. Rydberg. (Fig. 2, cross) Closely related
to C. Gronovii but very rare, the only collection being from
White River, Ashland County, L. S. Cheney, July 11, 1896, No.
4738.
Convolvulus
C. sepium L. (Fig. 7) Very common except in the north¬
eastern part of the state. No convincing specimens of C. sepium
var. pubescens (Gray) Fernald have been seen although a few
specimens are more or less pubescent and some have less hastate
leaf blades with auricles more rounded than those of typical
C. sepium .
C. spithamaeus L. (Fig. 8, dots) Throughout the state. Ap¬
parently most prevalent in the northeastern part of the state.
C. spithamaeus var. sfans (Michx.) n. comb. (Fig. 8,
squares) Volvulus spithomaeus var. stans (Michx.) Farwell as
to name only. C. stans Michx. FI. Bor. Am. 1:136. 1803, not
Wherry, Torreya 29:105. 1929. C . camporum Greene in part.
Less common ; in the northern part of the state and on the cen¬
tral plain. This plant may be distinguished from the preceding
by the leaf -blades which are covered with a dense, white, velvety
pubescence and tend also to be more cordate at base. This vari¬
ety is found across the northern edge of the range of C. spith¬
amaeus as shown by Wherry, Proc. Penn. Acad. Sci. 7.1933.
The characters cited above are mentioned in Michaux’s descrip¬
tion and are emphasized by Wherry as the salient ones in dis¬
tinguishing this plant. Distribution also indicates that they are
the significant characters while the characters given by Greene,
Fogelh erg— Flora of Wisconsin
25
such as position of flowers and tendency to twine, appear to
have no diagnostic value in specimens examined.
C. arvensis L. (Fig. 9) Southward from Buffalo and Wau¬
shara Counties. Many specimens intergrade between this and
C. arvensis var. obtusifolius Choisy (Fig. 10) which is some¬
what less common.
AN ACQUIRED PARTIAL IMMUNITY TO THE TOBACCO
STREAK DISEASE
James Johnson*
The disease recently described under the name of “tobacco
streak”4 has been seen for over 15 years in Wisconsin tobacco
fields. Out of hundreds of plants thus observed, practically com¬
plete recovery of affected plants has been such an outstanding
characteristic that the virus nature of the disease was not seri¬
ously suspected until 1933. During studies of the disease on
greenhouse plants by means of artificial transmission, the same
typical “recovery” occurred regularly, as in the field. Follow¬
ing recent studies by others5,6 on acquired immunity to plant
viruses, it appeared that “tobacco streak” might be a suitable
disease in which to seek corroboratory evidence of this phenome¬
non in plants. A series of experiments were therefore con¬
ducted which have resulted in the conclusion that recovery from
“tobacco streak” cannot be satisfactorily interpreted otherwise
than as an acquired immunity or resistance to the disease on
the part of affected plants.
Earlier Studies
The subject of acquired immunity to disease in plants has
fascinated plant pathologists for some time2. Little or no con¬
clusive evidence of its existence can be said to have been esta¬
blished among the fungus and bacterial diseases. That it may
occur among plant virus diseases has only recently been demon¬
strated, and we are indebted chiefly to the investigations of
Price6 and Kunkel5 for the present interest in the problem. These
writers adequately summarize the earlier, less conclusive and
more fragmentary references to the subject, to which the inter¬
ested reader is referred.
Price6 in 1932 investigated tobacco ring-spot, where partial
recovery from the first attack of the disease is said to be char¬
acteristic on ordinary tobacco, {Nicotiana tabacum L.) . In oth¬
er species, however, notably Nicotiana sylvestris (Speg. and
* Cooperative investigations of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station and the
Division of Tobacco and Plant Nutrition, Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Depart¬
ment of Agriculture.
28 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
Comes), recovery from symptoms was found to be regular and
complete. The virus is readily transmitted by plant extract to
healthy individuals, which exhibit typical symptoms of the dis¬
ease in a few days, after which time new leaves are formed free
from symptoms. The virus is, however, present in these “re¬
covered” leaves in high concentration, as well as in normal viru¬
lence. Reinoculation of such recovered plants in approximately
the same condition as healthy control plants yields no further
symptoms in the former, whereas the latter take the typical dis¬
ease. Price found further that cuttings from immune plants, as
contrasted to cuttings from healthy plants, retained the acquired
immunity, and the virus, through three generations, but no im¬
munity was transmitted through the seed. The presence of anti-,
bodies or the movement of any immunizing principle beyond the
boundary of virus-infected tissue could not be demonstrated.
This evidence offered for the existence of acquired immunity
in the case of tobacco ring-spot was perhaps not by itself en¬
tirely convincing. In 1934, however, Kunkel5 reported results
of a similar and more definite nature, using the ordinary tobacco
mosaic virus and closely related strains, together with some
modification in technique. It was found that, when the yellow
tobacco mosaic virus (“aucuba” mosaic) was rubbed over the
surface of N. sylvestris leaves, necrotic lesions were produced in
abundance, whereas the ordinary tobacco mosaic virus produced
no such necrotic lesions on this species. If, however, the ordi¬
nary mosaic virus was first rubbed over the leaves, followed
2 days later by similar inoculation with the yellow mosaic virus
on the same areas, the latter failed to produce necrotic lesions.
The leaves or portions of leaves inoculated with ordinary to¬
bacco mosaic virus were evidently immunized against the ne¬
crosis from the yellow tobacco mosaic virus. It was found that
the immune reaction was closely confined to the parts inoculated.
Systemic immunity followed, but was closely associated with the
progress of the immunizing virus. Other viruses, like those of
cucumber mosaic and ring-spot, afforded no immunity to the
yellow tobacco mosaic virus, but attenuated strains of the to¬
bacco mosaic virus immunized as well as the ordinary strain of
this virus.
Johnson — Tobacco Streak Disease
29
Methods of Investigation
Plant virus diseases are not only generally systemic in the
ordinary sense, but the virus virtually penetrates into and mul¬
tiplies in every cell of the affected host. Once infected, the host
normally remains so throughout its life, including all subsequent
generations propagated vegetatively therefrom. Exceptions oc¬
cur chiefly in hosts in which certain viruses may cause only local
infection. Despite this systemic invasion, the total or partial
recovery of plants from the symptoms of many virus diseases is
relatively common. It should be emphasized that the recovery
is from the symptom expression, not from the virus itself, which
may be, and usually is, present in recovered parts in normal
amount and virulence. This recovery has in most instances
been rightfully attributed to environmental influences both in¬
ternal and external to the host3. That is, the symptoms are said
to be masked, and when the environment is again favorable the
symptoms reappear. However, all cases of recovery do not ap¬
pear to result from such environmental influences, since in some
virus diseases recovery comes about apparently regardless of the
environmental conditions offered. Nevertheless, while one may
maintain or change the external environment with reasonable
certainty as occasion demands, it is not safe to predict the effect
of the internal environment of a recovered plant with respect to
its predisposition to disease, following the shock and check of a
disease which invades every cell. Particular caution must there¬
fore be exercised in performing experiments on immunity and
in drawing conclusions therefrom, in order to avoid confusion
with such types of recovery as may be due solely to such condi¬
tions as plant age and vigor, since, contrary to general belief,
the less vigorous the plant the more likely it is to tend toward
recovery from a typical set of symptoms. The success of experi¬
ments may therefore depend a great deal upon the plants se¬
lected for study and the use of adequate controls. In the case of
the tobacco streak virus it is also important to select suitable
young infected leaves as a source of inoculum.
In the present experiments, potted plants of various ages,
sizes and degrees of vigor have been used, from those just large
enough to be inoculated to plants 18 inches in height. These
plants were all grown in a rich greenhouse compost soil and all
experimental trials were performed in the greenhouse at a tern-
30 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters.
perature of 80-90° F. The rubbing method of inoculation was
used with freshly extracted virus from newly diseased tissue.
On young plants, local and systemic necrosis usually developed
in three days. The systemic necrosis affects only 2 or 3 of the
young leaves. They are never killed, but remain marked by ne¬
crosis and dwarfed. Succeeding leaves show no necrosis, and
usually grow to about normal size, but under the environment of
the warm greenhouse they may continue to show more or less
mottling4. Reinoculations were made either on the recovered
leaves at various stages of growth or on lower leaves not previ¬
ously inoculated or affected by necrosis. It may be argued that
the reinoculation of leaves or plants already containing the same
virus might not be expected to produce disease, but this is the
logical method of determining immunity. In the cross-immuni¬
ty studies, that is, by subsequent inoculation with different vir¬
uses, this objection does not hold; though, on the other hand,
acquired immunity is not normally to be expected in such in¬
stances. Trials of this type are, however, of special interest
from various points of view; and, in the present connection,
because of their varying influences on the hosts, served particu¬
larly well as a modified form of control to the reinoculations with
the streak virus.
Experimental Results
During the course of the greenhouse investigation on the
streak disease of tobacco (N. tabacum L.) and the virus causing
the disease4, together with the subsequent more detailed studies
on acquired immunity, approximately 800 plants have been inoc¬
ulated with the virus, usually in separate series of five plants
each, over a period of nine months. In no case has recovery
from the necrotic form of the disease failed to occur, nor has a
second attack of necrosis subsequently developed. In field ob¬
servations of the disease, where total recovery from both ne¬
crosis and mottling is even more striking, a mild recurrence of
the necrotic form of the disease on secondary or “sucker”
growth may occur occasionally, apparently as a consequence of
the late entrance of the virus into rapidly growing tissue.
While the presence of the virus in the recovered leaves may
usually be concluded from the mild mottling which occurs on
greenhouse-grown plants, inoculations have been made at vari-
Johnson — Tobacco Streak Disease
31
ous times back to tobacco from 20 such recovered leaves. Out
of 85 plants thus inoculated, 83 came down with typical streak,
showing that the virus was present in approximately normal
amount and concentration in these recovered leaves, since this
virus is relatively sensitive to dilution4.
In twenty-six separate series of trials, comparative reinocu¬
lations were made with the streak virus to both recovered plants
and leaves of various ages, sizes, and degrees of vigor. Out of
130 plants thus inoculated, none has shown a second necrotic
attack of the disease, though a few have shown some primary
necrotic lesions on the inoculated leaves, where such reinocula¬
tions were made on leaves below the point of the original inocu¬
lation. Out of 130 healthy control plants inoculated at the same
time and with the same inoculum, 115 came down with necrotic
streak. The failure to secure 100 per cent infection occurred
usually on the older, larger, and less vigorously growing con¬
trols, which are apparently somewhat less predisposed to infec¬
tion and offer more natural resistance to systemic invasion of
the virus. Such plants were, however, frequently infected
though only to the extent of about 50 per cent of those inocu¬
lated.
In the above trials the plants selected as controls were often
older, larger, and less vigorous than the previously infected
plants, but in all instances systemic necrosis was secured on
one or more of the controls and never on the previously infected
individuals. These experimental results seem to show conclu¬
sively that tobacco (N. tabacum) plants previously infected with
“streak” become immunized to a subsequent attack by the ne¬
crotic form of the same disease. The nature of the evidence is
such that it is best demonstrated by illustrations, of which only
a limited number can be presented (Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.).
The host range of the tobacco streak virus is not yet known,
but not all solanaceous plants are susceptible. All species of the
genus Nicotiana which have been tested have been found sus¬
ceptible, but to a widely varying degree. Several forms closely
related to N. tabacum and frequently treated as varieties of that
species react in an almost identical manner to N. tabacum, that
is, they yield typical systemic necrosis which is soon followed by
“recovery.” This group includes N. tabacum L. var. atropur-
purea, var. calyciflora, var. chinensis, var. laterrima, and var.
macrophylla. N. sylvestris Speg. and N. repanda W., although
32 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
not closely related to N. tabacum, react in the same way. In con¬
trast with these, N. acuminata Grab., N. glutinosa, N. nudicau-
lus G. Watson, N. longifiora Cav., and N. biglovii Wats, typically
yield no necrotic symptoms, but mottling only, from which re¬
covery is not evident. N. alata grandiflora Com. and N. sanderae
Sander, tend to yield a chlorotic type of symptom. N. quadrival -
vis Pursh var. multivalvis, N. paniculata L., and N. rustica L.
are susceptible to infection, but yield very mild if any symptoms
i.e., they possess a natural resistance to both the mottling and
necrotic form of the disease. It is clear that acquired immunity
to tobacco streak is characteristic chiefly of the necrotic form of
the disease and is hence largely limited to species on which ne¬
crosis occurs.
Prior infection with several other viruses has failed to yield
any definite protection against “tobacco streak”. The viruses
used in these trials were those of: 1, ordinary tobacco mosaic
( tobacco virus 1) ; 2, ordinary cucumber mosaic ( cucumber vir¬
us 1) ; 3, tobacco ring-spot; 4, potato ring-spot; 5, potato “mot¬
tle”; 6, potato veinbanding. Ordinary tobacco mosaic, which
stunts and malforms the leaves of tobacco to the greatest extent,
apparently offers no immunizing action, whereas the tobacco
ring-spot and potato veinbanding viruses, which check growth
only slightly, appear to yield a slight protection. The other
viruses resembled that of tobacco mosaic in yielding little or no
protection. It should be recalled in this connection that, unless
some immunizing action is offered by one of two viruses present
in a host, the resultant combination disease is usually more se¬
vere on the host than that caused by either virus alone.
Cross-immunity inoculation trials, i.e. through inoculating
streak-infected plants with the above-named six viruses, yielded
no evidence that the streak virus protected the plants against
any of the latter viruses. It appears clear that the immunity
acquired by tobacco through the streak virus is specific for this
virus.
Discussion
The control of disease in man and animals through the prin¬
ciples of acquired immunity is common practice. In the plant
kingdom virtually no progress has been made in this direction.
This situation is not accidental, nor a consequence of neglect.
Johnson — - Tobacco Streak Disease
33
but is a result of the innate differences between plants and ani¬
mals. Hence good examples could be offered as proof of the
nonexistence of acquired immunity, and many good reasons sug¬
gested for the belief that such a phenomenon is not likely to
occur in plants. The recent evidence which is accumulating with
respect to acquired immunity toward plant viruses is, however,
of such significance that it can no longer be seriously questioned.
Whether or not it is to be regarded as of the same character and
nature as the acquired immunity exhibited in animals is open to
question, as has been pointed out by Kunkel5. Acquired immu¬
nity to tobacco streak is evidently dependent upon the presence
of the virus in the tissues, and in this respect agrees with Price’s
and Kunkeks observations. The case of tobacco streak differs
somewhat from that of tobacco ring-spot in that the recovered
leaves are apparently not immune to the mild form of streak
(mottling), although they are completely immune to the severe
form of streak (necrosis).
It is not likely that protective inoculation of individual
plants may be a practical control measure for ordinary crop
plants grown annually from seed. In the case of vegetatively
propagated plants, however, it seems likely that immunization
may be artificially applied, if indeed it has not already been de¬
veloped empirically in some instances. Attention may be called
in this connection to the regular presence of certain viruses in
all standard varieties of American potatoes, without any symp¬
toms whatever being exhibited under any known environmental
conditions. This situation has been rather obscurely explained
by reference to examples of “symptomless carriers,” of which, to
be sure, this is one of the best examples among plant viruses.
Those who would place such apparently healthy potatoes among
examples of “masked carriers” are even more obviously begging
the question6. In the light of the present conception of acquired
immunity in plants, is it not more likely that the potato mottle
and potato ring-spot viruses, which appear to have established a
permanent association with the vegetatively propagated potato,
are able to do so without producing symptoms by virtue of an
acquired immunity on the part of the potato? This theory is
supported in part by the observations of both Botjes1 and Sala-
man7 and others, who have noted the protective action of a mild
strain of a potato virus (probably the “mottle” virus) against
a more severe strain. Such protective inoculation by the potato
34 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters.
mottle virus has been further corroborated by the writer against
the potato ring-spot virus, a closely related form (Fig. 6).
Summary
Tobacco plants naturally affected in the field with tobacco
streak, a virus disease characterized by necrosis in or along the
veins of the leaves, regularly show “recovery” from the necrotic
symptoms.
Approximately 800 tobacco plants, artificially inoculated un¬
der greenhouse conditions, have all shown a similar character¬
istic of early “recovery” from the first attack of the typical dis¬
ease. One hundred and thirty recovered plants of various sizes,
ages, and degrees of vigor, when reinoculated with the streak
virus, have in all cases failed to succumb to a second attack of
the necrotic form of the disease. Of the same number of ade¬
quate controls, 115 yielded typical streak. Certain other species
of Nicotiana behave in a similar manner.
Six other viruses failed to yield any significant protection
against streak. Conversely, the streak virus failed to protect
the host against the other viruses tested.
It is believed that recovery from the tobacco streak disease
is a good example of acquired immunity, and that, in the case of
some vegetatively propagated host plants, artificial immuniza¬
tion against certain virus diseases may become a practical con¬
trol measure.
Literature Cited
1. Botjes, J. G. 0. Verzwakking van het virus der topnecrose, en verwor-
ven immunitiet van aardappelrassen ten opzichte van dit virus.
Tidjschr. Plantenz. 39: 249-262,. 1938.
2. Chester, K.S. The problem of acquired physiological immunity in plants.
Quarterly Rev. Biol. 8 : 129-154; 275-13i24. 1933.
3. Johnson, J. The relation of air temperature to certain plant diseases.
Phytopath. 11: 446-458. 1921.
4. Johnson, J. Tobacco streak, a virus disease. Pfhytopath 26: 285-292.
1936,
5. Kunkel, L. 0. Studies on acquired immunity with tobacco and aucuba
mosaics. Phytopath. 2b: 437-466. 1934.
6. Price, W. C. Acquired immunity to ring-spot in Nicotiana. Contr. Boyce
Thompson Inst, b : 359-403. 1932,
7. Salaman, R. N. Protective inoculation against a plant virus. Nature
131: 468. 1933.
Fig. 3. Recovery from necrotic form of tobacco streak distinct, but some vein
clearing and mild mottling evident on recovered leaves.
Fig. 4. An older plant inoculated when young, showing lower leaf with signs of
primary infection, with two leaves immediately above necrotic and dwarfed
followed by upper leaves entirely free from necrotic symptoms.
An older plant, inoculated late in growth showing susceptibility to necrosis,
as compared to similar leaves in plants previously inoculated as in Figure 4.
Fig. 6. Lower 3 leaves inoculated with potato ‘‘mottle” virus, followed S days later
by inoculation with potato “ring-spot” virus. Compare with 3 control
leaves above inoculated with ring-spot at same time.
FOSSIL EVIDENCE OF TWO PRAIRIE
INVASIONS OF WISCONSIN
Harry V. Truman
Beloit College
A study of the fossil pollen content of the Gibraltar bog in
Columbia county, Wisconsin, indicates that the post-glacial for¬
est succession of the region has been twice interrupted by prairie
conditions. This bog lies at the foot of Gibraltar Bluff, about
three miles northwest of Lodi, Wisconsin. It is seven miles
within the western limit of advance of the Green Bay lobe of
the Wisconsin Glaciation (Alden ’18) in the region mapped by
Alden as ground moraine, but which in the vicinity of the bog
is perhaps more aptly described by the term “pitted outwash”.
The peat deposit, v/hich was found by a series of borings to be
about seven meters thick at its deepest point, rests upon gray
clay of glacial origin over bed rock described by Alden as “light
colored friable sandstone.” The saturation of the peat is main¬
tained by a small stream of water flowing into the bog at the
east end. There is no visible outlet. The land to the west and
south of the bog is under cultivation ; that to the east is pasture,
and on the north rises the bluff, the slopes and top of which are
wooded. Oak is the most prominent feature of the forest flora.
Elm, ironwood, poplar, basswood, hickory, red cedar and white
pine are also present. The vegetation of the bog proper is
chiefly Sphagnum, leatherleaf, cotton grass and bog birch. There
is a peripheral band of sedges containing some patches of cat¬
tails, and a surrounding moat which in normal years is filled by
water but which, at the time this study was made, was free
from standing water except for an occasional pool. The vegeta¬
tion of the moat consisted chiefly of grasses, sedges, Sagittaria
and Bidens spp. Sparganium androcladum (Engelm.) Morong.
is present in one of the pools. The bog is devoid of tree growth
except for a small dead tree, apparently Larix. Bark and twigs
of what appears to be Betula spp. (not B. pumila var. glanduli-
fera) have been excavated from a depth of 40 inches in the vi¬
cinity of the dead tree. No other evidences of forest peat have
been found. The relatively few species represented in the edaphic
36 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters .
flora and the absence of forest interruption of the bog succes¬
sion, together with its considerable depth, make this deposit an
especially suitable subject for the investigation that has been
conducted.
Methods
Pollen counts were made from a column of peat taken from
the center of the bog at a point where it was 6 Vs meters deep.
The peat was removed by means of a Davis peat sampler and its
subsequent treatment was similar, with slight modifications, to
the methods described by Erdtman ('SI). Counts were made
at quarter meter intervals, each count consisting of a minimum
of 200 pollen grains. Opinions vary as to the number of grains
constituting a reliable count (Bowman '31, Sears '31). In the
present instance, in a series of 86 species counts, it was found
that in 51% of the cases the counts were stabilized to within
1% at the end of the first hundred; 80% were stabilized to
within 1% at the end of the second hundred; 93% to within
1% at the end of the third hundred; and 94% to within 1% at
the end of the fourth hundred. 56% of the species counts reached
complete stability at the end of the third hundred. Stability is
defined as the point at which counting an additional hundred
does not affect the percentage of the total to the extent of 1. On
the basis of this evidence, 200 pollens in each level were taken
as a reliable count except in instances where wide discrepancies
between the first and second hundreds occurred in the percent¬
ages of significant pollens. In those cases a third hundred was
counted.
Results
A series of borings was made to ascertain the stratigraphic
features of the bog. The lower levels of peat were found to be
limnic in origin. In the center of the bog this peat consisted of
a quarter meter of gray ooze, which was topped by a two meter
thick layer of the remains of water mosses including species of
Drepanocladus (identified by Mr. L. S. Cheney). Toward the
eastern end of the bog the limnic peat consisted of 1.5 meters of
Potamogeton remains among which was identified Potamogeton
Robbinsii Oakes. In the center of the bog the limnic peat was
covered by two layers of raw Sphagnum peat separated by a
Truman— Fossil Prairie Invasions
37
Depth
Meters Peat
Fig. 1. Pollen frequency curves of the three major dominants, oak, larch and
ragweed. The nature of the peat is shown in the column on the right.
layer of black, highly oxidized peat, or muck, (Fig. 1). Nearer
the eastern shore the Sphagnum peat was found to be inter¬
rupted by two layers of muck, the second, or higher layer, show¬
ing a greater degree of disintegration than the first.
The percentages of pollen occurring at each quarter meter
level are given in Table I. Where it has been possible to do so,
identification of the species has been made; otherwise identifi¬
cation has been carried only to the genus or family. In analyz¬
ing the data presented by the pollen counts, the writer believes
that it is necessary to separate the pollens into two groups : the
edaphic pollens, or pollens of those plants that have contributed
directly to the formation of the peat ; and the exotic pollens, or
pollens of those anemophilous species growing in the surround¬
ing region. The frequency of each species is then computed in
terms of the percentage of its own group. This step is justified
by the fact that fluctuations in the frequencies of edaphic and
38 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters.
exotic species may be due to totally unrelated causes, and occa¬
sional high percentages of certain edaphic species so distort the
frequencies of the exotic pollens as to obscure their relationship
to each other and to their own frequencies at different levels.
Table II contains the pollen frequencies of the significant groups
computed as described above.
Figure 1 presents graphically the frequencies of the three
major dominant pollens. The position of larch in this group
may be questioned because of its high selectivity in habitat. As
this pollen, however, reaches its maximum frequency during the
lake period of the bog, it cannot justly be included among the
edaphic species, but its presence is an indication of the preva¬
lence of peat soil in the surrounding area during the early stages
of development of the bog. With the rapid diminution of larch
pollens to zero, oak becomes the major dominant pollen in the
peat until the 0.25 meter level where it is abruptly replaced by
ragweed pollen which maintains its dominance in the surface
level.
As shown in Figure 2, the dominance of oak pollen in the
peat is interrupted at two points by grass and at one point by
maple. The earlier of the grass interruptions, at the 2.5 meter
level, is associated with a marked decrease in oak, but with
slight diminution in the frequency of conifer pollen, which is
represented at this level by only pine (Table II). The second
interruption, at the 1.75 meter level, is correlated not only with
a sharp decrease in oak pollen, but also with the almost complete
disappearance of conifer pollen. It is of interest also to note
here the high frequency of grass pollen in the very earliest stage
of development of the bog, where it is exceeded only by larch.
The maple maximum in the 0.75 meter level does not involve in
any degree an interruption of the forest succession, but does
indicate its trend during the period represented by that level.
Conclusions
Stratigraphic study indicates that Gibraltar bog was initi¬
ated in a small lake immediately upon recession of the third
substage of Wisconsin glaciation, and that it contains an essen¬
tially unbroken record, in the form of plant remains and pollen
deposits, of that portion of the flora which has contributed di¬
rectly to the building up of the peat and also those anemophilous
Depth
Meters
0
Truman — Fossil Prairie Invasions
39
species which have entered into the composition of the surround¬
ing vegetation. Pollen analysis of the peat indicates that coni¬
ferous forests were established in the region immediately upon
the initiation of the bog and remained as the prevailing forest
flora during its early development. The high frequency and
subsequent disappearance of larch during this period of develop¬
ment may, because of its high selectivity in habitat, be due to
edaphic causes having little or no correlation with climatic con¬
ditions.
The second stage in the forest succession involves the disap¬
pearance of larch and the assumption of dominance by oak. The
period of oak dominance is interrupted at two points by grass.
The nature of these two interruptions differs in that the first is
associated with a considerable amount of pine, whereas the sec-
40 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters .
ond, which is much more marked than the first, involves not
only a sharp decrease in oak but also the almost complete loss of
pine, and is correlated with a layer of highly oxidized peat. Al¬
though Voss (’34) in several analyses limited to the pollens of
forest species finds no evidence of climatic fluctuations, the
writer believes that these two grass interruptions of the forest
succession can be explained only by environmental changes of a
general nature, presumably climatic. Assuming the validity of
the climatic significance of fossil pollens suggested by Sears
(’31), the first interval of grass dominance would, because of
its association with pine, represent a cool dry period of post¬
glacial time, while the second interval would represent a warm
dry period of sufficient intensity to bring about the severe de¬
generation of the surface of the bog which is evidenced by the
layer of muck formed at that time. The amelioration of this
dry period is indicated by the increase in maple in the succeed¬
ing levels of the peat.
The marked increase in the frequency of ragweed indicated
in the two upper levels of peat is undoubtedly correlated with
the clearing and cultivation of the adjacent land.
Acknowledgments
An expression of appreciation is due to Dr. N. C. Fassett for
his encouragement and efforts in behalf of this investigation ; to
Dr. F. B. Sears for his interest and helpful suggestions; and
to Dr. L. R. Wilson and other fellow students who have so
kindly lent their assistance in the accomplishment of the field
work.
Literature Cited
Alden, W. C. 1918, The Quaternary Geology of Southeastern Wisconsin,
U. S. Geol. Surv. Professional Paper 106.
Bowman, Paul W. 1931, Study of a Peat Bog near the Matamek River,
Quebec, Canada, by the Method of Pollen Analysis. Ecology
12 : 694-708,
Erdtman, G. 1931, Pollen Statistics; a New Research Method in Paleo-
ocology. Science 78 : 399-401.
Sears, P. B. 1931, Pollen Analysis of Mud Lake Bog, Ohio. Ecology 12 :
650-655.
Voss, John, 1934, Postglacial Migration of Forests in Illinois, Wisconsin,
and Minnesota. Bot. Gaz. 96 : 3-43.
TABLE I. PERCENTAGES* OF POLLENS AT QUARTER-METER INTERVALS
Truman — Fossil Prairie Invasions
41
Fractional percentages stated in terms of the nearest integer.
42 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
TABLE II. PERCENTAGES* OF EXOTIC POLLENS
* Fractional percentages stated in terms of the nearest integer.
COMBINED NITROGEN AND THE NITROGEN FIXATION
PROCESS IN LEGUMINOUS PLANTS*
P. W. Wilson and F. C. Wagner
For more than fifty years the fact of fixation of elemental
nitrogen by biological agents has been established, but knowl¬
edge of the mechanism of the process is still quite meagre. In
contrast to the high temperatures and pressures required for
the industrial processes, biochemical fixation of nitrogen occurs
in the living cell under ordinary temperature and pressure con¬
ditions. Knowledge of how fixation is accomplished in nature
probably would have definite practical application in addition to
its theoretical importance to biological science. Although at¬
tempts to reach an understanding of the mechanism have met
with little success, research involved has revealed a number of
the chemical factors concerned in the process. One of the most
interesting of these is the so-called “combined nitrogen effect.”
If an inorganic source of nitrogen (ammonium salts, ni¬
trates) is supplied a leguminous plant inoculated with the prop¬
er species of bacteria, invasion of the plant, i.e., formation and
development of nodules, and fixation of free nitrogen are greatly
inhibited. Of the hypotheses2 which seek to explain this appar¬
ent ability of a plant to control the fixation process according to
its needs for nitrogen, the one based on supply of carbohydrate
appears to be best supported by experimental data.
In contrast to the effects of combined nitrogen usually ob¬
served, occasional reports1 claim that small quantities of com¬
bined nitrogen exert a beneficial effect on nodule formation and
fixation of free nitrogen by inoculated leguminous plants. Sug¬
gestion has been made that the origin of this apparent contra¬
diction of effects lies in the stimulative action of small quanti¬
ties of combined nitrogen on the development of the plant.
Experiments to be discussed in this paper indicate that the ob¬
servations can be explained by an extension of the carbohydrate
* Herman Frasch Foundation in Agricultural Chemistry, Paper No. 94. Contribution from
the Departments of Agricultural Bacteriology and Agricultural Chemistry, University of Wisconsin.
Manuscript received June 10, 1935.
44 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , cmcZ Letters.
supply hypothesis, and thus a common basis is provided for in¬
terpretation of apparently discordant data.
Experimental
Suggestion of the carbohydrate hypothesis was first obtained
from experiments in which inoculated clover plants were sup¬
plied additional C02 5. In this work if the pC02 of the atmo¬
sphere exceeded 0.5 per cent, frequently the onset of nitrogen
fixation was delayed and the period of “nitrogen hunger” pro¬
longed. Plants in this stage had yellow leaves, red stems and
were quite stocky. Examinations of roots of these plants showed
numerous small, round, scattered nodules. Plants of the same
age supplied with air (0.03 per cent C02) were green, thrifty
with few well-developed nodules. As soon as nitrogen fixation
started in the plants given additional C02 development was very
rapid and eventually the plants exceeded those grown in air with
respect to both size and nitrogen fixed.
Inoculated Manchu soybeans grown outside under intense
sunlight and long days responded in a manner similar to clover
plants given additional C02. Nitrogen fixation was delayed and
the plants remained small, yellow and woody; uninoculated
plants given combined nitrogen were large, green and thrifty.
Shading plants of the inoculated series for one week resulted in
the onset of nitrogen fixation accompanied by rapid development
of the plants3.
An interpretation of these observations was that under cer¬
tain environmental conditions (high C02, high light intensity,
low combined nitrogen in substrata) an excessive carbohydrate-
nitrogen balance obtained in the plants. This excessive balance
restricted development of nodules and fixation of nitrogen. Any
factor which narrowed the carbohydrate-nitrogen relation, e.g.,
shading, stimulated increase of nodules and fixation of free ni¬
trogen.
Tests of this hypothesis were made by study of nitrogen fixa¬
tion and nodule development by clover plants in which the car¬
bohydrate-nitrogen balance was varied. Ten clover plants were
grown in 64 oz. glass bottles supplied with an atmosphere in
which the pC02 had been increased to 0.5 per cent. A nitrogen-
poor sand plus nitrogen-free Crone’s solution was used as a sub¬
strate. Inoculation with Rh. trifolii was delayed until plants
Wilson and Wagner— Nitrogen Fixation of Legumes 45
given no combined nitrogen exhibited signs of marked carbohy¬
drate excess. Variation of the carbohydrate-nitrogen balance
was accomplished by supplying certain bottles in each experi¬
ment with NH4 NOs at different stages of development. At
harvests observations were made on number, size and distribu¬
tion of nodules and determinations made of dry weight and total
nitrogen. The details of the treatment used in a given experi¬
ment will be apparent from the tables. In experiments III and
IV, one-half gallon stone jars were used as containers. In all
experiments made between Oct. 1 and Apr. 15 artificial illumi¬
nation was used to supplement natural light4. Observations of
the nodules are detailed in the following :
Experiment I
No nitrogen added— nodules small and scattered.
3 mgm . N at planting— nodules large and clumped; often 10 to 20 in
one clump.
Experiment II
No N added — large number of small white nodules scattered over sec¬
ondary roots.
3 mgm. N at planting— large number of large well developed nodules.
3 mgm. N at inoculation - — fewer nodules than in other series ; large and
well developed.
This experiment was made during extreme waves of heat and the
plants did not develop well.
Experiment III
No N added— few scattered, small nodules.
5 mgm. N at planting— numerous, medium size nodules.
5 mgm. N at inoculation— numerous, medium size nodules.
This experiment ran concurrently with experiment II, but the plants
were grown in open one-half gallon pots; the development of the
plants was much better in these containers.
The results of these three experiments are summarized in
table I. In tables II, III and IV are summarized the essential
data from experiments IV to VI including observations of nod¬
ules.
Discussion of Data
Consideration of the data in the tables and text indicates that
the outstanding effect of combined nitrogen on inoculated plants
46 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters.
high in carbohydrate is to increase the size of nodules formed.
In general, nodules on plants with an excessive carbohydrate-
nitrogen balance (as indicated by low percentage of nitrogen)
were small, round and white; those on plants with a more nar¬
row carbohydrate-nitrogen relation were medium to large in
size, oval and pink. The former type of nodule is characteristic
of those produced by inefficient strains of the organisms, where¬
as, the latter is typical of efficient strains. It is of interest that
nodule production was made to vary by changing the carbohy¬
drate-nitrogen relation of the plant in a manner analogous to
that resulting from use of strains of bacteria of different effici¬
encies1.
Number of nodules usually was greatest on plants with the
widest carbohydrate-nitrogen relation, i.e., lowest percentage of
nitrogen. In some experiments this did not hold, but the dis¬
crepancy arose from large differences in the size of the plants.
Plants given combined nitrogen at time of seeding were large
and hence would tend to have more nodules — independent of the
carbohydrate-nitrogen balance. In order to compensate for dif¬
ferences in size, number of nodules per unit weight of plant was
calculated. On this basis, in all experiments except III, the num¬
ber of nodules on plants decreased with the quantity of com¬
bined nitrogen added.
In order to eliminate large differences in development of the
plants under comparison, combined nitrogen was added to cer¬
tain series of plants at the time of, or immediately before, inoc¬
ulation. The method was found to be quite effective in changing
the carbohydrate-nitrogen relation in the plants without marked
increase in the size. The effects of combined nitrogen on number
and development of nodules were practically the same as those
noted when the NH4N03 was added at time of planting. This
result indicates clearly that the beneficial effects of supplying
plants with small quantities of combined nitrogen arises not
merely because of increased development of the plant, but also
from change of unfavorable carbohydrate-nitrogen balance in
the plant.
Data of experiment IV (table II) offer striking evidence of
the manner in which the relative quantities of carbohydrate and
nitrogen in clover plants affect nodule formation and develop¬
ment. Nodules were small on plants given no combined nitro-
Wilson and Wagner — Nitrogen Fixation of Legumes 47
gen, much larger on plants given 1 to 3 milligrams NH4N03-N
per bottle, but very small on plants given 5 milligrams of nitro¬
gen. In all cases, number of nodules was inversely proportional
to quantity of nitrogen available. Similar data are supplied by
experiment VI, especially in the first harvest.
In clover plants with an extremely wide carbohydrate-nitro¬
gen relation, not only is the development of nodules restricted,
but likewise fixation of atmospheric nitrogen is delayed. Data
summarized in table III indicate that plants with the higher per¬
centages of nitrogen at time of first harvest initiated the fixa¬
tion of free nitrogen earlier and developed more rapidly (dry
weight) than did those with a wider carbohydrate-nitrogen bal¬
ance.
The acceleration in development of the plants given NH.t-
N03-N which initially depended on a source of readily available
nitrogen is maintained because of the increased rate of free ni¬
trogen fixation by these plants. Since the experiments were
relatively short, the differences in quantity of nitrogen fixed
were not marked because the combined nitrogen added was still
an appreciable part of the total in the plant. With increasing
age, the differences would likely become more pronounced since
the development of plants is exponential in character and any
initial difference tends to become greater in absolute value with
time.
Summary and Conclusions
The data of these experiments suggest that a unified hypoth¬
esis based on chemical composition of the plant may be of¬
fered in explanation of the effects of combined nitrogen on nod¬
ule development and fixation of free nitrogen by inoculated
leguminous plants. Briefly, this hypothesis is: the response of
the symbiotic system of an inoculated leguminous plant to com¬
bined nitrogen will depend on how the latter alters the carbohy¬
drate-nitrogen relation of the plant . In a plant high in carbohy¬
drate, addition of a small quantity of combined nitrogen will
favor development of nodules and fixation of free nitrogen ; but
with large quantities, the reverse obtains. The significance of
these observations with reference to the more general problem
of the biochemistry of the fixation process is discussed in an-
48 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters .
other paper6; certain practical applications will be briefly indi¬
cated in this report.
On fields that are low in combined nitrogen planted with
small-seeded leguminous crops, it is possible that a disastrous
delay in the onset of nitrogen fixation may occur because of an
excessive carbohydrate-nitrogen balance in the plant. The slow
development of plants with excessive carbohydrate may be suf¬
ficient to cause crop failure especially under unfavorable condi¬
tions, e.g., hot, dry weather. In such cases, additions of small
quantities of combined nitrogen should prove economical, since
an impetus to the initial growth of the plant may result in de¬
velopment sufficient for overcoming adverse environmental con¬
ditions. Likewise, higher yields of crops will be favored if the
fixation process is not delayed.
In testing bacterial cultures for artificial inoculation of clo- .
ver, alfalfa and other small-seeded leguminous plants, the re¬
sults may be vitiated under certain conditions because of an
extremely wide carbohydrate-nitrogen balance in the plants. If
the plants in such tests are supplied with small quantities of
combined nitrogen, a better evaluation of the cultures might be
obtained. Also, it is possible that the time required for the
testing would be lessened because of the stimulation of the early
development of the plant.
Bibliography
1. Fred, E. B., Baldwin, I. L. and MicCoy, E. Root nodule bacteria and
leguminous plants. Univer. Wis. Studies in Science No. 5, 1932.
2. Hopkins, E. W. and Fred, E. B. Influence of various nitrogenous
compounds and mannitol on nodule formation by clover. Plant
Physiol. 8 , 141-155, 1933,
3. Orcutt, F. S. and Fred, E. B. Light intensity as an inhibiting
factor in the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen by Manchu soybeans.
Jour. Amer. Soc. Agron. 27, 550-558, 1935.
4. Wilson, P. W. and Georgi, G. E. Methods for controlling the en¬
vironment of greenhouse plants. Bot. Gaz. 9U, 346-363i, 1932u
5. Wilson, P. W., Fred, E. B. and Salmon, M. R. Relation between car¬
bon dioxide and elemental nitrogen assimilation in leguminous
plants. Soil Sci., 35, 145-165, 1933.
6. Wilson, P. W. The carbohydrate-nitrogen relation in symbiotic
nitrogen fixation. Wis. Agric. Expt. Sta., Res. Bull. No. 129, 1935.
Wilson and Wagner — Nitrogen Fixation of Legumes 49
Table I
Effect of combined nitrogen on nodule formation and nitrogen fixation by
inoculated clover plants high in carbohydrate
Planted Inoculated Harvested
Expt. I 4—19—34 S— 21— 34 6—26—34
Expt. II 7— S— 34 8— 7—34 8—27—34
Expt. Ill 7— 5—34 8— 7—34 8—28—34
* All data in tables, unless otherwise noted, on 10 plant basis.
Table II
Dry weight and nodule formation by inoculated clover plants
supplied combined nitrogen. {Expt. IV.)
S — Small L — large
Sc — scattered C — clumped
W — white P — pink
R — round O — oval
B — brown M — medium
Planted —11— 1—34
Inoculated — 12 — 5 — 34
Harvested —12—27—34
50 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
Table III.
Dry weight and nitrogen content of inoculated clover plants
given combined nitrogen
* Blanks indicate no nitrogen was fixed; total nitrogen does not exceed N added plus
nitrogen in plants to which no nitrogen was added at time of inoculation.
Table IV
Correlation between per cent nitrogen and nodule production
by inoculated clover plants
Planted Inoculated Harvest 1 Harvest 2
Experiment V 9—14—34 10—17—34 10—24—34 10—31—34
Experiment VI 1—19— 3 S 2—22—35 3— 2—35 3—16—35
CONDUCTIMETRIC TITRATION OF ORGANIC BASES IN
GLACIAL ACETIC ACID
Norris F. Hall and Willard F. Spengeman
Chemical Laboratory , University of Wisconsin
It has been shown in a series of papers on highly acid solu¬
tions,1 that certain organic bases dissolved in glacial acetic acid
can be titrated potentiometrically with certain strong acids such
as perchloric acid and sulfuric acid also dissolved in glacial ace¬
tic acid. The shape of the titration curves obtained in this way
is dependent, among other things, upon the strength of the base
titrated. By arbitrarily choosing a so-called pHHAc scale2 a
pKHAc for the base is calculated from the pHHAc value at half¬
titration. In this way the pKHAc value for a large number of
organic bases was obtained, the numerical value of which placed
the bases roughly in three classes, weak, intermediate, and
strong.
It was felt that since these acid-base titrations in acetic acid
gave characteristic curves when followed potentiometrically,
they would likewise give characteristic curves when followed
conductimetrically and that perhaps the curves might yield fur¬
ther information in regard to the relative strength of the or¬
ganic bases. For this reason the conductimetric titration of a
number of organic bases dissolved in acetic acid was under¬
taken.*
Experimental
Apparatus. A Leeds and Northrup no. 4666 Grinnell Jones ’
Conductivity Bridge3 was used in conjunction with a two-stage
amplifier using a Hartley oscillator with a 201-A vacuum tube,
operating at 1400 cycles per second, as a source of current.
The titration cell was made of a soft-glass, glass-stoppered
test tube in which two bright platinum electrodes were sealed in
a fixed position at the bottom. The cell constant as determined
* After the completion of this work, Koithoff and Willman5 published curves for the conducti¬
metric titration in acetic acid of sodium acetate with perchloric and hydrobromic acids and also
of silver perchlorate with hydrobromic acid. As would be expected, sodium acetate acted like a
relatively strong base.
52 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , amZ Letters.
by comparison with a cell of known constant was approximately
0.055 at room temperature, the temperature at which the titra¬
tions were carried out.
Materials. Perchloric acid, because of its strength was used
in all titrations. Anhydrous perchloric acid was prepared by
distilling a mixture of 25 ml. of 60% aqueous perchloric acid
and 50 ml. of 30% fuming sulfuric acid in an all glass still at
about 5 mm. pressure, the receiver being surrounded by a hy¬
drochloric acid-ice mixture and the distilling flask being heated
on a water bath. The anhydrous perchloric acid was cautiously
weighed from a weight pipet into glacial acetic acid and made
up to a definite volume to give a stock solution of known
strength.
The acetic acid used was purchased from the Niacet Chemi¬
cal Company and was distilled in an all glass fractionating still.
All samples used froze above 16.2° C.
The organic bases were those used in the earlier studies and
were repurified by distillation, in the case of the liquids, and by
recrystallization in the case of a few of the solids. In all cases
the solutions were prepared by weighing out the base directly
and dissolving it in a definite volume of acetic acid. Guanidine
was used in the form of its acetate.
Procedure. Fifty ml. of the solution to be titrated was pi¬
petted into the titration cell. The titrating reagent was added
from a 10-ml. buret graduated in 0.05 ml. divisions. Approxi¬
mately one ml. was added each time, the cell shaken well after
each addition, and the resistance measured after two or three
minutes. The titrations were carried out at room temperatures
which ranged from 22° to 25°.
Results and Discussions
Figure 1 shows the titration curves obtained with four or¬
ganic bases by adding 1.66 M HC104 in acetic acid to 50 ml. of
0.1 M base in acetic acid. Urea, the weakest base titrated, gives
a curve without a break which is quite similar to the conducti-
metric titration curve of a weak base in the water system. The
strongest base, diethyl aniline, gives some indication of strong
base behavior but on the whole shapes of the curves give very
little evidence of the known large differences in the strengths of
the bases.
Hall and Spengeman — Titration of Organic Bases 53
Fig. 1. Conductimetric Titration of Various Bases with Perchloric Acid
It was found that by adding the base to the acid, curves were
obtained which differentiated the relative strengths of the vari¬
ous bases more clearly. Figure 2 shows the titration curves
obtaining by titrating 50 ml. of 0.01 M HC104 with 0.1 M bases.
As can be seen, the graphs are identical in shape with those
obtained by the titration of bases of various strength against a
strong acid in the water system. Likewise, the slopes of those
portions of the graphs to the right of the equivalence point vary
54
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters.
Fig. 2. Conductimetric Titration of Perchloric Acid with Various Bases
The bases used and their corresponding pKHAc values are: (1) diethylaniline,
3.15; (2) guanidine, 3.10; (3) pyridine, 2.93; (4) ethylaniline, 2.83; (5) methyl
p-toluidine, 2.79; (6) p-toluidine, 2.67; (7) m-toluidine, 2.57; (8) p-bromaniline,
2.20; (9) o-bromaniline, 0.90; (10) diphenylamine, —0.74; (11) urea, —0.93.
with the pKHAc of the base just as the slopes of the graphs for
bases in the water system vary with base strength. Thus for
the strongest bases, such as guanidine and diethyl aniline, the
slopes are greatest, while for such weak bases as diphenyl amine
and o-bromaniline the slopes are negative. The bases of inter-
Hall and Spengeman — Titration of Organic Bases 55
mediate strength show slopes of intermediate gradation.
The conductimetric curves do not differentiate between bases
of different strength as clearly as do the curves obtained poten-
tiometrically, and in some cases there is even a qualitative dis¬
agreement between the two sets of results. Thus, diphenyl
amine (pKI1Ac = —0.74) and o-bromaniline (pKHAc = 0.90) dif¬
fer in strength by 1.64 pKHAc units yet their graphs after the
equivalence point have practically the same slope. Pyridine has
a curve whose slope beyond the equivalence point is less than
those of a number of bases whose pKHAc values are smaller. In
the case of pyridine this can be accounted for by the fact that
pyridine perchlorate tends to precipitate. Other similar dis¬
crepancies can be noted which give further indication3 4 5 that as an
aid to the investigation of basic strength in non-aqueous solu¬
tions, potentiometric methods have certain advantages.
Summary
1. Organic bases dissolved in glacial acetic acid have been
titrated conductimetrically against perchloric acid in acetic acid.
2. The shape of the graphs is similar to those of acid-base
conductimetric titrations in water.
3. A comparison is made of the information furnished by po¬
tentiometric and conductimetric titrations in acetic acid.
Literature Cited
1. (a) Hall and Conant, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 49, 3047 (1927) ; (b)
Conant and Hall, ibid., 49 3062 (1927) ; (c) Hall and Werner, ibid.,
50, 2367 (1928); (d) Conant and Werner, ibid., 52, 4436 (1930);
(e) Hall, ibid., 52, 5115 (1930).
2. See ref. la, pp. 3059-3061 and ref. le.
3. Pike, Rev. Sd. Instruments, 2, 379 (1931).
4. See ref. le, p. 2384.
5. Kolthoff and Willman, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 56, 1007 (1934).
EMERGENCY VALUES OF SOME WINTER
PHEASANT FOODS*
Iowa State College
Paul L. Errington
It is fairly easy to classify winter foods for given kinds of
game into two extreme groups, namely, those which are of
known excellence as staples and those which are so inferior that
they are hardly eaten, even when prominently available. Inter¬
mediate between the obviously good and the evidently poor food
types we have a third group, the constituent items of which are
not so easy to place in the nutritive scale.
Conservationists and game managers could well learn more
about this third group, since its constituent foods frequently
play an important part in the lives of such gallinaceous game as
ring-necked pheasants and bob-whites during the periods of win¬
ter food crisis. The emergencies occasioned by snow or ice cov¬
ering up or sealing most of the supply of corn or other staple
foods may be of comparatively brief duration, but they may be
attended, nevertheless, by heavy and sometimes wholesale mor¬
tality.
The starchy, substantial type of food apparently necessary
for the wintering of pheasants and quail may be exemplified by
certain cultivated grains and weed seeds: corn, sorghum, bar¬
ley, wheat, rye, soy beans, pigeon grass ( Setaria ), lesser rag¬
weed ( Ambrosia art emisii folia) , and a relatively limited number
of others that may serve as staples locally.
Foods of the questionable intermediate group have insuffici¬
ent nutritive value in themselves to sustain pheasants and quail
on the predominate diets of one or the other into which the birds
are forced now and then by necessity. They are apt to be more
varied in kinds and distribution than true staples and may be
strongly represented in regular diets as well as in the diets of
desperate birds having access to little else. Moreover, these less
substantial foods may be abundantly present in areas virtually
lacking in true staples, thus giving the conservation-minded
Journal Paper No. J258 of the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa. Project 329.
58 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters .
public a false impression of environmental adequacy for some
species it is making an effort to encourage.
The objective of this paper is to contribute information
which may be helpful in the evaluation of some of the foods con¬
cerning which there has been more or less question with regards
to their effectiveness as emergency diet or as winter staples.
Previous Work With Bob-white
In connection with the recent Wisconsin quail investigation,
experiments were run with captive bob-whites to determine the
sustentative values of certain foods eaten in quantity under
emergency winter conditions (Errington, 1931).
The foods experimented with were some which field observa¬
tions indicated could not sustain life during starvation crises,
although they were freely eaten by famished birds. Chief among
these were black locust beans ( Robinia pseudoacacia) , fruits of
bittersweet ( Celastrus scandens) and of sumac ( Rhus glabra,
R. typhina), rose hips (Rosa), dried wild grapes ( Vitus vulpina,
V. bicolor), and sweet clover seeds (Melilotus) . Of the foods
tested, only the beans of black locust proved to be sufficiently
substantial to carry birds through winter periods of emergency.
It should be pointed out that much material not ranking as
staple or effective emergency food is eaten by birds in the wild,
incidentally or to provide vitamins, fruit acids, minerals, or
whatever other substances may be essential to a well balanced
diet — the “salad” foods of Leopold (1933). Nothing in this
writing is meant to imply that foods are of no utility to a given
game bird species simply because experimentation and observa¬
tion indicate that the birds cannot thrive upon them as a largely
exclusive diet. They cannot be depended upon as staples, never¬
theless, and the supreme necessity of an adequate supply of
staple foods for a winter-habitable environment should not be
lost sight of.
Technique of Pheasant Food Experiments
The combined experimental and observational technique was
of such usefulness in studying the wintering of bob-white popu¬
lations (Errington, 1933) that it was next tried out on pheas¬
ants.
Errington — Winter Pheasant Foods
59
The experimental work was done from January to April,
1983, at Lansing, Iowa, where the discontinuation of a state
game farm had made available for our purposes a stock of about
100 ring-necked pheasants. A cooperative arrangement was
made with the Iowa Fish and Game Commission by which Mr.
W. E. Albert, Jr. of their staff was authorized to handle and
supervise the experimental routine, including the care of the
birds and the collection of foods to be tested. The detailed ex¬
periments were patterned after the ones conducted with quail in
Wisconsin, with modifications to meet local needs.
From 4 to 8 pheasants were used in each experimental lot
and were confined in pens constructed in such a way as to give
them a degree of protection from severe weather comparable to
that which they would be able to get if living in the wild. Grit
and water were freely available at all times and the birds were
given all of the single food items that they would consume.
Care was taken to remove food remnants from pens before
admitting birds to be used in particular experiments. As a
final preparation for each pen, hungry “clean-up’' birds were
confined for several days without feeding, and it is not likely
that, by the time of their removal, they missed many traces of
food which we might have overlooked.
Weighings were usually made at weekly intervals for the
birds on food experiments. Birds experimentally starved were,
on the other hand, weighed daily to provide some sort of yard¬
stick with which the different loss rates could be compared.
Cold doubtless did have an accelerating influence on the rates
at which birds on insufficient diets lost weight, as will be taken
up later in this paper.
Sex did not seem to make a great deal of difference in the
ability of pheasants to withstand hunger, so no separation of
data from cocks and hens will be attempted here. The role of
disease in influencing experimental results obtained was on the
whole probably negligible; obviously diseased birds were not
selected for important experiments, and the records of those
discovered to be diseased at post-mortem were carefully studied.
Check and Yellow Corn Lots
For checks, two cocks and four hens were kept on a bal¬
anced grain and green food ration an average period of 62 days
60 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
between January 20 and April 7. The cocks averaged 2 lbs. 8 oz.
and the hens 1 lb. 14 oz. at the first weighing. The lot gained
an average of .015 oz. per bird per day.
To test the effect of monotony of winter diet on weight re¬
tention of adult pheasants, when food of known excellence was
eaten, two cocks and four hens were fed nothing but shelled
corn on bare ground for periods varying from 35 to 77 days.
The cocks averaged 2 lbs. 10 oz. and the hens 2 lbs. 2 oz. at the
beginning of the experiment. The average gain was .033 oz. per
bird per bird for an average of 61 days between January 20 and
April 7.
Starvation Lots
These experiments were run to determine maximum loss
rates resulting from total deprivation of food. The correlation
of temperature with loss rates is especially significant.
For lot No. 1, three cocks (av. wt. before starving, 2 lbs.
11 oz.) and five hens (av. 1 lb. 15 oz.), starved for an average of
12 days at a mean air temperature of 29.2° (F.), the average
daily loss per bird was 1.09 oz. The average loss per bird for
the first week was 5.7 oz. or .8 oz. per day; 9.8 oz. in the next
five days or 2 oz. per day.
For lot No. 2, the same number and sex of birds at the same
weights, starving an average of 10 days at a mean air tempera¬
ture of 1.6° (F), lost at a daily average of 1.27 oz. The aver¬
age loss per bird for the first week was 8.4 oz. or 1.2 oz. per day;
10 oz. in the next 3 days or 3.3 oz. per day.
Sumac Lots
Fruits of sumac ( Rhus glabra, R. tyyhina) are eaten by nu¬
merous species of birds and sometimes in large quantities dur¬
ing periods when food is scarce on account of heavy covering
snow.
It is somewhat questionable that the correlation of loss rates
with temperature is so pronounced as may appear.
For lot No. 1, one cock (2 lbs. 7 oz.) and five hens (av. 1 lb.
15 oz.) lost an average of 1 oz. per day on a straight sumac diet
for an average of 13 days. The average loss for the first week
was 6.5 oz. or .9 oz. per day; for the next six days, 7.4 oz. or
1.23 oz. per bird per day. The mean air temperature was
25.3° (F.).
Errington — Winter Pheasant Foods
61
Lot No. 2 was kept on the same sumac diet for the same
length of time but at a mean temperature of 34° (F.) . One cock
(3 lbs. 3 oz.) and three hens (av. 1 lb. 12 oz.) lost at the average
rate of .6 oz. per bird per day. The average loss for the first
week was 3.8 oz. or .54 oz. per day; for the next six days, 4 oz.
or .66 oz. per day.
Sweet Clover Lots
Sweet clover, often cultivated, is also widely distributed as a
weed, occurring' in locally heavy growths. It produces an abun¬
dance of attractive looking seeds which many people interested
in game management assume to be of substantial value as game
food. | 1
The Wisconsin studies brought out the short-comings of the
seed as food for quail; hence, experiments with pheasants
seemed particularly in order.
Lot No. 1 consisted of three cocks (av. 1 lb. 14 oz.) and three
hens (av. 1 lb. 12 oz.), kept on a straight dieti^ of sweet clover
seed for an average of 14 days. At a mean temperature of
25.6° (F.), the average loss was .66 oz. per bird per day.
The mean temperature for lot No. 2 was 31.5° (F.) and the
loss rate for four hens (av. 1 lb. 14 oz.) was somewhat lower:
for an average of 18 days the loss rate was .53 oz. per bird per
day.
Greater Ragweed Lots
Greater ragweed or king head ( Ambrosia trifida) is of wide
distribution in the middle west and often occurs in dense stands,
especially in the river bottomlands which are favored by pheas¬
ants. The sparing representation of its achenes in crops and
gizzards examined gave rise to a suspicion that as food it might
not be all that could be desired.
Achenes of lesser ragweed (A. art emisii folia) constitute one
of the most important of all quail foods in the middle west and
are eaten in large quantities by pheasants as well. The achenes
of greater ragweed, however, have their probably nutritious
seeds encased in coats so hard and woody and so frequently
armed with sharp points that they doubtless present difficulties
to birds in the habit of swallowing whole the achenes of the
lesser ragweed.
62 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
Lot No. 1 was fed on a straight diet of achenes dried to ap¬
proximately the condition of those found during drouths; lot
No. 2, on water-soaked achenes instead of dry, thus approximat¬
ing the condition of those available on low grounds during ordi¬
nary winters. The extra variable introduced by moistening the
achenes fed lot No. 2 makes the results of the ragweed experi¬
ments ineligible for temperature comparisons.
Lot No. 1, one cock (2 lbs. 7 oz.) and five hens (av. 2 lbs.
2 oz.) fed on dry achenes, lost an average of .65 oz. per bird per
day for 19 days. The mean temperature was 17.9° (F.). Two
birds died about the end of the second week, and post-mortems
on these revealed severe inflammation of the alimentary tract,
involving the proventriculus, gizzard, and small intestine, ap¬
parently caused by the tough, spiny achene points.
Lot No. 2, fed on water-softened achenes in warmer weather
(mean temperature 33.9° (F.) ), suffered no fatalities and only
one bird was in very emaciated condition at the end of the ex¬
periment. One cock (3 lbs. 1 oz.) and seven hens (av. 1 lb.
13 oz.) lost at an average rate of .27 oz. per day for 14 days.
Poison Ivy and Coralberry Lots
Poison ivy ( Rhus toxicodendron) has a more waxy fruit
than that of the sumacs ( R . glabra and typhina) so the possibil¬
ity was considered that it might be of greater sustentative value
during winter emergencies. Coralberry ( Symphoricarpos orbi -
culatus) and wolf berry (S. occidentalis) occur abundantly in
occupied pheasant range and their fruits are known to be eaten
in greater or less quantities.
The fleshy consistency of both poison ivy and coralberry
fruits would seem to place them in the category of “salad” foods
rather than in that of winter staples, an assumption supported
by the experimental evidence.
On a straight diet of poison ivy fruits one cock (3 lbs. 1 oz.)
and three hens (av. 1 lb. 15 oz.) lost an average of .7 oz. per day
for an average of 16 days. The mean temperature was 31.5°
(F.).
The poison ivy pen was situated on a partially wooded hill
side, and we strongly suspected that one bird managed to find
some acorns missed by ourselves and by the pheasants used in
cleaning up the pens. A similar suspicion, relative to a bird in
Errington — Winter Pheasant Foods
63
another experiment, which was holding its weight remarkably
well compared to its fellows, proved founded when an acorn was
discovered in its gizzard at post-mortem. Considerable differ¬
ences in the ability of individuals to hold their weights were
noted in the poison ivy experiment, perhaps due largely to the
acorn variable.
The coralberry lot (four hens, averaging 1 lb. 12 oz.) lost
an average of .46 oz. per bird for 17 days. Loss rates for indi¬
viduals lacked uniformity for this lot also, two birds losing only
8 oz. each in three weeks. The mean temperature was 37.4°
(F.).
Burdock and Velvet Leaf Lots
The seeds of burdock ( Arctium ) and velvet leaf or butter
print (Abutilon) are of fair size, meaty, and have the appear¬
ance that one would expect of excellent game foods. Both are
important weeds, growing abundantly on many farms. Al¬
though stomach data immediately at hand do not show any ma¬
terial representation of these foods in the diet of pheasants, it
was thought well to try them out experimentally.
Three of the four hens (av. 2 lbs.) of the burdock lot lost an
average of 1 oz. per day for an average of 15 days. The fourth
held its weight well and was found to have been eating acorns
which had escaped notice. Mean temperature: 25.3° (F.) .
The average loss on velvet leaf for two cocks (av. 2 lbs. 5 oz.)
and four hens (av. 2 lbs. 3 oz.) was .87 oz. per bird per day for
an average of 15 days. The mean temperature was 17.9° (F.) .
Dock Lot
Dock (Rumex) is a very common roadside and field plant
and is found also in dense lowland growths. The achenes are
often eaten by bird life, including pheasants, and are similar to
those of buckwheat, though much smaller. In the course of
field studies, the question has arisen as to just how dependable
dock might be as a winter emergency food, especially in locali¬
ties where it was observed to be eaten freely.
Four hens (av. 2 lbs.) lost on a straight diet an average of
.88 oz. per bird per day for an average of 16 days. Mean tem¬
perature: 24.7° (F.).
64 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
To me, the exceedingly poor showing of dock as an emergen¬
cy food is rather surprising. It may be that the hard little
achene is difficult for a bird’s digestive system to open or that
the available nutriment in a seed may be small in proportion to
the achene coat and herbaceous calyx inclosing it. So far as
nutrition is concerned, a crop full of dock fruits may be com¬
parable to a crop full of bran mixed with a few particles of
wheat.
Smart weed Lot
Achenes of wild plants belonging to the genus Polygonum are
known to make up a substantial part of the diet of many game
birds, notably quail and pheasants. In some localities they com¬
prise the chief food of gallinaceous game during the cold weath¬
er months, although never, to my knowledge, the sole food. This
much has been made clear both through field observation and
through analyses of stomach contents.
To investigate still further the importance of smartweed as
food, one cock pheasant (2 lbs. 10 oz.) and three hens (2 lbs.
3 oz.) were put on a straight diet of achenes, mainly those of
Polygonum pennsylvanicum with some mixture of P. persicana,
P. convolvulus and other well-represented wild species.
Contrasted with the birds on the straight diet of yellow corn,
those on smartweed did not maintain their weights so steadily.
The average loss rate for the smartweed lot was .26 oz. per
bird per day for an average of 36 days. The mean temperature
was 28.9° (F.).
For the first week the average loss was 3.3 oz. or .47 oz. per
bird per day; thereafter the rate dropped to 1.5 oz. per week or
.21 oz. per bird per day for the duration of the experiment.
This diminishing of loss rates is the reverse of what typically
occurred in the course of experiments with questionable foods,
but seems subject to plausible explanation.
In the first place, the birds used for experiments were game
farm raised and had had little if any experience with smartweed
achenes as food. They accepted the straight diet without hesi¬
tation, but the flat slippery achenes of the P. pennsylvanicum
type passed out with the feces in volume, most of them undi¬
gested and even unbroken.
Errington — Winter Pheasant Foods
65
The logical supposition is that the birds, after a rather diffi¬
cult first week, adapted themselves to the diet by eating more
gravel or more fibrous substance to facilitate breaking up or re¬
tention of the achenes. The single bird killed for examination
during the experiment was one that had been losing weight
rapidly; its gizzard and intestines contained very little grit or
any material except the achenes which were obviously slipping
through entire in large numbers.
Bud and Catkin Lot
Ability on the part of wild gallinaceous birds to withstand
winter vicissitudes has often resolved itself into a matter of be¬
ing able to take advantage of woody or herbaceous vegetation as
food at times when more substantial foods as seeds and grains
were rendered unavailable by ice or snow covering. The habi¬
tability of some types of wild environment for different gallin¬
aceous or other species may hinge upon whether or not a par¬
ticular species can effectively resort to “budding” if need be.
The bob-white quail is not adapted to subsist upon buds, as
on an exclusively herbaceous diet it loses at about half the rate
that it would if it had nothing to eat at all (Errington, 1931).
Conversely, the ruffed grouse is an habitual budder. Sharp¬
tailed grouse are known as heavy budders and prairie chickens
to a lesser extent. Winter stomachs and feces of Iowa Hungar¬
ian partridges show large amounts of grass leaves and green
foods.
Just where the pheasant belongs in this category has been
open to question, despite the knowledge that it does eat consid¬
erable green material and has been known to bud. The experi¬
mental results, then, may be more than usually informative.
One cock (2 lbs. 3 oz.) and three hens (av. 1 lb. 14 oz.) were
put on a diet of aspen and cottonwood buds ( Populus tremu-
loides and P. deltoides) , hazel catkins ( Corylus ), alder catkins
(Alnus) , with miscellaneous bud and catkin material from wil¬
low ( Salix ) and birch ( Betida ). This would approximate a
subsistence diet for ruffed grouse and possibly for sharp-tails.
The average loss rate of the lot was .52 oz. per bird per day
for an average of 21 days, but the loss rate for the first two
weeks was comparatively low, amounting to an average of 4.4
oz. per bird or .31 oz. per day. Then the birds lost with a sud-
66 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
denness one would be tempted to call a break : 6.8 oz. per bird
for the third week or nearly .an ounce a day.
The mean temperature for the third week was 4.8° lower
than the 31.5° (F.) mean for the experimental period, but aside
from the probable effect of temperature in the loss rates, I am
inclined to believe that the data show a rather unexpected abil¬
ity on the part of pheasants to extract nutriment from some
low grade foods, at least for several days at a time. A species
capable of intermittent budding certainly has, under marginal
living conditions, a survival advantage over species dependent
entirely upon the frequently inaccessible concentrated foods as
nuts, grains, and the more substantial weed seeds.
Mixed Questionable Food Lot
This experiment was intended to test the possibility of pheas¬
ants being able to subsist on a mixture of the foods tried out
with wholly or partially adverse results, in case any of those
results might be attributed to monotony of diet rather than to
lack of suitability of the foods as winter staples.
The mixture consisted of the soaked greater ragweed, vel¬
vet leaf, sweet clover, coral berry, sumac, poison ivy, dock, bur¬
dock, and bud and catkin material described before. It was
supplied generously and in such a way as to leave the choosing
of the diet entirely up to the individual birds.
It represented, in short, very nearly the bulk of the food
supply available under mid-winter conditions in some localities
where repeated attempts are made to establish pheasants. Any
natural shortage of lesser ragweed and smartweed, combined
with a close harvest of cultivated grains, could conceivably re¬
sult in a similar food picture over large areas of southern Wis¬
consin, eastern Iowa, and eastern Minnesota farm lands which
remain persistently barren of pheasants despite the release of
imported or locally reared stock.
Six hens (av. 1 lb. 13 oz.), picked veterans of previous ex¬
periments and individuals of proven adaptability, lost on this
diet an average of .77 oz. per day for an average of 12 days.
Mean temperature : 39° (F.).
Erring ton — Winter Pheasant Foods
67
Conclusions
On the basis of the experimental data summarized, supple¬
mented by what information we have from stomach content
analyses and field studies, we may draw a number of admittedly
tentative conclusions on foods of the group intermediate between
those plainly dependable as winter staples and those clearly not.
1. Fruits of fleshy consistency or those made up largely of
digestion-resistant seeds are quite inadequate as winter
emergency foods for pheasants. These include sumac, poi¬
son ivy, coral berry, and very likely other foods untested in
the pheasant experiments, such as rose hips, dried wild
grapes, bittersweet, elder berry, Virginia creeper, etc.
2. Some substantial appearing seeds as those of sweet clover
and velvet leaf, while freely eaten and finely ground up dur¬
ing digestive processes, do not qualify as staples. Possibly
toxic constituents (as alkaloids or glucosides) may be sus¬
pected in some foods of this type, although this point has
not been investigated in the experiments here reported.
3. Some foods doubtless have more sustentative value when
eaten with something else. Smartweed achenes which have
a way of slipping unbroken through the digestive tract may
be an example. Another example may be the achenes of
greater ragweed which, when taken as a straight diet even
when softened by moisture, fill the intestine with an appar¬
ently burdensome amount of harsh, coarse debris.
4. Buds and catkins among herbaceous foods may be of defi¬
nite utility in enabling populations to survive sleet storms
and temporary emergencies of this sort, as on this type of
diet the daily loss rates are manifestly less than when the
birds have only innutritions fruits to eat, or perhaps almost
no organic material at all except for dried grasses and
leaves.
In this latter respect, probably all of the emergency or non¬
staple foods dealt with in this paper may have some value in
retarding starvation loss rates during short periods of famine.
Not too much should be expected of non-staple foods neverthe¬
less. Even though the crops of fat mid-winter specimens may
68 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters .
contain as much sumac as corn, it is the corn that is carrying
them, not the sumac.
References
Errington, Paul L. 1931. The bob-whites winter food. American Game,
vol. 20, pp. 20, 75-78.
1933. The wintering of the Wisconsin bob-white. Trans. Wis. Acad. Sci.,
Arts and Letters, vol. 28, pp. l-$5.
Leopold, Aldo 1933. Game Management. Scribners.
THE CHASE JOURNAL: AN EARLY RECORD
OF WISCONSIN WILDLIFE
Aldo Leopold
University of Wisconsin
In building technique for wildlife restoration, it is of great
value to have precise and dependable records of its decline.
Usable records are scarce. A usable record is one in which all
variables but one tend to be averaged out, either by a long span
of space, or by a long span of time.
A shooting journal is valuable when it presents the bag of
an individual or fixed group, hunting one locality, by one meth¬
od, at regular intervals, through a long period of years. Such a
record is the W. H. Chase Journal, recently presented to the
Wisconsin Historical Library. This digest and analysis is pre¬
pared to make its contents available to other students.
Walter Howard Chase began the Journal in 1878 at the age
of fifteen and continued it through 1896, when he moved to Sul¬
livan, Illinois. He died in 1934.
The Journal recorded his bag by species for each calendar
year from 1873 to 1896. There are no notes or comments ex¬
cept an annual note on the opening and closing dates of Lake
Wingra, and another dividing the duck bag as between spring
and fall. The page for 1879 is missing, the stub bearing evidence
of childish fingers wielding a scissors at some later time. The
year 1895 is also missing.
Lake Wingra, with its immediate environs, was the theatre
of the hunting operations. It is one of the five “Madison Lakes”
and lies on the outskirts of Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin.
Part of the terrain is now covered with suburban residences, a
municipal park, and a golf club; the remainder lies largely
within the University of Wisconsin Arboretum. Since the Ar¬
boretum is now a centre for wild life research work, this record
of its early fauna is of special interest.
The general accuracy of the Journal is attested by attendant
circumstances. The bags are recorded by tally marks, entered
in changing inks, pens, and pencils, which means they were tal-
70 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
lied currently, and not “estimated” at the end of the season.
Chase also collected an herbarium of 1,000 plants, now a part of
the University Herbarium. The species determinations attest
his competency as an amateur naturalist.
The Chase home, in which W. H. Chase lived during the pe¬
riod of the Journal, is on the shore of Lake Wingra. Dr. Samuel
H. Chase, his brother, tells me that his hunting ground was
bounded on the north by “Marston’s Woods” (now Nakoma)
and on the east by the “Dead Lake Ridge,” a moraine dividing
Lake Wingra from Lake Monona. Toward the west it extended
at times as far as Verona. Toward the south it included all of
the peat and marl lowlands, then known as the “Big Marsh,”
now comprising the east end of the Arboretum. Ducks were
hunted with boat and decoys, but often also by jump-shooting.
Dogs were used during the entire recorded period, the names of
three appearing on the cover of the Journal. W. H. Chase fished
in other counties of the state, but seldom if ever hunted there,
hence the bags in the Journal are quite surely local to the Win¬
gra area.
TABLE I.
W. H. CHASE JOURNAL. GAME KILLED ON AND NEAR LAKE WINGRA, MADISON, WISCONSIN
Quail Bobwhite 1
Rabbit _ Cottontail _ $ 3
PER CENT OF DUCKS KILLED IN SPRING
72 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters .
I have summarized the bags by species and years in table 1.
The trend of the bag in certain species is depicted in the graph
(Fig. 1). On Dr. Samuel H. Chase’s authority, I have lumped
two ‘‘summer ducks” with wood duck in the table, also nine
“winter ducks” with goldeneye. These are evidently slips into
the local vernacular. The distinction in the table between
“Scaup” and “Bluebill,” and the identity of “gray duck” as gad-
wall, may both be considered as doubtful. “Bluebill” probably
includes Ringnecks. The identity of “plover” I have not ven¬
tured to guess. Certain bags of rails, blackbirds, mudhens, bit¬
terns, cranes, hawks, owls, skunks, muskrats, and an eagle
appear during the youthful period, all undifferentiated as to
species. These are omitted from the table for brevity. Undif¬
ferentiated teals and mergansers appear in parenthesis.
Passenger Pigeon . Chase witnessed only the closing scenes
of the pigeon tragedy. W. B. Mershon (pp. 113, 115) states that
the last big Wisconsin nestings were at Eau Claire, Tomah and
Augusta in 1871. This was two years before the Journal began
in 1873, but Chase nevertheless bagged 70 pigeons in that year.
Mershon (p. 152) mentions an unverified report of a nesting
southwest of Lac Vieux Desert in 1874, and of another near Fort
Atkinson about the same time. Both would fall within the Jour¬
nal period.
Dr. Samuel H. Chase, who was born in 1873, remembers as a
boy seeing pigeons in the “Sisters’ Woods” adjoining the Chase
residence. They were so thick as to weigh down the oak trees
from which they were gathering mast, and so close that he could
see the ripple in each lustrous throat as each acorn “went down.”
This must have been in about August 1882, a decade after the
last verified* Wisconsin nestings, and six years before W. H.
Chase bagged his last pigeon in 1888. Dr. Samuel H. Chase saw
his last pigeons in 1885 — a spring flock of 12 birds. Mershon
records the last scattered Wisconsin flocks as seen in Florence
county in 1884, Lake Winnebago 1897, and Lake Butte des Morts
1897. The record ends with the single bird killed by Emerson
Hough at Babcock about 1900.
The conclusion is that the disappearance of Wisconsin pig¬
eons was no sudden debacle — they occurred in decreasing num¬
bers for nearly three decades after the big nesting of 1871.
* A. W. Schorger has since recorded nestings in 1882.
Leopold— The Chase Journal
73
Ducks. The percent composition of the kill (last column on
right in table) indicates the former relative abundance of spe¬
cies on Lake Wingra. Scaup, greenwing teal, and mallard com¬
prise 59 per cent of the recorded bag.
Aside from this question of composition of the kill, the main
value of the duck record is as possible evidence of trends in duck
abundance.
The annual kill from 1873 to 1880 shows a steady climb (see
graph) , but this may represent the mounting proficiency of the
youthful hunter, rather than any trend in duck abundance.
Between 1880 and 1888 follows a nearly continuous decline.
This spans the ages of 22 to 30, when most hunters are ap¬
proaching their maximum of zest and skill, hence it is reasonable
to postulate a decline in local birds. Can we account for such a
trend ?
It is common knowledge that Wingra is now spoiled as a duck
lake, presumably by carp. Cole (p. 547) shows that carp were
first introduced into Wisconsin about 1879, just previous to the
apparent decline in Wingra ducks. Dr. Samuel H. Chase, how¬
ever, did not notice carp in Wingra until the late nineties. The
possible role of carp thus seems beset by contradictory evidence.
The decade following 1888 shows, in general, a rising curve,
ending in a sharp decline after 1894. This decline coincides
with the general drouth of the early nineties (Streiff, p. 294).
E. R. Jones, State Drainage Engineer, tells me that undrained
peat marshes in central Wisconsin suffered deep burns in 1894.
This is the only known Wisconsin record of widespread peat
fires previous to drainage, and indicates extremely low water
tables.
Wing, in his exploration of waterfowl cycles, shows a Brant
bag curve (p. 349) for Monomay Island, Massachusetts. The
general trend parallels the Bruckner cycle of the sun, but during
the two periods here under consideration, the trend is opposite
that of the Chase curve. The minor oscillations, however, in¬
clude a number of coincidences with the Chase curve: a low in
1888, a high in 1891, a low in 1893, a high in 1894, and a low in
1890.
The only conclusion which can be drawn is that if many local
journals could be fused into one continuous record, it might shed
important light on past fluctuations in waterfowl.
74 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
The abrupt termination of Old Squaws after 1878, after ap¬
pearing in the bag for the three preceding years, is suggestive
of sporadic changes in the movements of this species. Schorger
records the reappearance of Old Squaws on the Madison Lakes
in 1913, 1925, and 1929. The bird seen in 1929 was in the Na-
koma Golf Club spring near Lake Wingra.
Woodcock. The small kill, all grouped in two periods, is sug¬
gestive of fluctuating abundance. Howard F. Weiss saw 22
woodcock in one day on the Arboretum in April, 1933, and I soon
after saw 18. All three of these possible “highs” fall in periods
of apparent duck scarcity.
Phillips thinks New England woodcock increased during the
years just previous to 1925.
Leopold and Schorger (p. 189) record a decrease of jack-
snipe in Dane County during the period 1919-1929, since fol¬
lowed (in my opinion) by an increase during the present period
of duck scarcity.
All these fragments collectively suggest the need for an in¬
vestigation of shorebird population levels, including a possible
fluctuation inverse to ducks.
King Rail . This species is still an uncommon but regular
breeder on Wingra. Again the lumping of the bag in the period
1873-1875 is suggestive of fluctuating abundance. Dr. Samuel
H. Chase remembers these birds as common about the family
boathouse in the late 70’s when he was a small child, but he killed
none until about 1889. This suggests an intervening period of
scarcity.
Ruffed Grouse and Prairie Chicken. Ruffed Grouse disap¬
peared from the Wingra woods just before the establishment of
the Arboretum. Cahn found them present yearlong in 1915. It
is hoped that they can be reintroduced. Prairie chickens are
still present at times, but in very small numbers. A single
brood was raised in 1934.
The absence of sharptails from the record indicates they
either never occurred on Wingra, or had disappeared before the
70,s. There is still a single remnant in Dane County.
It is notable that when chickens were killed at all, it was in
years of high bag in ruffed grouse. This corroborates the gen¬
eral assumption that these two species share the same cycle.
Leopold— The Chase Journal
75
But what cycle? According to Wing (p. 359) , the most probable
fluctuation to be looked for in southern Wisconsin is the solar
“half cycle" of five or six years, which peaked in 1871, 1878,
1884, and 1889. The Chase bag apparently peaks just before
1873, in 1878, in 1885-6, and again about 1888. Of course, in
such a slender bag record neither agreement nor disagreement
with the cycles is to be considered as anything more than a
hint of possible relationship.
Quail. The extremely small bag of two quail in 24 years is
noteworthy. It hardly seems likely that a young hunter with
enough shells and hunting appetite to shoot Soras, and a good
dog to boot, would either have passed up quail in the field or
failed to record them if shot. One is forced to the conclusion
that quail were scarce or absent during the Journal period.
Contrast this with the following recent census figures for the
Arboretum :
These censuses represent the quail population on a somewhat
variable area, but an area always much smaller than that hunted
by Chase. Winter feeding has been practiced only since 1933-
34. One is forced to conclude that quail, at least around Win-
gra, are much more abundant now than during the Journal pe¬
riod. This conclusion is negatively sustained by Leopold's chart
(Game Survey, p. 76), which records no quail highs in Wiscon¬
sin during the Journal period, except one in the northwestern
counties in 1896. It is positively sustained by Dr. Samuel H.
Chase's recollections— he remembers that his father regarded as
quite a curiosity a pair of quail appearing in the family yard
about 1885.
All of the speculations in this paper concerning population
levels are recorded not as conclusions, but as a provocation to
other investigators who may have opportunity to compile other
journals, and thus ultimately make conclusions possible.
76 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters.
Lake Record. The Journal records the following dates for
the opening and closing of the ice on Lake Wingra :
Lake opened .... . Mar. 30
Lake closed .v. . . .
On the page for 1881 appears a note: “Water highest ever
known to me.” Evidently this reflects “The Big Snow” which
fell in February and March of that year (unpublished records
of U. S. Weather Bureau, Madison).
The original Journal may be consulted at the Wisconsin His¬
torical Library.
References
Calm, A. R. 19115. An Ecological Survey of the Wingra Springs Regon.
Bull. Wis. Nat. Hist. Soc., Vol. 13, pp. 123-177.
Cole, Leon J. 1904. The German Carp in the United States. Annual Report
of the Burtau of Fisheries, pp. 525-641.
Errington, P. L. 1934. Vulnerability of Bob-white Populations to Predation.
Ecology, Vol. XV, No. 2, April, pp. 110-127.
Leopold, Aldo. 1931. A Report on a Game Surv&y of the North Central
States. Madison, Wisconsin.
. 1933. Wild Life Management Plan , University Arboretum.
Leopold, Aldo and Schorger, A. W. 1930. The Decline of Jacksnipe in
Southern Wisconsin. Wilson Bulletin, September, pp. 183-190.
Mershon, W. B. 1907. The Passenger Pigeon , Saginaw, Michigan.
Phillips, J. C. 1926. Wenham Lake Shooting Record and the uRarm Bag”,
1897-1925. Privately printed.
Schorger, A, W. 1929. The Birds of Dane County , Wisconsin. Trans. Wis.
Acad. Sci., Arts, and Letters, Vol. XXIV, pp. 457-499.
■> . 1931. The Birds of Dane County, Wisconsin. Part II. Trans.
Wis. Acad. Sci., Arts, and Letters, Vol. XXVI, pp. 1-60.
Streiff, A. 1926. Investigation of Cycles and the relation of the Bruckner
and Solar Cycle. Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 54, July, pp. 289-296.
Wing, L. W. 1935. Wild Life Cycles in Relation to the Sun. Proc. Amer.
Game Conf., January, pp. 345-363.
TEACHING WILDLIFE CONSERVATION IN
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Aldo Leopold
University of Wisconsin
Teaching of conservation in public schools is made compul¬
sory by a new Wisconsin statute (319 S., 1935) .
The bill was sponsored by the Federation of Women's Clubs
and other laymen's organizations. It reflects, in general, a con¬
viction that the conservation movement needs a wider base in
public sentiment. It assumes that the schools, if so directed,
can build this base.
It probably also reflects a belief, less articulate but perhaps
equally potent, that natural history “hobbies" act as an antidote
for the excessive mechanization of society, and as an absorbent
for expanding leisure — hence, that their cultivation in schools is
conducive to “the good life."
The law, and probably most of its sponsors, no doubt assume
that the subject matter to be taught is all in existence — that the
only thing needful is a public mandate to give it place in school
curricula. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the degree to
which this assumption is correct, the degree to which available
subject matter has been prepared for use in schools, and the
facilities for training teachers to use it.
The discussion is limited to that part of the conservation
field dealing with wildlife, i.e., birds, mammals, and non-com¬
mercial plants.
Subject Matter for Teaching
Presumably the subject matter to be taught must, except as
it deals with pure esthetics, exist as science before it can be
translated by teachers for popular use. To what extent does it
exist?
To analyze this question, each species may be considered
from four exterior aspects (the internal workings are, for sim¬
plicity, not considered) :
1. Its form and origin as a species (taxonomy) .
78 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters.
2. Its behavior as an individual (natural history).
3. Its relationship as a population in an environment (ecol¬
ogy).
4. Its possible control by manipulating the environment (ap¬
plied ecology or management).
These four categories happen also to represent the successive
developmental stages in biological science.
In my opinion the biological basis for teaching is ample for
No. 1, but dwindles progressively through Nos. 2, 3, and 4.
Stage 4 may be said to have the beginnings of an existence for
certain species of game and fish, but for fur animals it exists in
name only, while for songbirds and wild flowers there is not yet
even a name for culture in-the-wild. The ecology of all these
groups (stage 3) is very fragmentary. Not till we get back Lo
individual behavior (stage 2) can there be said to be an ade¬
quate basis for popular teaching. Stages 2 and 1 jointly com¬
prise the bulk of those large aggregations of knowledge now
called ornithology, mammalogy, and botany.
The needs of conservation are exactly converse to the prog¬
ress of these stages in biological science. Conservation depends
for its accomplishment on manipulation of environments, of
which we as yet know little. It is not helped much by the sci¬
ence of evolutionary origins, of which we know much. It is evi¬
dent, then, that popular teaching of conservation must be lop¬
sided until science catches up to its needs. (This is, of course,
no argument for delaying the teaching job. It is an argument
for speeding up the construction of the scientific base.)
Fig. 1. Scientific base for teaching Wild Life Conservation.
Leopold — Teaching Wildlife Conservation
79
Fig. 1 attempts to portray the situation in graphic form. The
irregular “scientific front,” with outposts of advance knowledge,
is not devoid of actual meaning. Thus fish management, while
only a few years old, is backed by a much larger accumulation
of ecological data than game management, which is older and
has gone farther into technique. The accumulated findings of
Birge and Juday in the ecology of lakes, for example, have no
counterpart in game. There is, however, no corresponding
knowledge of the ecology of streams, although the existing tech¬
nique is mostly for streams. Hence the fish management “pen¬
insula” is portrayed in the figure as not perpendicular to its
base.
Again, songbird management, while in general non-existent
as a professional and scientific field, and not as yet backed by
any considerable body of ecological knowledge, nevertheless con¬
tains an advance post of technique : artificial bird-houses and
artificial feeding. A well-developed technique for hole-nesting
birds was published by von Berlepsch as early as 1908.
Fur farming likewise is an island of technique. There is as
yet no body of knowledge on wild management and ecology to
connect it with the natural history of fur species. Game farm¬
ing was a similar outpost until the recent expansion in wild man¬
agement connected it with “mainland.”
The most serious re-entrant in the scientific front is in the
ecology and management of wild flowers. There exists, of course,
a large amount of ecological work in botany, but its objective
has been to explain evolution and distribution, rather than to
serve as a base for culture in the wild. Much of it will be con¬
vertible for the latter purpose, but in and of itself it does not
suffice for teaching conservation.
Ecology and Conservation
Avocations in natural history can, of course, be taught, as in
the past, in sole reference to identification and habits of species.
No one possessed of such a hobby would deny its value as a
source of personal pleasure and enlightenment. Its value as a
base for conservation sentiment, however, is, I think, less than
will be the case when the same hobby is rounded off to include
an interest in ecological and management questions. Why? Be¬
cause the forces which threaten wildlife emanate from its en-
80 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters.
vironment, and their operation cannot be understood by a public
versed only in names and habits of species. Such a public, as a
critic of conservation policies, is equivalent to a person having
a wide personal acquaintance, but no knowledge of business, as
a critic of politics or economics. Both lack an “inside” picture
of the struggle for existence. Ecology is the politics and eco¬
nomics of animals and plants.
The citizen-conservationist needs an understanding of wild¬
life ecology not only to enable him to function as a critic of
sound policy, but to enable him to derive maximum enjoyment
from his contacts with the land. The jig-saw puzzle of compe¬
titions and cooperations which constitute the wildlife commu¬
nity are inherently more interesting than mere acquaintance
with its constituent species, for the same reason that a news¬
paper is inherently more interesting than a telephone directory.
Teaching Teachers
Of 30 students in the 1936 farmers’ short course in game
management at the University, 4 professed, in personal inter¬
view, a special interest in natural history derived from their
teachers. Four others had derived such an interest from family
or friends. Twelve had read natural history books from school
libraries. This may be a valid sample of the spread and effec¬
tiveness of conservation teaching to date.
It was very noticeable that the teachers who had awakened
such interests had done so by the contagion of their enthusiasm,
rather than by merely transmitting information.
The question is : By what means can the proportion of such
“carriers” be increased?
My guess is that the chief utility of compulsory laws is to
lend official sanction to pre-existing enthusiasms among teach¬
ers, and to stimulate the preparation of good courses, texts, ex¬
hibits, and other overhead services.
The courses now offered teachers in universities (and pre¬
sumably in normal schools) are certainly not designed to en¬
courage them either to develop avocations in wildlife, or to teach
such avocations to children. The University of Wisconsin,
through its “Science Inquiry,” is now aiming to remedy this de¬
fect. A complete remedy must, of course, await the straighten¬
ing of the “scientific front” already discussed.
Leopold — Teaching Wildlife Conservation
81
Teaching Materials
The offhand way in which resolutions committees delegate to
unspecified “scientists” the job of preparing conservation text¬
books is, I fear, mere wishful thinking. There seems to be little
realization of the fact that to write a really competent non-tech-
nical conservation text, which shall fairly cover the component
fields and be at once sound science, sound policy, and sound peda¬
gogy, is a task calling for very uncommon mental powers, not
to mention time and funds. It is a task at least as exacting as
the scientific fact-finding which underlies it. Such a text is
harder to write than the equivalent thing for adults, and no re¬
cent writer has fairly translated conservation for adults. Van
Hise’s classical “Conservation of Natural Resources” was writ¬
ten before ecology was born, and before the management idea
had been applied to anything but forests. No equally competent
interpretation of the wider vista now confronting us has ap¬
peared, unless it be Paul Sears’ “Deserts on the March.” “Little
Waters,” by Person, Coil, and Beall, is similar in its approach,
but covers the much more limited field of soil and water.
All these attempts to paint a continental picture of conserva¬
tion suffer from one inherent handicap : it is impossible to give
specific examples portraying the biotic mechanism, because ex¬
amples that hold for one region do not hold for another. Only
scientific laws can be generalized and yet remain true. It is
therefore my prediction that the ultimate “text on conservation”
will treat of only one region, or possibly only one state.
There are, of course, many competent texts, each covering
the natural history of some one particular field, such as birds,
mammals, or flowers, but these fall far short of covering its
ecology or management. They are of great value in presenting
to us the alphabet of conservation, but they do not build ecologi¬
cal words or sentences out of the species they teach us to recog¬
nize. Most such texts seem either unaware of the provinces be¬
yond the scientific front, or else dismiss them with a few per¬
sonal opinions on legislation. One English writer (Elton) has
given us a thoroughly competent popular rendition of animal
ecology, but there has been no equally good job on this side of
the water.
There is also a growing array of teaching materials, each
covering some small fraction of some single field. Many of these
82 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters .
fractional treatments have real value because they do a small
job well, and do not pontificate on what lies outside its boun¬
daries. As examples may be mentioned the regional series of
Biological Survey leaflets, mostly by McAtee, on “How to Attract
Birds,” the Audubon bird leaflets, and John May's “Hawks of
North America.”
Some of the new teaching materials have special value to
teachers as illustrations of how divergent conclusions can be
drawn from identical facts. Contrast, for example, the Emer¬
gency Conservation Committee’s “Teaching Units” with Sena¬
tor Hawes’ “Fish and Game, Now or Never,” or with the equiva¬
lent philosophy expressed piecemeal by sporting magazines.
There is one peculiarity common to both sides of this controver¬
sial literature. Like medieval theology, it expresses its discon¬
tent in the pattern of a personal devil, who stands in urgent need
of demolition by the writer. The protectionist’s devil is usually
the sportsman. The sportsman’s devil is usually “vermin,” or
the “game hog,” or some other visible malefactor. The invisible
deterioration of habitat which causes the real damage, and to
which both kinds of crusaders are at least indirectly a party, is
commonly ignored or dismissed as incidental. The end-objec¬
tive of conservation teaching must be, I think, to show the pro¬
spective citizen that conservation is impossible so long as land-
utility is given blanket priority over land-beauty. In short, it is
his personal philosophy of land use, as well as his vote and his
dollar, which will ultimately determine the degree to which the
conservation idea is converted from preachment into practice.
Here and there we note the emergence of attempts to piece
together into coherent schoolroom sentences the alphabet de¬
vised by taxonomy and natural history. One such is “Exploring
Michigan’s Resources,”- — clever pedagogy, comprehensive of the
whole field, but perhaps a bit pat, and a bit tinctured with the
flavor of tourist-bureau. The Chamber of Commerce should not
wish its job on the schools. I would like to see Michigan ask
Harold Titus to do this over in the style of his “The Old Game
Warden” — a really remarkable attempt to translate wildlife ecol¬
ogy and management into the lay- jargon of sportsmen.
A list of teaching materials available to Wisconsin teachers
is incorporated in the references for this paper. The list is of
course not exhaustive, even for wildlife in this state. It omits
Leopold — Teaching Wildlife Conservation
83
all nonpopular and most expensive titles, as well as most titles
sold for commercial profit. A full endorsement of all titles is not
implied. The list is offered merely as a start toward the labor¬
ious job of sifting and rounding-out which must underlie the
execution of the new law.
The most serious defect in the whole collection of teaching
materials is the absence of the phrase “we don’t know.” Just
why are we so undemocratic in professing ignorance? It seems
a special privilege of scientists.
The need for teaching materials of course goes far beyond
printed matter. Museums have long ago seized upon exhibits
and movies as vehicles for teaching taxonomy and natural his¬
tory, but they are not yet used for portraying ecology or man¬
agement. What we label “conservation films’* are so far mostly
either propaganda or entertainment. Conservation exhibits do
not yet exist.
Schools and universities need nearby pieces of land on which
conservation problems and techniques can be shown, and re¬
searches performed. School forests are a move in this direction,
but why not also school refugees, management areas, and floral
preserves ? The University of Wisconsin Arboretum and Refuge
is being developed in such a direction and will serve, among
other purposes, as a training area for prospective teachers of
conservation.
Summary
The scientific base for teaching conservation is lopsided. The
subject matter so far most developed is not that most needed
for this purpose.
The biological institutions of Wisconsin will overlook an im¬
portant opportunity if they fail to amplify this base, especially
in the ecology and management of fur, songbirds, and wildflow-
ers.
No adequate “text on conservation” for schools has so far
appeared. The ultimate text will probably be regional.
There is much good natural history material which may be
regarded as the alphabet for such a text.
The controversial literature of conservation is of interest to
teachers as illuminating the philosophical questions involved.
84 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters.
Films, exhibits, and demonstration areas should be developed
for teaching purposes.
References
(A) Publications referred to in this paper, but not easily available to
Wisconsin teachers , or essential for use by tecahers
Birge, E. A. and Juday, C. An extensive series of scientific publications by
the Wisconsin Natural History Survey, Madison.
Elton, Charles. Exploring the animal world. Allen & Unwin, Ltd., London,
193®.
Elton, Charles. The Ecology of Animals . Mlethuen & Co., Ltd., London,
1933.
Hawes, Harry B. Fish and game , now or never. New York. 1933.
Person, H. S., Coil, E. J., Beall, R. T. Little Waters. Soil Conservation
Service, Resettlement Administration, Rural Eltetrification Adminis¬
tration. Washington, 1935.
Sears, Paul B. Deserts on the march. University of Oklahoma Press, Nor¬
man, 1935.
Titus, Harold. The old game warden on . Serial on current
questions in Field & Stream, New York.
Von Berlepsch (compiled by M. Hiesemann). How to attract and protect
wild birds. Witherby & Co., London, 1907. Out of print).
( B ) Partial list of non-technical publications suitable for use by
teachers or essential to school libraries
Handbooks for identification of species:
A Field Guide to the Birds. Roger Tory Peterson. Houghton Mifflin
Co., New York. $2.75.
Birds of Minnesota. Thomas S. Roberts. University of Minnesota
Press, Minneapolis. 2 vols. (Out of print, but available in many
libraries. Plates alone still issued as an abridged volume.)
Spmng flora of Wisconsin. N. C. Fassett, Botany Department, Univer¬
sity of Wisconsin. $1.00.
Forest trees of Wisconsin. Fred G. Wilson. Conservation Department,
Madison. 15c.
The hawks of North America. John B. Mjay. National Association of
Audubon Societies, 1775 Broadway, New York City. $1.25.
The orchids of Wisconsin. Albert M. Fuller. Milwaukee Public Mu¬
seum, 1933.
Leopold— Teaching Wildlife Conservation
85
Educational leaflets on each of 140 bird species. National Association
of Audubon Societies, 1775 Broadway, New York City.
N on-technical bulletins on management , applicable to Wisconsin:
Wisconsin 'prairie chicken investigation. Alfred 0. Gross. Wisconsin
Conservation Department, Madison.
Winter feeding of wild life on northern farms . Wallace Grange, U.S.
D.A. Misc. Publ. No. 150, Washington.
Improving the farm environment for wild life. Wallace Grange. U.S.
D.A. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 1719, Washington.
The Hungarian Partridge in the Great Lakes region. Ralph E. Yeatter.
Bulletin No. 5, School of Forestry & Conservation, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Suggestions for pheasant management in southern Michigan. H. M.
Wight. Department of Conservation, Lansing, Michigan.
Game Survey of the North Central States. Aldo Leopold. (Out of print,
but vaailable in some libraries.)
How to attract birds in the east central states. W. L. McAtee. U.S.D.A.
Farmers’ Bulletin No. 912, Washington.
Local bird refuges. W. L. McAtee. U.S.D.A. Farmers’ Bulletin No
1644, Washington.
Homes for birds. E. R. Kalmbach and W. L. McAtee. U.S.D.A. Farm¬
ers’ Bulletin No. 1456, Washington. 5c.
Usefulness of birds on the farm. W. L. McAtee. U.S.D.A. Farmers’
Bulletin No. 1682, Washington. 5c.
The foods of some predatory fur -bearing animals in Michigan. Ned
Dearborn. Bulletin No. 1, School of Forestry and Conservation,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
General Pamphlets, public agencies :
Conservation outline of Wisconsin. Conservation Department, Mjadi-
son.
Exploring Michigan’s resources in the Junior High School classroom.
Department of Conservation and Department of Public Instruc¬
tion, Lansing, Michigan.
Three boys go camping. Department of Conservation and Department
of Public Instruction, Lansing, Michigan.
Misc. pamphlets, private associations :
Teaching Units of the Emergency Conservation Committee, 734 Lex¬
ington Avenue, New York.
86 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters.
Furs , Fins and Feathers. Successful Farming, Des Moines, Iowa.
Publications by “More Game Birds in America, Inc.”, 500 Fifth Avenue,
New York City:
Small Refuges for Waterfowl
Water Areas , How to Create and Maintain Them
Waterfowl Food Plants
Quail Breeding Manual
Pheasant Breeding Manual
N on-technical periodicals on birds suitable for teachers and school libraries:
Bird-Lore. National Association of Audubon Societies, 1775 Broadway,
New York. Subscription, $1.50 per year.
Wilson Bulletin. Wilson Ornithological Club. (Dr. Lawrence E. Hicks,
Botany Department, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.)
Subscription, $1.50 per year.
SOME EARLY BIRD RECORDS OF WISCONSIN AND
NEIGHBORING TERRITORY TO THE WEST AND NORTH
(1896-1900) AND OF INDIANA (1876-1877).*
M. E. PlNNEY AND J. F. MACNAUGHTON
Milwaukee-D owner College
Introduction
It is a well recognized fact that the species of birds found
common to certain areas of the country may change greatly in
the course of time, due to the gradual extinction of some birds,
and variations in the routes of others. In view of this knowl¬
edge, it has been thought of some little importance to compile a
list of the skins belonging to the collection made by Dr. H. V.
Ogden and Dr. E. C. Copeland of Milwaukee, a list which would
be available to anyone interested.1 The collection is among the
oldest made in this locality, having been assembled during the
period from 1875 to 1905. As such, therefore, it is of historical
interest. The specimens included are birds that were common
to various regions at the time the collection was made, and that
are, for the most part, still found in those localities. Of the
approximately 360 species that have been officially recorded in
Wisconsin, 120 are represented in this collection. Its chief value
lies in the fact that it furnishes permanent and reliable records
of many birds that were common to the vicinity at that time.
The reason for the making of this collection was evidently
the absorbing interest in birds entertained by Dr. Ogden and Dr.
Copeland, for although the specimens became the property of
Dr. Ogden, approximately half of them were accumulated by
Dr. Copeland. It is obvious from the recorded dates and locali¬
ties, that the two men, sometimes in company with a third, Mr.
H. Russell, collected together on various hunting and fishing
trips. Miscellaneous additional specimens were obtained from
Mr. L. Kumlien, Mr. N. Hollister, Mr. J. H. Wurdemann and
Mr. C. J. Allen.2 For the most part, the birds were collected
casually by Dr. Ogden, and although other localities are repre¬
sented, naturally, most of the skins are those of birds from the
*Compiled from the Ogden-Copeland Collection of Bird-Skins.
88 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters.
region surrounding Milwaukee. Dr. Copeland’s work with Jor¬
dan in Indiana, 1876, and the joint efforts of Dr. Ogden and Dr.
Copeland in Minnesota, 1897, and in North Dakota, 1899, added
many specimens to the collection.
For the sake of clearness, the birds as listed below have been
divided into four groups, according to the localities in which
they were collected: (1) Birds of Wisconsin, (2). Birds of
Northern and Western States, (3). Birds of Central and South¬
ern States, and (4). Birds of miscellaneous localities. Each
group has then been subdivided into more specific areas, al¬
though in most cases, there is no definite physiographical rela¬
tionship between the counties making up the group. The first
division of group (1), consisting of Milwaukee, Bacine and
Ozaukee counties, is the one which shows the most striking simi¬
larities in physiography, since the area borders on Lake Michi¬
gan. Due to the narrowness of Milwaukee County, however,
and the probability that the majority of specimens which were
collected in Waukesha county were collected in its eastern por¬
tion, Waukesha county, though inland, has been included with
this division. Jefferson and Walworth counties, though adjoin¬
ing this territory were regarded as too far inland to show the
characteristic avifauna of the region, and so birds from those
counties were listed in an appendix. In the same way the birds
of Douglas county have been separated from those of Vilas and
Iron counties, for although all three counties lie in the northern
portion of the state, Douglas county is considered too western
to be properly included in the group.
The classification, order of arrangement of birds and termin¬
ology used in the compiling of this list are those employed by the
committee of the American Ornithologist’s Union in the prep¬
aration of the fourth edition of its Check-List of North American
Birds , which was published in 1931s. Therefore, many of the
names appearing in the list are not identical, although they are
synonymous, with those found upon the collector’s tags. The
change was made for the purpose of making the list conform to
the most recent standard. It might be added that while the
labels on many of the specimens do not bear the name of the
collector, we have not regarded the omission as in any way
weakening the authenticity of the record and so have included
all such records in our list. This is true, chiefly of the specimens
Pinney and MacNaughton — Early Wis. Bird Records 89
from Vilas and Iron counties which were undoubtedly obtained
by Dr. Ogden and Dr. Copeland from the collection of Mr. L.
Kumlein and Mr. N. Hollister.
For kindly assistance in the preparation of this paper we are
indebted to Mr. Gardiner P. Stickney of Milwaukee who contri¬
buted information concerning the history of the collection, to
Dr. H. C. Oberholser and his assistants of the Bureau of Biologi¬
cal Survey who have identified the doubtful specimens and to
Dr. A. W. Schorger who has examined the list critically and so
helped us avoid many errors.
BIRDS OF WISCONSIN
I. Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, and Ozaukee Counties
Order Gaviiformes
Family Gayiidae
1. Gavia immer elasson Bishop. Lesser Loon (7a).
H.B.H. Sept. 1900.
Order Colymriformes
Family Cglymbidae
1. Colymbus auritus Linnaeus. Horned Grebe (3).
H.V.O. Apr. 22, 1897.
H.R. Apr . 21, 1897.
Order Pelebaniformes
Family Phaiacrocoracidae
1. Phalacrocorax auritus auritus (Lesson). Double-crested Cormorant
(120).
H.V.O. Oct n, 1900.
Order Ciconuformes
Family Ardeidae
1. Ardea herodias herodias Linnaeus . Great Blue Heron (194.).
H.V.O . June 6, 1897 .
1 The collection itself is now in the possession of Milwaukee-Downer College, so that the
specimens are and probably will always be accessible to anyone for reference.
2 The Collectors’ names as abbreviated in the list are:
H.V.O Dr. H. V. Ogden.
E.C. Dr. Ernest Copeland.
H.R. Mr. H. Russell.
L.K. Mr. L. Kumlien.
J.H.V.W. Mr. J. H. Wurdemann.
C.J.A. Mr. C. J. Allen.
N.H. Mr. N. Hollister.
W.A.B. ?
8 The only exceptions to this usage are:
Troglodytes domesHcm baldwini, pp. 0 and 00, and Limnodromus griseus hendersoni, p. 00.
which have been named for us by Mr. A. H. Howell and Mr. Thomas D. Burleigh of the
U. S. Bureau of Biological Survey.
90 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.
2. Butorides virescens virescens (Linnaeus). Eastern Green Heron (201).
H.V.O. May 5, 1899.
H.V.O. May 15, 1897.
H.R. May 20, 1897.
3. Botaurus letiginosus (Montagu). American Bittern (190).
H.R. May 11, 1897.
H.R. May 21, 1897.
4. Ixobrychus exilis ( Gmelin ). Eastern Least Bittern (191).
H.V.O. May 20, 1897.
H.V.O. June 9, 1899.
Order Anseriformes
Family Anatidab
1. Spatula Clypeata (Linnaeus). Shoveller (142).
H.V.O. Apr. 13, 1897.
H.R. Apr. 13, 1897.
2. Aix sponsa (Linnaeus). Wood Duck (144).
HVO. Apr. 13, 1897.
3. Nyroca affinis (Eyton). Lesser Scaup Duck. (149).
H.V.O. Mar. 29, 1897.
H.R. Mar. 29, 1897.
E.C. Mar. 29 1897.
4. Glaucionetta clangula americana (Bonaparte). American Golden-eye
(151).
H.V.O. Mar. 26, 1897.
H.V.O. Feb. 12, 1899.
H.R. Apr. 14, 1900.
E.C. Mar. 27, 1897 .
5. Charitonetta albeola (Linnaeus). Bufflehead S. C. (153).
H.R. Apr. 1, 1897.
5. Charitonett albeola (Linnaeus). Bufflehead (153).
H.V.O. Mar. 30, 1897.
H.V.O. Feb. 5, 1899.
H.R. Mar. 29, 1897.
H.R. Feb. 5, 1899.
7. Somateria spectabilis (Linnaeus). King Eider (162).
H.R. Dec. 25, 1899.
H.R. Jan. 7, 1900.
8. Oidemia americana Swainson. American Scoter (163).
E.C. Oct. 1895.
9. Erismatura jamaicensis rubida (Wilson). Ruddy Duck (167).
H.V.O. Apr. 20, 1897.
H.R. May 2, 1897.
Pinney and M 'acN aught on— Early Wis. Bird Records 91
10. Mergus merganser americanus Cassin. American Merganser (129).
H.V.O. Apr. 2 , 1897 .
H.R. Mar . 26, 1897.
E.C. Apr . 2 , 1897.
C.J.A. Apr . 1, 1897 .
11. Mergus serrator Linnaeus. Red-breasted Merganser (180).
H.V.O. Mar . 20, 1557.
il.y.O. Mar. 51, 1557.
Order Falooniformeb
Family A'C'cipitriidae
1. Buteo borealis borealis ( Gmelin ). Eastern Red-tailed Hawk (837).
H.V.O. Nov . 5 , 1555.
Family Falconidae
1. Fafeo sparverius sparverius Linnaeus. Eastern Sparrow Hawk (360).
H.V.O. Mar. 18, 1898 .
Order Gruiformes
Family Raelidae
1. Rallus limicola limicola Vieillot. Virginia Rail (212).
H.R. May 6 , 1555.
2. Forzana Carolina. (Linnaeus). Sora (214).
H.V.O. Sept 9 , 1555.
U.y.O. Apr. 25, 1557.
8. Fulica americana americana. Gmelin . American Coot (221).
H.R. Oct 1, 1555.
Sep£. 24, 1898.
Order Charadriiformes
Family Scqlopacidae
1. Philohela minor (Gmelin). American Woodcock (228).
H.V.O. May 5, 1557.
2. Actitis macularia (Linnaeus). Spotted Sandpiper (263).
H.V.O. May 17, 1896 .
3. Pelidna alpina sakhalina (Vieillot), Red-backed Sandpiper (263).
E.C. May 16, 1899.
Family Laridae
1. Larus argentatus smiths onianus. Coues. Herring Gull (51a).
H.V.O. Nov. 19, 1899.
H.R. Oct 1, 1899.
2. Larus Philadelphia (Ord). Bonaparte’s Gull (60).
H.V.O . Oct 17, 1900.
H.V.O. Nov. 2, 1900.
Sept 19, 1896 .
92 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
Order Cuculiformes
Family Cuculidae
1. Coccyzus erythropthalmus (Wilson). Black-billed Cuckoo (388).
HVO. May 9 , 1897.
H.V.O. May 21, 1897.
H.R. May 9, 1897.
Order Strigiformes
Family Strigidae
1. Otus asio naevius (Gmelin). Eastern Screech Owl (373m).
H.V.O. Dec. 23, 1897.
H.R. Dec. 10, 1897.
H.R. Jan. U, 1906.
2. Bubo virginianus virginianus (Gmelin). Great Horned Owl (375).
H.V.O. Dec. 15, 1896.
H.R. Jan. 11, 1898.
3. Strix varia varia Barton. Northern Barred Owl (368).
E.C. Dec. 19, 1897.
4. Asio wilsonianus (Lesson). Long-eared Owl (366).
H.R. Jan. 2, 1898.
5. Asio flammeus flammeus (Pont oppidan), Short-eared Owl (367).
W.A.B. Nov. 1, 1896.
6. Cryptoglaux acadica acadica (Gmelin). Saw-whet Owl (372).
H.V.O. Nov. 19, 1897.
Order Caprimulgiformes
Family Capri mulgidae
1 Chordeiles minor minor (Forster). Eastern Nighthawk (420).
H.R. May 22, 1898.
Order Micropodiiformes
Family Trochilidae
1. Archilochus colubris (Linnaeus), Ruby-throated Humming-bird (428).
H.V.O. May 21, 1897.
H.V.O. May 27, 1902.
Order PicIformes
Family Picidae
1. Sphyrapicus varius varius (Linnaeus). Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (402).
H.V.O. Apr. 12, 1896.
E.C. Apr. 18, 1897.
H.V.O. Apr. 19, 1897.
Pinney and MacNaughton — Early Wis. Bird Records 93
2. Dryobates pubescens medianus (Swainson). Northern Downy Wood¬
pecker (3 He).
H.V.O. Mar. 7 , 1897.
H.R. Apr. 11, 1897.
Order Passeriformes
Family Tyrannidae
1. Myiarchus crinitus boreus. Bangs. Northern Crested Flycatcher
(452a).
H.V.O. May 14, 1899.
H.R. May 17, 1896.
2. Sayornis phoebe (Latham). Eastern Phoebe (456).
H.V.O. May 2, 1897.
3.
Empidonax flaviventris (Baird and Baird). Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
(463).
H.V.O. Sept. 1896.
4. Empidonax minimus (Baird and Baird). Least Flycatcher (467).
H.V.O. May 14, 1899.
Family Alaudidae
1. Otocoris alpestris alpestris (Linnaeus). Northern Horned Lark (474) •
H.V.O. Mar. 26, 1899.
2. Otocoris alpestris practicola. Henshaw. Prairie Horned Lark (474b).
H.V.O. Mar. 14, 1897.
H.V.O. Jan. 30, 1898.
H.V.O. Mar. 12, 1899.
H.R. Mar. 7, 1897.
H.R. Mar. 14, 1897.
H.R. Jan. 30, 1898.
H.R. Feb. 5, 1899.
E.C. Jan. 30, 1898.
Family Hirundinidae
1. Hirundo ery thro g aster Boddaert. Bam Swallow (613).
H.V.O. May 14, 1899.
2. Riparia riparia riparia (Linnaeus). Bank Swallow (616).
H.V.O. May 21, 1899.
Family Corvidae
1. Cyanocitta cristata cristata (Linnaeus). Northern Blue Jay (477).
H.V.O. Apr. 25, 1897.
2. Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos Brehm. Eastern Crow (488).
H.V.O. June 6, 1897.
94 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
Family Paridae
1. Penthestes atricapillus atricapillus (Linnaeus). Black-capped Chicka¬
dee (785).
H.V.O. Mar . 7, 1897.
H.V.O. May 15 , 1897.
Family Sittxdae
1. Sitta carolinensis car&linensis Latham. White-breasted Nuthatch
(727).
HJt. Mar. 7, 1897.
H. R. Dec . 26 , 1897.
H.R. Apr. 12 , 1899.
Family Certhiidae
1. Certhia familiaris americana Bonaparte. Brown Creeper (726).
H.V.O. Apr. 11, 1897.
H.R. Apr. 11, 1897.
E.C. Feb. 4, 1900.
Family Troglodytidae
1. Troglodytes domesticus baldwini.1 House Wren.
E.C. May 6, 1897 .
2. N annus hiemalis hiemalis ( Vieillot ). Eastern Winter Wren (722).
H.R . Oct. 6, 1897.
S. Telmatodytes palustris dissaeptis (Bangs). Prairie Marsh Wren
(725d).
E.C. May 17, 1896.
4. Cistothorus stellaris (Naumann). Short-billed Marsh Wren (724).
E.C. May 6, 1897.
Family Mimidae
1. Dumetella carolinensis (Linnaeus). Catbird (704).
H.V.O. May 10, 1897.
Family Turdidae
1. T urdus migratorius migratorius Linnaeus. Eastern Robin (761).
H.V.O. June 14, 1897.
2. Hylocichla mustelina ( Gmelin ). Wood Thrush (755).
H.V.O. Apr. 80, 1897.
3. Hylocichla guttata faxoni Bangs and \Penard. Eastern Hermit Thrush
(759b).
H.R. Sept. 26, 1896.
4. Hylocichla ustulata swainsoni (Tschudi). Olive-backed Thrush (758b).
H.V.O. May 19, 1897.
H.R. Sept. 4 , 1899.
1 Not in the A. O. U. check-list.
Pinney and MacNaughton — Early Wis. Bird Records 95
5. Hylocichla minima aliciae (Baird). Gray-cheeked Thrush (757).
H.R. Sept. 20, 1899.
6. Hylocichla fucescens salicicola Ridgeway. Willow Thrush (756a).
H.R. May 14, 1899.
7. Sialia sialis sialis (Linnaeus). Eastern Bluebird (766).
H.V.O. Apr. 11, 1897.
Family Silviidae
1. Polioptila caerulea caerulea (Linnaeus). Blue-gray gnatcatcher (751).
H.V.O. Apr. 25, 1897.
2. Corthylio calendula calendula (Linnaeus). Eastern Ruby -crowned King¬
let (749).
H.V.O. Apr. 25, 1897.
E.C. Apr. 18, 1897.
Family Bombycillidae
1. Bomby cilia cedrorum Vieillot. Cedar Waxing (619).
H.V.O. May 30, 1897.
Family Laniidae
1. Lanins borealis borealis Vieillot. Northern Shrike (621).
H.VO. Nov. 21, 1897.
Family Vireonidae
1. Vireo flavifrons Vieillot. Yellow-throated Vireo (628).
H.V.O. May 9, 1897.
H.V.O. May 15, 1897.
2. Vireo olivaceus (Linnaeus). Red-eyed Vireo (624,).
H.V.O. May 9, 1897.
H.R. Sept. 1896.
3. Vireo gilvus gilvus (Vieillot). Eastern Warbling Vireo (627).
H.V.O. May 17, 1896.
Family Com psoth lypidae
1. Mniotilta varia (Linnaeus). Black and White Warbler (636).
H.V.O. May 16, 1897.
2. Vermivora peregrina (Wilson). Tennessee Warbler (647).
H.V.O. May 15, 1897.
3. Vermivora ruficapilla ruficapilla (Wilson). Nashville Warbler (645).
H.V.O. May 14 , 1897.
4. Dendroica magnolia (Wilson). Magnolia Warbler (657).
H.V.O. May 17, 1897.
H.V.O. May 15, 1898.
H.R. May 9, 1897.
E.C. May 9, 1897.
96 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters .
5. Dendroica tigrina (Gmelin). Cape May Warbler (650).
H.V.O. May 14, 1897.
H.V.O. May 15, 1897.
H.V.O. May 16, 1897.
6. Dendroica caerulescens caerulescens (Gmelin). Black-throated Blue
Warbler (651/.).
H.R. May 10, 1896.
7. Dendroica Coronata (Linnaeus). Myrtle Warbler (655).
H.V.O. Apr. 25, 1897.
H.R. Apr. 18, 1897.
E.C. Apr. 18, 1897.
8. Dendroica virens virens (Gmelin). Black-throated Green Warbler
(667).
H.V.O. May 16, 1897.
E.C. May 14, 1899.
9. Dendroica fusca (Muller). Blackburnian Warbler (662).
H.V.O. May 9, 1897.
H.V.O. May 17, 1897.
H.V.O. May 20, 1897.
H.R. May 17, 1897.
10. Dendroica pennsylvanica (Linnaeus). Chestnut-sided Warbler (659).
H.V.O. May 17, 1897.
H.R. May 9, 1897.
E.C. May 17, 1897.
11. Dendroica castanea (Wilson). Bay-breasted Warbler (660).
H.V.O. May 10, 1896.
H.R. Sept. 10, 1899.
E.C. May 16, 1897.
E.C. May 17, 1897.
12. Dendroica striata (Forster). Black-poll Warbler (661).
13. Dendroica pinus pinus (Wilson).
14. Dendroica palmarum palmarum
(672).
15. Seiurus aurocapillus (Linnaeus).
H.V.O. Mary 18, 1897.
H.V.O. May 19, 1897.
E.C. May 16, 1897.
Northern Pine Warbler (671).
H.V.O. Apr. 25, 1897.
H.V.O. May 2, 1897.
H.R. May 15, 1896.
(Gmelin). Western Palm Warbler
H.V.O. May 6, 1897.
Ovenbird (674).
H.V.O. May 3, 1896.
H.V.O. May 10, 1897.
H.R. May 6, 1897.
Finney and MacNaughton — Early Wis. Bird Records 97
16. Seiurus noveboracensis noveboracensis ( Gmelin). Northern Water
Thrush (675).
H.V.O. May 2, 1897.
17. Seiurus motacilla (Vieillot). Louisiana Water Thrush (676).
H.R. Apr. 25, 1897.
18. Oporonis agilis (Wilson). Connecticut Warbler (678).
H.R. Apr. 25, 1897.
H.V.O. May 81, 1897.
19. Geothlypic trichas brachidacbyla (Swainson). Northern Yellow -throat
(68 Id).
H.V.O. May 9, 1897.
H.V.O. May 12, 1899.
H.R. Sept. 1896.
H.R. May 9, 1897.
20. Wilsonia canadensis (Linnaeus). Canada Warbler (686).
H.V.O. May 20, 1897.
H.V.O. May 21, 1897.
H.R. Sept. 1896.
E.C. May 9, 1897.
E.C. May 17, 1896.
21. Setophaga ruticilla (Linnaeus). American Redstart (687).
H.V.O. May 15, 1897.
H.V.O. May 18, 1897.
Family Ploceidae
1. Passer domesticus domesticus (Linnaeus). English Sparrow (688.2).
H.R. June, 1899.
Family Icteridae
1. Dolichonyx oryzivorus (Linnaeus). Bobolink (U9U).
H.R. May 9, 1897.
H.R. May U, 1899.
2. Sturnella magna magna (Linnaeus). Eastern Meadowlark (501).
H.V.O. Apr. 26, 1896.
3. Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus (Bonaparte). Yellow-headed Black¬
bird (lf97).
H.V.O. May 5, 1901.
4. Agelaius phoeniceus phoeniceus (Linnaeus). Eastern Red-wing (lf-98).
H.R. May 19, 1897.
5. Icterus galbula (Linnaeus). Baltimore Oriole (507).
H.V.O. May 15, 1897.
6. Quiscalus quiscula aeneus. Ridgeway. Bronzed Crackle (511b).
H.V.O. Apr. 18, 1897.
98 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters .
7. Molothrus ater ater (Boddaert). Eastern Cowbird (495).
H.V.O. May 7 , 1897 .
Family Thraupidae
1. Piranga erythromelas Vieillot. Scarlet Tanager (608).
H.V.O. May 18, 1897.
H.R. May 2, 1897.
Family FRingillidae
1. Hedymeles ludovisianus (Linnaeus). Rose-breasted Grosbeak. (595).
H.V.O. May 15, 1897.
H.V.O. May 19, 1897.
H.R. May 10, 1896.
2. Passerina cyanea (Linnaeus). Indigo Bunting (598).
H.V.O. May 18, 1897.
3. Hesperiphona vespertina vespertina (Cooper). Eastern Evening
Grosbeak (514).
H.R. Feb. 18, 1900.
E.C. Feb. 18, 1900.
E.C. Mar. 11, 1900.
4. Carpodacus purpureus purpureus (Gmelin). Eastern Purple Finch
(517).
H.R. Apr. 18, 1897.
5. Pinicola enucleator leucura (Muller). Canadian Pine Grosbeak (515).
H.V.O. Apr. 8, 1900.
6. A cant his linaria Unarm (Linnaeus). Common Redpoll (528).
H.V.O. Oct. 29, 1899.
H.R. Oct. 29, 1899.
H.R. Nov. 26, 1899.
H.R. Dec. 12, 1899.
7. Spinus pinus pinus (Wilson). Northern Pine Siskin (533).
H.V.O. Nov. 15, 1896.
H.R. Oct. 29, 1899.
8. Loxia curvirostra pusilla Gloger. Red Crossbill (521).
H.V.O. Nov. 13, 1898.
H.R. Feb. 19, 1899.
H.R. Apr. 2, 1899.
9. Loxia leucoptera Gmelin. White-winged Crossbill (522).
H.V.O. Feb. 4, 1900.
H.R. Oct. 29, 1899.
H.R. Feb. 4, 1900.
Finney and MacNaughton — Early Wis. Bird Records 99
10. Pipilo erythropthalmus erythropthalmus (Linnaeus). Red-eyed Towhee
(587).
H.V.O . Apr . 25, 1897.
H.R. Apr. 25, 1897 .
11. Passerculus sandwichensis savanna (Wilson). Eastern Savanna Spar¬
row (542a).
H.V.O . May 6, 1897.
HJt. Sept. 1896.
E.C.
12. Pooectes gramineus gramineus (Gmelin). Eastern Vesper Sparrow
(540).
H.V.O. Apr. 11, 1897.
H.R. Apr . 11, 1897.
13. Chondestes grammacus grammacus (Say). Eastern Lark Sparrow
(552).
H.V.O . May 15, 1898.
14. Junco hyemalis hyemalis (Linnaeus). Slate-colored Junco (567).
E.C . Nov. 15, 1896.
15. Spizella arborea arborea (Wilson). Eastern Tree-sparrow (559).
H.V.O. Nov. 15, 1896.
H.R. Nov . 15, 1896.
H.R. Apr. 12, 1899 .
16. Zonotrichia leucophrys leucophrys (Forster). White-crowned Sparrow
(554).
H.V.O. May 2, 1897.
17. Zonotrichia albicollis (Gmelin). White-throated Sparrow (558).
H.V.O. Apr. 18, 1897.
H.R. Oct. 6, 1897.
18. Melospiza lincolni lincolni (Audubon). Lincoln* s Sparrow (588).
H.R. Sept. 20, 1899.
19. Melospiza georgiana (Latham). Swamp Sparrow (584).
H.V.O. May 7, 1897.
20. Melospiza melodia beata Bangs. Mississippi Song Sparrow ( 581).
H.V.O. Mar. 21, 1897.
H.R. Mar. 28, 1897.
21. Calearius lapponicus lapponicm (Linnaeus). Lapland Long spur (586).
H.V.O . Jan. 30, 1898.
H.V.O . Mar . 12, 1899.
H.R. Dec. 26, 1897.
H.R. Nov. 26, 1899.
100 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.
22. Pie ctrophenax nivalis nivalis (Linnaeus). Eastern Snow-bunting (53b).
H.V.O. Mar. 11, 1900.
H.R. Mar. 11, 1900.
APPENDIX I
Jefferson and Walworth Counties
(Counties adjoining those of Group I, but farther inland)
Order Passeriformes
Family Compsothlypidae
1. Seiurus noveboracensis noveboracensis (Gmelin). Northern Water
Thrush (675).
L.K. May 15, 1898.
2. Seiurus noveboracensis notabilis Ridgway. GrindelVs Water Thrush
(675a).
L.K. May 15, 1898.
Family Fringillidae
1. Passerherbulus henslowi henslowi (Audubon). Western Henslowe's
Sparrow (54.7a).
N.H. May 25, 1902.
2. Ammospiza caudacuta nelsoni (Allen). Nelson's Sparrow (549.1).
L.K. Sept. 5, 1898.
L.K. Sept. 16, 1898.
II. Green County
Order Charadriiformes
Family Scolopacidae
1. Bartramia longicauda (Pechstein). Upland Plover (261).
E.C. May 29, 1876.
OrderPASSERiFORMES
Family Tyrannidae
1. Empidonax minimus (Baird and Baird). Least Flycatcher (467).
Aug. 23, 1876.
Family Composothlypidae
1. Mniotilta varia (Linnaeus). Black and White Warbler (636).
E.C. May 30, 1876.
2. Oporomis agilis (Wilson). Connecticut Warbler (678).
E.C. June, 1876.
Family Icteridae
1. Dolichonyx ovyzivorus (Linnaeus). Bobolink ( 494).
E.C. 1876.
Finney and MacNaughton — Early Wis . Bird Records 101
Family Thraupidab
1. Piranga erythromelas. Vieillot. Scarlet Tanager (608).
E.C. 1876.
III. Vilas and Iron Counties
Order Gaviiformes
Family Gaviidae
1. Gavia immer elasson Bishop. Lesser Loon (7a).
H.B.H. Sept. 1900.
Order Anseriformes
Family Anatidae
1. Melanitta perspdcillata (Linnaeus). Surf Scoter (166).
Oct. 6 , 1898.
Oct. 7 , 1898.
Order Galeiformes
Family Petraonidae
1. Canachites canadensis canace (Linnaeus). Canada Spruce Grouse
(298c).
Oct. U, 1898.
2. Bonasa umbellus togata (Linnaeus). Canada Ruffed Grouse (300a).
Sept. 29, 1898.
Order Gruifoemes
Family Rallidae
1. Fulica americana americana ( Gmelin). American Coot (221).
Sept. 2U, 1898.
Order Strigiformes
Family Strigidae
1. Bubo virginianus virginianus (Gmelin). Great Horned Owl (375).
H.V.O. Jan. 20, 1896.
2. Strix varia varia Barton. Northern Barred Owl (368).
H.V.O. Sept. 28, 1903.
3. Cryptoglaux acadica acadica (Gmelin). Saw-whet Owl (372).
H.R. Mar . 13, 1899.
Order Pictfqrmes
Family Picidae
1. Coephloeus pileatus abieticola. Bangs. Northern Pileated Woodpecker
(h05a).
Sept. 23, 1898.
Sept. 25, 1898.
102 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters,
2. Picoides arcticus (Swainson). Artie Three-toed Woodpecker (400).
Sept. 25, 1898.
Sept. SO, 1898.
Oct. 4, 1898.
3. Picoides tridactylus bacatus. Bangs. American Three-toed Woodpecker
(401).
Sept. 23, 1898.
Sept. SO, 1898.
Order Passeriformes
Family Motacillidae
1. Anthus spinoletta rubescens (T unstall). American Pipit (697).
Oct. 10, 1898.
Family Vxregnidae
1. Vireo solitarius solitarius (Wilson). Blue-headed Vireo (629).
Sept. 24, 1898.
Family Compsothylypidae
1.
2.
Vermivora peregrina (Wilson). Tennessee Warbler (647).
Sept. 22, 1898.
Sept. 23, 1898.
Dendroica caerulescens caerulescens (Gmelin). Black-throated Blue
Warbler (654).
Sept. 19, 1896.
3. Dendroica virens virens (Gmelin). Black-throated Green Warbler (667).
Sept. 22, 1898.
Sept. 23, 1898.
4. Dendroica castanea (Wilson). Bay-breasted Warbler (660).
Sept. 21, 1898.
Sept. 22, 1898.
5. Dendroica striata (Forster). Black-poll Warbler (661).
Sept. 19, 1898.
Sept. 22, 1898.
6. Seiurus aurocapillus (Linnaeus). Ovenbird (674).
Sept. 22, 1898.
7. Seiurus noveboracensis noveboracensis (Gmelin). Northern Water
Thrush (675).
Sept. 18, 1898.
Family Fringillidae
1. Carpodacus purpureus purpureus (Gmelin). Eastern Purple Finch
(517).
Oct. 11, 1898.
Pinney and MacNaughton — Early Wis. Bird Records 103
2. Pinicola enucleator leucura (Muller). Canadian Pine Grosbeak (515).
Sept . 23, 1898.
Get. 4, 1898 .
3. Loxia curvirostra pusilla. Gloger. Red Crossbill (521).
Sept. 20 » 1898.
Oct. 3, 1898.
4. Junco hy emails hyemalis (Linnaeus). Slate-colored Junco (567).
Oct. 6 , 1898.
5. Zonotrichia querula (Nuttall). Harris’s Sparrow (553).
Oct. 6 , 1898.
6. Zonotrichia leucophrys leucophrys (Forster). White-crowned Sparrow
(554).
Sept. 29, 1898.
7. Passerella iliaca iliaca (Merrem). Eastern Fox Sparrow (585).
Oct. 6, 1898.
8. Melospiza melodia beata Bangs. Mississippi Song Sparrow (581 ).
Sept. 24, 1898.
APPENDIX to III.
Douglas County
(In approximately the same region as those of Group III » but farther west).
Order Galliformes
Family Trtraontbae
1. Canachites canadensis canace (Linnaeus). Canada Spruce Partridge
(298c).
H.V.O. Oct 9, 1902.
2. Pedioecetes phasianellus campeatris Ridgw&y. Prairie Sharp-tailed
Grouse (808b).
H.V.O. Oct. 6, 1902.
H.V.O . Oct 7, 1902.
BIRDS OF NORTHERN AND WESTERN STATES
I. MINNESOTA
Itasca and St. Louis Counties
Order Colymbiformes
Family Colymbidae
1. Podilymbus podiceps podiceps (Linnaeus). Pied-billed Grebe (6).
H.V.O . Oct 6, 1897.
104 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters.
Order Anseriformes
Family Anatidae
1. Anas platyrhynchos platyrhynchos. Linnaeus. Common Mallard (132).
E.C. Oct. 11 , 1897.
2. Querquedula discors (Linnaeus). Blue-winged Teal (140).
H.V.O. Oct. 3, 1897.
3. Nyroca americana (Eyton). Redhead (146).
H.V.O. Oct. 6 , 1897.
4. Nyroca collaris (Donovan). Ring-necked Duck (150).
H.V.O. Sept. 27, 1897.
5. Charitonetta albeola (Linnaeus). Bufflehead (153).
E.C. Oct. 7, 1897.
Order Falconiformes
Family Cathartidae
1. Cathartes aura septentrionalis. Wied. Turkey Vulture (325).
E.C. Oct. 6, 1897.
Family Accipitriidae
1. Accipiter velox velox (Wilson). Sharp-shinned Hawk (332).
H.V.O. Sept. 20, 1896.
2. Buteo platypterus platypterus (Vieillot). Broad-winged Hawk (343).
E.C. Sept. 18, 1897.
3. Haliaeetus leucocephalus leucocephalus (Linnaeus). Southern
Eagle (352).
E.C. Sept. 23, 1896.
Bald
4. Circus hudsonius (Linnaeus). Marsh Hawk (331).
E.C. Sept. 20, 1896.
Family Falconidae
1. Falco columbarius columbarius (Linnaeus). Eastern Rig eon Hawk
(375).
H.V.O. Sept. 18, 1896.
E.C. Sept. 25, 1897.
Order Galliformes
Family Tetraonidae
1. Bonasa umbellus togata (Linnaeus). Canada Ruffed Grouse (300a).
E.C. Sept. 26, 1897.
E.C. Sept. 29, 1897.
E.C. Oct. 2, 1897.
Pinney and MacNaughton — Early Wis. Bird Records 105
Order Charadriiformes
Family Scolopacidae
1. Cappella delicata (Ord). Wilson1 s Snipe (2S0).
E.C. Oct. k, 1897.
2. Actitis macularia (Linnaeus). Spotted Sandpiper (263).
H.V.O. Sept. 28, 1896.
H.V.O. Oct. 6, 1896.
E.C. Sept. 28, 1896.
3. Tringa solitaria solitaria Wilson. Eastern Solitary Sandpiper (256).
H.V.O. Sept. 2k, 1897.
E.C. , Oct. 6, 1897.
4. Pisobia melanotos (Vieillot). Pectoral Sandpiper (239).
H.V.O. Sept. 22, 1897.
Order Strigiformes
Family Strigidae
1. Bubo virginianus subarcticus Hoy. Arctic Horned Owl (375b).
H.V.O. Feb. 1898.
2. Bubo virginianus virginianus (Gmelin). Great Horned Owl (375).
H.V.O. Sept. 25, 1896.
3. Surnia ulula caparoch (Muller). American Hawk Owl (377a).
J.H.V.W. Nov. 1903.
4. Scotiaptex nebulosa nebulosa (Forster). Great Gray Owl (370).
H.V.O. Feb. 1897.
E.C. , Feb. 1898.
Order Cgraciiformes
Family Alcedinidae
1. Megaceryle alcyon alcyon (Linnaeus). Eastern Belted Kingfisher
(390).
E.C. Sept. 30, 1897.
Order Piciformes
Family Picidae
1. Colaptes auratus luteus Bangs. Northern Flicker (kl2a).
H.V.O. Sept. 30, 1896.
2. Dryobates villosus villosus (Linnaeus). Eastern Hairy Woodpecker
(393).
H.V.O. Oct. U, 1896.
E.C. Oct. 3, 1897.
3. Picoides arcticus (Swainson) . Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker (kOO).
H.V.O. Oct. Ik, 1896.
E.C. Oct. 15, 1896.
106 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters.
4.
JPicoides tridactylus baeatus Bangs. American Three-toed Woodpecker
(*oi).
E.C. Oct . 2, 1896.
Order Passeriformes
Family Tyrannidae
1. Myiochanes virens (Linnaeus). Eastern Wood Pewee (461 ).
H.V.O. Sept. 21, 1897.
Family Alaudidae
1. Otocoris alpestris hoyti Bishop. Hoyt's Horned Lark (474k).
H.V.O. Sept. 17, 1896.
E.C. Oct . 2, 1897.
t *
Family Corvidae
1. Perisorius canadensis canadensis (Linnaeus). Canada Jay (484).
H.V.O. Oct. 1, 1896.
H.V.O. Oct. 12, 1897.
E.C. Sept. 26, 1896.
E.C. Oct. 2, 1896.
Family Paridae
1. Penthestes atricapillus atricapillus (Linnaeus). Black-caped Chickadee
(735).
E.C. Oct. 5, 1897.
2. Penthestes hudsonicus hudsonicus (Forster). Hudsonian Chickadee
(740).
E.C. Oct. 8, 1897.
Family Sittidae
1. Sitta carolinensis carolinensis Latham. White-breasted
(727).
H.V.O. Oct. 1, 1896.
Nuthatch
2. Sitta canadensis Linnaeus. Red-breasted Nuthatch (728).
E.C. Oct. 5, 1897.
Family Laniidae
1. Lanius borealis borealis (Vieillot). Northern Shrike (621).
E.C. Oct. 3, 1896.
Family Vireonidae
1. Vireo solitarius solitarius (Wilson). Blue-headed Vireo (629).
E.C. Sept. 26, 1897.
Family Compsothlypidae
1. Vermivora celata celata (Say). Orange-crowned Warbler (646).
H.V.O. Sept. 20, 1897.
H.V.O. Sept. 22, 1897.
E.C. Sept. 21, 1897.
Pinney and MacNaughtor^— Early Wis. Bird Records 107
2. Vermivora ruficapilla ruficapilla (Wilson). Nashville Warbler (450).
E.C. Sept. 21, 1897.
E.C. Oct. 6, 1897.
3. Dendroica pinus pinus (Wilson). Northern Pine Warbler (671).
H.V.O. Sept. 21, 1897.
E.C. Sept. 21, 1897.
4. Dendroica palmarum palmarum (Gmelin). Western Palm Warbler
(672).
H.V.O. Oct. 6, 1896.
H.V.O. Sept. 21, 1897.
E.C. Oct. 1, 1897.
Family Icteridae
1. Euphagus carolinus (Muller). Rusty Blackbird (509).
H.V.O. Sept. 22, 1888.
H.V.O. Sept. 24, 1897.
H.V.O. Oct. 1, 1897.
Family Fringillidae
1. Hesperiphona vespertina vespertina (Cooper). Eastern Evening Gros¬
beak (514) .
H.V.O. Oct. 6, 1896.
E.C. Oct. 6, 1896.
2. Carpodacus purpureus purpureus (Gmelin). Eastern Purple Finch
(517).
E.C. Sept. 24, 1897.
E.C. Sept. 30, 1896.
E.C. Oct. 10, 1897.
3. Spinus tristis tristis (Linnaeus). Eastern Goldfinch (529).
H.V.O. Sept. 26, 1897.
4. Loxia curvirostra pusilla Gloger. Red Crossbill (521).
H.V.O. Oct. 4, 1897.
E.C. Oct. 4, 1897.
5. Loxia leucoptera Gmelin. White-winged Crossbill (522).
H.V.O. Sept. 25, 1897.
H.V.O. Sept. 26, 1897.
E.C. Sept. 25, 1897.
6. Junco hyemalis hyemalis (Linnaeus). Slate-colored Junco (567).
H.V.O. Sept. 26, 1896.
E.C. Oct. 3, 1897.
E.C. Oct. 4, 1897.
7. Spizella arborea arborea (Wilson). Eastern Tree Sparrow (559).
H.V.O. Oct. 4, 1897.
E.C. Oct. 6, 1897.
E.C. Oct. 9, 1896.
108 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
8. Zonotrichia querula (Nuttall). Harris’s Sparrow (553).
H.V.O. Sept. 18, 1897.
H.V.O. Sept. 24, 1897 .
H.V.O. Sept. 26, 1897.
E.C. Sept. 26, 1897.
9.
Zonotrichia leucophrys leucophrys (Forster). White-crowned Sparrow
(554).
E.C. Sept. 26, 1897.
10. Zonotrichia albicollis (Gmelin). White-throated Sparrow (558).
H.V.O. Oct. 2, 1897.
E. C. Oct. 4, 1897 .
11. Passerella iliaca iliaca (Merrem). Eastern Fox Sparrow (585).
H.V.O. Oct. 5, 1897.
E.C. Oct. 2, 1897.
12. Melospiza lincolni lincolni (Audubon). Lincoln’s Sparrow.
E.C. Sept. 16, 1896.
1,3. Melospiza georgiana (Latham). Swamp Sparrow (584).
H.V.O. Sept. 18, 1896.
E.C. Sept. 17, 1896.
14. Calcarius lapponicus lapponicus (Linnaeus). Lapland Longspur (536).
H.V.O. Oct. 9, 1896.
H.V.O. Oct. 12, 1897.
E.C. Sept. 25, 1897.
E.C. Sept. 26, 1897.
15. Plectrophenax nivalis nivalis (Linnaeus). Eastern Snow Bunting
(53V-
H.V.O. Oct. 11, 1896.
II. NORTH DAKOTA
Foster and Wells Counties
Order Anseriformes
Family Anatidae
1. Chen coerulescens (Linnaeus). Blue Goose (169.1).
H.V.O. Oct. 1897.
2. Chaulelasmus streperus (Linnaeus). Gadwall (135).
E.C.
3. Nyroca americana (Eyton). Redhead (146).
E.C. Oct. 4, 1899.
4. C haritonetta albeola (Linnaeus). Bufflehead (153).
E.C. Oct. 3, 1899 .
Pinney and MacNaughton — Early Wis. Bird Records 109
5. Lophodytes cucullatus (Linnaeus). Hooded Merganser (131).
E.C. Oct. 9, 1899.
Order Falconiformes
Family AJccipitriidae
1. Accipiter velox (Wilson). Sharp-shinned Hawk (332).
E.C. Oct. 8, 1899.
2. Buteo borealis krideri Hoopes. Krider’s Hawk (337a.)
E.C. Oct. 7 , 1899.
3. Buteo regalis (Gray). Ferruginous Rough-leg (31*8).
H.V.O. Sept. 25, 1899.
4. Circus hudsonius (Linnaeus). Marsh Hawk (331).
H.V.O. Oct. 5, 1899.
H.V.O. Oct. 8, 1899.
Family Falcon idae
1. Falco perigrinus anatum Bonaparte. Duck Hawk. (356a).
H.V.O. Sept. 23, 1899.
2. Falco columbarius columbarius (Linnaeus). Eastern Pigeon Hawk
(357).
E.C.
Order Galliformes
Family Tetraonidae
1. Tympanuchus cupido americanus (Reichenbach). Greater Prairie
Chicken (305).
H.V.O. Sept. 25, 1899.
Order Charadrixformes
Family Charadriidae
1. Charadrius semipalmatus. Bonaparte. Semipalmated Plover (271*).
E.C. Sept. 28, 1889.
2. Pluvialis dominica dominica (Muller). American Golden Plover (272).
H.V.O. Sept. 28, 1899.
3. Squatarola squatarola (Linnaeus). Black-bellied Plover (270).
H.V.O. Sept. 28, 1899.
H.V. O. Oct. 1, 1899.
Family Scolopacidae
1. Totanus melanoleucus (Gmelin). Greater Yellowlegs (251*).
H.V.O. Sept. 21, 1899.
2. Totanus flavipes (Gmelin). Lesser Yellowlegs (255).
H.V.O. Sept. 21, 1899.
110 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
3. Pisobia melanotos (Vieillot). pectoral Sandpiper (239).
H.V.O. Oct. 3 , 1899.
4. Pisobia bairdi (Coues). Baird* s Sandpiper (2^1).
H.V.O. Sept. 27, 1899.
H.V.O. Sept. 22, 1899.
5. Pisobia minutilla (Vieillot). Least Sandpiper ( 2J+2).
H.V.O. Sept. 22, 1899.
E.C. Oct. 1, 1899.
6. Limnodromus griseus griseus hendersoni. Dowitcher.
H.V.O. Sept. 22, 1899.
7. Limnodromus griseus scolopaceus (Say). Long-billed Dowitcher (232).
H.V.O. Sept. 28, 1899.
Family Phalaropodidae
1. Lobipes lobatus (Linnaeus). Northern Phalerope (223).
H.V.O. Sept. 26, 1899.
H.V.O. Sept. 27, 1899.
Order Strigiformes
Family Strigidae
1. Bubo virginianus subarcticus (Hoy). Arctic Horned Owl (375b).
E.C. Oct. 8, 1899.
2.
Speotyto cunicularia hypugaea (Ridgway).
(378a).
E.C.
Western Burrowing Owl
Order Passeriformes
Family Alaudidae
1. Otocoris alpestris enthymia Oberholser. Saskatchewan Horned Lark.
H.V.O. Sept. U, 1899.
Family Laniidae
1. Lanius borealis borealis Vieillot. Northern Shrike (621).
E.C. Oct. 5, 1899.
Family Compsothlypidae
1. Geothlypis trichas brachidactyla (Swainson). Northern Yellow -thro at
(68 Id).
H.V.O. Sept. 26, 1899.
Family Icteridae
1. Sturnella neglecta Audubon. Western Meadowlark (501.1).
H.V.O. Sept. 29, 1899.
2. Euphagus carolinus (Muller). Rusty Blackbird (509).
H.V.O. Sept. 22, 1888.
Pinney and MacNaughton — Early Wis. Bird Records 111
3. Euphagus cyanocephalus (Wagler). Brewer’s Blackbird (510).
H.V.O. Oct. 1, 1899.
Family Fringillida*j
1. Zonotrichia leucophrys leucophrys (Forster). White-crowned Spawow
(554). H.V.O. Sept. 23, 1899.
2. Calcarius lapponicus lapponicus (Linnaeus). Lapland Long spur (536).
H.V.O. Sept. 24, 1899.
III. WYOMING
Uinta County
Order Pelecaniformes
Family Pelicanidae
1. Pelecanus erythrorhynchos Gmelin. White Pelican (125).
H.V.O. Sept. 10, 1900.
Order Galliformes
Family Tetraonidae
1. Dendragapus obscurus richardsoni (Douglas). Richardson’s Grouse.
(297b).
H.V.O. Sept. 14, 1900.
Order Passeriformes
Family Corvidae
1. Perisorius canadensis capitalis Ridgway. Rocky Mountain Jay (484a).
H.V.O. Sept. 1900.
2. Cyanocitta stelleri annectens (Baird). Black-headed Jay (478c).
H.V.O. Sept. 15, 1900.
3. Nucifraga columbiana (Wilson). Clark’s Nutcracker (491 ).
H.V.O. Sept. 15, 1900.
Family Cinclidae
1. Cinclus mexicanus unicolor Bonaparte. Dipper (701).
H.V.O. Sept. 19, 1900.
BIRDS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN STATES
I. INDIANA
Marion County
Order Piciformes
Family Picidae
1. Colaptes auratus luteus Bangs. Northern Flicker (412a).
E.C. Feb. 1876.
112 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
2. Centurus carolinus (Linnaeus), Red-bellied Woodpecker (409).
E.C . Feb. 1876.
3. Melanerpes erythrocephalus (Linnaeus). Red-headed Woodpecker
(406).
E.C. Feb. 1876 .
4. Sphyrapicus varius varius (Linnaeus). Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (402).
E.C. Apr. 19 , 1876.
6. Dr'll abates pubescens medianus (Swainson). Northern Downy Wood¬
pecker (394c).
E.C. Feb. 1876.
Order Passeriformes
Family Alaudidae
1. Octocoris alpestris hoyti Bishop.1 Hoy Vs Horned Lark (474k).
E.C. Mar. 20, 1876.
Family Corvidae
1. Cyanocitta cristata cristata (Linnaeus). Northern Blue Jay (477).
E.C. Feb. 1876.
Family Paridae
1. Penthestes atricapillus atrieapillus (Linnaeus). Black-capped Chickadee
(735).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
2. Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus). Tufted Titmouse (731).
E.C. Feb. 1876.
Family Certhiidae
1. Certhia familiaris americana Bonaparte. Brown Creeper (726).
E.C. Feb. 1876.
Family Troglodytidae
1. Troglodytes domesticus baldwini. House Wren.
E.C. Spring , 1876.
2. N annus hiemalis hiemalis (Vieillot). Eastern Winter Wren (722).
E.C. Apr. 3, 1876.
3. Thryothorus ludovicianus ludovicianus (Latham). Carolina Wren
(718).
E.C. Spring » 1876.
Family Mimidae
1. Dumetella carolinensis (Linnaeus). Catbird (704).
E.C. Spring , 1876.
1 Dr. Oberholser Chinks this is the first certain record of Hoyt's Horned Lark for Indiana.
Pinney and MacNaughton — Early Wis. Bird Records 113
2. Toxostoma rufum (Linnaeus). Brown Thrasher (705).
E.C. Apr. 4, 1877.
Family Turdidae
1. Sialia sialis sialis (Linnaeus). Eastern Bluebird (766).
E.C. Feb. 1876.
Family Silviidae
1. Polioptila caerulea caerulea (Linnaeus). Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (751).
E.C. Apr. 17, 1876.
E.C. Spring, 1876.
2. Regulus satrapa satrapa Lichtenstein. Eastern Golden-crowned Kinglet
(7W-
E.C. Apr. 3, 1876.
E.C. Apr. 4, 1876.
3. Corthylio calendula calendula (Linnaeus). Eastern
Kinglet (749).
E.C. Apr. 19, 1876.
Ruby-crowned
Family Vireonidae
1. Vireo olivaceus (Linnaeus). Red-eyed Vireo (624).
E.C. Apr. 17, 1876.
Family Compsothlypidae
1. Helmitheros vermin orus (Gmelin). Worm-eating Warbler (639).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
2. V ermivora pinus (Linnaeus). Blue-winged Warbler (641).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
3. Compsothlypis americana pusilla (Wilson). Northern Parula Warbler
(648a).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
4. Dendroica aestiva aestiva (Gmelin). Eastern Yellow Warbler (652).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
5. Dendroica magnolia (Wilson). Magnolia Warbler (657).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
6. Dendroica tigrina (Gmelin). Cape May Warbler (650).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
7. Dendroica coronata (Linnaeus). Myrtle Warbler (655).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
8. Dendroica virens virens (Gmelin). Black-throated Green Warbler
(667).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
9. Dendroica cerulea (Wilson). Cerulean Warbler (658).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
114 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
10. Dendroiea fusca (Muller). Blackburnian Warbler (662).
E.C. Spring » 1876.
11. Dendroiea dominica albilora Ridgway. Sycamore Warbler (668a).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
12. Dendroiea pennsylvanica (Linnaeus). Chestnut-sided Warbler (659).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
13. Dendroiea striata (Forster). Black-poll Warbler (661).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
14. Dendroiea palmarum palmarum (Gmelin). Western Palm Warbler
(672).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
15. Seiurus noveboracensis noveboracensis (Gmelin). Northern Water
Thrush (675).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
16. Wilsonia canadensis (Linnaeus). Canada Warbler ( 686).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
17. Setophaga ruticella (Linnaeus). American Redstart ( 687).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
Family Thraupujae
1. Piranga erythromelas (Vieillot). Scarlet Tanager
E.C. Spring, 1876.
Family Fringiludae
1. Richmondena cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus). Eastern Cardinal
(593).
E.C. Spring, 1876.
2. Spinus tristis tristis (Linnaeus). Eastern Goldfinch (529).
E.C. Apr. U, 1876.
3. Pipilo erythropthalmus ery thropthalmus (Linnaeus). Red-eyed Towhee
(587).
E.C. Mar. 18, 1876.
4. Pooecetes gramineus gramineus (Gmelin). Eastern Vesper Sparrow
(540).
E.C. Apr. 19, 1876.
5. Chondestes grammacus grammacus (Say). Eastern Lark Sparrow
(552).
E.C. Oct. 6, 1877.
6. Junco hyemalis hy emails (Linnaeus). Slate-colored Junco (567).
E.C. Mar. 18, 1876.
Pinney and MacN aught on— Early Wis. Bird Records 115
7. Spizella arhorea curborea (Wilson). Eastern Tree-sparrow (559).
E.C. Mar. 18, 1876.
8. Passerella iliaca iliaca (Merrem). Eastern Fox Sparrow (585).
E.C. Mar. 30, 1876.
IL KENTUCKY
Lee County
Order Passeriformes
Family Icteridae
1. Quiscalus quiscula aeneus Rid g way. Bronzed Grackle (511b).
C.J.A. Nov. 15, 1900.
BIRDS OF MISCELLANEOUS LOCALITIES
I. ONTARIO
Order Anseriformes
Family Anatidae
1. Mergus serrator (Linnaeus). Red-breasted Merganser (130).
H.V.O . Sept. 21, 1901.
Order Falconiformes
Family Accipitriidae
1. Astur atrioapillus atricapillus (Wilson). Eastern Goshawk (334,).
H.V.O. Oct. 7, 1896.
2. Accipiter velox velox (Wilson). Sharp-shinned Hawk (332).
H.V.O. Sept. 11, 1901.
H.V.O. Sept. 17, 1901.
3. Circus hudsonius (Linnaeus). Marsh Hawk (331 ).
H.V.O. Sept. 26, 1901.
Order Cuculiformes
Family Cuculidae
1. Coccyzus americanus americanus (Linnaeus). Yellow-billed Cuckoo
(387).
H.V.O. Sept. 19, 1901.
Order Passeriformes
Family Alaudidae
1. Otocoris alpestris alpestris (Linnaeus) Northern Horned Lark (474)-
H.V.O. Sept. 19, 1901.
Family Corvidae
1. Corvus corax principalis Ridgway . Northern Raven (486a).
H.V.O. Sept. 9, 1901.
116 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
Family Fringillidae
1. Zonotrichia querula ( Nuttall ). Harris's Sparrow (553).
H.V.O. Sept. 18, 1901.
II. ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND and ALASKA
Order Charadriiformes
Family Laridae
1. Xema Sabini (Sabine). Sabine's Gull (62).
Aug. 18, 1899.
2. Sterna paradisaea Briinnich. Arctic Tern (71).
Summer, 1899.
Family Algid ae
1. Fratercula corniculata (Naumann). Horned Puffin (1U).
July 10, 1899.
THE RANGE OF THE BISON IN WISCONSIN
A, W. SCHORGER
The former range of the bison (Bison b. bison Linn.) has
been outlined by Allen1, Hornaday2, and Seton3. - The distribu¬
tional area in Wisconsin was approximated on the basis of a
few references only. A more thorough investigation of the lit¬
erature permits defining the range more accurately, but not to a
degree commensurate with the labor involved.
A study of this nature would not be complete without giving
consideration to vegetative conditions during the period when
the bison abounded. The southern and western portions of Wis¬
consin were covered formerly, for the most part, with prairie
and “oak openings/' In fact, the northern edge of the bison
range coincides surprisingly well with the Prairie post offices.*
The growth of timber during the past seventy-five years has
obscured the former existence of an excellent bison habitat. The
annual burning by the Indians maintained a region of prairies
and open groves ; so, for this reason, the map prepared by
Chamberlin4 in 1882, on which the prairie areas are shown, does
not give a true picture of early conditions.
The prairie region spread, in the interior of the state, as far
north as Lake Winnebago. Pere Dablon5, who was at the Mas-
coutin village on the Fox River in 1670-71, states that the
prairie extended more than three hundred leagues in every di¬
rection. Though this extent is questionable, later travelers found
almost continuous prairie from the site of the present city of
Oshkosh to Portage. Col. Whittlesey6, who traversed the region
in 1832, found, after crossing the Fox River at Lake Winne¬
bago, a low rolling prairie that extended for fifty miles. This
same region of prairies and oak openings was described in con¬
siderable detail by Capt. Marryat7 who called it “beautiful be¬
yond description".
In actuality, the prairie was almost continuous from Lake
Winnebago to the Illinois line. Mrs. Kinzie8, in March, 1831,
* Star Prairie, St. Croix Co.; Prairie Farm, Barron Co.; West Prairie, Vernon Co.; Prairie
du Sac, Sank Co.; Strong Prairie, Adams Co.; Rolling Prairie, Dodge Co.; and North Prairie,
Waukesha Co.
118 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
journeyed from Fort Winnebago (Portage) to Chicago by way
of Blue Mounds. After leaving Lake Mendota, the trail to Blue
Mounds was over a rolling prairie. Thence her party went south
for fifty miles over a prairie on which it “vainly hoped to see a
distant fringe of timber”. On the return journey, she also men¬
tions that after leaving the Madison lakes, the party, to reach
Fort Winnebago, crossed “Twenty-Mile Prairie” without a tree
in sight.
The first recorded overland journey from Chicago to Prairie
du Chien was made by Keating’s party in 1823. It entered the
state near Monroe, crossed the Military Ridge west of Blue
Mounds, and proceeded to Prairie du Chien. Keating9 makes
this significant statement: “The only defect which we observed
in the country between Chicago and the Mississippi is the scar¬
city of wood, which is more seriously felt on the west side of
Rock river than to the east of it.” Incidentally, he remarks on
the extreme scarcity of game.
A map10 of southwestern Wisconsin published by R. W.
Chandler in 1829, states that not more than a tenth is covered
with timber, in detached groves, the remainder being prairie.
Daniels11, the first state geologist, stated in 1854 that only one-
third of southwestern Wisconsin was prairie. He gives, how¬
ever, the reason for the rapid disappearance of the prairie : “An
interesting and valuable feature may be mentioned in this con¬
nection, viz : The rapid growth of young trees from the soil of
the open prairie, wherever the annual fires are shut off. Upon
Judge Blackstone’s farm, near White Oak Springs, we were
shown dense groves of young trees, from six to ten inches in
diameter, where, twenty-five years ago, not a shrub could be
found larger than a riding whip. The same process may be
seen in numerous localities, at various stages of advancement,
from the prairie, covered with sprouts of oak, hickory, aspen,
hazel, and sometimes maple, linden, and ash, to thick groves
which have been growing for many years. ... If proper pre¬
cautions are taken to protect the surface from the fires, every
farm upon these prairies will supply itself with timber in a few
years.”
Fixation of the range of the bison is complicated greatly by
the loose terminology of the early French voyageurs. Some of
the English translations add to the confusion, so that the French
Schorger — Bison in Wisconsin
113
texts should always be examined. Many writers have used buf-
fle, boeuf , boeuf sauvage, and vache sauvage indiscriminately for
the bison, moose ( Alces maichis), and wapiti (Cervus canaden¬
sis). In general elan, orginal ( orginal ), or oriniak refers strict¬
ly to the moose. The wapiti was called cerf, vache sauvage, or
stag (stagg) . Cerf would be fairly descriptive as it is the French
name of the European stag or red deer. Michaux12 states that
the French and Canadians of Illinois call the American elk cerf
and the white-tailed deer chevreuil. In Europe the chevreuil is
the roebuck. It must be said that many of the French writers
had a “boosting” spirit and wished to make the natural advan¬
tages of the country attractive by naming as many mammals as
possible. Fortunately, it is an exceptional case in which any
word other than boeuf can be translated bison for Wisconsin.
The range of the bison will be followed from the northwest¬
ern corner of the state, southeasterly to Lake Michigan. School¬
craft13, in 1820, found buffalos in Minnesota where the Elk River
empties into the Mississippi. They did not appear there in 1821,
and the Chippewas stated that 1820 was the last year that these
animals crossed to the east bank of the Mississippi. The place
where the buffalos were found was 40 miles west of the Wiscon¬
sin boundary in latitude 45° 20'. Father Hennepin14, while
a captive of the Sioux, was on the St. Croix River in 1680. He
mentions an Indian grave near which the savages left a pot con¬
taining fat buffalo meat ( viande grasse de V aches ou Taureaux
Sauvages) .
It is highly probable, aside from historical evidence, that the
bison ranged to the eastward of the St. Croix River. School¬
craft15, in 1831, found that “the prairie country extends itself
into the vicinity of Rice Lake (Barron Co.),” and that along
the Red Cedar River the forests were interspersed with prairie.
The journeys of Radisson and Groseilliers are a geographical
as well as a zoological problem. In his Third Voyage, 1658-1660,
Radisson16 mentions the occurrence of “Buffs” about the lake of
“ye Stinkings” (Michigan) and states that they come to the
“upper lake” (Superior) but by chance. He gives a good de¬
scription of the buffalo and mentions slaying it during the win¬
ter hunts. Careful reading of his voyage leads to the conclusion
that his first experience with the buffalo was obtained on the
120 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
upper Mississippi, probably near the Bois Brule-St. Croix water¬
way.
In the late fall of 1661, in the course of his Fourth Voyage,
Radisson made an overland journey from Chequamegon Bay to
Lake Namakagon, apparently, the Indians then scattering for
the winter’s hunts. In the beginning, game was abundant and
he17 mentions the killing of “Oriniaks, staggs, wild cows, Carri-
boucks, fallow does and bucks”. Some antiquarians have as¬
sumed that his wild cows were buffalos. For various reasons,
it is most probable that he refers to the female wapiti. He and
his associates in the course of the winter wander westward to
the St. Croix and beyond, into the country of the Sioux. He
then makes several references to their buffalo culture, always
using the word “buffe” or a variant. Furthermore, while re¬
turning homeward from his Third Voyage his party killed “wild
cowes” on the Ottawa River, Canada, 30 leagues below the Calu¬
met Rapids. The buffalo never occurred along the Ottawa. That
the moose was not intended is shown by the fact that an horini-
ack was killed shortly afterwards. The cow moose is more mul¬
ish than bovine as attested by some of the early French travel¬
lers.
Bison were common in certain localities along the Mississippi
River, from Lake Pepin to the Wisconsin River. Buffalo River
in Buffalo County perpetuates their former abundance. Henne¬
pin18 was the first to mention “la Riviere des Taureaux Sauv-
ages,” stating that it was so-called from the large number of
buffaloes ordinarily found there. It was described as skirted
by mountains, but these were sufficiently distant in places to
leave prairies. The Indians with him made a hunt on this river.
Returning, laden with meat, their women concealed it on the
islands at the mouth of the stream. He also mentions buffalos
at Lake Pepin (d la pointe du Lac des pleurs) , and an occasion
on which some sixty buffaloes with their young (soixante Taur¬
eaux, ou Vdches Sauvages avec leurs veaux) crossed a river. The
side of the Mississippi on which they were found is not deter¬
minable. Pike19 mentions a Point de Sable projecting about a
mile into the lake from the west side.
La Salle20, in a letter written in 1682, mentions the “Riviere-
des boeufs” that owed its name to the large number of those
animals found there. In 1699, Le Seur21 described a large, beau-
S chorger— Bison in Wisconsin
121
tiful river coming from a great distance, and flowing at its
mouth from the north. This was called the Bon-Secours from
the great number of bison ( boeufs ), wapiti ( cerfs ), bears, and
deer (chevreuils) found there. This river has been identified
with the present Chippewa River22, and from all the evidence,
correctly so. It is difficult in some cases to decide whether the
Buffalo or Chippewa River is intended, the two streams being
about 10 miles apart where they enter the Mississippi. Henne¬
pin states that his Riviere des Taureanx is a whole league from
Lake Pepin ( une grande lieue du Lac des pleurs ), so that it must
have been the present Chippewa River.
A glance at a detailed map permits some interesting con¬
clusions. About 12i/| miles above the mouth of the Chippewa
a branch known as Beef Slough leaves the river. This slough,
known also as Boeuf Slough23, even in modern times, curves to
the southeast for 18 miles to join the Mississippi, thus forming
with the main Chippewa a large delta. The present Buffalo
River, that is only 30 yards wide at its mouth, empties into the
lower end of Beef Slough 9*4 miles below the main mouth of
the Chippewa. Strictly speaking, the Buffalo River is accord¬
ingly a tributary of the Chippewa. More to the point is the fact
that the voyageurs keeping to the main channel of the Missis¬
sippi would not be likely even to see the Buffalo, this river and
the slough being relatively insignificant. It is apparent then
that when Chippewa predominated as the name of the main
stream, the slough and its tributary fell heir to Boeuf.
It would seem that both rivers had bison on the banks so that
a further discussion of the names would not be in place. Long24,
in 1817, states that buffalos while not numerous on the “River
au Boeuf” (Buffalo River) were still hunted there by the Indians
at all seasons.
The Chippewa valley was unquestionably the greatest game
region in the state. Carver25 ascended the river in June, 1767,
and observes “larger droves of buffaloes and elks” than in any
other part of his travels. He describes the land along the river
as very level for sixty miles and clothed with fine meadows. His
account establishes the distance that the buffalo ranged to the
eastward in this latitude. The country was almost devoid of
timber up to Chippewa Falls, but rugged and heavily timbered
beyond.
122 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters.
Range of Bison in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Historical Society recently received from the
library of McGill University a copy of the “Military Journal of
Captain James Stanley Goddard made in 1766-7”. He left Mac¬
kinac September 17, 1766 and stopped at the Sauk village in
Sauk County. He remarks that the Sauk Indians are good hunt¬
ers and have horses “which they use to hunt Buffalos on in the
summer time”. He accompanied Jonathan Carver on his voyage
Schorger — Bison in Wisconsin
123
up the Chippewa River. The journal contains the following
entry for May 29, 1767 : “This is a fine river . . . ; there is plenty
of animals, such as stag, deer, bear and buffalos, of which we
killed every day one sort or other”. Acknowledgment is made
to the Society for their kind permission to use the above ex¬
cerpts.
It is improbable that the bison occurred in the south-central
part of the state. Here, the terrain is rugged and was well
wooded. To the northward lay the “sand barrens.”
The drawings of various animals in a cave near West Salem,
La Crosse County, have been described by Brown26. Two of the
pictographs here reproduced (PI. 1, figs. 1-2) unquestionably
represent the bison. The technique indicates Siouan origin,
though the quality is below that of some of their more modern
paintings. The Sioux formerly occupied or claimed the east bank
of the Mississippi from the mouth of the Wisconsin River to
Mille Lacs, Minnesota.
Bison were found in numbers near the mouth of the Wiscon¬
sin River up to the latter part of the eighteenth century. B. W.
Brisbois27 was born and raised at Prairie du Chien. He was told
by a Mrs. Cardinal (Cardinell), who came to Prairie du Chien
about 1767, that buffalos crossed the river in such numbers that
it was necessary to wait for the hordes to cross before a canoe
could pass safely. La Salle28, writing under date of Aug. 22,
1682, expresses his concern that Du Luth may interfere with the
fur trade that he is establishing on the Wisconsin “on account
of the great number of buffaloes ( boeufs ), which are taken there
every year, almost beyond belief.”
There is no specific reference to the bison on the Wisconsin
River between Prairie du Chien and Portage. Marquette29, in
his memorable journey from Green Bay to the Mississippi in
1673, states that while on the Wisconsin River, he saw no small
game or fish, but many deer (cheureilz) , and a large number of
“cows” {V aches) . Shea30 translates V aches as moose and states
that it is clearly a mistake to assume that bison is intended.* His
argument is based on the fact that Marquette does not mention
the bison until he arrives on the Mississippi in latitude 41° 28'.
Marquette gives then a description of the bison under the name
* It is just as great a mistake to translate the word as moose for the lower Wisconsin is
far below the former range of this species.
124 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.
Figs. 1 and 2. Bison Pietographs, LaCrosse Co.
Fig. 3, Bison Mound, Sauk Co.
Schorger— Bison in Wisconsin 125
pisikiou** or boeufs sauvages. On Marquette’s map the bison is
Boeuf sauvage.
It is likely that the vaches seen by Marquette on the Wiscon¬
sin River were wapiti, even though he later speaks of bison,
wapiti, and kids ( boeufs , cerfs , chevreux) 31. Dablon’s Relation3-
was probably available to Marquette before he set out on his
voyage. Dablon was at the Mascoutin village, modern Berlin33,
on the Fox River, in 1670-1671. In describing the prairies south
of Lake Winnebago he mentions that “wild cows” ( vaches sauv¬
ages) are encountered not infrequently in herds of four and five
hundred each. He must refer here to the American elk, consid¬
ering the size of the herds, and the fact that he immediately pro¬
ceeds to describe in detail the bison occurring in the same lo¬
cality. Dablon was the first to use the name pisikiou as a syn¬
onym for the buffalo ( buffle ) .
There are several other references to the occurrence of the
bison in the region south of Lake Winnebago. Allouez34, writing
of his journey to Lake Superior, 1665-1667, states that the Outa¬
gamie live southward towards the lake of the Ilimouek (Michi¬
gan), in a country favorable to the hunting of wapiti (Cerf),
bison ( Boeuf sauvage), and other animals. When he actually
visited these Indians in 1670, he found them living on the Wolf
River. He does not mention the bison again, but states that
large and small stags ( grandes et petits Cerfs), bears, and bea¬
vers are found in abundance.
Perrot35 visited the Wisconsin tribes in 1666 and mentions
the bison in several cases. He states that shortly after the In¬
dians had formed a new settlement near Green Bay, they went
to hunt bison ( Boeufs ) and returned in a fortnight loaded with
meat and grease. Since it took the French five days to reach
the Mascoutin village (Berlin), it is safe to assume that the
hunt was made on the prairies south of Lake Winnebago. The
Indians could scarcely have gone farther, killed the game, and
returned in the time specified. After reaching the Mascoutin
village, Perrot mentions that he was seated on a painted bison
robe “the hair of which was softer than silk.” His food was
seasoned with bison fat ( graisse de boeuf), and he left his gun
with the Indians in order that they might use it to hunt bison.
** Mr. M. W. Stirling of the Bureau of American Ethnology has informed me that pisikiou is
evidently intended for the Menominee word pisdhkiw, meaning buffalo. The plural form is
Pisdkkiwuk.
126 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters .
While voyaging up the Fox River in 1690-1691, Perrot36 was
presented with a bison ( boeuf ) and some maize that were of
great assistance to the Frenchmen on their journey to the Mis¬
sissippi. De Beauharnois36*, in May, 1730, writes that the allied
Ottawas, Sauteurs, Menominees, and Winnebagoes destroyed
twenty flatboats of Foxes returning from a buffalo hunt.
Their former presence was mentioned by travelers in the
region as late as 183737. Richard Dart's family, the first to set¬
tle at Green Lake, took up a claim south of the lake in 1840.
when he was twelve years of age. In 1906, he stated : “We saw
no buffalo, but their wallows and chips and horns were visible,
and seemed recent. [Pierre] Le Roy* said that he had seen
these prairies black with buffalo37*.
The lakes formed by the widening of the upper Fox River
were known on the early French maps as the Wild Rice Lakes
( Lacs de Folles Avoines) . The first reference that has been
found to Lac du Boeuf, the present Buffalo Lake, is in 1777-
177838. The French name of this lake was used also by Feather-
stonhaugh39 who traversed it in 1835. William Powell40 (1810-
1885), who was interviewed in 1877, states that the Buffalo
Lake region was a great buffalo range in early times. The oldest
Menominee living had never seen buffalos in Wisconsin. Xome-
tah, an aged Menominee, who died about 1867, and others stated
that their fathers had killed and driven them off.
The discoveries of Recent and fossil remains of the bison are
distinctly limited. Hay41 received from Dr. S. Weidman, State
Geologist, a humerus, classed as Recent, found in a marsh near
Oshkosh. This indicates that the bison may have ranged to the
northern end of Lake Winnebago on the western shore.** Recent
bones have also been found on the site of the old French post
near Trempealeau42.
The bison remains found by Whitney43 in a lead crevice at
Blue Mounds, Dane county, appear to belong to an extinct spe¬
cies. Of exceptional interest is the recent discovery of the re¬
mains of approximately forty Bison b. oliverhayi in a peat bog in
* It would be possible to approximate the date of the disappearance of the bison if the date
of Pierre Le Roy’s birth were known. He was in the Kinzie party in their journey, to Chicago in
1831. Mrs. Kinzie speaks of him as “young” Roy.
** In 1765 there was published in London, “A Concise Account of North America”, by Major
Robert Rogers. In describing Green Bay, page 164, he mentions the tall grass growing between
the trees and adds: “This invites hither the greatest plenty of deer, elks, buffalos, wild cows, bears,
beavers . ” The work is obviously a compilation and there is no historical evidence that the
author had first hand knowledge of the country west of Mackinac.
Schorger— Bison in Wisconsin 127
the St. Croix watershed44. No bones of Bison b. bison were found
with them.
The Winnebagoes are of Siouan linguistic stock, but are not
known to have resided outside of the Wisconsin region. The
stronghold of the tribe was in the Lake Winnebago district. They
first became known to the whites in 1634 when Nicollet found
them at Green Bay. Though culturally a distinctly timber peo¬
ple, the Winnebagoes had a buffalo clan, and their most impor¬
tant ceremony was the buffalo dance. Thwaites45, in 1887, in¬
terviewed Moses Paquette, interpreter for the Wisconsin Winne¬
bagoes, who described the buffalo dance as still the tribe’s most
popular ceremony.
No reference was found to the occurrence of the bison in life
in extreme southern Wisconsin though conditions were very
favorable for their existence in abundance. There are no ac¬
counts of whites traversing this section prior to 1800. It re¬
mained a terra icognita due to being off the main waterways.
The water routes followed by the French were the Fox-Wiscon-
sin to the Mississippi and the Lake Michigan shore to Chicago.
While the identification of effigy mounds leaves much to the
imagination, the occurrence of “buffalo” mounds on the south¬
ern prairies is of some significance. Lapham46 has described,
among others, two buffalo mounds along Honey Creek, at the
edge of the Sauk prairie, Sauk County. One of the mounds is
shown as Fig. 3 (PI. I). He considered the animals to be graz¬
ing in an attitude “quite spirited and natural.” The list of the
mammals of Sauk County published by Canfield47 contains the
following brief reference: “Buffalo. — Had all left before the
country was purchased of the Indians.”
A group of six animal mounds in single file was described
by Taylor48 in 1838. The group was situated in Dane County
eighteen miles west of Madison and seven miles east of Blue
Mounds. He seems to have made a careful survey but is in doubt
as to the animal that the figures are intended to represent. He
decided in favor of the buffalo, because of its former abundance
in the surrounding prairie. In 1836, Featherstonhaugh49, after
leaving Blue Mounds, saw on the prairie “seven buffalo mounds,
each representing distinctly, the head, horns, neck, fore and
hind legs, body, and tail of that animal.” In spite of certain dis¬
crepancies in the drawings, there is no doubt but that this was
the same group surveyed by Taylor. Taylor’s animals resemble
128 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Aris and Letters .
the bear, while Featherstonhaugh’s drawings are too distinctly
bovine to be credible.
It is stated by T. V. Kumlien50, in a private paper now in the
possession of Mr. Angie Kumlien Main of Fort Atkinson, Wis¬
consin, that the early settlers found buffalo horns in the vicinity
of Lake Koshkonong. There were no permanent settlements in
Jefferson County, prior to 1835, so that the existence of horns at
this date would indicate that the buffalo did not disappear from
the region prior to 1800.
Marquette51, in the course of his last voyage, skirted the
western shore of Lake Michigan. He mentions, on Nov. 27,
1674, that after proceeding about three leagues from “the river”
(Milwaukee) he found savages who had killed some bison
(boeufs) . This would be in the vicinity of Racine. Marquette
is consistent in his use of boeuf , and there is no doubt that he
refers to bison. Proceeding on to the Chicago River, his men,
Pierre and Jacques, killed three bison.
It is surprising that the bison was found so long in Wiscon¬
sin in view of the fact that it was almost extinct east of the
Mississippi prior to 1815. Hoy52 states on the authority of Gov¬
ernor Dodge that buffalos were killed on the Wisconsin side of
the St. Croix River the year following the close of the Elack-
hawk war. This would be 1833. Lapham53 states that the buf¬
falo was seen last east of the Mississippi in 1832. Agreement is
good as to the date of extinction for Sibley54 reports that the
Sioux Indians killed two bison on the Trempealeau River in
1832. There is a melancholic reflection in his words : “They are
believed to have been the last specimens of the noble bison which
trod, or will ever again tread, the soil of the region lying east of
the Mississippi river”.
Bibliography
1. Allen, J. A. Miem. Mus. Comp. Zool. Cambridge, Vol. 4, No. 10 (1876),
pp. 1-246.
2. Hornaday, W. T. Ann. Rept. Smithsonian Inst., 1887, Part II (1889),
pp. 369-548.
3. Seton, E. T. “Lives of Game Animals”, Vol. Ill, Part II, (1929), p. 647.
4. Chamberlin, T. C. General Map of the Native Vegetation of Wisconsin.
(1882) Plate HA.
5. Dablon, P. Jesuit Relations, Vol. 55 (1899), p. 195.
6. Whittlesey, Col. C. Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. 1 (1855), p. 74.
Schorger — Bison in Wisconsin
129
7. Marryat, Capt. F. “A Diary in America”. Philadelphia, Vol. I (1839),
pp. 186-8.
8. Kinzie, Mrs. J. H. “Wau-Bun”. Rand, McNally, Chicago, pp. 109, 113-4,
and 258.
9. Keating, W. H. “Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St.
Peter’s River, Etc.” Philadelphia, Vol. I (1824), p. 186.
10. Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. 11 (1888), p. 400.
11. Daniels, E. “First Annual Report on the Geological Survey of the State
of Wisconsin”. Madison (1854), pp. 7, 57 and 73.
12. Michaux, A. “Journal of Travels into Kentucky, 1795-1796”. Thwaites’
Early Western Travels, Vol. Ill (1904), p. 72.
13. Schoolcraft, H. R. “Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition
to the Sources of the Mississippi River; Etc.” Philadelphia (1865),
pp. 146 and 148.
14. Hennepin, Louis. “Nouvelle Decouverte”, Utrecht (1697), p. 313H.
15. Schoolcraft, H. R. l.c., pp. 544, 543, and 556.
16. Radisson, Peter E. “Voyages”, Prince Society, Boston (1885), pp. 152,
155 and 156.
17. Radisson, Peter E. l.c., p. 202.
18. Hennepin, l.c., pp. 313C, 391, and 402.
19. Coues, E. “The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike”, New York
Vol. I (1895), p.!307.
20. La Salle, in Margry’s “Decouvertes et Etablissements des Francais
(1614-1754)”. Paris Vol. II, (1876-1885), p. 251.
21. Le Seur, in Margry l.c. Vol. VI, p. 74.
22. Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. 18 (1908) p. 79.
23. Fonda, J. H., Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. 5 (1868), p. 250.
24. Long, Major S. H. “Voyage in a Six-Oared Skiff to the Falls of Saint
Anthony in 1817”. Coll. Minn. Hist. Soc., Vol. 2 (1860), p. 22.
25. Carver, J. “Travels”, Philadelphia (1784), p. 54.
26. Brown, Rev. E. Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. 8 (1879), pp. 178 and 181.
27. Brisbois, B. W. Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. 9 (1882), p. 291; cf. Brunson,
Rev. A., ibid, Vol. 4 (1859), p. 249; Wis. Mag. History Vol. 18 (1935),
p. 356.
28. LaSalle, in Margry l.c. Vol. II, p. 254.
29. Marquette, Jacques, Jesuit Relations Vol. 59 (1900), pp. 107 and 111.
30. Shea, J. G., “Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley”,
New York (1853), p. 16.
31. Marquette, Jacques l.c., p. 162.
32. Dablon, Pere Jesuit Relations, Vol. 55 (1899), 195.
33. Wood, J. J. Proc. Wis. Hist. Soc., (1906), p. 167.
34. Allouez, Claude Jesuit Relations Vol. 51 (1899), p. 43; ibid. Vol. 54,
(1899), p. 217.
35. Perrot, Nicholas, in Bacqueville de La Potherie’s “Historie de 1’Ame-
rique Septentrionale”. Paris Vol. II, (1753) pp. 103-9.
36. Perrot, Nicholas l.c. Vol. II, p. 258.
36a. DeBeauhamois, Wis. Hist. Coll. 5 (1868) p. 104.
130 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
37. Marryat, Capt. F. l.c. Vol. I, p. 189; Featherstonhaugh, G. W. “A
Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor”. London Vol. I, (1847), p. 188.
37a. Dart, Richard Ptroc. Wis. Hist. Soc., for 1909 (1910), p. 260.
38. Gautier de Verville, Charles Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. 11 (1888), p. 103.
39. Featherstonhaugh, G. W. l.c. Vol. I, p. 186.
40. Fowell, William Proc. Wis. Hist. Soc. for 1912 (1913), p. 177.
41. Hay, O. P. “The Pleistocene of North America”. Washington (1923),
p. 270.
42. Pierce, E. D. Proc. Wis. Hist. Soc. for 1915 (1916), pp. 112-1131
43. Whitney, J. D. “Report of a Geol. Survey of the Upper Mississippi
Lead Region”. Albany (1862), pp. 421-3 ; J. A. Allen, Am. J. Sci. Vol.
11 (1876), p. 47; O. P. Hay, l.c., p. 270.
44. Eddy, S. and Jenks, A. E. Science Vol. 81 (1935), p. 635.
45. Thwaites, R. G. Wis. Hist. Coll., Vol. 12 (1892), p. 423.
46. Lapham, I. A. “The Antiquities of Wisconsin”. Smith. Inst., Washing¬
ton (1855), Plate 55.
47. Canfield, W. H. “Outline Sketches of Sauk County,” Third Sketch, p.
39, published in 1870.
48. Taylor, R. C. Silliman’s Jour. Vol. 34 (1838), pp. 90-91.
49. Featherstonhaugh, G. W. l.c. Vol. II, pp. 90-91.
50. Kumlien, T. V., cited by Lawson, P. V. Wis. Acad. Sci., Arts and
Letters, Vol. 20 (1922), p. 668.
J51. Marquette, Jacques Jesuit Relations Vol. 59 (1900), pp. 171 and 173;
Kellogg, L. “Early Narratives of the Northwest”. New York (1917),
pp. 264-265.
62. Hoy, P. R. Wis. Acad. Sci., Arts, and Letters, Vol. 5 (1882), p. 256.
53. Lapham, I. A. Trans. Wis. Agr. Soc. 1852 (1853), p. 340.
54. Sibley, H. H. in Schoolcraft’s “History, Condition and Prospects of
the Indian Tribes of the United States”. Philadelphia Vol. 4, (1854),
p. 94. Cf. L. H. Bunnell “Winona and its Environs”. Winona (1897),
pp. 329-330.
GENETIC HISTORY OF CATTLE IN WISCONSIN*
George Walter Woolley
Introduction
This study was begun at the suggestion of Dr. L. J. Cole, who
pointed out the need of a genetic history, or at least a historical
survey, of the cattle of Wisconsin. At that time, as at present,
there was no available source of information of this nature. This
condition was almost equally true for American cattle in gen¬
eral.
The vast majority of the cattle of the state have at all times
been unregistered. Without a knowledge of the different foun¬
dation stocks entering the general population there was no sat¬
isfactory method of determining the per cent and kind of differ¬
ent blood making up the unregistered cattle of the state. Unlike
the registered breeds, which are closed to outside blood, various
bloods could have entered into the make-up of these cattle from
time to time. This paper is an attempt to evaluate the present
cattle population on the basis of the different groups that have
been brought into the population during its development. At
present the work is complete to 1860. From 1860 to 1890 the
emphasis has been placed on dairy cattle.
Early Introduction of Cattle into Wisconsin
European and American Background.
When representatives of the European nations came to the
North American continent in the fifteenth century no domestic
cattle, Bos taurus, were found. American bison were present,
but these never proved satisfactory animals for domestication.
Importations of varieties of domestic cattle from Europe started
with the establishment of the first settlements and have con¬
tinued up to the present time.
For many years the cattle of America merely reflected vari¬
ous types that were present in Europe. Within Europe they
differed greatly in size, color and form, even between sections
* A thesis submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 193S.
Paper from the Department of Genetics, Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Wis¬
consin, No. 189. Published with the approval of the Director of the Station.
132 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
of a country. Excellent reviews of these cattle are given in the
United States Consular Reports of 1887, and by Morse, 1910.
In this paper, breed terms have been used as a basis for classifi¬
cation of these differences, except in a few instances where it
has been found expedient to use geographical distribution.
The cattle of the older North American settlements may
readily be separated into three divisions. On a geographic basis
these might be termed Spanish, English and French, respective¬
ly. In general, these divisions developed independently until
Fig. I. Distribution of Cattle in America about 1750.
Three geographically distinct divisions of cattle were present in North
America. The lower Mississippi, however, probably possessed a number of
cattle of French importation, as well as of Spanish importation, and the
southern English colonies a few of Spanish origin.
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle
133
after 1800. The three came together in Missouri near this latter
date. (Fig. 1.)
The first two of these, the southern and the central, may be
eliminated from the picture of the early cattle of Wisconsin. Of
these two, the former never became of importance to Wisconsin
at any time. The cattle of this division, first brought by the
Spanish to the West Indies and then to the entire coast from
Florida to Mexico1, were only of importance in the south and
southwest part of the continent2. Cattle of the central, or second
division, formed the foundation stock for the progressively west¬
ward moving ucow country"1 of North America. These cattle
are discussed in connection with a later group of cattle in Wis¬
consin. It is of interest at this time to know that after remain¬
ing east of the Alleghenies for many years, their first move
westward was from Virginia, to Kentucky and Tennessee. They
reached Ohio by 1773. Other cattle are known to have been
present in Wisconsin at this time.
■ The third division includes the cattle brought to the St.
Lawrence. These are of particular interest here because of their
importance in the French Northwest, of which Wisconsin was a
part, French and Portuguese fishermen who settled in little
groups along the Newfoundland shore were the first to make
importations of cattle to this region. Starting as early as 15183,
and 15254, these preceded even the adventurous Cartier, who dis¬
covered the St. Lawrence river for France in 1534. Only frag¬
mentary history exists concerning these early importations5.
1 In 149S cattle were sent to the Indies. Whitaker, p. 3. The first reliable data as to cattle
on the continent are contained in a written report found in the Spanish Archives at Madrid, to
the effect that Gregario Villalabos in 1521, went to Spain (now Mexico) as Governor General or
Vice-rqy. Villalabos landed near the present town of Vera Cruz, Mexico, and according to the
manuscript, “brought a number of calves from Santo Domingo, he being the first to bring them to
New Spain.” Saunders p. 709. For early mention of the cattle of Porto Rico, see Memoir of
Melendez, 1565, and for the Gulf region in general, Memoir of Sieur de la Salle, 1678.
® See Schlarman for the relation of d’Iberville’s colony, Louisiana, to the French Canadian and
Indian colony on the Kaskaskia.
3 In 1518 Baron de Lery made an abortive attempt at settlement on Sable Island where the
cattle left by him remained and multiplied. Parkman, p. 172.
4 Saunders, p. 107, 1925.
s Parkman, p. 211-212, treats of the attempt of the Marquis de la Roche to plant Christianity
and civilization in the west. This catholic nobleman of Brittany landed forty of his colony of
convicts on Sable Island while he and a few trusty followers explored the neighboring coast for a
site for the new capitol of his domain. Meanwhile a storm drove him out to sea and he returned
to France. Twelve survived until relief came five years later, 1603. “For food they caught fish
in the surrounding sea, and hunted the cattle which ran wild about the Island, sprung perhaps
from those left here eighty years before by Baron de Lery.”
* Gorham.
134 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
Undoubtedly the animals of Cartier, 1541, and of the Roberval
Expedition, 1842, were lost, as the settlements proved abortive.
The cattle brought by de Monte and Champlain to St. Croix
Island in 1604 started a more permanent group. This colony
was moved to Port Royal in 1605, and more animals added in
16106. Mention is again made of these in 1613 and in 1629.
Near this latter date cattle were first brought to Quebec, and
following this, to other points along the St. Lawrence.
Cattle in this region were almost all from France and in¬
cluded two main types of cattle; those of Brittany and of Nor¬
mandy. The first of these, the race Bretonne, is now interpreted
as being a descendant of Bos longifrons, the Celtic Shorthorn,
that had been kept pure for many years. It is characterized as
a pie-black or black animal, hardy, a good milker, and measuring
3 feet 2 inches to 3 feet 6 inches in height at the withers. In
contrast, the Norman breed is a descendant of Bos primigenius,
and is described as one having an unprepossessing bony frame,
long and heavy head, long of body, large, coat color variable,
brown, red or piebald and never failing to present brown streaks
over the surface of the body that have given rise to the term
“brindled.”
No critical information is available concerning the relative
proportions of these two breeds that were imported. Frequent
reference to small, black, and black and white cattle in the pio¬
neer settlements of the French Northwest is assurance that the
cattle of Brittany played an important part7. Small size was
undoubtedly of great aid in transportation as the early French
in Canada travelled mostly by water. A number of references
to ring-streaked, or brindled animals among the French cattle of
Illinois, and of Wisconsin, exist for a later period. A combina¬
tion of these early types, together with subsequent selection,
produced the distinctive French-Canadian breed of this day.
Following the establishment of cattle in Lower Canada, cattle
were taken from this region to the territory to be known as the
French Northwest of the 17th century. This territory, between
7 Charlevoix visited the Illinois in 1721 and wrote: “the inhabitants of Kaskaskia have
black cattle and poultry and are doing well.” Reynolds, p. 33. See Journal of Peter Pond for
black cattle at Green Bay 1774 (Wis. Hist. Colls., 18, 329). (Quebec) “The cows have likewise
been imported from France, and are about the size of our Swedish cows. . . . The cows vary
in color, most of them either red, or black.” Per Kalm, Vol. 2, p. 327, 1749. Thompson notes
black cattle at Vincennes after its founding in 1735, and at Fort Chartres in 1767. Black cattle
were at Cape Girardeau, just across from Kaskaskia, W.H.C. Vol. 22, p. 58.
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 135
the Great Lakes and the Ohio, has been described as a wilder¬
ness, covered by forest and prairie, thinly peopled by Indians,
and with here and there French forts, the only points of civiliza¬
tion in the whole region. Detroit on the south and Mackinac on
the north were centers for the securing of supplies. Occupation
was only along the waterways, the rivers and lakes, and at the
most strategic points for fur trade. As cattle were taken into
this region, they, too, were to be found only in limited areas.
The first record of cattle in the west is at Detroit8, in 1707,
soon after the founding of the colony by Cadillac9. In the first
half of the following century cattle were taken to the prominent
French posts of Vincennes, Kaskaskia, Mackinac and Sault Ste.
Marie. In the latter half of the century they were found in
Green B(ay, Grand Portage, and Prairie du Chien, posts of spe¬
cial interest to the history of Wisconsin.
Within Wisconsin during this latter period, the posts at both
Green Bay and Prairie du Chien began to attain a measure of
prominence. Other villages within Wisconsin were intermittent¬
ly maintained. A few French and half-breeds were engaged in
trade and transporting canoes at Portage and some were at Che-
quamagon and the Fond du Lac post in the north.
Cattle at Green Bay
The first reference to cattle in Wisconsin that has been found
is that for the Green Bay settlement. This was to be expected
from a knowledge of the early fur trading in the French North¬
west. After having been the first point in Wisconsin to have been
reached by a white man, Nicolet, 1634, it became one of a great
line of French forts, or points of aid, for French traders in their
barter with the Indians for furs. In the first part of the eigh¬
teenth century these forts described a broad arc from Quebec,
up the Great Lakes and down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, to
the Gulf of Mexico.
*W. H. C. Vol. 16, p. 268, 270.
9 “Antoine de la Monte Cadillac, Lord of Bonaget and Montdesert, and Commandent for
the King at Detroit, acting under a commission from Louis XIV and being granted fifteen acres
square, left Montreal in June, 1701 with one hundred men, a Jesuit missionary, and all the means
for the erection of a colony; and reached Detroit in July of the same year, where they commenced
the foundation of the settlements. Before that period Detroit had not been unknown. As far back
as 1620, it was the resort of French missionaries, and when first visited by the French, its present
site was occupied by an Indian village named Tenscha Grondie.” Lauman, p. 40. See Severance,
p. 197.
136 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters .
Green Bay became the first of the primitive Wisconsin
settlements to attain much in the way of permanence. This
settlement10 dates from the time of the migration of the Sieur
Augustin de Langlade, and his son Charles, from the region near
Mackinac to Green Bay about 1745. The colony started with
probably not more than eight persons, and as late as 1785 it did
not exceed fifty-six souls. Very little is known regarding their
conditions of life and for a number of years no mention of live¬
stock has been found. It is known that the settlement was closely
allied to Mackinac, which, together with the Sault Ste. Marie,
possessed cattle about 1750. Following the ceding of Canada to
England, 1763, connection with the outside world increased.
British subjects began to follow the route pursued by the French
traders and to engage in the fur trade. Jonathan Carver visited
Green Bay in 1766 and noted that the few French cultivated
the land and appeared to live comfortably. In 1773, Peter Pond* 11,
a fur trader who, together with Joseph Frobisher and his broth¬
er, form the principal names associated with the earlier explora¬
tions beyond Lake Winnepeg, visited Green Bay. He recorded
his observations in a Journal and in this is found the reference
previously mentioned in regard to cattle at Green Bay. Unfor¬
tunately it does not give a clue as to how long they may have
been present. Part of the Journal12 in which he unmistakably
speaks of Green Bay is as follows:
“In three or four Days we arrive at the Mouth of the Bay
which is two or three Mile Brod. In the Mouth is Som Islands
which we follow in crossing to the South West Sid & then follow
ye Shore to the Bottom is Seventy Miles whare the fox River
Empteys in to the Bay. We went a Short Distans up the
River whare is a small french Village and thare incampt for two
Days. This Land is Exalent. The Inhabitants Rase fine Corn
and Sum Artickels for fammaley youse in thare gardens. They
have Sume trad with ye Indians which Pas that way. On the
North Part of the Bay is a small Villeag of Indians Cald the
Mannomaneas who Live By Hunting Cheafley. They have an-
10 Wisconsin Magazine of History 1:295. Smith, Vol. 1, p. 113.
11 A copy of a map in Yale University Library entitled, “Travels of Capt. Peter Pond”,
has the winter residences of Pond noted on the back. From this the year is interpreted to be at
the first of a 1773-5 period. See Davidson.
12 W. H. C. Vol. 18, p. 314-356. Reprinted from Conn. Magazine, Vol. X, p. 234. Gates,
p. 30-33.
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 137
other Resois [resource]-— the Bottom of the Bay Produces a
Large Quantity of Wilde Rice which they Geather in Sept for
food. I ort to have Menshand that the french at Ye Villeg whare
we Incampt Rase fine black Cattel & Horses with Sum swine.”
At the same date stock is again mentioned at Mackinac;
their manure being used to fertilize the sandy gardens. Hay
for this stock was then being brought a distance of thirty miles
by boat, while for others it was transported over the ice during
the winter.
The observations of Peter Pond are in part supported by the
recollections of Augustin Grignon, an early Green Bay settler,
whose memory may be said to extend to 1784-1785. He states:
“Horses, cattle, hogs, and fowls were plenty as far back as I can
remember: and must have been common in the settlement long
before my day.” He also recalls that cattle for beef were sold
to traders passing into the Indian country.
A few years later, 1793, the English trader, Robert Dickson,
writes as follows: “The land is poor and barren on the north
side of the lake until near La Baye where the soil is excellent
and the seasons are early. Here it has long been settled from
Canada by people who sow a little grain and have about 100
cattle which run in the woods.”
Cattle received more notice during the disturbances at the
beginning of American control at Green Bay, 1814-1816, as well
as in the following years when the increases in population pro¬
duced problems relative to sources of food. In Bullock’s letter
to Captain Loring it is said: “In my reply to the information
required by the General, I am sorry to say that our resourses
here are very few, and in that of the articles of provisions al¬
most consumed — only 68 pounds of salt meat in store. The pro¬
portion of animal food purchased was so small that I found it
necessary on the 1st of November to reduce the ration of beef to
half a pound per day, and since, on the 25th Decmr. to limit the
issue of meat to four days in the week, — at the above rate —
so that the troops might have a small proportion of that food as
long as possible, and which they will have until about the middle
of the ensuing month.” John Lawe, one of the most prominent
livestock raisers complained a few years later that : “the soldiers
has reduced me in cattle so that I have but few remaining.
2 Years running I could never save a calf nor a pig.” Losses of
138 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters .
cattle reported to the Court of Inquiry as due to Indian deprada-
tions totalled eighty-eight head; eleven calves, two heifers,
twenty-eight cows, six bulls, and forty-one oxen. Again in 1824,
John Lawe complained that: “there has been a great number
of U. S. troops garrisoned or that are stationed at Green Bay,
but what good does that do me it is only to assist in ruining of
me and the Pilfering or general Stealing, Killing of cattle, and
the committing of every kind of depredation.”
Throughout the period of early United States control, the
Green Bpy community continued to have the native, or French,
cattle population, even as it remained essentially French in hab¬
it, custom and language. General Ellis’s Recollections for 1822
picture the conditions as follows: “the residents on the river
except some half dozen Americans were retired French Voy—
ageurs, and half-breed French and Menomonees ; they had with¬
out let or hindrance, taken up the whole shore of the river above
the fort, for six miles ; divided it off into little strips of one or
two French arpents in width, which they called their farms;
they claimed back at right angles from the river eighty arpents,
about two and three-fourths^ miles in depth. They had reduced
most of the fronts for an acre, or two, or three, some more, some
less deep, to a state of cultivation ; and had growing at the time
of our arrival, the first of September, very fair crops of pota¬
toes, maize, oats, peas, spring wheat, pumpkins, melons, cab¬
bages, onions, and other common vegetables. Most of them had
teams of native oxen, and a kind of implement claimed to be a
plow, with which they broke the soil. This plow went on wheels
one of which was twice the size of the other, the larger one going
in the furrow, and the smaller one going on the land. The plow
beam was fourteen feet in length ; the chip, on which the share
was fastened, was four feet long, and altogether, when in motion
was drawn by six or eight bulls, it was a formidable object, and
answered well the end of its construction. . . . These bull-teams
were a curiosity to a raw American. The animals were unblem¬
ished — the yoke was a straight stick of hickory worked off
smoth, and bound to the bulls necks just back of the horns.”
The progress of the French in the raising of cattle at Green
Bay was not great when compared to that of the French in Illi¬
nois during the same period, and extensions of cattle that might
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 139
be attributed to the Green Bay settlement were few. From the
Indian agent at Mackinac it is learned that the Ottawas residing
at the river Shaboigan (Sheboygan) had progressed consider¬
ably in the arts of agriculture by 1816, and had applied to him
for cows, hogs, fowls, etc. About 1814 Mirandeau, at Milwau¬
kee, secured two cows from Chicago. They were brought for
beef to the Chicago (Fort Dearborn) garrison and being milch
cows were purchased and brought to Milwaukee.
No direct statement has been found regarding the source of
the Green Bay cattle. It is known that their horses were from
Detroit, and their sheep directly from Mackinac. It seems prob¬
able that the cattle were secured from one of these points along
the water route13. Detroit was the first agricultural post in the
west, and notices regarding cattle at that point have been found
as early as 1707. It is known that corn and supplies were se¬
cured for Mackinac from Detroit, starting as early as 1715.
Cattle were present at Mackinac and at Sault Ste. Marie by
1751, and at this time it was planned to have the care of the
cattle take precedence over that of the cultivation of the land
because it was thought that as Detroit and other southern posts
became more settled they would supply an abundance of grain
to the northern posts, which would send them cattle in return.
Cattle at Prairie du Chien
Prairie du Chien was a second point in Wisconsin to which
cattle were brought before 1800. The natural advantage of
Prairie du Chien, which was derived particularly from its sit¬
uation at the junction of two large and navigable streams, the
Wisconsin and the Mississippi, did not escape the observing eyes
of the early French travelers and traders. A village was esta¬
blished by the French from Canada for the purpose of trade
with the Indians. Reynolds14 writes that this was built not long
after the first discovery of the country, and occupied by Indian
traders and farmers15. Carver, in 1766, found a large Indian
village here, containing about 300 families; and he represents
this place as “the great mart”. Horses were present but no men¬
tion is made of cattle. Pond speaks of this as a “very handsome
13 Kellogg, p. 390, interprets the early cattle, “probably from Detroit.”
14 Reynolds, p. 121.
15 The author interprets the term farmer to mean collector of revenue for France; the collecting
being let, or “farmed”. See W.H.C., Vol. 16, p. 177.
140 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.
plain” and tells of the gathering of the French and Indians.
Large thirty-six oar boats were coming to this place from as far
south as New Orleans and bringing such products as wine, ham
and cheese.
The first evidence of cattle at Prairie du Chien is from the
writing of the English trader, Robert Dickson, who was very
familiar with this area near the close of the century. In a letter
to the Hon. Robt. Hamilton of Queenston, 14 July 1793, he says :
“about two leagues from where the Ouisconsin falls into the
Mississippi there is a meadow about three leagues in width called
Prairie du Chien. Here a good number of families are settled16.
They have lately got cattle from the Illinois and begin to raise
wheat”. There seems to have been no regular settlement at the
point Dickson refers to before 178117,18, which indicates that, if
true, the indefinite term “lately” as used would not cover a span
of more than twelve years.
The Illinois, the place from which Prairie du Chien received
its first cattle, was a region settled by the French from Canada
at an early date. The Jesuit Fathers had put forth their best
efforts to make farmers and stockmen out of the savages here,
bringing cattle to the mission at Cascaskias (Kaskaskia) as
early as 171219. So well was this early work done that cattle
were being returned to Detroit by 1743, where they were known
as the Illinois breed21. In 1720, Illinois led in the cattle census
of the colony of Louisiana22. In 1732, the Jesuits alone at Kas¬
kaskia possessed 15 cows23. Cattle became more numerous here
10 Their location was made on the Mississippi shore, about midway of the prairie, some
distance above the site of what had formerly been an Indian village. Here a slough which they
had designated the “Marias de St. Feriole”, runs up from the river, and being generally filled with
water, separates the principal prairies, a strip of lower ground, nearly a half a mile wide, and
something more than a mile in length. Upon this tract, fronting the Mississippi and upon the
border of the slough, these settlers erected their houses in groups, designated collectively as the
village of “Prairie des Chiens”, and that upon the mainland being designated by the name of St.
Feriole”. History of Crawford County, p. 281.
17 History of Crawford County, p. 281.
18 Reynolds states that the present site, about one mile above the old village, was built in
1783 under the English authority.
19 Cattle may have been introduced at Cahokia (the Tamarois village) earlier than this.
“Gabriel Marest came to Canada in 1694; four years later he began working among the Kaskaskias
of Illinois with whom he spent the rest of his life — dying in that mission on September 15, 1714. He
accompanied those savages when they removed from Peoria to Kaskaskia (in the summer of 1700)
teaching them to cultivate the soil and raise domestic animals”. W.H.C. Vol. 16, p. 179; from
Jesuit Relations.
21 Jesuit Relations, Vol. 70, p. 31, 35.
22 Reynolds, p. 33-34.
23 Morris, p. 7.
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 141
than in any other area in the French Northwest24. An early de¬
scription of these cattle comes from Charlevoix, who visited the
colony in 1721, and wrote : “the inhabitants of Kaskaskia have
black cattle and poultry and are doing well.” It was also said
that these cattle were from Canada, a horned and hardy race,
not large but neat of form.
The population of Prairie du Chien, from the census, is given
at 65, in August 1800. In 1807, in the village of Prairie du
Chien and vicinity there were 37 houses. A few cattle were also
reported on the west side of the Mississippi at Giard's river at
this latter date.
In following the progress in stock raising at Prairie du Chien
it is found that as with Green Bay, great losses were suffered
with the cattle during the war period of 1814-16. Notices re¬
garding the cattle were infrequent near this date, however, and
start with a brief reference which shows cattle to have been
present in the settlement in 1812. Another reference mentions
the order of one Nicolas Boilvin directing a man to drive up his
cattle as he wished to kill a heifer that day and have some fresh
meat. In 1814 as the fighting started it is recorded: “Many of
them (Puants) in place of meeting the enemy immediately on
their arrival ran off to the farms, killed the inhabitants' cattle
and pillaged their houses even to the covering off their beds, and
leaving many without a second shirt to put on their backs."
Grignon also recollects that McKay had much difficulty in man¬
aging his Sioux and Winnebago allies, particularly the latter,
and that they had in the most wanton manner shot down a num¬
ber of horses and cattle belonging to the citizens. A few months
later it was written that there were not 10 head of cattle left in
the whole place where it could formerly boast of near 400. An¬
other item states that several who two years before had upwards
of 30 head of cattle have not now one left.
Cattle continued in the settlement, however, and Stephen H.
Long describes the farming in 1817 as follows : “About one mile
back of the village is the Grand Farm which is an extensive en¬
closure cultivated by the inhabitants in common. It is about six
miles in length, and from a quarter to a half mile in width, sur¬
rounded by a fence on one side and the river bluffs on the other
and thus secured from the depredations from the Cattle and
"Schlarman, p. 160.
142 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
Horses that were at large upon the prairies.” In 1822 it could
again be said that Prairie du Chien possessed cattle in consider¬
able numbers. As will be shown later, replenishments, at least
after the war period, may have involved some cattle from the
now westward expanded cattle of English importation.
Cattle at Superior and in the North.
In 1807 cattle were reported at a third point in Wisconsin.
These were in northwestern Wisconsin at the Fond du Lac Post,
three miles down the St. Louis river, a location now within the
present city of Superior, Wisconsin. The notice is from George
Henry Monk, Jr.25, which is in part as follows : “Three miles up
the river St. Louis on the south side, the N. West Company has
an establishment, of which the situation is low but commands a
beautiful and romantic view of Lake Superior, of the river and
the small lake.
“In the proximity the face of the country is either lakes or
rivers of low fenny, or sandy, or high and craggy; few or no
spots for civilization. Some of the lakes grow a scanty harvest
of wild rice. . . . Here are two horses, a cow, a bull, and a few
pigs ; with manure of these animals a garden of three acres of
pure sand is cultivated, which produces about 200 bushels of
potatoes.”
Many of the Posts in this section were without cattle at this
early date. The Northwest Company possessed a fort and gar¬
den on the south side of Leach lake and had introduced horses
and pigs26. Horses, cats and hens were present on the west end
of Leach lake27. In 1820, twenty-one miles up the Fond du Lac
river (St. Louis river) the N. W. company had transported to
their establishment, with great difficulty, three horses, three
cows, one yolk of oxen, and four bulls. Doty28 reports that it
was a great treat to obtain milk at this distance in the wilder¬
ness. By 1832 Sandy Lake could report thirty head of cattle,
three or four horses and fifteen swine. In 1838, fifteen cows
were at the upper Winnepeg post.
85 Written to Roderick Mackenzie, a partner of the Northwest Company, who contemplated
writing a history of the company; by George Henry Monk, Jr., Leach Lake, 18 April, 1807. He
speaks of it as “Some Account of the Department of Fond du Lac, or Mississippi.” Minnesota
History Bulletin, Vol. 5, p. 28.
39 M. H. B., Vol. 5, p. 36.
37 M. H. B., Vol. 5, p. 38.
28 W. H. C. Vol. 13, Papers of James Doty.
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 143
settlement. Possibility of permanent cattle at this place starts
with Michel Cadotte who took up residence at La Pointe on the
southwest corner of Madeline Island at this time. Cadotte lived
here at his ease for over a quarter of a century; cultivating a
'‘comfortable little farm” ; and commanding a fluctuating but
often far-reaching fur trade, first as agent of the Northwest
company and later for Astor’s American Fur Company.
Chequamegon Bay (La Pointe) was another northern Wis¬
consin post that had cattle at an early date. Although traders
had frequented this place since Radisson and Groseilliers had
traded at Chequamegon Bay, 1654-1661, and this had been the
site of the Jesuit mission of Allouez, 1665, and of Marquette,
1669, it is only since about 1800 that there has been a continuous
Fig. 2. Routes of French Cattle to Wisconsin.
The extension of cattle into the French Northwest was probably along
the waterways, the common routes of travel of the time. This map shows
some of the leading routes between points at which cattle are known to
have been present, together with the first positive dates; Quebec 1620,
Detroit 1707, Kaskaskia 1712, Sault Ste. Marie and Mackinac 1751, Green
Bay 1773, Superior 1807, and Prairie du Chien 1793.
144 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters .
The first definite reference to cattle is in 1820, at the time
Cass, Schoolcraft and Doty visited the establishment. Besides
a stockaded house and several out-buildings, they report some
land in cultivation and also “several cows and horses, which
have been transported with great labour.” Doty reports the
bringing of a horse from the Saulte in a bateau. (Fig. 2) Live¬
stock were again reported at La Pointe on Madeline Island in
1835, at the time of the changing of the headquarters of the
American Fur Company from Mackinac to that place.
Grand Portage, on the north shore of Lake Superior, and
Mackinac, both having had cattle before 1800, may well have
been sources for these extensions. The first cattle taken up the
Mississippi river into this section were from Prairie du Chien,
near 182029. Near the Red River of the North, the few animals
brought over from Europe by the Scotch colonists had been de¬
stroyed. Following the transfer of several pairs of oxen and
cows, a drove variously estimated from 200 to 400 were taken to
the colony. Upon abandoning the colony, 1825-26, a number of
these cattle were returned to Prairie du Chien, The cows sold
at £4 to £10 each.
Descendants of the Cattle of the American Colonies
In Wisconsin
American Background .
The progressively westward-moving cow country of North
America provided the cattle for the second introduction into
Wisconsin. These were descendants of the cattle of the colonists
at Jamestown, and those of the subsequent New England, Cen¬
tral and Southern colonies of the Atlantic coast. The first cattle
to reach the American colonies were brought by Sir Richard
Grenville to Virginia in 1585, in an expedition sent out by Sir
Walter Raleigh, but the colony perished, and the cattle were
probably slaughtered by the settlers30. After several attempts
that proved abortive, cattle were permanently established, at
Jamestown, in 1610.
39 Minnesota History Collections, Vol. 3, p. 220. Also see Missouri Historical Collections,
Vol. 3, p. 103, and Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. 18, p. 112, and Sec’y Treasury Report,
Executive Documents, 1862. Contrast with Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. 20, p. 1SS.
80 Morse, p. 227.
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 145
From the records it is evident that the cattle introduced at
Jamestown were from the English breeds, with some mixture of
Irish and Flemish cattle. In New York the cattle were largely
of Dutch origin. The cattle in Pennsylvania were brought over
by the Dutch and Swedish settlers. At Plymouth, the cattle
were brought from Holland and England. The ships which ar¬
rived at Boston contained mostly English breeds, the Devon pre¬
dominating. Into New Hampshire, Captain Mason introduced a
large yellow breed from Denmark31. A mixture of all of these
types, without selection or improvement eventually came to be
known as the Native breed, or Native cattle. A description of
these after 1800, when they had moved west of the Alleghenies
is as follows : “They are a mixture of every breed, and the intel¬
ligent and observing breeder sees in them traces of almost all the
English varieties, such perhaps as they were before science and
attention had improved them, such as might offer to the Ameri¬
can breeder the original materials of the most improved and
valued stock, but requiring more time and perhaps more talent,
skill and attention than the American farmer would be willing
to bestow on the subject and yet necessary to enable him to ar¬
rive at the same results”32.
After 1800 the cow country had reached the region west of
the Alleghenies. The cattle of this New West may for conven¬
ience of discussion be separated into three sectors with definite
physical boundaries; the northwest, central west, and south¬
west. Of these, the southwest, south of the Tennessee water¬
shed, became of no importance to Wisconsin. It concerns the
cattle taken to the west by the slave-holding planters. Next is
the central west, which included Kentucky and Tennessee, re¬
gions which sent many cattle into Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
Finally, the Northwest, between the Great Lakes and the Ohio
river, including as it does the cattle of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
and Michigan, is of direct interest for Wisconsin.
Following French occupation in the Northwest Territory, the
pioneer settlers from the American colonies brought cattle with
them from nearby states: Pennsylvania, Virginia, and later,
New York. The increase of these in Ohio made this the most
important cattle raising country of the United States between
81 Bidwell, and Thompson both review these cattle, giving original sources.
w Bidwell, p. 224.
146 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
1815-1830. Indiana never became as important as Ohio, or Illi¬
nois, in cattle raising. The cattle history of Illinois is much a
repetition of that of Ohio. The prairies were used for grazing
rather than for farming until relatively late. The southern part
of Illinois was settled first by Ohio river emigration33, in a re¬
gion in which the French had already extensively raised cattle34.
Up to 1840 the chief movements of cattle from the early center
around Kaskaskia were to the valley of the Illinois, to the prai¬
ries in the central part of the state, and to the north in the Fever
River lead region, in the vicinity of Galena. This latter movement
extended the cattle of the American colonies, now mixed with
the French cattle, to the very edge of Wisconsin. Their start
within Wisconsin was about the time of the Blackhawk war,
1832.
Cattle in Southwest Wisconsin .
The development of an early cattle population throughout
Wisconsin closely parallels the early settlement of the state. Up
to the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, the set¬
tlers were nearly all French-Canadian, or half-breed, and lived
principally at Prairie du Chien or at Green Bay. The cattle
of these settlements have been discussed. In 1825, the lead
mines in the southwest corner of what is now the state of Wis¬
consin began to attract attention. Miners coming in induced
hostilities with the Winnebagoes, who claimed the country con¬
taining the mines. United States troops readily quelled the dis¬
turbance and a ceding of this area by those Indians to the Gen¬
eral Government soon followed. Up to 1831 the inhabitants
were compelled to pursue the uncertain and precarious fortune
of mining as a means of livelihood, the cultivation of the soil be¬
ing expressly prohibited by the laws and regulations governing
the mines. In 1832 the prohibition ceased to be enforced and
88 The following is a graphic sketch of a family floating down the Ohio on a raft: “To-day
we have passed two large rafts lashed together, by which simple conveyance several families from
New England were transporting themselves and their property to the land of promise in the
western woods. Each raft was 80 or 90 feet long, with a small house erected on it, and on each
was a stack of hay, round which several horses and cows were feeding.” Belmont Gazette, Vol. 1,
Nov. 2, 1836.
84 Gould travelled in the west in 1849 and commented on the cattle of Illinois as follows:
“The quality of the cows is of very little concern. I have seen, however, some of the finest
cattle in Illinois that I have ever seen in my life, but in general a more ill-looking, black, ring-
streaked and speckled race have never been known since the days of the patriarch Jacob.”
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 147
the country began to hold out more inducements to general im¬
migration.
A traveler in the lead region of Wisconsin, in 1832, just fol¬
lowing the defeat of Black Hawk and the removal of Indian trou¬
bles, spoke of the farming thus : “Occasionally a farm might be
seen running out from an island of timber, and supplied with
comfortable buildings but most of the improvements were of a
temporary nature, consisting of a lead furnace and cabins adja¬
cent.”
An instance of early settling in the lead region was that of
the Parkeson families35. These farming families, of English
descent, were originally Virginians, moving to Tennessee soon
after the Revolutionary war. About 1810 the families moved to
southern Illinois. In 1827 the Col. D. M. Parkeson family re¬
moved to Wisconsin where Col. Parkeson engaged in the mining
business at New Diggings, La Fayette county. In speaking of
this region he says the newcomers were so intent on making
money by mining that they could not take time to erect for them¬
selves and families even a comfortable dwelling place; instead
of houses they usually lived in dens or caves, a large hole or
excavation being made in the side of the hill or bluff, the top
being covered over with poles, grass and sods. In 1833, after the
removal of the farming prohibition, the Parkeson family re¬
moved to a farm near Mineral Point. This family induced the
J. B. Parkeson family to move to Wisconsin from Illinois, in
1836, the family bringing horses, oxen and cows.
Other accounts show that droving of cattle from southern
Illinois was being practiced. Droves of cattle were taken up
along the Mississippi as far as Fort Snelling. The Post at Prai¬
rie du Chien being close to the cattle area advertised for pro¬
posals for fresh beef (slaughtered weekly, or semi-weekly, as
desired) in the Galena newspaper36. The need was estimated at
40,000 pounds per year. The town of Prairie du Chien, which
contained about 100 houses by 1840, secured much of its sup¬
plies from some 40 farms on Blake’s prairie, south of the Wis¬
consin river.
On the north side of the Wisconsin river a settlement was
started at Prairie du Sac, or Sauk Prairie, in 1838. The letters
35 W.H.C. Vol. 2, p. 332, Vol. 4, p. 94.
38 Northwestern Gazette and Galena Advertiser, Vol. 1, No. 4.
148 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters.
of Jakob and Ulrich Buhler37, furnish an interesting account of
the bringing of cattle to this region in 1842. This Swiss family
with their nine children moved, via Galena, to the town of Honey
Creek, Sauk county, and took up a homestead there. The trip
was made with a large company of Swiss people who made up a
caravan party. The party was led by a French guide who fur¬
nished ox carts for the hauling of baggage, small children and
the sick. A number of cattle were driven along and supplied
fresh meat. Within the next few years but few cattle were
raised as there was at that time no market other than for per¬
sonal or local use, without long overland driving.
The situation for southwest Wisconsin has been summarized
by Brunson in writing for the Wisconsin State Agricultural So¬
ciety in 1851. He states : “The cattle of this section originally
came from Illinois and Missouri and were not of the first quality.
Some few of a good quality were obtained by the droves brought
up but generally of ordinary character.”
Descriptions of cattle in the lead region of Wisconsin have
been secured from the advertising of lost and strayed animals in
the Mineral Point Free Press, and the Wisconsin Whig, Platte-
ville, 1842-1843. These show the animals to have had little uni¬
formity. Brindle and white-spotted cattle were the most numer¬
ous. For instance, five dollars reward was offered for the
following strays from Platteville, 1842: “One pair of oxen,
about 10 years old — description as follows: one of them is a
brindle color, partly white, a little white on his back — horns
widespread and high, some white on his flanks and his left eye
is out. The other is a line black, with his sides, neck and head
speckled with white, red, black and some rather blue spots — his
left eye is also out”.
Droving to Green Bay.
Of the eastern part of Wisconsin a writer of 1835 states:
“Three years ago on the whole route from this place [Green
Bay] to Chicago there was but one house and the journey re¬
quired the preparation of a month. It was Indian territory and
none but Indians and Voyageurs had the hardihood to attempt
the trip/’ The Milwaukee trading post was the one house.
Southern Wisconsin was described as a splendid waste, with no
marks of civilization or cultivation.
«W. M. H. Vol, 6, p. 327-334,
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 149
Droving of cattle through the eastern part of the State to
Fort Howard, the Post at Green Bay, had been in progress a
number of years. The first reference to this38 is only an incom¬
plete account from a manuscript dated 5 January, 1820, and is
as follows : “Toward the close of November a herd of cattle, for
the Assistant Commissary at this Post, having arrived within
two days march, the drover near Manitouwalk [Manitowoc]
upon the Shore of Lake Michigan, was attacked by several In¬
dians, robbed of his Portmanteau, etc., and one of the cattle
taken from him and killed. Several Soldiers were employed in
conducting these cattle, but the drover at this time, had fallen
some miles in the rear, with a view to bringing up such as had
strayed behind when the Indians had availed themselves of the
opportunity, thus presented, to plunder him as above.”
A more complete account of an early drive, showing the ori¬
gin of the cattle, is from the personal narrative of the drover,
Col. William S. Hamilton39. It is in part as follows: “Colonel
Hamilton says, that he started from Springfield, Illinois, for
Rock Island, in May 1825, to attend to some business there.
After having attended to it he started back for Springfield.
When he reached the Mackinaw River, he met a drove of cattle
belonging to him, which on leaving Springfield for Rock Island
he had ordered to be sent to Green Bay, he having a contract to
supply the fort at that place with cattle. On reaching the
Mackinaw he found that the drove had been crossed over, but
that in effecting a passage, a man had been lost by drowning,
the river being very much swollen. The party with the cattle
being discouraged, the colonel decided at once to accompany
them himself to Green Bay. He crossed the Mackinaw at Dillon
settlement40. He left the Mackinaw for Green Bay some time
early in June with four men and about seven hundred head of
cattle. His route from the Mackinaw was to the Illinois at the
mouth of the Fox River of the Illinois. At that time there was
no settlement between Dillon's, on the Mackinaw, and Chicago,
except on a stream called “Nine Mile Creek”, a stream between
the Mackinaw and Vermillion. William Holland was living
where he crossed Nine Mile Creek ; Holland had been the Indian
Blacksmith at Peoria.
88 W. H. C. Vol. 20, p. 140.
38 Smith, the History of Wisconsin, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, Documentary, Madison, 1854.
"Tazewell Co., Illinois.
150 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters .
“At the mouth of Fox River of the Illinois, he found some
Potawatomies ; he crossed the Illinois just above the mouth of
the Fox ; the river being high it was necessary to swim it. His
cattle had cost him on an average less than ten dollars a head
When he arrived at Chicago he found the fort was not occupied
by troops, but was under the care of - Forsyth, the Indian
agent. He there met with Colonel Beaubien and _ - — Crafts,
of the American Fur Company. In crossing the Chicago River,
Colonel Beaubien's brother, in assisting the passage of the cattle
contrived to drown one of them, so that they might have a
chance to buy it as he afterwards (in 1836) told Colonel Hamil¬
ton; knowing that Hamilton would not sell, as his cattle were
contracted for, by the government. He also met at Chicago with
Dr. Wolcott who was married to a daughter of Mr. Kinzie. He
also met there with Lieutenant Helm, formerly of the United
States Army, and his wife; Helm was one of those who were
saved at the Chicago massacre. He also found there a French¬
man named ‘Ouillimette’ who had a farm on the Chicago River.
From Chicago to Gros Pointe he followed up the Lake, though
not immediately along the shore. Not far from Gros Pointe, on a
level and not elevated piece of ground, were the remains of an
old fort, called at that time ‘Little Fort’, the site perhaps, or the
town now called Waukegan. From Gros Pointe to Milwaukee,
he followed mainly the shore of the lake; there were no white
inhabitants between Chicago and Milwaukee; they passed some
few Indians, but no Indian Villages.
“On reaching Milwaukee he found but one solitary person
there, — _ Solomon Juneau. He was entirely alone— he had
not his family with him — there was not even an Indian there.
Colonel Hamilton thinks he recollects that Juneau told him that
some persons had gone off for provisions. James Kinzie [note —
of Racine] had a trading house on the south side of Milwaukee
River, but at that time it was not occupied. Juneau had a trad¬
ing house on the north side of the river. There were no other
persons having houses there at that time. He found Juneau
nearly starved out, and delighted to see him and his provisions.
Mr. Juneau at that time was an engage for the American Fur
Company.
“Colonel Hamilton kept up the lake from Milwaukee to
Manitowoc; between the two places he found Colonel Ebenezer
Childs, afterwards a member of the Legislature from Brown
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 151
county, with a party of men, with a seine, and a Mackinaw boat
fishing for white fish; Childs and his party were from Green
Bay; there was no settlement between Milwaukee and Man¬
itowoc. At Manitowoc, they left the lake for Green Bay; the
first house they reached was at Duck Creek, where there was a
saw mill, about four miles from Green Bay. [Note — he means
Manitou River].
“At Green B;ay was Fort Howard, garrisoned by a regiment
of troops under the command of Major Whistler; the town of
Green Bay was then mostly occupied by the French. There were
some Americans there, but four-fifths of the people were French.
Of the Americans then there were Arndt, Lawe, and the Irwins.
Colonel Brevoort was Indian Agent.
“Colonel Hamilton arrived at the bay about the twenty-sev¬
enth or eighth of June; by his contract he was to be there with
his cattle on the fourth of July. He remained there until the
sixth or seventh of July, when he took the back track to Milwau¬
kee. There was an Indian village at Manitowoc, or Twin River,
of different tribes. On his return to Milwaukee he found Jun¬
eau, a few other Frenchmen and some Indians. At Milwaukee
he left the lake, and followed an Indian trail south westerly and
came upon the Illinois somewhere about Mount Joliet. From
thence he kept down the Illinois to the Mouth of the Fox River
where he crossed it and thence went back to Springfield by the
usual route.”
It was on this trip that Colonel Hamilton first set his foot in
Wisconsin; he lost none of his cattle except one purposely
drowned in the Chicago River. (Fig. 3)
Another pioneer drive of cattle to Green Bay (Fort How¬
ard) from southern Illinois was made in 1827, by Col. Ebenezer
Childs. “262 head were purchased around Carrolton at $2 per
hundred, and $5 to $7 apiece for the cows”. This drive, as with
that of Hamilton, went up the Lake Michigan shore. By 1830,
the whole quantity of land cleared and under any kind of culti¬
vation at Green Bay was estimated at 2,500 acres. The great
bulk of the wheat being raised by the inhabitants was used for
feeding cattle, the flour required for the sustenance of the popu¬
lation being brought principally from the mills in Ohio, border¬
ing on Lake Erie41.
41 Green Bay Intelligencer, Vol. 1, no. 2, p. 1.
152 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
Fig. 3. Early Droving Routes to Fort Howard , Green Bay.
- route of Hamilton.
— . — route of Child.
Cattle in the Settlements in Southeastern Wisconsin.
Other than these occasional droves of cattle, there were no
cattle in southeastern Wisconsin until about the time the lands
were being surveyed and the Territory of Wisconsin established.
By 1836 cattle were in the settlements at Skunk Grove, in Ra¬
cine County, and in the Rock River settlements, Rock county.
In the Fox river (Wisconsin) valley, Edwin Bottomley, a leader
in the English settlement42 secured his first cattle in 1842 from a
drover. At that time a cow and a calf cost him $15, and a cow
and an “Efer” $15. In this settlement the cattle were allowed
W. H. C. Vol. 26, p. 32.
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 153
to run at large and the crops were fenced in. In 1844 he was
milking four cows and states that he would buy more if they
were to be sold.
For the story of a community, Jefferson county is considered.
One of the first records available in this county is for Aztalan43
where it is recorded that in 1838, at a meeting, the thirty oxen of
the settlement were counted up and an estimate made as to how
long the band of settlers could subsist on them in case they were
reduced to that extremity. Near Rock Lake there is recorded a
more complete story concerning Mr. A. Pickett and family44 who
removed from the State of Ohio and settled near Rock Lake, in
the town of Lake Mills, in 1840. But few pioneers had preceded
Mr. Pickett to this place. The grass which was growing over
the openings and lower marsh, and which “had millions in it”
was, for the lack of cows to convert it into milk, being consumed
by fires, which had for centuries swept over the country. Mr.
Pickett had driven from Ohio ten cows, and although he desired
more for a cheese making enterprise, there were none to be
bought at any price. Four neighbors together had ten cows
which were enlisted in the enterprise and another ten rented
from Aztalan. Two more settlers and five cows arrived in 1842.
The cows grazed together in one herd, and at night all were
driven to one yard and milked by their respective owners.
For cattle in a later community the Swiss colony at New
Glarus may be considered. Here in 1845, upon the arrival of
the colonists, breaking of the land was slow and laborious as
teams and plows had not yet been obtained. Most of the first
breaking was done with spades and shovels. Sometime during
the spring of 1846, drovers from Ohio brought a lot of cows tf>
Exeter, a mining town eight miles east of New Glarus. The
colonists hearing of it, at once set out to purchase some; and
being excellent judges, selected the best animals of the herd in
sufficient numbers to give each family one. These cost $12 a
piece and were paid for out of a general fund for aid. As the year
advanced four yoke of oxen were purchased for the common use
of the colony. They were used in turn, by each family, for
breaking up land, drawing wood from the timber tract, or any¬
thing else necessary to be done. After one person had used the
43 W. H. C. Vol. 11, p. 421-422.
“Jefferson County Union, Vol. 8, No. 51
154 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
yoke of cattle the allotted time he turned them over to the next
on the list entitled to use them. The oxen were reported to have
had as hard a time as any of the colonists. In 1849, the stock of
the colony included one bull, forty-one oxen, forty-nine cows,
forty two-year-olds, and fifty-one calves. The colony population
was one hundred twenty-five.
Schafer summarizes the situation for southeastern Wiscon¬
sin by saying that the people in the older settlements of Illinois
and Indiana were always interested in the marketing possibili¬
ties of the new northern settlements and brought in herds of
stock cattle, droves of hogs and flocks of sheep. The cattle served
for work oxen, milch cows, and stock cattle. It was thought
that a majority of the herds of southeastern Wisconsin, in 1850,
could be traced to such importations. As yet, practically all of
the people dwelt south of the Fox-Wisconsin waterway45.
Descriptions .
If one is to accept the early history of American cattle as it
has been written, there were, except in a few instances, no at¬
tempts to improve the stock by selection in breeding as it moved
westward ; often the likeliest animals were sold to the butcher.
Descriptions of these cattle soon after they had reached Wiscon¬
sin have been secured through early Wisconsin newspaper no¬
tices. The Wisconsin newspapers started with the Green Bay
Intelligencer in 1838. The early issues of the following papers
were consulted : Green Bay Intelligencer, Green Bay Free Press,
Milwaukee Advertiser, Belmont Gazette, Wisconsin Democrat,
Miners Free Press, Wisconsin Territorial Gazette, Burlington
Advertiser, Wisconsin Enquirer, and Wisconsin Whig.
The notices were infrequent. However, thirty-one individual
descriptions were secured and their color relationships are pre¬
sented in Table I. A lack of uniformity is evident. Other
than is shown in the table, the red and the brindle cattle ranged
from black-red to dun and light red. No uniformity of horn
shape or size was found. Marking by cropped ears was the
usual practice rather than branding. The high percentage of
brindle cattle is interpreted as due to the influence of the cattle
of French importation; the red to the admired Devon stock.
In no instance was a breed name used in connection with the
identifying terms.
"Schafer, p. 71.
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle
155
Table I. Color types of Cattle in Wisconsin
1834-1844.
Improved Cattle in Wisconsin
American Background .
In America the leadership in the improvement of cattle came
from a few wealthy men who made a hobby of progressive farm¬
ing46. Their attention was directed to the new importation of
representatives of English stock rather than to the betterment
of the native, or common, animals by selective breeding. By
1840, representatives of all the important English breeds had
been introduced into the eastern states, including Herefords,
North Devons, and Shorthorns. The Channel Islands were rep¬
resented by Alderneys and Guernseys. The efforts of cattle
breeding enthusiasts in this period were directed chiefly to the
building up of herds of pure-blood stock, and the improvement of
pure-blood stock. The improvement of native stock by judicious
crossing of breeds seems to have hardly begun before 184047.
The first improved English cattle to cross the mountains
were those taken by members of the Patton family from Vir¬
ginia to Kentucky about 1795. A few years later representa¬
tives of this stock were taken into Ohio, where they soon gained
a wide reputation. They were large animals, coarse and rough,
with long widespread horns, probably of the Lancashire or Bake-
well breed. In 1817, the first importations of Shorthorn stock
arrived in Kentucky48. These cattle proved a valuable acquisition
to the existing stock of the country, though the quality of their
4a “A few English Cattle were brought to this country before 1800, probably of the Lancashire
or Bakewell breed, but the period of greatest activity dates from about 1820. . . . They were kept
with great care by their owners and exhibited frequently at the annual cattle shows, where they
attracted much attention. Auction sales of pure-blood stock were social events in the neighborhood
of Philadelphia and New York, where distinguished city folk vied with one another in paying high
prices for animals of exceptional pedigrees.” Connecticut State Agricultural Society Transactions,
18S4, p. 99.
4T Ibid.
41 American Farmer, 2, p. 313; 4, p. 233-280.
156 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
beef was perhaps not better than the Patton or Miller stock, nor
were the cows better milkers. Although the new breeds were
known in Indiana and Ohio as well as in Kentucky, there was
little general interest among the farmers in stock improvement
by importation. The English cattle were considered too “fancy’’
for the average farmer.
The organization in 1834 of the Ohio company for importing
English cattle marked the beginning of a new stage in the bet¬
terment of Western livestock. Heretofore importations had been
sporadic, depending on the whims and financial means of the
gentlemen farmers. The new company, with a capital of $9,200,
subscribed in shares of $100 each, sent agents abroad who se¬
lected and brought to Ohio 19 head of thoroughbred Shorthorn,
or improved Durham stock, from the herds of the most cele¬
brated breeders. The cattle were kept together under the care
of an agent and their number was increased by later importa¬
tion until 1836, when they were sold at auction and scattered
extensively over Ohio. In 1837 another large importation was
made and sold by the same methods49,50. The first of the regis¬
tered Shorthorns in Wisconsin trace both to these importations
and to the 1817 Kentucky importation.
Early Improved Cattle in Wisconsin.
The first reference to improved cattle that has been found
for Wisconsin is in a letter written by Mr. Briand, Brown Coun¬
ty. After referring to a drove of cattle taken from Illinois to
Green Bay by Colonel Tuller, in 1836-7, which, according to Mr.
Briand, subsequently become the basis of most of the best cattle
in that section, he gives an account of the Hon. M. L. Martin,
who, in 1838 obtained and brought to what was later Brown
county, a full-blood Durham shorthorn bull. This bull was kept
for five years. The benefits resulting from Mr. Martin’s enter¬
prise were distinctly visible, many of the cows from his stock
being excellent milkers and in form and symmetry showing their
origin.
For a number of years more interest was shown in the care
and improvement of the cattle of Green Bay than in any other
section of the State. Farmers began to fence off their pastures,
and became interested in securing more butter from their cows.
49 Ohio State Board of Agriculture, 12th. Ann. Rpt. p. 301.
09 Maine Board of Agriculture, 19th Ann. Rpt. 1874, p. 140.
Wooley— Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 157
It was predicted that stock raising and its concomitant pur¬
suits would unquestionably become a leading business in the
community. In 1844 the Green Bay Republican printed the fol¬
lowing from the Guernsey Agricultural Society :
“Points of a Good Cow
1. Purity of the breed and qualities of the dam for yielding
rich and yellow butter.
2. Small head, large and bright eyes, small muzzle, small
ears, orange color within.
3. Straight back from the shoulders to the tail and chest
wide.
4. A fine and loose skin, with soft and short hair.
5. Sides well rounded, flank small between the side and
paunch.
6. Fore-legs straight and well proportioned, hind-legs broad
above the knee, fine and clean below, hoofs small; legs
should not cross in walking.
7. Udder large, and the teats large, and springing from the
four corners of the udder; milk vein large and well de¬
fined.”
A general interest in the improvement of cattle was evident
in the State about 1850, following several years of partial crop
failures. The Wisconsin Farmer and Northwestern Cultivator
reflected the spirit of the times in the following article: “We
have observed since we have been residents of Wisconsin, that
the energies of the farmers are largely expended on wheat. Dur¬
ing most of the time, the price has been low, and if at any time
the article bore a fair price the cost of transportation consumed
all possible profit. At the same time, we are exporting from
the east articles which we could better raise here at home. The
most costly of these are sheep, cattle, and dairy products. We
are annually paying large sums for these, thereby rewarding
the interests and enterprises of other states when we have every
facility for raising them at home”51.
81 Wisconsin Farmer, 1, p. 254.
158 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
At this time a fairly good grade of oxen, showing much
Devon blood, began to come in from New England and other
Eastern states52. Devon and Durham cattle became common
topics of conversation, and made up the majority of the cattle
at the State and at many of the county fairs. The lack of uni¬
formity of these cattle was frequently commented on by the
judges at the State Fair, as for example: “there was one fea¬
ture in the Durham cattle obvious to the most casual observer
and which ought not to be passed over in silence, viz: a great
lack of uniformity, not in color merely, but as much difference
in style and points, as between animals of different breeds, and
this was observable, too, in animals of the same herd. Now it is
presumable that every [breeder] of blooded stock has some defi¬
nite object in view, a type of perfection either real or imaginary
as his aim ; and when he exhibits two animals perfectly dissimi¬
lar, it is evident in one instance that his pursuit has proven a
failure. Nor was this lack of uniformity confined to the Durham
breed, for the six aged Devon bulls on exhibition, with the ex¬
ception of color, no two of them were sufficiently alike to have
made a well matched pair of cattle . . . the only class of Devons
in which there was any competition, an agreement of the com¬
mittee was an utter impossibility. One — it may be — esteeming
size and weight; another fineness with the muscle of the blood
horse; another, symmetry with the beautifully turned points of
the Durham as the sine qua non of a Devon bull ; each of which
ideal animals was represented in the select specimens before
us”53. Although few of these progressive farmers became famous
as breeders, the animals they brought played an important role
in breeding up and improving the native stock of the state.
Early Herds of Registered Cattle.
The first breeding herd of registered Shorthorn cattle of note
in Wisconsin was that of Charles H. Williams, Baraboo, Sauk
county. Mr. Williams was a native of Ohio, coming to Wiscon¬
sin early in the fifties. His first registrations appear in Volume
II of the American Herd Book. Fig. 4 shows the registered ani¬
mals of his herd. These trace to both the early Shorthorns of
Ohio, and in the instance of Paris 1995, to the original HT’s of I
Kentucky.
Wisconsin Farmer, 4, p. 166.
The Wisconsin State Agric. Soc. Transactions, 1854-7 p. 435.
Wooley — - Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle
159
1858 1857 1856 1855 1854 1853 -
Fig. 4. The animals and their relationships in the Charles Henry Wil¬
liams herd of Shorthorn cattle, *1850-1860, f with birth years below.
Another breeder who played an important part in the de¬
velopment of the Shorthorn industry in Wisconsin was John P.
Roe of Muskego, Waukesha County. Mr. Roe came to the state
directly from England in 1854, bringing Shorthorn cattle with
him from the herd of George Faulkner of Rothersthorpe, Eng¬
land. Fig. 5 shows the first animals of this herd.
The Shorthorn, as started by these breeders, reigned supreme
between the years 1850 and 1880. Many of the herds improved
by Shorthorn animals were the foundation herds upon which the
dairy breeds were crossed. After 1890 the Shorthorn definitely
gave way to the dairy breeds.
The start of Wisconsin’s purebred, later registered, dairy
breeds is to be credited to the 1850’s. These were Alderney (ia-
* indicates that the animal in question was brought into the state,
t Volume V of the American Herd Book was not available.
160 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
1658 1657 1656 1665 -
Fig. 5. The animals and their relationships in the John P. Roe herd of
Shorthorn cattle, 1850-1860, with birth years below. (See footnotes, p. 159).
ter registered Jersey) cattle in the pioneer herd of J. V. Robbins,
Dane County54.
The following statements from the records of the American
Jersey Cattle Club records show the registry of Robbins' Major
and Bonamy, two of these early cattle, and is included for its
historical value: '‘The sire of Mendota was Robbin's Major 8310,
dropped April 16, 1857 ; bred by Thomas Motley, Jamaica Plain,
Mass., and registered by T. L. Haecker, Dec. 2, 1882, in the
name of Simon Ruble, Beloit, Wis. The transfer record shows
that this bull went from Thos. Motley to J. V. Robbins, Boston,
Mass., July 31, 1857 ; from Robbins to J. W. Harvey, Madison,
Wis., September, 1863; and from Harvey to Simon Ruble, Be¬
loit, Wis., in the winter of 1866.
“Robbins' Major's sire was Major 75, and his dam was Flirt
326. Major's sire was Colonel 76; his dam was Countess 114.
Flirt's sire was Colonel 76, and her dam was Flora 113. All
these were imported in May, 1851, by Thomas Motley, of Ja¬
maica Plain, Mass.
“Bonamy 10705, the dam of Mendota, was imported in dam,
by S. S. Spaulding, Boston, Mass., and B. D. Godfrey, Medford,
51 Wisconsin State. Agricultural Soc. Transactions, I860.
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 161
Mass., on Sept. 24, 1852, and dropped in the fall of 1852. Her
dam must have been sold to C. W. Webster, Boston, Mass., as
she was registered by him on Sept. 8, 1880. Neither her sire or
dam was given, as Webster lost all his herd records in the great
Boston fire. Bonamy was sold by Webster to J. V. Robbins,
Madison, Wis., in June, 1858, and transferred from Robbins to
A. G. Darwin, Madison, Wis., in July, 1863. She was registered
to make her daughter Mendota eligible.”
Through Mendota 17910, Mendota 2nd, 26326, and their
mating with Omaha 482, this early start formed a permanent
foundation for Jersey cattle in Wisconsin.
Stock Raising from 1860 to 1890.
The period 1860-1890 starts with a growing interest in stock
raising, although the number of cattle even declined during the
first few years. The raising of wheat had reached its culminat¬
ing point between 1850 and 1860. The pioneers who had the
courage to break away from the old routine and lay the founda¬
tion for many years of profitable agriculture, selected dairying
for a regular business. In many instances improved feeding
was the means to more profit in the specialized practice. Cheese
was the outlet for production and such was the use of whole
milk for this purpose that calves were not raised in many in¬
stances. Specialized breeds became more frequent and improved
cattle were added to the formula for profit making. The battle
between the beef, dual-purpose, and dairy breeds was fought vig¬
orously. The Jefferson County Union , now an important voice
for the dairy interests, promoted the specialized dairy breeds in¬
tensively. Breed interest became more and more evident. More
and more registered herds were established, and sires of the
new breeds used for general herd improvement. The Jersey
came early and was used, and promoted, as a producer of butter.
The Ayrshire had an early wave of popularity, and was then
frequently supplanted by other breeds. The Holstein and later
the Guernsey were used extensively for general herd improve¬
ment, although the latter was first put forth as a family cow.
Butter and later whole milk were added to cheese as an outlet
for dairy production. Seed stock were sold to neighboring states,
particularly Iowa, and states to the west. The Babcock test, the
silo, the breed organizations, as well as cooperative ventures in
162 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
the latter years of this period, all contributed to the formation
of a mammoth, specialized industry. The registered breeds
formed the fountain head.
The Period 1860-1870.
Evidence for the growing interest in the cattle industry for
the period 1860-1868 is shown in the report of the Secretary of
the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. "Thorough-bred ani¬
mals of every class are becoming much more common than they
were five years ago, and their influence upon the native or com¬
mon stock is already very observable. In view of the marked
adaptability of our State to their production, this advance in the
right direction is an especial ground for hearty congratulation.
. . . Cattle breeding does not yet receive its proportionate share
of attention. Returns show even a diminuation in numbers from
1860 to 1866 in the proportion of 554,203 to 413,459. This fall¬
ing off, if it has really occurred, is probably owing to the extra
attention concentrated upon wool growing and other branches
of farming during that period. The Durhams and Devons still
are, as they must continue to be, — until some entirely new breed
is developed, — the favorite breed; the former having no rival
for beef and the latter none for work. There are also a few
small herds of Alderneys and Ayrshires, but as yet their influ¬
ence is hardly perceptable.”
The report speaks of the almost entire immunity of all classes
of Wisconsin stock, during the year, from the various diseases
which had been so destructive in other portions of the country.
"In this particular, our State has for many years, been highly
favored. Indeed it has never been visited by any of the sweeping
epidemics, like hog cholera, murrain, pleuro-pneumonia, abor¬
tion in cows, the Texas cattle disease, from which many of the
other states have more or less suffered.” It is also said that:
"The conviction is yearly becoming more general among our
farmers that there are definite principles of breeding, which it
is necessary to understand and observe in order to [obtain] the
best results : and the number correspondingly increases of such
as are willing to make large expenditures and sacrifices, in order
to insure their flocks and herds the best conditions of success.
So that, not only in fine-wool sheep— -in which we have, for some¬
time, held rank among the foremost of the wool producing states
— but also in the qualities of our horses and cattle, we are quite
W ooley— Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 163
rapidly approaching a time, when the Wisconsin farmers will be
able to show stock with even the foremost breeders in the older
States. Our fairs, State and County are doing much to advance
this interest, by bringing the best animals to the notice of many
communities, by encouraging the owners of valuable stock bred
in the neighboring states to bring it among us, and by stimulat¬
ing many spirited breeders to import even from foreign coun¬
tries.”65
A statement from the State Fair of 1870 gives a general
picture. “The classes comprising the various breeds of neet
stock were well sustained by farmers of the State. . . . The
Shorthorns, as usual, were far more numerous than any other
breed; next, in point of numbers, came the Devons; then the
Alderneys and a small representation of Ayrshires. The two
last named showing a better class of cattle than have been ex¬
hibited heretofore. . . . Breeders of thoroughbred stock have,
for the past few years, shown a very commendable emulation,
and great enterprise in bringing into the State so many valuable
breeding animals. These breeders have done much towards ad¬
vancing the general prosperity and it now becomes the duty, as
it is in the interests of the general farmer, to make use of the
advantage brought to his door, and to proceed without delay to
improve his native stock, step by step, until they become paying
property, and a credit to the grower, his country and the State.
“The show of milch cows was meagre indeed (altho the few
animals exhibited were good), not such as it should have been
when we consider how important and valuable that interest has
become. The dairy farmers are not sufficiently alive to their
own interests and that of the State when they neglect to repre¬
sent themselves in a credible manner at our annual exhibitions
of improved stock.
“The exibition of grade cattle and working oxen was slim in
point of numbers, and not as good in quality as it should have
been. With the fine show of thorough-bred Shorthorns and
Devons to be seen at our annual exibitions for several years
back, made up of choice stock from all parts of the State, it
would be reasonable to suppose there would be a very large in¬
crease of improved grades, and better shows at our annual exi¬
bitions. But it seems our farmers have not realized the great
W. S. A. S. Trans., 1869, p. 36.
164 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters,
benefits to be derived from crossing the native cow with thor¬
ough-bred males. For at this time, improved grades are so
scarce that persons engaged in stall feeding, are obliged to go to
adjoining states to procure stock for feeding purposes, having
learned by sad experience that money cannot be made by feeding
native stock.”56
“It was said that farming is, and must continue to be the
chief object of industry and the foundation of a large share of
the wealth of the people of the State; it is encouraged by State
grants of money, in various ways, by aiding Agricultural soci¬
eties, published agricultural reports, collecting statistics; and
recently by the establishment of an Agricultural college as part
of the State University. About one-half of the land in Wiscon¬
sin still remains in the hands, either of the United States, or of
the State government and subject to entry by any person at any¬
time, at the most moderate price. The whole number of farms
is estimated 100,000 with an average of 40 acres each, in all,
four million acres under actual culture. This shows a surplus
of over thirty millions of acres uncultivated or about seven
eighths of the whole land of the State.”57
The Period 1870-1880,
The year 1870 marks the starting of a small paper at Lake
Mills, called the Jefferson County Union, which from its first
issue, March 17, of that year began to urge the farmers of Jef¬
ferson county to organize themselves into cheese factory sec¬
tions. One reaction involving the cattle of the state is shown in
the report of Hoyt, 1870: “It seems that our farmers being
within range of the Cheese factories are so anxious to turn their
milk into money that they are in the habit of killing off their
calves at a day old, or at latest as early as their hides will be
salable. This naturally diminishes the supply of cattle and calves
for the butchers and raises the price of meat in the local market ;
and this demand in turn results in the slaughter of large num¬
bers of young cattle of all ages.”58
A statement of Hoyt in reference to breeding is as follows:
“. . . No intelligent farmer any longer questions the possibility
of greatly increasing the milk-producing qualities of his cows by
56 W. S. A. S. Trans., 1870, p. 152.
57 State Board of Immigration, 1869.
58 W. S. A. S., Trans, p. 41, 1870.
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 165
breeding in reference to it ; and yet, so far as we have observed,
but comparatively little attention has been given to this matter.
The Ayrshires are universally acknowledged to be the best milk¬
ers — at least if we regard quantity, and they also yield a good
quality milk— and yet we know of but two or three small herds
in the whole state. If there are unsurmountable objections to
the introduction of this breed we have yet to learn what they
are.”
This period also marks the formation of the State Dairy¬
man’s Association. 'The Jefferson county Dairyman’s Associa¬
tion and a similar organization in Fond du Lac county had been
organized the year before. The first move made towards form¬
ing a Wisconsin Dairymen’s Association originated in a motion
to that effect, by the editor of this paper, in the Jefferson County
Dairyman’s Association, Jan. 26, 1872, and we were instructed
to prepare a call for a meeting to form such Association. The
call was signed by S. Faville, W. D. Hoard, J. G. Hull, Q. C. Olin,
Chas. Copeland, of this county; F. E. Morrow, Editor Western
Farmer , Madison, Chester Hazen President and H. Strong sec.
Fond du Lac Co. Dairymen’s Association. The first meeting
was held in the Lindon House, Watertown, Feb. 15, 1872. But
few persons were present, a constitution was adopted and the
following officers elected: President, Chester Hazen, Ladoga;
Vice Pres. H. F. Dousman, Waterville, and H. C. Drake, Lake
Mills; Sec., W. D. Hoard; Treasurer, Walt. S. Greene, Milford.
The influence yielded by the association thus formed, upon the
agricultural prosperity of Wisconsin has been immense.”59
“Jefferson County Union, Vol. 9, 1879.
Types of Herds and Their Management.
One of the great promoters of good feeding of dairy cattle in
the next few years was Mr. Wm. C. White of Kenosha, who at
the time said: Feed a cow only four quarts of bran shorts,
and meal per day, and you can hardly see any good results ; feed
her eight quarts and she will increase her mess of milk, so as to
pay down every day for what she eats; feed her twelve quarts
and she will make a surplus for clear profit.60
"An interesting statement regarding this very successful and
veteran dairyman is the following: T always speak to a cow as
60 Jefferson County Union , Vol. 8, 1878,
166 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters.
I would to a lady’, which contains volumes of meaning. It means
the kindest and most considerate care, the most generous and
thoughtful regard for the comfort and content of the animal
which in turn is to yield him such splendid results as 650 lbs. of
cheese per cow in one season, from a dairy of 70 cows. Mr.
White's farm consists of 384 acres of fine prairie and openings
soil, about two miles from Mr. Simmon's farm, on the edge of
Pleasant Prairie. He commenced dairying in 1857. He started
the first cheese factory in southern Wisconsin. His herd con¬
sisted last season, of 75 cows mostly of Durham and Ayrshire
grades, with 14 full bred Ayrshires. He has great success as
a raiser of good cows and his maxim is: 'Commence when
they are calves and never let them stop in growth.' He is a
very heavy feeder, raising a half acre of corn to the cow be¬
sides purchasing large quantities of bran. We heard him asked
once in a conversation if he thought such heavy feeding paid the
expense, with a twinkle in his merry old eye, he replied ‘I com¬
menced poor and all that I am worth I owe to the cow/ ... He
stated to us that he believed he could select forty cows from his
herd which would yield an average of 800 lbs. of cheese each, in
a single season. His dairy is one of his own breeding and shows
the value of care and attention in this particular."61
At this time the owner of the largest herd of cows for
dairy purposes in the state was Mr. Z. C. Simmons, President
of the Northwestern Telegraph Co.; and also President of the
Wisconsin Dairymans Association, 1879. "The total number
were three hundred and fifty. In this instance two large farms
were brought into requisition lying two miles apart, with most
perfect appliances and buildings upon each. The first was known
as the Somers farm and consisted of eight hundred acres of
splendid prairie soil. One hundred fifty cows were kept on this
farm. The second farm was known as the Prairie Farm and
was a portion of the famous old Truesdale Farm, which, before
the buildings were destroyed by fire, was considered the most
elaborate and finely appointed farm establishment in the United
States. This farm contained about fifteen hundred acres and
supported two hundred cows. The amount of cheese made on
the Prairie Farm in 1878 was 110,000 pounds, or an average of
81 Ibid, Vol, 9, 1879.
Wooley— Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 167
550 pounds per cow. The cows were fed twice a day with corn
meal and bran.”62
It has been said63 that one of the most important breeders of
this period was Mr. C. H. Williams. The breeding of thorough¬
bred Durham or Shorthorn cattle was the branch of Mr. Wil¬
liam's farming to which he devoted the greatest amount of labor
and conscientious care, both at Meadow Farm at Ableman and
at Elmwood Farm at Baraboo, beginning at the latter place in
1871. “At Elmwood Farm he introduced and carried on a sys¬
tem of public sales of Shorthorns that brought together farmers
from various parts of the State. At this time, 1879, he was the
veteran breeder of the State, having bred them since 1853.
The beginning of this herd and all new additions came from
Kentucky, except a later purchase from the herd of George
Murray, of Racine, and one from W. B. Dodge of Waukegan,
Illinois. His herd was subject to some criticism in that it lacked
the blood that would command the highest prices. His ani¬
mals, however, were just the type that were needed in Wiscon¬
sin; that is, well bred animals, of good quality which could
be purchased at prices favorable to the general farmer and to
the small breeder. During all his years of breeding, Mr. Wil¬
liams had been tireless in his efforts to impress upon the live¬
stock breeders of the State the advantage to be derived from
good cattle. To quote Mr. Williams: ‘Farmers of Wisconsin,
our interests and those of our state lie largely in improving our
domestic animals, growing the best of its kind is the most prof¬
itable. Raise then only the best — the best cattle, the best sheep,
swine and poultry — your means will warrant it; if not, go as
many steps toward the best as you can, and, by a gradual im¬
provement you will in time reach the desired goal.' Too much
credit cannot be given him, for his thirty years work with Short¬
horns in Wisconsin. No one man exerted such a lasting influ¬
ence toward the improvement of livestock of the state as did
this man. He was a conscientious breeder, possessing unim¬
peachable business integrity, a good neighbor, and a man who
had the interests of his community, his State and his country
foremost in his heart.”64
Ibid, Vol. 9, 1879, and Vol. 8, 1878.
88 W.M.H. Vol. 6, p. 324.
84 W.M.H., Vol. 6, p. 324.
168 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.
Introduction of Holstein Cattle by Septer W intermute.
Registered Holstein cattle were brought to Wisconsin in
1873. The first animal, Elswout Prince 95, came from
Mr. H. C. Hoffman, of Horseheads, New York, and entered the
herd of Mr. Septer Wintermute, of Whitewater, Wisconsin. This
bull was used to grade up a herd that was primarily Shorthorn.,
Mr. Wintermute bought a second bull, Cruiser 210, before the
purchase of any female stock. His herd was typical of a number
of early Holstein purchases. They were to grade up “native”
cattle, and cattle improved by Shorthorn crosses. It was be¬
lieved by many that the future profit of dairying would lie in
the direction of producing the largest yield from a given number
of cows, and that the question of breed as well as feed had very
much to do with the matter.
In 1883, ten years after the start of Mr. Wintermute’s “ex¬
periment” in breeding Holsteins, the results were entirely satis¬
factory to him. In addition to a larger production of milk there
was a steadily growing demand for all the stock he had to sell.
Among the important sales were those to the Home Fine Stock
Co., Hampton, Iowa, Ira Miller, New London, Wis., C. N. Noel,
Stillwater, Minnesota, E. W. Babcock, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, C. L.
Converse, Ontario, Canada, M. McAlister, Missouri, and to par¬
ties in Indiana and Dakota, in lots varying from 2 to 20 head.
Numerous sales were made to parties nearer home, and orders
received for more stock than could be spared.65
Dairying as a Business, 1880 .
A statement that indicates the trend of the time, 1880, as
dairying became more of a business, is as follows: “Every de¬
tail in dairying must henceforth be managed with the utmost
care and skill of which the farmer and manufacturer is capable.
The industry has been elevated to a position which it can only
retain through the exercise of the greatest skill and intelligence
. . . the best breed of cows must be employed.66
Another statement is the following: “The dairy business, at
present, is 'all the go.' To procure a given number of cows ; to
keep them after the fashion of our fathers; to convert their
milk into butter, in the manner of our grandmothers ; to dispose
65 Jefferson County Union, Vol. 14, 1883.
68 Ibid. Vol. 52, 1879.
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 169
of the manufactured article, as best we may, in exchange for
sugar and tea, will, however, not lead to very glorious results.
To use a common phrase, that kind of dairy-business is ‘played
out.’ Much brain work is required, many practical experiments
must be made before we ascertain what particular breed of cat¬
tle is most profitable ; how our cows must be kept ; which proc¬
ess is the best, to obtain the largest quantity and the best quality
of butter. . . ,”67
At a farmers’ meeting at Kenosha it was said that “an inter¬
esting feature of the meeting was a fine display of some of the
best families of Dairy cattle by several of the progressive farm¬
ers of that county. R. S. Houston, the noted Jersey Butter
Maker, exhibited a number of thoroughbred and grade Jerseys.
Ward C. White, the veteran dairyman was present with several
of his fine Ayrshires. E. A. Carpenter exhibited a splendid im¬
ported Holstein bull 3 years old, with several of his calves. It
was a matter of deep interest to us to note such a spirit of pride
and ambition in their calling as farmers”.68
Although the notices regarding sale and purchase, as well as
of experience, with the new breeds, particularly the Ayrshire,
Jersey and Holstein became numerous, the native cow was not
put out of the picture at once. The Jefferson County Union
quoted the fine production of 4,920 pounds each for a herd of
native cattle, in an article entitled “Better Cows.”69 J. C. Mer-
riman, Jefferson County, reported a cow of native breed which
produced 208 pounds of butter from the 10th of May till the 1st
of December, besides giving all the milk and cream used in the
family, and having no extra feed until October 1st.
Opinions Regarding the Dairy Breeds.
Many articles written at this time indicate uncertainty and
differences of opinion regarding the dairy breeds.
A criticism of the Jersey is the following: . . . “but it is as¬
tonishing how much more milk a Jersey cow will give if she
only has “grand whole colors”-— and the Jersey breeders are
ruining the milk record of their cattle. Instead of breeding to¬
ward the udder, they are breeding toward some pet notion, and
proof of this is to be seen in nearly all the fancy herds. Most of
"Ibid. Vol. 10, 1879.
* Ibid . Vol. 11, 1880.
69 Ibid. Vol. 11, 1880.
170 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
their stock are mere trash, but they excell in color. One good,
forty-dollar, native cow can discount their high-toned colored
squabs a year in advance.”70
Another opinion : “We want Holsteins and Ayrshires for the
general milk and cheese supply ; we want Short Horns and Here-
fords for their beef ; but the country wants the Jersey for her
butter — so let us have an end to the opposition which this breed
has met with for forty years. He who specialized wins. The
“general purpose cow” is an impossible animal. Let each farmer
decide whether all circumstances point to a beef, a milk or a
butter breed, and choose his stock accordingly . . . the two ten¬
dencies flesh and milk cannot travel the same road together and
produce the highest excellence and profit in both.”71
The following seems to be an extreme case : “Not long since
a farmer who keeps a herd of 40 cows, and furnishes milk to a
cheese factory, informed us that he was about to buy a Hereford
bull. We very naturally inquired if he was going out of the
dairy business. He replied “0! no; but I though I would like
to increase the size of my cows, as they would make more beef
when they get through giving milk.”72
Mr. R. S. Houston of Ranney, one of the best known of Wis¬
consin dairymen writes: “Starting with the common cows of
the country, I turned my attention to the butter capacity of my
herd. After investigating quite thoroughly, I concluded to try
the Jerseys, and from that time I have been improving; although
for years I manfully withstood the jeers and scoffs of my entire
neighborhood, it was only by determined will I persevered. I
commenced by raising heifer calves, and when I felt that I was
well stocked, occasionally would induce some one to buy a heifer
calf, but the most that I could obtain for my early productions
was $5. When the stock grew to maturity, I found much better
sales and far better prices. For my own use I always bought
the very best sire I could purchase, and they must certainly not
only be pure bred but registered. When the Guernseys were in¬
troduced in the west in 1881, I purchased a Guernsey sire. At
first the Guernsey was used rather sparingly, always increasing
his service until the present time (1889), and now I shall dis-
70 Ibid. Vol. 11, 1880, and Vol. 14, 1883.
« Ibid.
n Ibid. Vol. 14, 1883.
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 171
pose of my Jersey at caroling prices unless some one applies
early that wants a well bred fellow at a give-away figure. I am
a thorough convert to the Guernsey cows, and why? They are
more docile, larger in frame, have more muscle and bone, more
the looks of a farmer's cow, have better sized teats, color their
product better, their calves are larger, and taking all in all they
are more desirable as a dairy or family cow,— the cow which
always finds a ready sale at remunerative prices.”
Mr. Houston bred the cow Houston, that lead the herd at the
Minn. Experiment Station. She was by a Guernsey bull, and
her dam was a full blood Jersey. Houston was nine years old in
1892, and her record at the Station the next year was as follows :
Weight, 880 pounds; days in milk 320; pounds milk 6976.1;
pounds fat 366.98; average per cent fat in milk 5.3 per cent;
cost of food per pound of fat, 10.8 cents.73
The Guernsey Breed in Wisconsin .
The Guernsey breed was first brought to Wisconsin, to the
herd of N. K. Fairbank, Lake Geneva, in 1881. Later in the
year I. J. Clapp, Kenosha, imported a few animals of this breed.
By 1884, considerable publicity began to be given the Guernsey
cow in Wisconsin. Attention was called to I. J. Clapp's imported
Guernsey cattle, now luxuriating in the green fields of Kenosha
county, and being greatly admired by the fanciers of that neigh¬
borhood. Mr. Clapp had been crossing these cattle on grade
Jerseys with good success. The crossed animals were said to
have been a much finer looking animal than the Jersey. A suc¬
cessful cross of these cattle on grade shorthorn cattle is also
reported and equally good results secured. It was reported
that the reaaon for breeding these Guernsey bulls to high-grade
Shorthorns rather than to common cows, of which there were a
few very good ones in the dairy herd, was that the breeder
wished the dams of the grade Guernseys to be good looking
beasts.74
Summary .
In summary of the history of the dairy interest in Wisconsin,
it is pointed out that the counties of Jefferson, Sheboygan, Fond
du Lac, Waukesha, Brown, Dodge, Walworth, Green, and Ken-
Guemsey Breeders Journal, Vol. 2, 1911, p. 73.
Jefferson County Union. Vol. IS, 1884.
172 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters.
osha were the pioneer dairy counties of the State. The business
had assumed considerable importance in Columbia, Richland,
Calumet, Iowa, and Manitowoc counties, with a few cheese fac¬
tories, creameries, or private dairies, scattered about in other
outlying counties.
Discussion.
Starting in 1860 with 521,860 head, the cattle population of
the state increased more than threefold, to 1,647,947 head, in
1890. Of this population 39 per cent were classed as dairy cat¬
tle in 1860, and in 1890 42 per cent were classed as dairy cattle.
These numerical changes fail to show the most significant differ¬
ences in the cattle population of these two periods. In 1860 as
compared to 1890, improved animals were limited to the herds
of a relatively few progressive individuals. The cattle were still,
for the most part, unimproved native stock. The only improved
breeds having a secure footing in the state were the Shorthorns
and Devons. By 1890 the Devons, which had been used exten¬
sively as working oxen, had become of minor importance. They
were shown at the State Fair for the last time in 1892. The in¬
fluence of the Shorthorn cattle had steadily increased, mean¬
while changing from the hands of large speculator breeding
establishments, to those of small breeders and farmers after the
late ’70’s. While the Shorthorns were the most popular beef ani¬
mals, the rapidly increasing dairy business had proved to be too
strong a competitor for the beef cattle business.
The success of the Ayrshire, Holstein, Guernsey, and to a less
extent the Jersey was in most instances due to the preparatory
work of the Shorthorn in grading up the native cattle of the
state. The Jersey breed had developed in compact herds. In
contrast the Ayrshires in the herds of W. B. Kingsbury and
H. S. Durand, Racine, and W. C. White and Chester Hazen,
Kenosha, had been extensively used for grading up purposes, as
well as for the breeding of registered animals. The Holsteins
were used for grading in many pioneer herds. This trend is
shown in the registry of fifteen males as compared to three fe¬
males in the first four volumes of the herd book. Guernsey cat¬
tle were frequently used for crossing on both Shorthorn and
Jersey foundation animals.
By 1890 all of the dairy breeds, with the exception of the
Brown Swiss, which had just been introduced, had many well
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 173
established herds, from which animals were regularly being reg¬
istered.
Early Registered Dairy Cattle and their Importance to Later
Generations.
Following the establishment of registered Jersey cattle in
Wisconsin, there followed successively the Ayrshires in 1868,
Holsteins in 1873, Guernseys in 1881, and Brown Swiss about
1890. A study of the dairy cattle registered in 1890 was made
to find whether these breeds were being developed from the orig¬
inal stock brought into the state, from stock from other parts of
America, or from stock directly from Europe. The sampling
method reported in 1925 by Wright and McPhee, for calculating
inbreeding coefficients and relationship coefficients from random
ancestral lines of livestock pedigrees, was used as a basis for
this study. From each breed two ancestral lines were traced
back on each animal in the sample. The samples were taken
from the registrations of the one year 1890, except for the Ayr¬
shire sample, this being secured from a five year period due to
the small number of registrations. A grouping of the ancestry
was made by ten year intervals. A summary of the results is
presented in table III. In constructing the table the expected
number of animals in each ten year period was calculated with
the generation lengths found in this study. The generation
lengths are shown in table II. These were slightly but consis¬
tently longer than those usually given for the breeds.
The ancestry of the Jersey cattle registered in 1890 were
largely found in the V. Fuller and R. H. Stephens herds of Can¬
ada, the Darling and Hoe herds in New York, and about 1850, in
the Mills herd in Connecticut. Midwestern herds did not have a
prominent part at any time. Some of the American Jerseys,
however, were found in the ancestry for many years.
The Ayrshire cattle trace largely to the J. Stewart herd of
Illinois, the J. F. Converse herd of New York and the J. Dunlop
and J. Taylor herds of Scotland. Duke of Ayr 3617, bred in the
Taylor herd and his son Duke of Ayr 3rd. 4364, in the Chester
Hazen herd in Wisconsin, were both in more than twenty per
cent of the random lines.
The Holstein-Friesian cattle trace in many instances to the
large importing herds of W. H. Green and W. A. Pratt, in Illi¬
nois, to the T. H. Wales herd of Iowa and to Smiths and Powell
174 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters.
in New York. The foundation herd of importance in Wisconsin
is that of H. and J. Rust, North Greenfield. The names of Neth-
erland Prince 716, and Netherland Carl 8279, occur in 7.5 and
5.7 per cent of the lines, respectively. Roth of these animals
were bred in the herd of Smiths and Powell, New York.
A high percentage of the Guernsey ancestry traces to New
York and Pennsylvania, and in a few instances to the herd of
R. C. Riddle, one of the first Guernsey herds established in
America. As with the Holstein-Friesian cattle, Canadian ani-
Table II. Compansion of Generation Lenths Calculated from the Ancestry
of Dairy Cattle Registered in Wisconsin, 1890, and Generation
Lengths Calculated from Recent Herd Books.75
Table III. Distribution of the Ancestry of 1890 Wisconsin Registered
Dairy Cattle by ten year periods
Wooley — Genetic History of Wisconsin Cattle 175
mals were not of importance to the cattle of 1890. Buckskin
834, bred by Silas Betts, New Jersey, received 13.6 per cent of
the ancestral lines. The animals of early Wisconsin breeders
were in this instance more prominent, with Barney 1568, bred
by I. J. Clapp, Kenosha, and Nutwood 1408, bred by N. K. Fair¬
banks, Lake Geneva, each having 9 per cent of the ancestral
lines.
Importation, both from America and abroad, was playing a
more important role in the building up of the registered dairy
herds of 1890 than was the breeding from foundation animals in
the early Wisconsin herds.
Conclusion
The general cattle population of Wisconsin in 1890 consisted
of a native foundation graded up by Shorthorn, and during the
latter two decades of the period, more and more by dairy breeds.
Forty-two per cent of the population was classed as dairy stock.
Of this group three-tenths of one per cent were in registered
herds.
Summary
The genetic history of the cattle of Wisconsin involves four
prominent phases over the period to 1890 :
1. That of the cattle of French importation ; cattle predom¬
inately from Normandy and Brittany. These were of im¬
portance to the time of the Black Hawk war, 1832.
2. That of the native cattle, descendants of the cattle of the
American colonies. These became of major importance
after 1832, and were the cattle of the territorial days,
1836-1848.
3. That of the improved breeds; first the Shorthorn and
Devon, and later, particularly, the dairy breeds. These
have been of importance since the early days of the State.
Within the registered dairy herds the original animals
brought into the State were exerting only a minor influ¬
ence in 1890.
4. That of the improved native and grade cattle ; these form¬
ing the general cattle population of the State in 1890. In
Tl Iowa Bulletin 290.
176 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters.
the development of this group the Devon and Shorthorn
were used through 1850-1870. After this date the Short¬
horn and representatives of the dairy breeds were used
for general improvement.
Acknowledgements
The writer wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to Dr.
L. J. Cole not only for suggesting the subject of this study, but
also for his many helpful suggestions and kindly criticisms dur¬
ing the course of this investigation ; and to Mr. Charles L. Hill
for his many suggestions and contagious enthusiasm.
He further thanks Sylvia H. Losey for aid in the prepara¬
tion of the manuscript, the Wisconsin Historical Society for per¬
mitting frequent access to their files, and the Historical Library
Staff for their courteous and helpful assistance.
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GEOGRAPHY OF THE NORTHWEST DAIRY REGION
OF WISCONSIN
Warren Strain
University of Wisconsin
Major Lineaments
In the Northwest Dairy Region of Wisconsin, (Fig. 1.) cul¬
tural features reflecting the high degree of specialization of
dairying are imposed upon an undulating glacial topography.
Here climatic conditions (Koppen Dfb) have left their imprint
upon both natural and cultural forms. Conspicuous features in
the rural landscape are the large red dairy barns with silos
nearby, alternating plots of woodland pasture and cultivated
fields of feed crops, and the numerous herds of high grade or
pure bred dairy cattle. At irregular intervals along the well-
kept gravel roads which assume, in general, a rectangular pat¬
tern are small urban centers. In each town and village is a multi¬
form, small scale industrial development which is intimately
associated with dairying. Numerous relict forms suggest the
evolution of a succession of past cultural landscapes.1 Thus in
its broader aspects the Region2 is characterized by those forms,
patterns, and associations which are typical of the North Cen¬
tral Dairy Region of the United States, of which it is a part.3
More intensive study, however, reveals elements of unity in both
the natural and cultural features of the Northwest Dairy Region
of Wisconsin which are not found in the adjoining areas.
Rural Landscape
In driving along the well-kept gravel roads which form a
well defined grid, plots of wooded and improved land are passed
in rapid succession. Woodlots occupy 30 to 40 per cent of the
farm land4 and the distant hills usually appear as densely
1 A discussion of the past landscapes has been omitted due to lack of space. In the original
dissertation, of which this paper is a summary, one chapter was devoted to the evolution of forms
and patterns. Much other valuable material likewise had to be deleted.
3 The term Region will be used when referring to the entire Northwest Dairy Region.
3 Smith, J. Russell, North America, 1924, pp. 330-339.
4 All quantitative data, unless otherwise specified, have been obtained from the Wisconsin Crop
and Livestock Reporting Service and the United States Census, 1930.
180 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters.
Fig. 1. Index Map of Northwest Dairy Region.
Strain — Northivest Dairy Region
181
Original Natural Vegetation. I. Mixed Pine and Oak Forest. II. Hard¬
wood Forest A. Maple Group, B. Oak and Oak Openings. III. 6rush Prai¬
ries. IV. Pine and Scrub Oak. (Reference: Chamberlin, T. C., Atlas of
the Geological Survey of Wisconsin, 1870, Plate II A.)
182 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.
wooded tracts. The distribution of woodland is not uniform but
is definitely related to surface conditions and the distribution of
the original vegetation. (Fig. 2.) Although no well defined pat¬
tern of woodland may be distinguished, the northeast-southwest
trending moraines in the northwestern part and the few deeply
Fig. 3. The total area of woodland included in farms, by minor civil
divisions. This does not show woodlands not included in farms.
Strain ■ — Northwest Dairy Region
183
incised valleys in the southern part of the Region are areas of
greatest concentration. (Fig. 3.)
Most of the woodlots are enclosed by barbed wire fences so
that they may be used as grazing land for the numerous herds
of dairy cattle. Forty-four per cent of the land in farms is de-
184 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters.
voted to pasture of which two thirds is woodland. (Fig. 4.)
Poorly drained areas, lake borders, steep slopes, and stony land
provide other types of permanent grazing land while rotational
pasture accounts for the remainder. In these pastures may be
seen large herds of Holstein and Guernsey cattle, the two breeds
which predominate. (Fig. 5.) The herds vary in size from fif-
Fig. 5
Strain— Northwest Dairy Region
185
teen to twenty head each, of which milk cows account for about
two thirds.
Improved land accounts for the major part of the non-wooded
areas. An average of 52 per cent of the land in farms is de¬
voted either to crops or plowable pasture. Like the woodland
the percentage of land improved is closely related to the original
vegetation.5 Crops occupy 46 per cent of the farm land, a per¬
centage which is rather uniform throughout the Region since
the production of feed is an important adjunct to dairying. Hay,
oats, corn, and barley, four important feed crops, in the aggre¬
gate occupy 93 per cent of the cropped land. The remaining 7
per cent is chiefly devoted to a variety of cash crops, such as
peas, cabbage, and potatoes. (Table I.) Not only are these
Table 1* *
Land Use in the Northwest Dairy Region-Data by Civil Towns
I. Percentage of total area devoted to specific uses.
1. Land in farms 81 per cent.
2. Crop land 88 per cent.
8. Pasture land 86 per cent.
II. Percentage of farm land devoted to specific uses.
t. Crop land 46 per cent.
2. Pasture land— all kinds 44 per cent.
Plowable 6 per cent.
Woodland 29 per cent.
Other pasture 9 per cent.
3. All other uses 10 per cent.
III.
Percentage of total crop land devoted to specific crops.
1. Hay- . all kinds
Clover and Timothy
Alfalfa
2. Oats
3. Corn
4. Barley
5. All other crops
33 per -cent.
30 per cent.
3 per cent.
30 per cent.
18 per cent.
12 per cent.
7 per cent.
crops of major importance in supplying rations for the cattle
during the long and cold winters but also are they important in
supplementing pastures during the latter part of the summer
5 In the originally forested areas plowable pasture accounts for only 4 or 5 per cent of the
farm land while in the area of original prairies it accounts for 10 to 15 per cent.
* Compiled from the files of the Wisconsin Crop and Livestock Reporting Service.
186 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters .
when droughts are commonly experienced. The quality of much
of the woodland pasture is poor and therefore it is often neces¬
sary to supplement it with feed even during the summer months.
Crops do not occupy any particular sites other than well drained
land since a regular system of rotation is practiced and fields
devoted to corn one year will likely be planted with small grain
the next and with hay the following year.
During the growing season which lasts from May until Sep¬
tember the Region is the site of great activity. Early in May
the ground is prepared and the crops are planted. Scarcely has
the planting of corn been completed before some fields are ready
to be cultivated. By mid- June the hay harvest has started. Dur¬
ing this season with its long duration of sunlight per day women
are frequently seen helping in the fields. Hay tools are exten¬
sively used, especially the tall hay loader, thus reducing to a
minimum the number of laborers needed.
Hay is the most important of the crops, occupying one third
of the cultivated land. Clover and timothy have the largest
acreage although in the past few years the acreage of alfalfa has
rapidly increased. With alfalfa two or three crops of hay may
be cut per year, making it possible for half an acre to provide
a cow with feed for approximately six months of stable feeding.0
The repeated cutting of this hay tends to control the spread of
noxious weeds, since less opportunity is given for the production
of seed. This is of major importance in the control of Canada
thistle which has become a serious menace to the farmers. Fur¬
thermore alfalfa is more drought resistant than clover and tim¬
othy making it less hazardous to raise. Occasional summer
droughts, however, affect even alfalfa in such a way as to reduce
the yield or even hinder the starting of a new crop. Under these
conditions “emergency hays” must be raised. Wild hay is of
minor importance throughout the Region although small quanti¬
ties are harvested from the marshes in a few places. The dis¬
tribution of hay acreage is rather uniform for the Region.7 (Fig.
6.)
While the hay harvest is in progress, the fields of oats and
barley are taking on an amber color which indicates that the
* Fraser, Wilbur, Productive Crop Rotation Boosts Profits, Hoard’s Dairyman, January 22, 1926,
p. 39.
T In the north central part of the Region where there is a low percentage of the land in farms
the total hay acreage is small but the ratio between farm land and hay acreage remains almost
constant.
Strain— Northwest Dairy Region
187
grain harvest must soon follow. By the middle of July, long
rows of shocks have replaced the continuous mass of waving
grain. Threshing and storage of grain follow in rapid succes¬
sion, and over the broad terrain many small threshing outfits
with the associated features that accompany the harvest may be
seen. Little time is lost in the harvest due to rain since 60 per
188 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.
cent of the 30 inches of annual precipitation comes in the form
of conventional showers which provide the maximum amount of
precipitation in a relatively short time. Oats and barley, the
two most important small grains, fit well into the scheme of
dairy farming. Not only do they provide an important source
of stock feed but also supply a large amount of bedding for the
animals. The long period during which the cattle must be kept
in the stables makes this an important item in the farm man¬
agement. The sufficiency of rain in the early part of the sum¬
mer and the long, clear days which provide about 15 hours of
sunlight per day during the ripening and harvest seasons are
very favorable for these two crops. Oats utilize 30 per cent of
the crop land while barley occupies an additional 12 per cent.
Often these two grains are intercultured, the mixed grain being
used for cattle feed. Although small acreages of wheat and rye
are found, they are of minor importance in the crop association.
No sooner has the threshing been completed and the grain
stored than fall plowing is begun. This practice is generally
followed, since plowed ground can better absorb the melting
snow in the spring, and at the same time it provides an effective
way of combating quack grass. By the latter part of August
the landscape presents a vastly different aspect from that which
was observed a few weeks earlier. Plowed fields, exposing the
brown soil, occupy a prominent place in the rural landscape.
By the first part of September silos are being filled and the
corn harvested. Corn occupies 18 per cent of the cultivated
land and is produced both for silage and grain. Over two thirds
of this acreage, however, is utilized for silage and in Barron
County 84 per cent of the acreage is so used. Only in the south¬
ern part of the Region is any considerable amount grown for
grain and even here less than half the acreage is devoted to this
purpose. The brevity and variability in the duration of the
growing season and the cool summer nights combine to make
corn production for grain a precarious enterprise. Further¬
more, silage is of major importance in the rations for dairy cat¬
tle and provides succulent feed during the winter when most of
the other feeds are dry. This has been of considerable impor¬
tance in the maintenance of a steady production of milk
throughout the winter. The importance of corn for silage is
reflected in the numerous silos found within the Region.
Strain — Northwest Dairy Region
189
With the coining of winter activities are much less pro¬
nounced. Since the Alberta Storm Track is nearby, cyclones are
well developed during this season and weather conditions are
quite variable. These storms are accompanied by cloudy skies
and moderate to heavy snowfall, the average snowfall amounting
to a total of 46 inches.8 The low altitude of the sun, the short
duration of daylight, and the high percentage of cloudiness pre¬
vent the sun from effectively melting the snow, permitting a
snow cover to remain for four months. One of the greatest
handicaps to the delivery of milk during the winter is the block¬
ing of highways by the mammoth drifts of snow. Although a
great mileage of snow fence is used, special equipment must be
employed to keep the roads open, thus adding a burden to the
cost of road maintenance. During this season cattle are kept in
the barns and their absence in the pastures is noticeable.
The structure of the large, red barns reflects the importance
of this long period of stable feeding. The roofs are invariably
of the gambrel or half-hoop type which provide a maximum mow
space for the storage of hay. Adjoining most of the barns is a
large, white concrete or red wooden silo. Barns characteristi¬
cally occupy sites on the side of a hill so as to provide adequate
drainage and at the same time facilitate the construction of a
building of the half-basement type.
Nearby and half hidden among the clump of poplar and elder
trees is the large, two-story, frame, farm house, surrounded by
a well-kept, shady lawn. Flowers brighten many of the lawns
in the summer ; especially are driveways and garden fences lined
with rows of hollyhocks. Large flocks of white chickens run at
will about the farmstead. Towering above the tree tops is the
vane and wheel of the metal windmill. Upon closer observation
numerous utensils associated with dairying may be seen set in
the sun near the house.
Farm Economy
Dairying is by far the most important element in the farm
economy. The sale of milk and cream accounts for 55 per cent
of the gross farm income and much of the remaining 45 per cent
is derived from the sale of intimately related products such as
8 United States Department of Agriculture, Weather Bureau, Climatological Data of the
United States by Sections, Section 47, Revised 1930.
190 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters ,
cows and calves, poultry, and hogs. Since the Region lies within
the great creamery belt of the Upper Mississippi Valley where
butter production is the chief type of dairy enterprise, approxi¬
mately three-fourths of the milk produced is used by creameries.
(Fig. 7.) Cheese factories receive 17 per cent of the total milk
produced and only 3 per cent is sold as fluid milk on the city
Fig. 7
Strain^— Northwest Dairy Region
191
market. The fifty-nine creameries of the Region make more
than twenty-three million pounds of butter annually, much of
which is sold on the Chicago and New York markets. Over 75
per cent of these creameries are cooperatives, owned and oper¬
ated by the farmers. The great number of Danes and Scandi¬
navians who brought with them from Europe the heritage of
cooperation are, in part at least, responsible for the extensive
development of cooperation.9
Refrigeration is of prime importance in butter production
especially where the butter is made from sweet cream. In this
land of numerous lakes and long, cold winters natural ice is plen¬
tiful and cheap and it has been an important factor in the devel¬
opment of butter production. Many of the creameries, how¬
ever, are now being equipped with electrical refrigerators which
provide an easier, more sanitary, and more reliable source of
ice. Drying plants are being added to the equipment of cream¬
eries so that in addition to butter, dried butter-milk and dried
skimmilk are also important creamery products. Many uses are
being found for these dried products, one of the most extensive
being for poultry feed. The creameries are all located in the
towns and villages and appear as a part of the urban landscape.
Although only 17 per cent of the milk produced is used for
the manufacture of cheese, this production is mostly concen¬
trated in three centers and therefore has become relatively im¬
portant locally. (Fig. 8.) The area of greatest concentration
is northwestern St. Croix County and southwestern Polk County.
Here the milk is used almost exclusively in American cheese
production. The second center forms a crescent around the
northern part of Barron County. Swiss and brick cheese pro¬
duction is becoming increasingly important in this area. The
production of foreign cheese is intimately associated with the
Swiss element in the population which has come into the Region
from Green County, Wisconsin, the most important center of
foreign cheese manufacture in the United States. The third
center of production is along the eastern edge of the Lower Mag¬
nesian Cuesta in St. Croix and Pierce counties. In both of the
last two cheese areas, butter production is intermingled with the
cheese industry and there is not the marked concentration that
9 The creamery at Luck, a Danish settlement, boasts of being the first cooperative creamery
in Wisconsin.
192 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.
is found in northwestern St. Croix County. The production of
cheese finds expression in the landscape through the long, low
cheese factories with their characteristic tall smoke stacks, whey
tanks, and long ricks of fuel wood. Cheese factories usually oc¬
cupy sites at cross roads and serve an area of about four square
Strain — Northwest Dairy Region
193
miles. Thus cheese factories are a part of the rural landscape.
In the urban centers cheese box factories and storage houses
also reflect the importance of cheese production.
The amount of milk sold for the city market is strikingly
low, especially when it is realized that Minneapolis and St. Paul
with a combined population of almost three quarters of a million
are within twenty miles of the Region. The explanation of this
anomalous condition lies in the history of the organization and
operation of the Twin City Milk Producers Association which
has effectively controlled the milk market in the Twin Cities for
the past fifteen years.10
The sale of cows and calves, a source of income intimately
related to dairying, provides 12 per cent of the farm income.
Especially is the sale of high grade dairy cattle for herd re¬
placement purposes important. The well organized breeders as¬
sociations which carry on effective advertising campaigns, the
constant attempts to improve the herds through testing associa¬
tions, and the fact that all the cattle within the Region have
been tested for tuberculosis, have made the Northwest Dairy
Region an attractive place for cattle buyers to come to from all
over the United States and even foreign countries. In addition,
a great number of calves are sold to the stock yards at South
St. Paul each year. Although stock pens are usually found at
the railroad stations most of the calves are trucked to the South
St. Paul market.
The sale of poultry and eggs provides an additional 12 per
cent of the gross farm income. Over half a million dollars is
derived annually from the sale of eggs alone. White leghorns
are the most important breed of chickens although other breeds
are found. Many factors favor the raising of poultry. Dried
milk is plentiful and cheap and serves not only as an important
food but also as a tonic. Grasshoppers and bugs are numerous
and make up an important part of the rations during the sum¬
mer. Wild animals, however, are a constant menace to the poul¬
try producers. There is a wide distribution of poultry and every
farm has at least a small flock of chickens. There are, however,
a few centers of concentration such as around the village of
10 In order to sell milk through this association each farmer is required to buy one share of
stock for each five cows milked. Since the stock carries double liability the association is not
permitted to sell its stock in Wisconsin and thus Wisconsin farmers are eliminated from even pros¬
pective membership.
194 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters.
Baldwin and in the northwestern part of the Region. Around
Baldwin the intensity of production is closely associated with a
settlement of Dutch while in the center of concentration there is
a large Danish element in the population.
Although about ten per cent of the farm income is derived
from the sale of hogs, the number found on any one farm is
usually small. Where whey is recovered from the cheese fac¬
tories or, in the southern part of the Region where corn can be
safely grown for grain, the density of the hog population in¬
creases. The Northwest Dairy Region, however, is definitely
not an important hog producing region. All the remaining live¬
stock and livestock products account for no more than 1 per cent
of the farm income.
Cash crops supply the remaining 10 per cent of the farm
income. Peas for canning provide an important crop of this
type. The crop is produced near the eleven towns where canning
factories are located.11 The greatest pea acreage is found on
the relatively level strips of outwash where the soil is friable
and has uniform texture. The importance of the crop, however,
is reflected more by the viners scattered through the producing
section and in the large canning factories in the villages nearby
than in the area actually occupied by the crop itself. Although
there are only slightly more than ten thousand acres produced
in the entire Region, and each producing farm usually raises
less than five acres, nevertheless this crop is of considerable im¬
portance in the farm economy in the northern half of the Re¬
gion. Other cash crops of importance locally are potatoes, ruta¬
bagas, cabbage, and grain for seed. These crops, like peas, give
but minor expressions in the landscape.
Regional Subdivisions
Although cultural features associated with dairying are im¬
posed upon a glacial topography throughout the entire Region,
the difference in the intensity of development and the change in
natural conditions due to the recency of glacial invasion readily
suggest two maior subdivisions — (1) The New Drift Dairy
Province and (II) The Old Drift Dairy Province. (Fig. 9.)
u Canning factories are located at Frederic, Milltown, Rice Lake, Barron, Clear Lake,
Amery, New Richmond, Chetek, Cumberland, Turtle Lake, and Centuria.
Strain — Northwest Dairy Region
195
I. The New Drift Dairy Province
In the northwest part of the Region is a broad belt of com¬
plex glacial topography which embraces five roughly parallel,
northeast-southwest trending morainic ridges and interven¬
ing areas of pitted outwash and rugged ground moraine. Here
196 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters .
is found a variety of soils varying from light sandy loams to
heavy silt loams, which are infested with numerous granitic and
trap boulders. Lakes and swamps are numerous ; lakes account
for approximately 5 per cent of the total area of the province.
Covering this complex topography, except where it has been re¬
moved by man, is a natural vegetation which consists of second
growth hardwoods and a few scattered conifers with the ubi¬
quitous sweet fern forming an abundant undergrowth. This
uninviting part of the Region was the last to succumb to the
invasion of the farmer with the resultant sparse population and
low percentage of improved land. Here only 72 per cent of the
total area is in farms and in some parts of the province only
half of the total area is so used, in contrast with 81 per cent for
the Regions as a whole.
Feed crops, characteristic of the Region as a whole, and,
cleared pasture vie with woodland for sites on the billowy ter¬
rain. Here where the topography is rough, the rectangular pat¬
tern of fields and roads is less prevalent. Even within this sub¬
division there is a gradual transition from more intensive use in
the southern part where 60 per cent of the land is improved, to
the northern section where only 20 per cent of the area is so
classified. In the southern part American cheese production is
of prime importance while in the north butter production re¬
places cheese. The recency of glaciation is reflected in the de¬
ranged drainage systems and the numerous water-falls which
have resulted from the superimposing of streams over trap
ridges and rock ledges. The entire province is within the drain¬
age basin of the St. Croix River, the three most important tribu¬
taries being Willow, Apple, and Clam rivers. Hydro-electric
power plants, successors to the flour mills of an early stage of
occupance, are found at the sites of water-falls along these riv¬
ers. The largest power plant is located at St. Croix Falls where
the St. Croix River has cut a narrow, post-glacial channel
through one of the trap ridges and produced the Dalles of the
St. Croix. In the northern part of this brush-covered and lake-
dotted area, sportsmen find a favorable haunt and the resort
industry competes with dairying in importance especially during
the summer months.
Strain — Northwest Dairy Region 197
II. The Old Drift Dairy Province
In the south and east part of the Region gentle undulations
replace the rugged moraines, the soil is less stony, and poorly
drained areas occupy much less space than in the province to the
northwest. Lakes, while not entirely absent, are minor features
in the landscape and landforms resulting from the erosion of
bed rock are much more conspicuous than depositional forms.
The mantle of glacial material has softened the former erosional
surface so that the present topography consists of low, gentle
swells separated by broad, poorly drained swales. All the major
streams head in these broad swales and flow through poorly de¬
fined post-glacial channels. Only near the edge of the Lower
Magnesian Cuesta do a few streams occupy narrow, steep sided,
deep, pre-glacial channels.
From the crest of one of the gentle swells a wide view meets
the eye of an observer. Large rectangular fields of hay or grain
give to the landscape the appearance of a broad, undulating
checker board. The clumps of trees, which often mark the sites
of farmsteads, break the continuity of the cleared fields and re¬
lieve the monotony which characterizes the true prairies of the
West. Occasionally a patch of darker green may be seen in the
broad, open valleys, which markes, the sites of a marsh, so char¬
acteristic in the original landscape. Many of the marshes have
been drained by means of drainage wells.
Farm land in this province accounts for 90 per cent of the
total area as compared with 72 per cent in the New Drift Dairy
Province. The amount of woodland varies greatly from place to
place and reflects the original vegetation cover. In western
Pierce and St. Croix counties on the gentle back slope of the
Lower Magnesian Cuesta the original vegetation was a brush
prairie. Here woodlots account for less than 10 per cent of the
farm land while in the northern part of the province (Barron
County), which was a part of the great boreal forest, many of
the farms are one-third wooded. But even this is less woodland
than is found in the adjacent part of the New Drift.
Throughout the province plowable pasture becomes an im¬
portant element in the rotation system. Since pastures of this
type are of higher quality than woodland, a small amount is
needed for each herd and the total acreage in pasture here is
198 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters .
relatively low. In many places in the province not more than
one-fourth of the farmland is devoted to grazing.
In Pierce and St. Croix counties, where the present system
of farming has evolved from a cash grain type, dual purpose
cattle are more frequently found than in the northern part.13
Likewise the sale of milk and cream accounts for only 50 per
cent of the farm income and the sale of hogs provides an addi¬
tional 14 per cent for this southern section as compared with 62
per cent and 3 per cent, respectively, in Barron County. Anoth¬
er contrast is in the cash crops since grain for seed provides an
important cash crop in the south, and potatoes and peas are im¬
portant in the northeast. These differences, however, produce
but minor contrasts in the landscape and therefore do not serve
as the basis for a major division.
Urban Landscape
Forms and patterns associated with dairying and the pro¬
duction of cash crops find expression not only in the rural land¬
scape but also in the towns and villages scattered throughout
the Region. The location of each town is marked by a tall, metal
water tank which rises above the tree tops and bears its name.
Although there are many small villages which break the continu¬
ity of the rural landscape, large cities are absent. Rice Lake,
with a population of 5,177, is the largest city in the1 entire Re¬
gion and has almost twice the population of any of the other
urban centers. Only 18 per cent of the people of the Region live
in the ten cities which have a population of over one thousand13
while 69 per cent live on individual farms or in villages of less
than one hundred. This is in striking contrast to the state as a
whole, for only 30 per cent of the people of Wisconsin actually
live on farms and 70 per cent live in agglomerations.
The absence of large cities in the Region is due, in part at
least, to the proximity of the Twin Cities which dominate the
commercial interests. Minneapolis and St. Paul wholesale houses
13 Dual purpose cattle account for 12 per cent of the cattle in Pierce and St. Croix counties
while in Barron County they account for only 1.2 per cent.
13 The ten cities having a population of over one thousand are :
Strain — Northwest Dairy Region
199
supply most of the stores with their stock of goods. The mills
of Minneapolis furnish much of the flour and feed shipped into
the Region and newspapers from the Twin Cities are more com¬
monly found at newsstands than are Wisconsin papers. The few
roadside signs advertise Minneapolis and St. Paul stores and
most of the people living in the Region visit the Twin Cities at
least once or twice a year on shopping tours. Both highway and
railroad systems favor this domination since the major lines of
communication focus upon these cities from all parts of the Re¬
gion.
On the basis of function, four types of urban centers have
been recognized. They are (1) the small villages which serve
as market centers for the surrounding rural areas, (2) the seats
of county government which not only have forms and patterns
associated with market villages but also have added features
which reflect their governmental function, (3) the towns and
cities which serve the resorts associated with the numerous lakes
in the northern part of the Region, and (4) the three cities
which are as important industrially as they are commercially.
Market villages , the most common and wide-spread type,
are simple in structure and, as the name indicates, are essen¬
tially marketing centers for the farm products and distributing
points for staples needed by the farmers in their umlands. There
is a wide range in size, varying from small hamlets with approx¬
imately fifty or seventy-five people to towns of eight or nine hun¬
dred. Villages of five to six hundred are the most common, how¬
ever. Although railroad sites are the most popular, nineteen of
the sixty-five market villages are not located on a railroad.
Most of these “inland” villages are small, the population
rarely exceeding one hundred. The hamlets occupy sites at cross
roads; only rarely are other streets found in the plat. In any
one of these villages two or three general stores occupying sites
on the corners, a small cooperative creamery, a filling station,
and a few houses resembling closely spaced farmsteads, are the
usual forms. The creamery usually occupies a small building
surmounted by one or more galvanized ventilators and a tall
smoke stack. In the lot adjacent are long ricks of fuel wood.
Nearby is found an ice storage house in which blocks of natural
ice are stored for summer use. The butter is shipped by truck
to the nearest railroad village and sent from there to eastern
200 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters.
markets. In a very few of these villages, located on power sites,
small feed mills are found in the village set-up.
Railroad market villages, while very simple in structure and
function, have additional forms and patterns which reflect the
advantages offered by the better means of transportation. All
the market villages have the usual array of general stores, a
milk processing plant, and services which reflect the agricultural
development in the adjoining areas. Occasionally there is evi¬
dence of industrial aspects in some of the villages. In the north¬
ern half of the Region where large areas of outwash are present,
pea-canning factories provide striking features in the village
landscape. In the southern part of the Region, where wheat was
formerly the all important crop in the system of farming, can¬
ning factories are not found. In these villages, however, tall
grain elevators characteristically located along the railroad
tracks are very conspicuous features. Every railroad market
village here has one or more of these elevators, many of which
are no longer used but stand as relict forms of an earlier period
of occupance.
In the five political cities of the Region there is an even wider
range in size than was found in the market villages.14 These
cities have many aspects similar to the market villages but have
additional forms and patterns associated with the handling of
the county governmental business. The county court house in
most places occupies a central position in the city and about it is
clustered the business district. Near the court house are found
a large number of offices of lawyers, abstract and loan com¬
panies, insurance companies, and the headquarters for the dif¬
ferent breeders' associations. These cities are well supplied with
cafes and hotels to care for the visitors who must come to the
county seat to transact business. The residential sections of
these cities are usually more attractive and better cared for than
in the market villages, since here are found the homes of many
professional people. In each of the five political cities, industrial
development is of minor importance and is usually associated
with dairying.
In the northern part of the Region, where there are numer¬
ous lakes, extensive swamps, and much wild country, one of
the major functions of the towns and cities is to serve the people
14 Hudson— 2,725; Barron— 1,863; Ellsworth— 1,124; Shell Lake— 826 ; Balsam Lake— 315.
Strain — Northwest Dairy Region
201
who are seeking recreation. These resort towns occupy sites
along the railroads, so that provisions and recreational supplies
may be easily obtained, and they are also given direct contact
with the larger cities of the Middles West, from which most of
their patrons come. Within these cities there are forms which
are unique to this type. In the business district of the resort
towns, the large number of food stores and merchandising estab¬
lishments dealing in resort equipment are out of proportion to
the local population. Out-of-state automobile licenses are numer¬
ous during the summer months and the cities appear to be thriv¬
ing commercial centers. The resort business is highly seasonal
and the permanent population must depend upon small indus¬
tries, most of which serve the surrounding agricultural area, to
supplement the commercial function of the town and provide a
steady source of income. A milk processing plant and some type
of woodworking establishment provide the two most common
industrial forms. The industrial aspect of the towns and cities,
however, is not striking. The most important towns of this
group are Spooner, Cumberland, Amery, St. Croix Falls, and
Chetek. Even the small market villages nearby experience a
pulsation of increased business during the vacation period.
In New Richmond, River Falls, and Rice Lake industrial and
commercial aspects are about equally important. The industries,
many of which have persisted from a former period of occu-
pance, provide an important element in the urban landscape.
The three cities are strikingly similar in structure and site char¬
acteristics. Each is roughly bisected by a river which provides
an important source of power in the industrial development.
Adjacent to the streams are the industrial sections of the cities.
These rivers tend to disrupt the otherwise uniform rectangular
pattern of streets. Since New Richmond and River Falls are in
the part of the Region where wheat production was formerly
dominant, feed and flour milling industries are the most promi¬
nent features in the industrial set-up. In Rice Lake, situated in
the area of original forests, woodworking industries predomi¬
nate. Both woodworking and flour milling industries, however,
are prominent in all three cities. Rice Lake is the oldest of this
group, having evolved from an Indian village, a fur trading
post, a lumber camp and sawmill center to the present indus¬
trial-commercial city.
STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEYS OF WISCONSIN
E. F. Bean
The thirty year period prior to the establishment of the first
geological survey of Wisconsin was characterized by great inter¬
est in geology in United States. During that period twenty-two
state geological surveys were organized, of which sixteen were
organized prior to 1840. By that time geology had found a
place in the curricula of the leading colleges. The young state
of Wisconsin had an especially good reason for following the
precedent established by the older states, as the lead of the
southwestern part of the State had drawn the first large body of
settlers to Wisconsin. The Madison Argus under date of Oct. 10,
1848 urges the value of such an organization.
' Importance of a geological survey of Wisconsin . After the
state government is fully organized, and the state gets free from
debt, a wise and beneficent policy will doubtless dictate to our
rulers the necessity and propriety of a thorough geological ex¬
ploration of its surface. Few are aware of the benefits derived
from such surveys, not only to individuals, but as developing
hidden resources in the aggregation of immeasurable value to a
commonwealth. Wherever they have been authorized, (as they
have been in most of the eastern states), the attendant cost has
been but an insignificant trifle compared with the valuable dis¬
coveries made. But very little is known of Wisconsin. Beyond de¬
termining the general outlines of its principal strata, if we
except the lead region, nothing has been done. It is not a year
since granite was discovered in Dodge County, and we are in¬
formed that the iron mines of Horricon have been known but
few years. From Lake Michigan to the Mississippi— an interior
country of over two hundred miles in width, by five hundred in
length— a great blank exists so far as accurate and clearly de¬
fined knowledge is concerned. It is true we possess some isolated
facts. We know that iron exists in large quantities along the
banks of the Wisconsin near its mouth— we know that boulders
of copper and iron, and traces of lead are often met with— but
whence they came, to what extent they exist in the parent bed —
and of what value, we are entirely ignorant. The search for
204 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters
useful metals on the shores of Lake Superior has extended
southward but few miles. But few facts have reached us of dis¬
coveries made within the state, and yet the specimens found
leave but little doubt that large mineral deposits will be found
in the interior of that section. These evidences thicken daily as
settlements increase, and to determine the mineral regions and
fix their boundaries — to examine valuable quarries — to prevent
that waste of labor often bestowed blindly in search of what
does not exist — is the province of the geologist — and such an
investigation would not be less valuable to our citizens, than to
science in general. As soon as the finances of the state will war¬
rant, we doubt not that this important investigation will be de¬
manded by the general voice of our public spirited and thriving
people.”
Just how little was known regarding the natural resources
of the state is reflected in the sentence from the Argus of June
25, 1850.
"Had our state line been run from Green Bay to St. Paul, it
would have embraced about all the valuable farming country,
and the balance might have been given to Minnesota with thanks
for the taking.”
I. Edward Daniels. 1853-1854.
Under an act of the Legislature approved March 25, 1853, a
State Geological Survey was created, with an annual appropria¬
tion of $2500 per year for four years. Edward Daniels was ap¬
pointed State Geologist by Governor Leonard J. Far well. Mr.
Daniels appointed H. A. Tenney, Assistant, by and with the con¬
sent of the Governor.
Daniels was a "political apothecary”1, a "Professor in the
College at Waukesha”, "Lecturer on Kansas Affairs”2, "who has
taken an active part in politics as he has a right to do”3.
On June 30, 1854 Mr. Daniels was "peremptorily” removed
by Governor Wm. A. Barstow. The majority of an investigating
committee of the legislature in 1855 reported that the Governor
had no power to remove the State Geologist, that it is impossible
for Daniels to "be professionally incompetent for the duties of
1 Clarke, John M., James Hall. Geologist and Paleontologist, p. 287.
2 Milwaukee News.
3 Madison State Journal, Oct. 3, 1859.
Bean— -State Geological Surveys of Wisconsin 205
the office to which he was appointed, and the removal is unjust to
his character and reputation as a man of science, and to his pe¬
cuniary interests, in view of the arrangements which he had
made with the expectation of being allowed to prosecute his
work unmolested”.
The First Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Wis¬
consin was a small octavo volume of 84 pages published in 1854.
This dealt largely with the lead region. This was in accordance
with the statutory provision which required “that it shall be the
duty of said state geologist to complete his survey of that portion
of the state known as the ‘lead mines' before commencing the
survey of the remainder of the state”. The following is quoted
from a review of this report in the Beloit College monthly.
“For its indications of the great benefits that will result
from the continued prosecution of the survey, this report is
even more valuable than for the facts it contains. If that
is carried on in the manner in which it has been commenced,
it will undoubtedly result in ‘causing those exhaustless mines
of wealth' that lie beneath the surface of all over the state ‘to
contribute to our common growth and prosperity' in a man¬
ner altogether unexpected. Considered merely in its pecun¬
iary results, the appropriation by which this Survey is sus¬
tained was probably one of the most profitable investments
that has been made for a long time by our rather spendthrift
Legislature.”
2. J. G. Percival. 1854-1856.
J. G. Percival was appointed in August, 1854, by Governor
Wm. A. Barstow, and served until his death on May 2, 1856. He
graduated at Yale College in 1815, after which he studied medi¬
cine. He wrote poems, edited a newspaper, was proofreader and
assistant to Noah Webster in the preparation of his dictionary.
In 1824 he was for a short time Professor of Chemistry at West
Point. From 1835 to 1841 he had charge of geology for the
Connecticut Geological and Mineralogical Survey.
“Percival was a singular and extraordinary figure in Ameri¬
can literature and science, a ragged Ishmaelite whose soul was
ever bursting into song, a hapless genius who knew no friendly
voices except those of the woods and the rocks, who bubbled out
his real soul in rime and wrote the most atrocious and barren
of all geological documents. ‘His clothes were shabby ; his trou¬
sers more often than otherwise frayed at the bottom and patched
206 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts , and Letters
in various places by his own hands. Eight months of the year
he wore an old glazed cap with ear-tabs of sheepskin, the wooly
side turned in, and a gray cloak. Whenever the cap came off it
revealed a classic head and for the first time one would notice
the fineness of the features and eyes of unusual splendor.
* * * He became a familiar figure in the fields and woods of Wis¬
consin and was generally known as Old Stonebreaker. Some of
the boys made sport of him but little children all over the state
knew and loved him. He was always poorly clad and suffered
greatly from exposure in winter/ * * * *.m
Two reports in the form of octavo pamphlets of about 100
pages each were issued as a result of his work. The first of
these was published under his own supervision ; the second after
his death. There were two editions, one in English, and one in
German. As with his previous work in Connecticut, these re¬
ports are extremely prosy and made up largely of very minute
descriptions of the lithological nature of the various rock forma¬
tions of the state, their geographic distribution and relative posi¬
tion.
3. Hall, Daniels, and Carr. 1857-1862.
A law approved March 3, 1857 provided for a geological and
agricultural survey of the state under the joint supervision of a
commission consisting of James Hall, Ezra Carr, and Edward
Daniels. It appears that Mr. Carr was the prime instigator in
the passage of this bill, though working more or less in collabora¬
tion with Charles Whittlesey and Edward Daniels. In a letter
from Carr to Hall, in anticipation of the passage of this bill,
under date of January 28, 1857, the directorship of the survey is
offered the latter, who, in a reply dated February 3, following,
said that he could not apply for the same so long as Daniels was
a candidate, as he had already agreed to give him his support.
Under date of March 26 Carr again wrote Hall :
“The governor and all others who are interested in the
survey look to you as the responsible man in geology. The
Governor understands Daniels and said to me that you and
myself, being a majority, could arrange matters.”
James Hall was state geologist of New York from 1836-1898
and at this time was state geologist of Iowa, and had an impor-
1 Clarke, John M.; Hall, James. Geologist and Paleontologist, p. 287.
Bean — State Geological Surveys of Wisconsin 207
tant engagement with the Survey of Canada. He was an excel¬
lent geologist, splendidly equipped by training and experience to
undertake the work. He was to “work out the general geology,
the relations of the geology of this state with that of surround¬
ing states, and the paleontology of the state, and properly to rep¬
resent the same upon a map, or maps, sections, etc., and make
the collections illustrative of the same”.
Ezra Slocum Carr was a doctor of medicine, who became pro¬
fessor of chemistry and natural history at the University of
Wisconsin in January, 1856. He had been an assistant to Hall
on the New York Survey. His task was to make the agricul¬
tural portion of the survey “to make collections for the same,
together with the requisite analyses of soils, ores, and useful
minerals, put up and arrange the entire collections contemplated
by said act, and do such work in the general and economical
geology as time will permit”. His only geological publication
was Economic Geology of the Third District of New York. New
York Geological Survey. Annual Report: 385-388 (1840). It
appears that he did but little field work in Wisconsin.
Since Hall spent but little time in the state, Carr was prob¬
ably the executive officer. The published record indicates that
he made no particular contribution to the survey. During the
war he gave the required course in chemistry at Rush Medical
College. In the autumn of 1868 he resigned from the University
and went to California, where he became professor of medical
chemistry in Tolland Medical College, and of agricultural chem¬
istry in the University of California. In 1877 he was elected
state superintendent of public instruction. After four years he
retired to Pasadena, where he died in 1894.
Edward Daniels' duties were to “work out the general, local,
and economical geology of the state; to collect such specimens
of fossils and useful minerals as will illustrate the geology of the
state, and deposit them in the place specified in said act”.
The act appropriated $6,000 per annum for six years, “which
sum shall be in full for salaries of commissioners, rent of room,
and all other expenses incident to said survey, exclusive of print¬
ing the annual report of said commissioners”.
This joint leadership proved unsatisfactory and the Governor
reported in January, 1858 “that the commissioners have not ar¬
ranged and distributed the functions of the survey and that
Daniels is the only one who has signed a contract”. Daniels,
208 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
according to an assembly committee report dated March 19,
1858, “has, in less than six months, drawn out of the treasury,
under warrant of the late Executive, $2017.81, and from his re¬
port and other indications, it appears that he has his single-
handed commission in full operation now, with an honest effort
and hearty good will to spend the balance of the appropriation”.
The report referred to is one addressed to Governor Bashford
entitled “Annual Report of the Geological Survey of the State of
Wisconsin, for the year ending December 31, 1857”. This is an
independent report in which he makes no mention of the other
commissioners except the phrase “since assuming the duties of
my department of the Survey”. A large part of the 62 pages is
devoted to the iron ores of Dodge and Jackson counties. On May
29, 1858, Governor Randall entered into a contract with each of
the three commissioners. Under this contract which was to con¬
tinue until March 3, 1863, each commissioner was to receive
$2000 per year for his salary, and that of assistants, and all
other expenses exclusive of printing. In 1858 Hall and Carr
employed, at their expense, Charles Whittlesey to explore the
country between the Menominee and Oconto rivers. In the spring
of 1859 an engagement was entered into with J. D. Whitney to
make a survey of the lead region.
In 1860 James Hall was appointed principal to the commis¬
sion. The work of both Whittlesey and Whitney was completed
and an act passed and approved April 15, 1861, authorizing the
publication of one thousand copies of what was expected to form
the first volume of the report, for which Hall was to receive
$3.00 per copy. The single volume of 455 pages, 9 plates, a col¬
ored geological map of the lead region, and a diagram showing
the position of the ore crevices, appeared in 1862, entitled “Vol¬
ume I, Geology of Wisconsin”. Chapter I, Physical Geography
and Geology, and Chapter IX, Paleontology of Wisconsin, were
written by Hall. Chapters II to VI inclusive, descriptive of the
lead and zinc region, were written by Whitney. It appears that
two reports by Whittlesey, one on the region west of the Me¬
nominee River and the other on the iron region of Lake Superior
mentioned in the preface, were not published at this time. In
1863 Whittlesey presented a paper before the Boston Society of
Natural History entitled “The Penokee Mineral Range”. This
paper was published in Geology of Wisconsin, Vol. Ill, pp. 216-
223, (1880). An incident, unintentionally amusing to those con-
Bean — State Geological Surveys of Wisconsin 209
versant with the careless manner in which Whittlesey prepared
his manuscripts, is given. In explanation of certain typographic
errors he wrote: “In Chippeway language the name of iron is
Pewabik; and I thought it proper to designate the mountains
where this metal exists in quantities * * * * as the Pewabic
Range. The compositor, however, transformed the word into
Penokie, a word which belongs to no language.''
In 1862 the Committee on State Affairs reported that $30,000
had been expended without any return whatever except the one
volume report. The Committee thought that sum “ample to have
secured the services of three capable men, but managed and
controlled as it has been by the present commissioners, it has
proved a failure in every respect except in expenses incurred’'.
This statement is not entirely accurate. In addition to Daniels'
Annual Report, the following had been published :
Report of the Commissioners of the Geological Survey of
Wisconsin. Madison. 1858.
Report of Progress for 1859.
Report of the Superintendent of the Geological Survey, ex¬
hibiting the progress of the work. Jan. 1, 1861. This
includes 42 pages of fossil descriptions.
The second volume of Hall's report, it is stated, was prepared
and submitted to the Governor in December, 1862. It appears
to have never been published.
The legislature in 1862 repealed the act authorizing the sur¬
vey. Carr and Daniels abandoned the field, but Hall, contending
that he had a contract under seal with the Governor according
to provisions of the law, claimed that the legislature could not
annul the same. He continued his labor and completed that por¬
tion of the work which had been assigned to him in his original
division among the three commissioners. It is stated that man¬
uscript for a second volume of the report had in 1875 been ready
for publication more than a dozen years, and Hall had made
repeated applications to the legislature for compensation, but in
vain. Under the circumstances, Hall was obliged to publish his
paleontological results elsewhere1.
1 Hall, James. Preliminary Notice of the Fauna of the Potsdam Sandstone, with remarks
upon the Previously Known Species of Fossils and Descriptions of Some New Ones, from the Sand
stone of the Upper Mississippi Valley, Transactions Albany Institute, Vol. S, 1867, pp. 93-19S;
16th Annual Report, New York State Cabinet of Natural History, 1863, pp. 119-206.
Geological Survey of the State of Wisconsin, 1859-1863, Paleontology, Part Third, Organic
Remains of the Niagara Group and Associated Limestones, Albany, 1871, 94 pp.
210 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters
That the importance of a geological survey was not entirely
forgotten during the ensuing years is indicated by the following
quotation from the annual message of Governor Lucius Fair-
child in 1869 :
“A thorough geological survey of this state is much
needed. Could we present to the world a scientific and com¬
prehensive account of our vast mineral and agricultural re¬
sources, it would draw hither, within a few years, millions of
dollars of capital for investment. In such an investigation
of her hidden sources of wealth, Wisconsin is far behind the
neighboring states of the Northwest. If it is not deemed
best to provide for such a survey without further informa¬
tion, I respectfully suggest that a competent committee be
appointed to investigate, and fully report to the next legis¬
lature, upon the necessities of the state in this direction. Such
investigation and report can probably be had at little or no
expense.”
4. John Murrish.
Commissioner of the Survey of the Lead District.
There was enacted in 1870 an “act to provide for the survey
of the lead district, making maps and collecting statistics and
specimens from the same”. John Murrish was appointed com¬
missioner. He was a practical man who had served an appren¬
ticeship in the mines of Cornwall. His report, a pamphlet of
65 pages, was submitted with Governor Fairchild's message in
1871. In 1872 the commissioner was given authority to extend
the survey to “include all mineral deposits of an economic value
found in the vicinity of said line of survey, or of the several iron
or copper ranges in the north part of this state”.
5. Lapham-Chamberlin Survey. 1873-1879.
The legislature in 1873 provided for “a complete geological
survey” with an appropriation of $13,000 for each year until the
completion of said survey”. This sum was to cover all expendi-
This appears to be a reprint of the report written in 1864 and entitled Account of Some
New or Little Known Species of Fossils from Rocks of the Age of the Niagara Group, 20th Annual
Report, New York State Cabinet of Natural History, 1867, pp. 30S-401.
Geological Survey of Wisconsin, James Hall Director, Geological Map of Wisconsin showing
the Relations of its Geology with that of the Surrounding States, compiled from the work of the
Geological Surveys of Wisconsin and Iowa and from the Surveys of Doctors D. D. Owen, Foster,
and Whitney, and Professor A. Winchell. (Date of Publication not determined.)
Bean — State Geological Surveys of Wisconsin 211
tures except printing of reports. The law directed that the sur¬
vey be completed within four years.
In 1877 provision was made for the continuance of the survey
for one year. The legislature in 1878 made an appropriation of
$5,000 to continue the work until March 81, 1879. All salaries
were to cease on that date “but this act shall not bar the mem¬
bers of the geological corps from voluntarily performing the
functions of their office, and supervising the publication of said
reports”.
LAPHAM. 1873-1874.
Increase A. Lapham was appointed state geologist April 10,
1873, an excellent choice, since he had long been a leading spirit
of science in the state. As early as 1849 his recommendation for
a quarry site as “the most eligible location” for a penitentiary
was quoted in Governor Dewey's message. He had published
two geological maps of the state-— one in 1855 and another in
1869. As counselor and friend he had been very helpful to Hall
and Carr. Hall agreed in 1853 to prepare a work called “Ameri¬
can Paleontology”, to be based upon manuscript furnished by
Lapham. Nothing seemed to come of this but through no fault of
Lapham. “By profession a civil engineer, he became at an early
day a faithful collector, observer, and recorder of natural phe¬
nomena in nearly all leading lines from bed rock to sky. He was
at once a botanist, a zoologist, an archeologist, a geologist, and a
meteorologist. He was a distinguished example of the best order
of the old school of all-round students of natural science. Prob¬
ably we owe to Dr. Lapham, more than to any other single indi¬
vidual, the establishment of our Weather Service”1. From his
arrival in the state in 1835 until his death in 1875, he took an
active part in all movements aimed to advance science and edu¬
cation in the state.
Lapham chose as his assistants R. D. Irving, T. C. Chamber¬
lin, and Moses Strong.
Moses Strong was a graduate of Yale, and had one year of
graduate work at Sheffield Scientific School, one at ClausthaL
and a third at Freyberg2. He was drowned August 18, 1877, in
the Flambeau River while attempting to save the life of an assis-
1 T. C. Chamberlin. Science. Vol. 52, p. 5, 1920.
9 Annual Report of the Wisconsin Geological Survey for the year 1877, p. 91.
212 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters
tant. His death at the age of 31, closed a career which gave
every promise of being a brilliant one. The results of his field
work during the field seasons of 1873-1877 are recorded in his
reports on the lead region, the Mississippi region north of the
Wisconsin, and the upper St. Croix region.
Roland D. Irving was a professor of geology at the Univer¬
sity of Wisconsin from 1870 until his death in 1888. A gradu¬
ate of the School of Mines, Columbia College, and with field
experience in Ohio, he was well prepared for his work with the
Survey. He reported upon the geology of central Wisconsin, the
Penokee iron range, and the Keweenawan. In his Penokee iron
range study, he was compelled “to encounter unwarranted expec¬
tations raised by previous flattering opinions respecting the
richness of the iron deposits given by uncautious and inexpert
explorers. His perfectly candid and unreserved report brought
the usual reward of frankness and sincerity in the face of op¬
posing desire, at first a storm of protest and of adverse criticism,
which even threatened the existence of the survey ; later, a sul¬
len acquiescence in the truth, and finally, an admiration for the
correctness and the courage of the position taken and a diver¬
sion of enterprise from unprofitable into successful lines of ex¬
ploitation”1. In 1880 he began the geological investigation in
the Lake Superior region for the United States Geological Sur¬
vey, which continued until his death. “His loss at the fruitful
stage of his work, incalculable as it is, might have been still
greater but for the fact that all his material passed into the
hands of his co-laborer, Professor Van Hise, who is intimately
familiar with his unwritten as well as written views”2. T. C.
Chamberlin was graduated from Beloit College in 1866. In 1869,
after a year of graduate work at the University of Michigan, he
was called to the “settee” of natural sciences at the State Normal
School at Whitewater. In 1873, he became professor of geology
at Beloit. Lapham and Chamberlin were instrumental in secur¬
ing the passage of the bill authorizing the survey. He was pro¬
fessor of geology at Beloit College during his service with the
Survey, was president of the University of Wisconsin from
1887-1892, and head of the Department of Geology, University
of Chicago, from 1892-1919.
1 President T. C. Chamberlin. American Geologist. Vol. Ill, p. 3. 1889.
3 President T. C. Chamberlin. American Geologist, Vol. Ill, p. 4. 1889.
Bean — State Geological Surveys of Wisconsin 213
O. W. Wight. 1875.
Dr. Lapham was appointed by the Governor after the ad¬
journment of the legislature, and his name through some over¬
sight was not sent to the senate during the 1874 session of the
legislature. In 1875, Gov. Wm. R. Taylor, sent the name of Dr.
0. W. Wight to the senate, who, as Wight reports, “confirmed
the appointment with singular unanimity”. The letter from
Irving to Hall in February 1875 reflects the feelings of that
scientist3. All of the assistants tendered their resignations, but
were requested to withdraw their resignations and continue
their work, which they did, with the exception that Gustavus
Bode replaced W. W. Daniels as chemist.
T. C. Chamberlin. 1876-1882.
T. C. Chamberlin was placed in charge of the Survey in Feb¬
ruary, 1876 and continued in charge until 1882, although all
field work was officially completed in 1879. Wisconsin was for¬
tunate in having a man of his ability to direct the work. He,
with his assistants, laid a broad foundation of geological knowl¬
edge extremely valuable as a basis upon which to found investi¬
gations of more direct and specific scientific and industrial im¬
portance. The Lapham-Chamberlin survey was started at a time
when a state geological survey was viewed as a project that
could be completed in a few years. It was not until later that it
came to be realized that a survey is valuable as a continuing
service, not only in advancing the frontier of geological knowl¬
edge but in serving as adviser to citizens and to municipalities.
Chamberlin of course realized that “the survey in the seventies
swept over the Pleistocene formations and those that underlie
them at the rate of about 4000 square miles a year, and thus
perforce had something the nature of a birds-eye view”1. In the
annual report for 1877, he states “The work will not be, and in
view of the extent of the field, its wilderness, and its inherent
3 “Our geological survey has gone the fate of its predecessors — or rather a worse one. The
governor has appointed a disreputable politician to Dr. Lapham’s position, leaving the survey still
unorganized. We had accomplished an immense amount of work, having produced as many as one
hundred detailed colored geological and topographical maps, the whole lead region having been covered
with contour lines at SO foot verticals according to Whitney’s recommendations in your volume. It
is probable that none of it will ever see light. One reason of the trouble was my refusal to call the
Penokee ores so rich as Col. Whittlesey makes them to be. Wisconsin has most certainly had ill
luck with her surveys.”
1 USGS Professional Paper 106, p. 13. 1918.
214 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters
difficulties, could not be exhaustive, with the facilities at our
command”.
The results of this survey were published in the four volume
Geology of Wisconsin, which is still in constant use as a valuable
reference. There has since been much additional study of the
geology of the State, but the main outlines have stood with but
little modification. Geology of Wisconsin, Vol. II, was published
in 1877. A second edition was ordered by the 1878 legislature
and placed on sale in November 1878, indicating the popularity
of the report. Vol. Ill was published in 1880. This was accom¬
panied by 14 atlas plates. Vol. IV, published in 1882, was ac¬
companied by 12 atlas plates, and 5 plates of a general nature
that were intended to accompany Vol. I which was published in
1883. The last paragraph of the preface to that volume gives
us an impression of Chamberlin, the scientist.
“And now, as with this first which has become last, I lay
down, with inexpressible relief, the burden of this work,
which has notwithstanding, been largely a labor of love, 1
have greatly to regret its imperfections, of which no one
can be more painfully conscious than myself. Such as it is,
it is presented to the magnanimity of a generous people/'
While much of the text of the four volumes was written by
his assistants, Chamberlin did an amazing amount of work him¬
self. He selected his assistants and directed their work. At the
same time he did the field work necessary for his contributions
to the reports. His investigations were highly varied. To Vol. I
he contributed 300 pages of general geology, as well as chapters
on building materials, soils, and artesian wells; for Vol. II he
wrote the geology of eastern Wisconsin; for Vol. Ill he edited
the notes of Moses Strong on the Geology of the Upper St. Croix
District; for Vol. IV he wrote “Ore Deposits of Southwestern
Wisconsin”.
The physical task of supervising the publication of these re¬
ports was a tremendous one. That he, with the assistance of
Lapham, was able to secure funds to the extent of at least $100,-
000 from the legislature is a reflection of his genius. His tactics
in securing appropriations was to approach the chairman of the
finance committee and perhaps one or two leaders and outline in
a simple, straightforward fashion what was needed, for what it
was needed, and why it was needed. His success was due to the
Bean — State Geological Surveys of Wisconsin 215
''transparent reasonableness of his requests”. He had the knack
of convincing the legislature that there was no doubt that the
State should carry on the work, that it would be done by com¬
petent men, and that the obvious solution was to grant the ap¬
propriations.
During the progress of the survey, annual reports were sub¬
mitted. The reports for 1873-1875 were published in Geology of
Wisconsin, Voh II. The reports for 1876-1879 were each sep¬
arately published.
Lapham and Chamberlin were able to attract to the Survey a
corps of excellently trained men. The assistant state geologists
chosen by Dr. Lapham were all well trained and all relatively
young men— R. D. Irving, 26; Moses Strong, 27; and T. C.
Chamberlin, 30. Other men who contributed to the reports were
W. F. Bundy, Gustavus Bode, T. B. Brooks, F. H. Brotherton,
I. M. Buell, A. C. Clark, A. D. Conover, W. W. Daniells, J. E.
Davies, P. K, Hoy, A. A. Julien, F. H. King, W. J. L. Nicodemus,
Raphael Pumpelly, J. D. Salisbury, E. T. Sweet, G. D. Swezey,
C. R. Van Hise, R. P. Whitfield, Arthur Wichman, L. C. Wooster,
Chas. E. Wright. The report was notable in that the micro¬
scopic investigation of rocks by means of thin sections was an
important feature.
In the legislative plans for publication in 1876, the wise coun¬
sel of Chamberlin is evident. The contents of Vol. I are outlined
and provision is made for 7000 copies of that volume and 2500
copies of the complete report to be distributed as follows :
"Each school district within the state shall be entitled to one
copy of the volume provided for by section 1 of this act; each
high school and incorporated academy to 6 ; each normal school
and incorporated college, to 15 ; and the State University to 25
copies, respectively, of said volume. Each member of the legis¬
lature of 1876 and 1877 and 1878, the governor, lieutenant gov¬
ernor, secretary of state, State treasurer, attorney general, su¬
perintendent of schools, and each judge of the supreme court,
shall be entitled to two copies of the complete report. Each offi¬
cer of the present senate and assembly, each incorporated college
or academy, each normal school, each high school, each State
charitable or penal institution, each person who has rendered
assistance in the prosecution of the survey, each scientific soci¬
ety in the State, and each town or city library, established under
216 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts , and Letters
the provisions of chapter 80 of the General Laws of 1872 shall
be entitled to one complete copy. The State University, the Wis¬
consin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, the Historical
Society, and the State library, shall each be entitled to 10 com¬
plete copies. The remaining copies shall be placed in the hands
of the governor and chief geologist for distribution to public
libraries, scientific men, learned societies, and colleges beyond
the limits of the State, preference being given to those situated
in the centers of capital in the United States and in Europe, and
in such other ways as may best serve the objects of the survey”.
In 1878 the legislature authorized publication of 1500 addi¬
tional copies of the report and maps to be sold by the superin¬
tendent of public property.
6. Geological and Natural History Survey
1897-193
At the annual meeting of the Wisconsin Academy of Sci¬
ences, Arts, and Letters December 27, 1893, a committee con¬
sisting of C. R. Van Hise, C. R. Barnes, E. A. Birge, G. L. Collie,
and A. J. Rogers was appointed to secure legislation establishing
a geological and natural history survey. In 1894, the Academy
voted to recommend to the legislature the bill prepared by the
committee. The committee report published in the 1894 pro¬
ceedings outlines the purposes of the proposed survey under the
following titles: occurrence of iron ores, road materials, soils,
forests, forage plants, windbreaks, food and enemies of fish,
pearls, educational value, topographic maps, school manuals, and
economic reports. The vision of the committee is shown by the
fact that nearly all of the plans would be considered timely if
published today. An appropriation of $15,000 per annum was
requested. The bill was recommended for indefinite postpone¬
ment by the Committee on Claims in the 1895 legislature. The
committee with Dr. Van Hise as chairman finally secured the
establishment of the Survey by the legislature in 1897, with an
appropriation of $5,000 per year.
The Survey was governed by a board consisting of the gov¬
ernor, the state superintendent of public instruction, the presi¬
dent of the state University, the president of the commissioners
of fisheries, and the president of the Wisconsin Academy of Sci¬
ences, Arts, and Letters. The administration and work of the
Bean-State Geological Surveys of Wisconsin
217
Survey during the first biennium has been rather closely fol¬
lowed since that time ; hence some consideration will be given to
the beginning of the present Survey.
1. There was a close relationship with the University and
other educational institutions. The president of the University
was regularly president of the commission until 1931, when the
Survey was placed in charge of the Regents of the University.
Dean E. A. Birge was its director from the beginning until 1919,
when, as president of the University, he became one of the com¬
missioners and president of that board. Dr. Van Hise was con¬
sulting geologist until he became president of the University and
president of the Board in 1903. The offices and laboratories
have always been in University buildings. Professor C. Dwight
Marsh of Ripon, Professor L. S. Cheney of the University, Pro¬
fessor D. P. Nicholson of Lawrence, Professor G. L. Collie of
Beloit, Professor R. D. Salisbury of Chicago were contributing
their services to the Survey. E. R. Buckley and S. Weidman
were employed as assistant state geologists. Professor L. S.
Smith was in charge of hydrography.
2. Scope of Work. At first there were two divisions— Geol¬
ogy and Natural History. In 1909 a third division— Soils— was
added.
3. Publications. The bulletins were planned in three series :
(1) Economic.
Bulletin I. On the Forestry Conditions of North¬
ern Wisconsin, by F. Roth.
Bulletin IV. On the Building & Ornamental Stones
of Wisconsin, by E. R. Buckley, was
in type.
(2) Scientific.
Bulletin II .
Bulletin III.
On the Habits and Instincts of the
Solitary Wasps, by Geo. W. and E. G.
Peckham.
On the Pre-Cambrian Igneous Rocks
of the Fox River Valley, by S. Weid¬
man, was in type.
(3) Educational. Manuscript had been submitted for
bulletin V, The Geography of the Re¬
gion about Devils Lake and the Dalles
218 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts , and Letters
of the Wisconsin, by Professor R. D.
Salisbury of Chicago University.
4. Plans for the Future. Dr. Birge urged* as projects of
primary importance:
(1) Study of the clays and clay industries.
(2) Investigation of rocks in southern part of the state
for road materials.
(3) Study of natural waters.
(4) Topographic mapping.
He adds, however, “All of these subjects are of economic im¬
portance or immediately allied to subjects which are economic.
To investigations of this sort a major part of the money appro¬
priated by the state for the Survey must always be devoted as it
has been in the past; but the Survey would fail to perform its
duty to the state if it did not regard a diffusion of the knowledge
of nature as one of its main functions. It should be the duty of
the Survey to prepare reports on the plants and animals of the
state, looked at both from a scientific and popular point of view ;
to report on the physical geography, geology, and paleontology.
In many cases the field work will have to be done almost or
wholly without compensation, but the Survey should be ready to
aid such studies when of sufficient importance by the payment of
expenses, and in similar ways, and should also be ready to pub¬
lish the results of such investigations when completed. Nor will
the Survey complete its duty unless a reasonable proportion of
the money granted by the state is devoted to furthering these
investigations, which may seem not to have economic value at
once, but which experience has shown are sure to become of
value, not merely to the intellectual, but to the material progress
of the state”.
Since the turn of the century the Survey has followed rather
closely the policies outlined by Van Hise and Birge. Much at¬
tention was devoted to highways and a highway division was
organized in 1907. Active work was carried on in this field until
1911, when the Highway Commission was organized. The state
geologist was an ex officio member of that commission until
* First Biennial Report of the Commissioners of the Geological and Natural History Survey.
1898, p. 24.
Bean — State Geological Surveys of Wisconsin 219
1929. In 1931, the administration of the Survey was placed in
charge of the Regents of the University.
The geology of about 10,000 square miles in northern Wis¬
consin has been accurately surveyed. Since 1920, careful road
material surveys have been made for contemplated highway con¬
struction and maintenance. In the economic series, reports have
been published on rural highways, highway construction, the
lead and zinc district, Douglas County copper, the Gogebic iron
range, the Raraboo iron district, clays and clay industries, lime¬
stone road materials, water powers, peat, limestone and marl,
underground and surface waters, and molding sands. In the
scientific series, reports were published on the geology of north
central Wisconsin, abandoned shore lines of eastern Wisconsin,
fossils and stratigraphy of Middle Devonic, and sandstones of
the Wisconsin coast of Lake Superior.
The study of the lakes has continued to furnish the scientific
basis for the determination of the productivity of lakes, especi¬
ally the sources of their capacity for the production of fish. Re¬
ports in the* scientific series have been published on dissolved
gases, inland lakes, the plankton of Lake Winnebago and Green
Lake, lakes of southeastern Wisconsin, polyporaceae, phyto¬
plankton, plankton, and fresh water mollusca.
Reconnoissance soil surveys in the northern part of the state
and detailed soil surveys of nearly all of the southern counties
have been made, and soil maps and reports published.
Nine reports in the educational series have been issued. One
of these, the Physical Geography of Wisconsin , has been so pop¬
ular that a second edition was printed in 1932. Two other re¬
ports are now out of print.
Topographic work has been continued until 34 per cent of
the State has been mapped. The public has found the six county
topographic highway maps very useful. Eleven hydrographic
maps of lakes have been published.
While the accomplishments of nearly forty years have been
remarkably satisfactory, the net results have not reached the
goal of the founders. Botany has been neglected. A much lar¬
ger sum should have been spent by the State each year in making
topographic maps which are so fundamental and necessary for
all engineering undertakings. Sufficiently rapid progress has
not been made in completing the geological mapping of the State.
Publication of results has not kept pace with field work. These
220 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters
deficiencies are due to lack of funds rather than to failure on the
part of the Survey administration to recognize the need. On
the whole, the most necessary tasks have been done first. It is
quite fitting that a statement of accomplishments of the Survey
be made to the Academy because the Academy has had an active
interest in the Survey throughout its existence.
AN UNUSUAL PITTING IN NIAGARA LIMESTONE
0. L. Kowalke
University of Wisconsin
The fishermen at Ellison Bay, Door County, Wisconsin, when
fishing with set lines for lake trout in lower Green Bay occa¬
sionally snag and lift deeply pitted masses of Niagara Lime¬
stone. These pitted stones are caught at depths estimated by
the fishermen to be from 50 to 70 feet; and when brought to the
surface they are reasonably clean and have very little sediment
adhering.
The first specimen, acquired about ten years ago, has overall
dimensions of about 12 inches long by 8 inches wide by 5 inches
thick. (PL II, fig. 1) The under side of the stone is covered
with a layer of iron oxide about one-sixteenth inch thick which
is quite likely an altered layer of iron pyrite. The edges of the
specimen, with the exception of the projection in the upper right
hand corner, are well rounded. The bedding planes of the rock
are parallel to the flat side.
The pits range in size from % inch to 1^4 inches in diameter
and the surfaces in all are reasonably smooth and the bottoms
are spheroidal in shape. In nearly all cases there is evidence of
under-cutting. In fact there are several places where the cavity
is much larger in diameter than the opening on the surface.
Fig. 2 (PL II) shows a “close up” view of the top surface of
the stone. In the right hand corner at the border of the picture
the inter-communication between the large pits and the round
hole is quite evident. Conspicuous also is the very thin bridge
between the round hole and the large elongated pit.
Within the last two years a second specimen was obtained
(PL II, fig. 3). The fisherman who brought it called attention
to the curious resemblance of the rock to the human foot and
inquired whether it was a fossilized foot. The bedding planes
of this specimen are perpendicular to the arch of the “foot” and
pass through the heel and the toe. The pits are fairly large and
there has also been a dissolution of the limestone above the
“heel” of the specimen. On the specimen, at the back side of
the picture, at the “ankle” the rock is curved inward very much
222 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
as it appears at the “heel”. The outer surface of the rock is rela¬
tively smooth.
The striking features about both these specimens are the re¬
markably sharp ridges between adjacent pits. Such features
are not formed by abrasion or erosion, but are caused by disso¬
lution of the limestone by some solvent.
A search was made along the shores of Green Bay and Lake
Michigan in the vicinity of Ellison Bay for specimens similar to
those described, but none was found. Since the specimens just
described were lifted from the bottom 50 to 70 feet down, it
would seem plausible that they were corroded a long time ago
and transported by the Green Bay lobe of the glacier.
During the summer of 1934 a surprisingly interesting ex¬
ample of pitting in the upper surface of rock was noticed in two
places on the shore of Lake Michigan.
The first was located on the shore of Sand Bay just north of
the highway leading to a fishing harbor and shanty located in
the SW % of the NE% of Section 36, T. 32 N, R. 28 E. The
beach sloped very gently into the water and the shallow water
extended out for perhaps 500 feet. The stones on the beach
were rather flat, with edges rounded, and were imbedded in a
matrix of clay and gravel.
At a level perhaps 18 to 24 inches above the lake was a strip
of beach about 15 wide and at least 200 feet long where the top
surfaces of the stones were pitted as shown in Fig. 4 (PI. II).
Notice that the pits are not so large as those in the slides of the
other two specimens. The stones were covered with a dried ma¬
terial whose identity was not determined.
The second place where small pits were discovered was on
the solid limestone along the shore in the NE14 of the NW% of
Section 28, T. 32 N., R. 29 E. Here again the beach sloped very
gently into the water and the shore was rather rough due to the
large stones. At a level perhaps 3 to 4 feet above the water level
on the upper surfaces of the bedded rock, pits were found simi¬
lar to those of Fig. 4 (PL II), but on the whole somewhat larger.
The two locations on Lake Michigan described above are not
exposed to those violent wave actions which impinge on the
shores of Green Bay three miles west across the peninsula. Any
heavy sea on Lake Michigan would break at least 500 to 1000
feet out at the locations in question.
Fig.
Kowalke — Pitting in Niagara Limestone
223
What caused the pits? It seems plausible to suggest some
form of an alga which grows very densely and allows only a
slow diffusion of water from within the plant mass to the adja¬
cent clear water. Plants are known to discharge carbon dioxide
not only from the upper (and usually green) portion but also
from that portion in contact with the soil or with rock on which
they are attached. In a dense growth of the plant attached to
the limestone, and where carbon dioxide is continuously dis¬
charged by the living plant, the water would become quite highly
loaded with dissolved gas which would not be diffused readily.
The carbonic acid thus formed dissolved the limestone. Such
plants would also seem to have grown in stools and gradually
spread out until they touched; the borders of contact are the
sharp ridges which we see. The plants quite likely grew in
shallow water which was reasonably quiet. Violent wave action
would soon destroy the plants by the abrasive action of the mov¬
ing beach material.*
* My colleagues in the departments of botany, zoology, and geology who answered my questions
and gave much appreciated advice made the report possible. To them I express my thanks.
Chemical Engineering Department, University of Wisconsin, April, 1935.
PRELIMINARY LIST OF THE HYDRACARINA OF
WISCONSIN
Part V*
Ruth Marshall
Rockford College
Parts I to IV of the Preliminary List of the Hydracarina of
Wisconsin (Marshall, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934) recorded sixty-
seven species belonging to twenty-two genera. Part IV concluded
with six species of the large genus Fiona; the present paper com¬
pletes the study of this genus and adds eleven species, one of
which is new. In addition to these, two other genera are con¬
sidered, namely Hydrochoreutes and Acerus, belonging with
Fiona to the family Hygrobatidae, with one species and one new
variety, bringing the total number of species described in this
paper to thirteen.
The author has recently been fortunate enough to acquire
the collections, including type material, of the late Dr. R. H.
Wolcott, the eminent American hydracarinologist. In this con¬
cluding study of the Pionas it has, therefore, been possible to
examine the specimens upon which Wolcott based his descrip¬
tions of several species of this genus and to supplement and cor¬
rect some of the data.
The genus Hydrochoreutes is a very small one, closely re¬
lated to Fiona , the epimera being very similar. The genital
plates carry but six acetabula, three on each side in a row ; the
plates in the male are close to the posterior end of the body and
below them lies a petiole. Palpi and legs are very long and the
third leg in the male is modified to serve as a copulatory organ.
The genus Acerus is likewise a small one and not common,
closely related to Hydrochoreutes . Specific determinations de¬
pend largely on the characters of the male. The genital plates
are similar in the two genera, with three acetabula on each, but
there is no petiole in the male and the fourth epimera in the
* In the preparation of this paper, as in the case of Part IV, the author has been greatly
assisted by a grant in aid of research of the Society of Sigma Xi. She is also indebted to the
Wisconsin Natural History Survey for most of the material from Green Lake and the lakes of
Vilas County.
226 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters
female are more pointed posteriorly. The last leg in the male is
distinctive, the four segment being more or less flattened.
1. Fiona setiger (Wol.)
PI. VI, fig. 83-37.
The body is elliptical, depressed between the eyes ; the aver¬
age length in the males is 0.70 mm., in the females, 1.10 mm.
Colors have not been recorded. The surface is finely striated.
The antennary bristles are very long, a character which sug¬
gested the specific name. The epimeral groups are moderately
separated. The tongue-shaped genital plates of the male extend
laterally a little beyond the posterior angles of the fourth epi-
mera and enclose a seminal receptacle which has a broad open¬
ing with a small bay where it approaches the inner corners of
the last epimeral pair. Each plate bears about fifteen acetabula,
one being close to the seminal opening, the others on the outer
and lower margins; the united plates leave a broad bay pos¬
teriorly, with the anal plate well removed from them. (Fig. 51,
Wolcott, 1901, is inaccurate in details.) In the female the geni¬
tal acetabula, usually fifteen on each side, are arranged in a
broken sickle formation, the most anterior one on a small plate
with a few fine hairs near the curved bar over the genital slit,
the others on a large plate or broken plate. The entire genital
area does not extend laterally beyond the limits of the posterior
angles of the fourth epimera. The palpi are unusual in that they
differ considerably in the papillae in the two sexes; in the fe¬
male the fourth segment bears two small ones, while in the male
there are two moderately long papillae and four smaller ones
close to these. Legs in the male are moderately long ; the termi¬
nal segment of the third is slightly curved and bears small weak
claws and several fine hairs, while the fourth segment of the
fourth leg has a deep excavation bordered by large stout bristles
and a spur on the distal end.
Material has been found in Nebraska, and in Wisconsin in
two small pools in Adams and Sauk counties and in a bog in
Vilas County.
2. Piona debilis (Wol.)
PI. V, fig. 25-27; PI. VI, fig. 43, 44.
Dr. Wolcott (1901) described this species from the study of
a single male; material in the present collection makes possible
Marshall — Wisconsin Hydracarina
227
the addition of new data, including a description of the female.
The body is elliptical, measuring in the male 0.85 mm., and in
the female 1.10 mm. The surface is striated and shows dark
blotches on a yellow-green background; the legs and plates are
blue and the eyes deep red. The fourth epimera are separated
from each other by unusually wide spaces in the male, and the
genital plates are somewhat removed from these, except where
they are slightly joined in the mid-line. In the male the genital
plates resemble those of P. inconstans; they are tongue-shaped,
each bearing from fifteen to eighteen prominent acetabula, and
extend outward from their union in the mid-line more diagonal¬
ly than in the related species, reaching about as far as the pos¬
terior angles of the fourth epimera. They enclose a central
shallow circular depression, below which is an area devoid of
acetabula. (Wolcott’s fig. 46 is inaccurate in details.) In the
female the acetabula, similar in appearance and number to those
of the male, are placed in a crowded row on sickle-shaped plates,
with one or more embedded in the body surface ; these plates do
not extend laterally as far as the posterior angles of the fourth
epimera. The genital slit is surmounted by a short stout curved
bar. The posterior inner margins of the fourth epimera show a
shallow concavity. The palpi are small, not exceeding the legs
in width; the fourth segment carries two papillae. The legs
are relatively long but weak, a character which suggested the
specific name. The third leg in the male has a long slightly
curved terminal segment which bears a long straight claw and
unusually long hairs ; the fourth leg has a shallow concavity in
the fourth segment which is bordered anteriorly by a few short
blade-like bristles.
This species has been found in Massachusetts, and in Wis¬
consin in Lake Mason and in ponds near Cable and Wisconsin
Dells.
3. Piona exilis (Wol.)
PI. VII, fig. 45-48.
The elliptical body has an average length of 0.87 mm. in the
male and 0.90 mm. in the female; the surface shows coarse
irregular lines. The antennary bristles are short. The color is
transparent brown, with blue epimera and legs and a patch of
red in the center of the body. The epimera are large, approxi-
228 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters
mate in the male, separated by only small spaces in the female ;
the inner posterior margins of the fourth are slightly concave.
The united genital plates of the male touch the fourth epimera
in the mid-line and extend laterally about as far as their pos¬
terior angles, as do also those of the female; the genital slit is
short and surrounded by an elliptical depression. In the female
the long genital opening is flanked by large chitinous plates;
the broad tongue-shaped lateral plates extend diagonally out and
down from the slit. Genital acetabula are very numerous in
both sexes and irregular in number, size and position. The anal
plate lies just inside the triangular bay produced by the genital
plates ; in the male this plate is fused with the latter. The palpi
are nearly as long as the body and thicker than the first pair of
legs; the third segment is constricted near its base and bears
two papillae near its center. The legs are moderately long; in
the male the last segment of the third leg is about three-fourths
as long as the fifth, is slightly bent and bears weak claws, one
of which has a curved piece. The fourth segment of the last leg
in the male is moderately long and has a shallow excavation on
the fourth segment bordered by several stout spines.
The species has been found in Michigan and Colorado. In
Wisconsin it has been collected in Green and Mirror lakes and
in the Madison lakes.
4. Fiona pugilis (Wol.)
PI. Ill, fig. 1-5.
In this large species males may attain a length of 1.50 mm.
and females 2.00 mm. or more. The body is elliptical, the sur¬
face covered with fine wavy lines. On the dorsal side there is a.
yellowish Y-shaped area, usually with a central red blotch, sur¬
rounded by brownish blotches; epimera and appendages are
blue, or reddish orange in young specimens. The eyes are ruby.
The epimera are heavy, finely reticulated, the groups well sep¬
arated in the female, with the fourth showing a concave inner
posterior border. The broad tongue-shaped genital plates ex¬
tend laterally well beyond the posterior angles of the fourth
epimera, and bear each sixty or more distinct acetabula of vari¬
ous sizes, two of which on each plate are larger than the others.
The united plates in the male are fused with the last epimera in
the mid-line ; the small cleft lies at the upper end of an oval de-
Marshall — Wisconsin Hydracarina
229
pression. The anal plate in young males is connected with the
genital plates by a strip of chitin, but becomes separated from
them in older specimens. The palpi are very long, wider than
the first pair of legs, with relatively small papillae on the fourth
segment. The legs are distinctive and suggested the specific
name. The last segment of the first three pairs in the female
and the first two in the male are curved and are usually flexed
upon the fifth segment; the latter is narrow distally and broad
toward the center and bears several bristles. The third and
fourth legs of the male are not strongly modified ; in the former
the last segment is relatively long and bears small weak claws,
while the fourth segment of the last leg is also long and has only
a shallow excavation.
The species is a common one, being known for Ontario, New
York, Michigan and Iowa; in Wisconsin it has been collected
in lakes Winnebago, Green, Mirror and Jordan, in the Madison
lakes and several of the lakes of Vilas County.
5. Fiona turgida (Wol.)
PI: IV, fig. 16-19.
This species is one of the largest of the water mites ; females
may attain a length of 3.00 mm., males somewhat less. The body
is oval, slightly concave between the eyes; the surface is finely
striated. The color, according to Wolcott (1901) is “brilliant
scarlet-red with dark patches” ; only a red Y-shaped dorsal mark
has been observed by the author. The epimera are extensive and
heavy; in the female the inner posterior border of the fourth is
a straight line or only slightly concave. In the male the united
genital plates enclose a large broad opening to the seminal
pouch, the latter having a broad rounded bay on its anterior and
posterior borders and a smaller bay on either side (see fig. 16,
PL IV, correcting Wolcott's fig. 21). The broad male genital
plates, each bearing over fifty acetabula, two of which are larger
than the others, extend laterally barely beyond the sharp pos¬
terior angles of the fourth epimera; where they unite just be¬
hind the genital orifice there is a deep bay and at the mouth of
this lies the anal plate. In the female the genital cleft has above
it a conspicuous curved bar and is flanked by two narrow deli¬
cate flaps (rather than conspicuous broad ones, as shown in
Wolcott's figure 20), while over and outside of these are several
230 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences > Arts, and Letters
rows of short hairs. The irregularly oval genital plates, with
acetabula as in the male, come together at their inner borders
below the cleft, extend diagonally outward from about the level
of the posterior third of the cleft to a point in line with the pos¬
terior angles of the last epimera but some distance removed from
them. The palpi exceed the legs in width and are stouter in the
male than in the female ; the fourth segment bears two large slim
papillae and two small ones. In the male the third pair of legs,
the shortest, end in club-shaped segments which bear short
curved claws ; these segments, as semen carriers, are often seen
on the genital orifice. The fourth segment of the last leg in the
male has a deep excavation with a strongly produced posterior
tip and many stout spines.
Specimens have been found in Ontario, British Columbia,
Michigan and New York ; and in Wisconsin in lakes Winnebago
and Spooner, the Madison lakes and lakes of Vilas County.
6. Fiona interrupta Mar.
PI. IV, fig. 10-15.
This is a large species, oldest females measuring up to 1.70
mm. and males, 1.20 mm. The body is oval, slightly indented
between the eyes; the surface is covered with fine lines and
small chitin dots. The dorsal surface shows a red or yellowish
Y-shaped mark surrounded by dark blotches; the eyes are red
and the plates blue tinged. The epimera are finely reticulate;
the fourth pair in the female are relatively narrow on the me¬
dian side and show a long concave inner posterior border. The
genital area in the male closely resembles that of P. turgida ; the
broad plates, however, each bearing over fifty acetabula, extend
laterally beyond the acute angles of the fourth epimera and the
large broad seminal orifice is shaped somewhat differently, the
anterior bay being deeper and the lateral ones having an acute
angle. The anal plate lies at the mouth of the deep bay formed
by the plates back of their union behind the seminal pouch. In
the female the genital cleft is surmounted by a conspicuous
curved bar, beween the ends of which and the genital plates on
each side are seen a few fine hairs. The broad genital plates
bear somewhat smaller and more numerous acetabula than in
the related species ; they are more or less deeply indented on the
inner median borders, and here no acetabula are found, a char-
Marshall — Wisconsin Hydracarina
281
acter which suggested the specific name. These plates extend
laterally beyond the limits of the fourth epimera, from which
they are widely separated, and their inner anterior borders start
at about the level of the angles but do not meet behind the cleft ;
on their inner posterior borders on each side are three or four
fine hairs, either on the plates or on separate small plates. The
palpi are somewhat slimmer than in P. turgida , but are wider
than the legs, and the fourth segment bears two long papillae
and two small ones. The third leg in the male ends in a club-
shaped segment, a little shorter than in the related species ; the
fourth segment of the last leg is very similar in the two species,
being deeply excavated, with a large posterior spur and many
bristles.
The species is abundant and has been taken at various depths
from the surface to twelve meters. It has been found in British
Columbia, Ontario, Montana and Michigan. In Wisconsin col¬
lections have been made in Mason and Green lakes, several lakes
of Vilas County and in ponds near Oshkosh and in Adams Coun¬
ty.
7. Fiona americana Mar.
PL V, fig. 20-24.
This species closely resembles P. turgida and P. interrupta,
especially in the male, but it is smaller and differs from them in
details of the ventral plates and appendages. It is one of the
very few American species of water mites whose developmental
stages are known (Marshall, 1929). Largest females attain a
length of 1.35 mm., males, 1.20 mm. The body is oval, the sur¬
face covered with very fine striae and tiny dotes of chitin. The
antennary bristles are short and fine and on small papillae. The
dorsal surface shows a yellow or reddish Y-shaped mark sur¬
rounded by dark blotches. The last epimeral groups do not quite
join in the male ; in both sexes the fourth epimera show a deep
concavity on the posterior inner borders and close to them lie
the genital plates. The latter are oval and bear each from thirty
to forty indistinct acetabula, two of which on each side are
slighly larger than the others. In the male the inner margins
of the genital plates meet to surround a seminal pouch, the open¬
ing of which is very large, inverted trifoliate in form. The geni¬
tal plates in both sexes extend laterally only a little beyond the
232 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
posterior angles of the fourth epimera. In the female the geni¬
tal plates are more closely approximated than in the related
species; they barely touch on their inner posterior borders.
The anchoral bar above the female genital opening is small. The
palpi are broader than the first pair of legs ; the fourth segment
bears one large papilla and three smaller ones. In the male the
last segment of the third leg is short and curved, broad at the
distal end, and bears a claw transformed into a long delicate
hook; these legs are often found, as in the two related species,
with their tips together over the opening of the seminal pouch.
The fourth segment of the fourth leg has a posterior spur carry¬
ing long hairs, and deep concavity bordered by rows of short
blade-like spines.
Specimens were found in large numbers in three lakes near
Minocqua and also in Green Lake, Wisconsin. Individuals found
in Alaska, originally identified by the author as P. turgida, are
now seen to represent this species.
8. Fiona constricta (Wol.)
PI. Ill, fig. 6-9.
The body is elongate, large specimens measuring 0.90 mm. in
the male and 1.70 mm. in the female. The anterior border is
emarginate between the eyes and constricted behind them; the
posterior end is elongated (not “smoothly rounded posteriorly,”
as stated by Wolcott, 1901, p. 222). The surface shows fine
lines. Antennary bristles are conspicuous. Young specimens
are deep red, while older ones are brownish red; the legs are
red and the eyes ruby. The epimera in the female are relatively
small and well separated; in the male they are large with con¬
siderable spaces between the inner ends of the two anterior
groups. The posterior inner margins of the fourth epimera are
distinctly concave, especially in the male. The united genital
plates in the male are in contact with the fourth epimera in the
median line and also at their posterior angles, extending later¬
ally a little beyond these. There is present a seminal pouch
having a large broad opening with a small anterior bay; from
this the genital plates, each bearing nine or ten large acetabula,
extend laterally leaving scarcely any bay. In the female the
genital area is some distance from the last epimera; a sickle¬
shaped plate flanks the posterior two-thirds of this area on either
Marshall — Wisconsin Hydracarina
233
side, each plate bearing eight to ten large acetabula and several
fine hairs. The palpi are rather short, a little wider than the
first pair of legs, relatively smaller in the female than in the
male ; the fourth segment bears two papillae of equal size. The
species name refers to the slight constriction in the fifth seg¬
ments of the legs. The last segment of the third leg of the male
is enlarged and curved distally and bears curved claws. The
fourth segment of the last leg is very broad and bears a deep
concavity and spur, with numerous bristles.
Specimens have been found in Ontario, Michigan, Nebraska
and Montana; and in Wisconsin collections have been made in
the Madison lakes and in lakes of Adams and Vilas counties.
9. Fiona spinulosa (Wol.)
PL VI, fig. 38-42; PL VII, fig. 53.
One of the smallest of the Pionas, this species seldom exceeds
0.50 mm. in length, males and females being of about the same
size. The body is broadly elliptical; the dorsal surface shows
dark patches on a transparent background, with sometimes a
red patch. The epimera cover the greater part of the ventral
surface, the groups close together even in the female, the fourth
showing a sharp posterior angle. The genital areas are also
large and reach the posterior border of the body in young indi¬
viduals as shown by Wolcott (1901, fig. 24, 25; the latter is here
reproduced as fig. 39). The genital plates are similar in form
in both sexes, being broad and tongue-shaped, each bearing from
twenty to thirty scattered acetabula, very variable in size and
arrangement. The united plates in the male enclose a depressed
area with a distinct anterior border in which lies the genital
opening. The anal plate lies close to the genital plates. The
maxillary shield is very broad. The palpi are relatively long;
the second segment is rather stout, especially in the male, and
the fourth bears two small papillae. The legs are long and
heavy; swimming hairs and spines are relatively few but the
latter are stout. In the first two pairs the terminal segments
have very narrow proximal ends, while the flexor side is convex,
characters especially pronounced in the male. In the third leg
the sixth segment is short and one of its claws bears a very long
process. In the last leg, the fourth segment bears a deep con-
234 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
cavity with short spines and several long ones, together with
three swimming hairs on the distal end.
Specimens have been found, often in large numbers, in Mas¬
sachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, Louisiana and Indiana; and in
Wisconsin in lakes Spooner, Wingra and Mason and a pond at
Mont^llo.
10. Fiona carnea (Koch)
PI. V, fig. 28-32.
A cosmopolitan species, this is the first record of its occur¬
rence in this country. The body is elongated, the anterior end
strongly protruding. The largest males found measured 1.85
mm., the females, 2.00 mm. The surface is covered with fine
lines and small circles. The dorsal surface shows large dark
blotches on a yellowish background ; the eyes are large, magen¬
ta colored, and the legs are bluish with orange tips. The epi-
mera are heavy and brownish ; the fourth in the male are sep¬
arated from each other by a larger space than is usual in; this
sex, and their posterior angles in both sexes are very long and
acute. The genital areas are small; the plates bear each from
eighteen to twenty very distinct acetabula and extend laterally
but little beyond the posterior angles of the fourth epimera. In
the male the rounded plates are joined by a narrow strip both
above and below a large seminal opening; the latter is nearly
circular with a narrow bay where the plates touch the epimera
in the midline. In the female the genital plates, irregularly
pyriform, extend laterally out from the posterior end of the geni¬
tal slit; a large curved bar surmounts the slit, between which
and the anterior margins of the plates are several fine scattered
short hairs. The maxillary shield and the palpi are unusually
small, the latter being narrower than the legs ; the fourth palpal
segment bears on the flexor side two long hairs close to two
slight papillae. The legs are all shorter than the body and well
provided with swimming hairs. The first two pairs (and the
third in the female) bear very large claws. The third leg in the
male is the shortest and narrowest; its end segment is slightly
curved and bears reduced claws and many fine hairs. In the
fourth leg of the male the first three segments are short and
stout ; the fourth has a deep excavation bordered by many short
Marshall — Wisconsin Hydracarina
235
stout bristles and ends in a spur with long hairs, while the fifth
and sixth segments are weak.
This species is reported from all parts of Europe and from
Siberia, Turkestan and Palestine. In Wisconsin several indi¬
viduals were found in Panto Lake, Vilas County. Two males
found in Alaska and described by the author (Marshall, 1924)
as a new species, P. neocarnea , are found on re-examination to
be true P. cornea ; hence the former name becomes a synonym
and must be discarded.
11. Fiona wolcotti nov. spec.
PL VII, fig. 49-52.
The new species, one of the largest of the Pionas, is known
for the male only. The body is elliptical, lowest at the anterior
end, slightly protruding between the eyes. The largest of the
three males found measured 1.50 mm. in length. The body is
covered with very fine lines and minute points. The antennary
bristles are very small. The general color is deep orange to red,
lighter at the anterior end, with appendages and plates dull blue.
The eyes are small. The epimera are heavy ; the anterior groups
lie close to the third and fourth pairs, while the latter are in
contact on their inner borders and have acute posterior angles.
The male genital plates are distinctive; they are completely
fused to form a broad triangular area well within the bay made
by the four epimera, touching the latter only slightly at the an¬
terior end. The genital opening is surrounded by a considerable
area which is dotted with many fine hair papillae. The genital
acetabula are distinct and numerous, with two on each plate
larger than the others. The united plates leave a small deep bay
on the posterior median line in which is situated the anal plate.
The palpi are slim but exceed the legs in width ; the fourth seg¬
ment bears two large and two small papillae and has also a large
spur armed with a peg on the distal end, inner side. The legs
are moderately long, all exceeding the body in length ; swimming
hairs are coarse and abundant on the second and third, absent
on the first, scanty on the fourth, while bristles are abundant on
all legs. The third leg has a long slim terminal segment with a
knee on the proximal end which causes it to lie in a slightly dif¬
ferent plane from the other segments; it ends in very small
claws. In the fourth leg the segments diminish in width sue-
286 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences ,, Arts, and Letters
cessively from the first, so that the sixth is very slim, with small
claws ; the fifth segment is the longest. The fourth segment of
this leg has a shallow concavity bordered by bristles, both hair¬
like and flattened, while a row of seven large bristles is set on
the convex side.
This new species is given the name of the late Dr. R. H. Wol¬
cott who did the first important work on the Pionas in this coun¬
try. Specimens were found in Little John and Star lakes, Vilas
County and in Three Lakes, Oneida County.
12. Hydrochoreutes ungulatus (Koch)
PL VIII, fig. 54-57.
This is a cosmopolitan species. Males measure up to 0.60 mm.
in length ; the females are much larger and may reach a length
of 1.70 mm. The body is broad, in the male somewhat angular,
in the female oval. The antennary bristles are long. The sur¬
face has fine lines ; dark blotches show on a background of deli¬
cate yellow or blue, with a pale yellow or red T-shaped mark
showing dorsally. The epimeral groups are moderately sepa¬
rated and the genital plates are well back of these. The latter
in the female are slightly lunate, the same length as the slit and
carry the three large acetabula of each side, together with fine
hairs. In the male the genital plates lie within a deep recess at
the posterior end of the body; they are broadly lunate and the
three acetabula of each side lie in a crowded row near the long
slit. Below these is a conspicuous petiole, as long as the slit;
it ends in a tooth and has on each side a shorter protecting
sheath. The palpi are slender, about as long as the body in the
female, exceeding it in the male ; the fourth segment is the long¬
est and bears several hairs and inconspicuous papillae. The legs
are slender, much longer than the body. In the third leg of the
male, the fourth segment has a large papilla near the center
which is armed with a large sword-shaped spine inserted later¬
ally, while the distal end bears a still larger sickle-shaped spine
with a process at its base.
The species is found in all parts of Europe and is reported
for Siberia. It is probably widely distributed in this country,
since it has been collected in Maine, Michigan and California.
In Wisconsin it has been found in lakes Mason, Spooner and
Green and in two lakes in Vilas County.
Marshall — Wisconsin Hydracarina
237
13. Acer cm toms americanus nov. var.
PL VIII, fig. 58-61.
A small number of individuals (one male, four females) in
the author's collection bear a close resemblance to the cosmopoli¬
tan species, Acer cm torris (Mull.), but are larger (male, 0.80
mm., largest female, 1.30 mm. in length) and differ from it in
certain details, especially in the palpi, sufficiently to justify the
erection of a new variety, A. americanus for them. As in A.
torris, the body is oval, emarginate over each eye and at the pos¬
terior end, with a surface indistinctly striated, showing dark
blotches on a pale orange red background, numerous fine hairs
and two small chitin spots anterior to the center, dorsally. Only
one pair of antennary bristles are present, instead of two; but
epimera, genital plates and legs present only differences in de¬
tail from the parent form. The epimera are relatively small in
the female but cover the greater part of the ventral surface in
the male; the posterior prolongations of the fourth form right
angles in the female but are rounded in the male. The three
genital acetabula in the female lie on a triangular plate nearly
as long as the genital opening; in the male they lie on broader
united plates which fill most of the bay left by the approximated
fourth epimera. The palpi are a little wider than the legs and
slimmer than in A. torris, due to the greater length of the second
and fourth segments; the first three segments bear heavy bris¬
tles, the fourth has two small papillae midway of the flexor sur¬
face and many fine hairs on the extensor side, with a peg on the
distal end, while the fifth segment ends in three finger-like proc¬
esses. The legs are longer than the body, with swimming hairs
on the last three pairs. In the male the third leg is the shortest ;
the fifth segment is about as long as the sixth and bears many
short hairs and a pair of weak claws. The fourth leg of the
male is the longest and very distinctive : the first three segments
are very short; the fourth is longer, very broad and flat and
thickly beset on its margins with long fine hairs ; the fifth seg¬
ment, the longest, is slightly curved and has a spur armed with
a peg on the distal end.
The new variety has been found in Illinois, and in Wisconsin
in the Madison lakes and a pool near Jordan Lake.
238 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
Bibliography
Titles are limited to papers containing author descriptions of the
species cited and to general papers describing cosmopolitan speices.
Marshall , R.
1924. Water Mites of Alaska and the Canadian Northwest.
Trans. Am. Micr. Soc., XLIII, 4:236-255, pi. XI-XIV.
1929. The Morphology and Developmental Stages of a New Species of
Piona.
Trans. Wis. Acad. S.A.L., XXIV:401-409, pi. 9.
1929. Canadian Hydracarina.
Univ. Toronto Studies, Biol. Ser., No. 33:57-93, pi. I-VII.
1930. Hydracarina from Glacier National Park.
Trans. Am. Micr. Soc., XLIX, 4:342-345, pi. XXXIX.
1931. Preliminary List of the Hydracarina of Wisconsin. Part I.
Trans. Wis. Acad. S.A.L., XXVI: 3 11^3119, pi. VII, VIII.
1932. Preliminary List of the Hydracarina of Wisconsin. Part II.
Trans. Wis. Acad. S.A.L., XXVII :339-358, pi. VII-X.
1933. Preliminary List of the Hydracarina of Wisconsin. Part III.
Trans. Wis. Acad. S.A.L., XXVIII : 37-61, pi. I-VI.
1934. Preliminary List of the Hydracarina of Wisconsin. Part IV.
Trans. Wis. Acad. S.A.L., XXIX : 273-297, pi. VI-XI.
Piersig, R.
1897. Deutschlands Hydrachniden.
Biblio. Zool. XXII. Stuttgart.
Soar & Williamson.
1927. The British Hydracarina. Vol. II.
The Ray Society, No. 112. London.
Wolcott, R. H.
1901. The North American Species of Curvipes [Piona].
Trans. Am. Micr. Soc., XXIII: 201-256, pi. XXIX-XXXIII.
1905. A Review of the Genera of the Water Mites.
Trans. Am. Micr. Soc., XXVI: 161-243, pi. XVIII-XXVII.
240 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters
Plate III
1. Piona pugilis, ventral surface, old female
2. Piona pugilis, segments 5, 6, leg I, male
3. Piona pugilis, middle segments, leg IV, male
4. Piona pugilis, genital area, old male
6. Piona pugilis , palpus, female
6. Piona constricta, genital area, old female
7. Piona constricta , left palpus, outer side, female
8. Piona constricta, segment 6, leg III, right, male
9. Piona constricta, genital area, male
Marshall— -Wisconsin Hydracarina
241
242 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
Plate IV
10. Piona interrupta, ventral surface, female
11. Piona interrupta, right palpus, inner side, male
12. Piona interrupta , segment 4, leg IV, right, male
13. Piona interrupta, legs III, male, on genital orifice
14. Piona interrupta , segment 6, leg III, male
15. Piona interrupta , ventral surface, male
16. Piona turgida , genital area, male
17. Piona turgida, segment 6, leg III, right, male
18. Piona turgida, genital area, female
19. Piona turgida, right palpus, inner side, male
Marshall — Wisconsin Hydracarina
243
244 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters
Plate V
20. Piona americana, genital area, female
21. Piona americana , segment 4, leg IV, male
22. Piona americana , ventral surface, male
23. Piona americana , left palpus
24. Piona americana , segment 6, leg III, male
25. Piona debilis, segment 4, leg IV, male
26. Piona debilis, segment 6, leg III, male (from Wolcott)
27. Piona debilis, left palpus, female
28. Piona camea, middle segments, leg IV, left, male
29. Piona camea, genital area, female
30. Piona camea, ventral surface, male
31. Piona camea, segment 6, leg III, right, male
32w Piona camea, right palpus, female
Marshall — Wisconsin Hydracarina
245
1
246
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts , and Letters
Plate VI
S3. Fiona setiger, right palpus, outer side, female (from Wolcott)
34. Fiona setiger , segment 6, leg III, male (from Wolcott)
35. Fiona setiger , left palpus, outer side, male (from Wolcott)
86. Fiona setiger , ventral surface, male
37. Fiona setiger , ventral plates, female
38. Fiona spinulosa, segments 5, 6, leg III, male
39. Fiona spinulosa , ventral surface, young male (fromWolcott)
40. Piona spinulosa , right palpus, inner side, male (from Wolcott)
41. Fiona spinulosa , segment 4, leg IV, male (from Wolcott)
42. Piona spinulosa , genital area, old female
43. Piona debilis, ventral surface, male
44. Piona debilis , genital area, female
Marshall — Wisconsin Hydracarina
247
248
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters
Plate VII
45. Piona exilis, right palpus, outer side, male
46. Piona exilis , genital area, female
47. Piona exilis , segment 6, leg III, male (from Wolcott)
48. Piona exilis , ventral surface, male
49. Piona wolcotti, segment 6, leg III, right, male
50. Piona wolcotti, ventral surface, male
51. Piona wolcotti, right palpus, male
52. Piona wolcotti, segment 4, leg IV, right, male
53. Piona spinulosa, segments 5 and 6, leg I, right, male
Marshall— Wisconsin Hydracarina
249
250
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
Plate VIII
54. Hydrochoreutes ungulatus, ventral surface, female
55. Hydrochoreutes ungulatus , left palpus, male
56. Hydrochoreutes ungulatus , middle segments, leg III, left, male
57. Hydrochoreutes ungulatus, ventral surface, male
58. Acercus torris americanus, leg IV, right, male
59. Acercus torris americanus, left palpus, inner side, male
60. Acercus torris americanus, ventral surface, female
61. Acercus torris americanus, posterior ventral surface, male
Marshall— Wisconsin Hydracarina
251
61
GEORGE SANDY’S RELATION
Russell H. Barker
University of Wisconsin
Evidence is not hard to find for the popularity soon achieved
by George Sandys’ Relation, his account of a journey to Turkey,
Egypt, the Holy Land, and the “Remote parts of Italy, and
Hands adjoining,” published in 1615. By 1670 the book had
gone through seven editions, and parts of it had been included
by Samuel Purchas among His Pilgrimes. During the seven¬
teenth century the book was held in particular esteem for the
account it gave of the East and for its picture of Jerusalem. It
was this that Fuller most emphasized in his sketch of Sandys
in the Worthies:1
He proved a most accomplished gentleman, and an observant traveller,
who went as far as the sepulchre at Jerusalem; and hath spared other
men pains in going thither by bringing the Holy Land home to them; so
lively is his description thereof, with his passages thither, and return
thence.
Sandys set out on his travels in 1610, just a little more than
a hundred years after Wynkin de Worde published, among the
earliest printed books in England, his Informacon for Pylgrymes
unto the Holy Land. In the course of that eventful century both
the English attitude toward travel and the English book on
travel passed through a number of significant phases.
Stated in its simplest terms, what had begun as an experi¬
ment, the practise of the upper classes of sending their sons
abroad as a part of their education, grew to be a custom, and
finally by the middle of the seventeenth century had become a
definitely set and labelled system, the “Grand Tour.” In the
course of this evolutionary process certain distinguishable types
of travellers appeared. No Jacobean traveller better represents
the crystallization of a particular type than Sandys, but to un¬
derstand that type and to appreciate the qualities that distin¬
guish his account from those of most of his contemporaries it is
necessary to understand the part played by travel and travel
literature in the whole Renaissance movement in England.
Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, (London, 1840), III, 434.
254 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters
The pilgrim had been the important traveller of the Middle
Ages, but just about the time Wynkin de Worde was addressing
his very practical advice to the pilgrim, not on how to achieve
the most complete spiritual satisfaction from his journey but on
how to travel with the greatest comfort and pleasure, the pious
motives of the pilgrim began to be questioned. Erasmus in his
Colloquies asserted that it was nothing but the love of change
that sent the clergy off to Jerusalem. People went to entertain
themselves and to be able to entertain their friends on their
return with stories of their adventures. He did not consider
travel in itself harmful, but ,he did feel that pilgrimages made
without genuinely pious motives were a dissipation.2
During the sixteenth century men’s minds began to turn to
objectives for travel. The pilgrim did not disappear from the
scene although he was apt to leave little record of himself unless
he went to Jerusalem. Evelyn was told that during the year of
the Jubilee, 1600, twenty-five thousand five hundred women visi¬
tors were registered at the pilgrim’s hospice of the Holy Trinity
at Rome and forty thousand men.3 The growth of Protestantism
in Europe accounts for much of the decrease in pilgrimages.
Fynes Moryson, one of the most indefatigable of English trav¬
elers, who visited Jerusalem in 1596, was very careful to explain
at the beginning of his account that his motives were not those
of the pilgrim:
And first I thinke good to prof esse that by my journey to this City, I
had no thought to expiate any least sinne of mine; much lesse did I hope
to merit any grace from God ; but when I had once begun to visit forraigne
parts, I was so stirred up by emulation and curiosity, as I did never behold
any without a kind of sweet envy, who in this kind had dared more than
myself. Thus affected, I thought no place more worthy to be viewed in
whole world, then this City, where howsoever I gave all divine worship to
God, and thought none to be given to the places, yet I confesse that
(through the grace of God) the very places strucke me with religious hor-
rour, and filled my mind prepared to devotion, with holy motions.4
Humanism was the new force urging the best minds to go
forth to learn at first hand the best that was being thought and
said in the world. Italy, with its preeminent universities whose
3 Desiderius Erasmus, Twenty Select Colloquies out of Erasmus Roterodamus, By Sir Roger
L’Estrange, “The Religious Pilgrim,” (London, 1711).
3 John Evelyn, Diary of John Evelyn, Ed. by Wm. Bray, (London, 1879), I, 199.
4 Fynes Moryson, An Itinerary Containing his Ten Yeeres Travell through the Twelve Domin¬
ions of Germany, Bohmerland, Sweitzerland, N ethcrland, Denmarke, Poland , Italy, Turky, France,
England, Scotland, & Ireland, (Glasgow, 1907), II, 1.
Barker— George Sandy's Relation
255
fame had spread northward to excite men in the newly revived
interest in Greek literature and thought, was the supreme mag¬
net, for there the young, eager minds of Germany and England
found a charm of intellectual companionship which their own
countries could not offer. Erasmus had been among the earliest
caught in the spirit, and, stimulated by the associations he
formed there, he had been tempted to end his days in Rome.
Selling, Latimer, Grocyn, Tunstall, Colet, and Lily studied in
Italy, returned to transform Oxford into a great center of Greek
learning and to introduce into England the Renaissance respect
for a foreign education. All that they brought back was good
because they were men of vision and character, able to instil into
their followers the highest ideals of travel for the sake of in¬
tellectual enlightenment.
But learning in the sense of scholarly pursuits was not the
only educational motive that sent young Elizabethan gentlemen
to the continent. As an essential move toward achieving his
ambition to become a power in European politics, Henry VIII
had set out to establish a system of close relationships with the
important nations of Europe. Such intercourse could not be suc¬
cessfully carried on without ambassadors, and to fill these roles
he needed men with special training. The ambitious courtier
soon realized that a good education and a knowledge of foreign
lands and of foreign tongues was of great value in gaining im¬
portant commissions and preferment at court. Diplomatic ap¬
pointments were given to such men as Sir Thomas Wyatt, whose
education had been perfected in France and Italy ; to Sir Nicho¬
las Wotton, who had lived in Perugia, and graduated doctor of
canon and civil law; and to Anthony St. Lieger, who “when
twelve years of age was sent for his grammar learning with his
tutor into France, for his carriage into Italy, for his Philosophy
to Cambridge, for his law to Gray’s Inn: and for that which
completed all, the government of himself, to court.”6
In the wake of this increasing number of ambassadors, who
had taken their foreign travel seriously as training for diplo¬
matic service, followed other young gentlemen of fashion who
sought the protection of these official suites to travel in pursuit
of a rather more informal education. Among these were such
young bloods as George Boleyn, Nicholas Carew, and Henry
8 David Lloyd, State Worthies, (London, 1766), I, 99
256 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts , and Letters
Fitzroy. They returned with a new brand of sophistication,
new apparel, new habits in eating and drinking, and with a
general distaste for their own country. They were among the
first “Italianate” Englishmen.
Books of advice to young men about to travel began to
appear during the last quarter of the sixteenth century. Ac¬
cording to Turler, whose volume of precepts for travel was
translated into English and published in London in 1575 under
the title of The Traveller of Jerome Turler , this type of book
originated in Germany. This particular volume seems to have
been the first of its sort to appear in England. The Germans
were quite as ardent travellers as the English and likewise
accepted the Renaissance ideal of travel as a real duty to the
State as well as the final means of achieving complete intellec¬
tual manhood. This theme was enlarged upon both in other
books coming out of Germany and in similar ones produced at
home. The correspondence of such men as Lord Burghley, Fulke
Greville, and Sir Philip Sidney shows how seriously these aims
of travel were felt by men of rank. Particularly pertinent as an
illustration of the force of these two prevailing ideals are the
two letters written by Sir Philip Sidney to his brother Robert
who was travelling on the continent in 1580, the one dealing
with the importance of his studies and the other with his re¬
sponsibilities to his country. In the latter he wrote
Your purpose is being a Gentleman borne, to furnish your self© With
the knowledge of such things, as maie be serviceable to your Countriee, and
fitt you for your calling. ... You cannot tell what the Queene of England
is able to doe, defensivelie, or offencivelie, but by through compareing what
they are able to doe, with whome shoe is to bee matched. This therefore is
one noteable use of travaile, which standes in the mixed and correlitive
knowledge of all leagues, betwixt Prince and Prirce, the topografical de¬
scription of cache Countrie, how the one lyes by scituacion to hurt© or helpe
the other, howe they are to the sea well harboured or not, howe stored with
shippes, howe with Revenewe, how with fortifications and Garrisons, howe
the people warlicklie trayned or kept under, with manie other such con-
dieions which as they confusedlie come into my mynde, so I for want of
leasure sett downe.6
It became practically obligatory for the young traveller to
keep a journal; it was one of the things that almost all “Direc¬
tions” and advisors insisted upon. One of the forms that this
8 Sir Philip Sidney, Complete Works, Ed. by Albert Feuillerat, (Cambridge, 1923), III, 125.
Barker— -George Sandy's Relation
257
“Relation” might take was that of a series of formal letters sent
back to keep worrying parents informed of the son's progress.
That this duty often became burdensome is indicated by the
apologetic tone of some of the letters. Francis Davison, son of
the queen's secretary, wrote on one occasion to his father to
say, “I am ashamed of myself that I have no new relation or
discourse ready of some of these parts of Italy.” And later
Touching giving some proof to yourself and others, whether I have made
the same use of our travel in Italy that it pleased you to think I did in
Germany, I have gathered and observed divers particulars both in Tuscany,
and some other places, which I forbare to reduce into an absolute dis¬
course before I hear how my Lord accepted my other.?
In the case of Sir John Harington, the “relation” took the
form of a weekly letter to Prince Henry informing him of the
countries he was passing through and of all the news worthy of
the prince's ear. A third form of “relation”, the one with which
this study will be most concerned, was that which was preserved
as a journal and edited as a book upon the traveller's return.
These various types left their impress upon the then crys¬
tallizing form of the travel book of the period. Much that strikes
us as stilted in the observations of even the most markedly in¬
dividualistic or even eccentric traveller bears the stamp of a
highly conventionalized pattern of procedure to be followed in
recording observations of a newly visited country. Sandys' own
work affords a very adequate illustration of this point.
Along with the thorough establishment of the vogue of trav¬
elling to become a “compleat person” the Elizabethan Age
worked out a highly rationalistic theory of travel. As an edu¬
cational force it was regarded with awe. Since foreign coun¬
tries were judged partly by the criticisms which appeared in
travel books, it was the obligation of the traveller to set himself
up as a skilled observer engaged almost in a solemn duty to his
country. It is in this high sense of public duty and in its ethical
and educational sides that the strength of the Renaissance
theory of travel can be seen. The traveller, in theory, animated
as he was by a stern sense of duty to his country, could never be
a pleasure seeker. There was no place in the theory for even
the most cultivated of dilettantes. The dilettante traveller did
appear, but he did not leave accounts of his idle adventures ; he
T Francis Davidson, Davidson’s Poetical Rhapsody (London, 1602), Biographical Notice, XXIII.
258 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
might almost have been lost in oblivion had he not been immor¬
talized by his scornful critics. Travel as an amusement was not
acceptable to the English Renaissance mind.
No one will believe that these travellers failed utterly to
share with travellers of all time the perennially human curiosity
to see the world, to know what other men are like, to follow the
lure of the sound of far-off place-names, or to taste the magic
of the sea. But whatever feelings of this sort these men may
have had, they carefully stifled them when they began to write.
One has to search far to find any one of them admitting that he
had actually derived pleasure as well as profit from his journeys.
Fynes Moryson did not go this far, but he did preface his work
with an unusually frank apology for his shortcomings :
Again, for the work in generall, I professe not to write it to any curious
wits, who can indure nothing but extractions and quintessences: nor yet
to great statesmen, of whose reading I confesse it unworthy: but only
to the unexperienced, who shall desire to view forraign kingdoms.8
Thomas Coryat, whose Crudities were published in 1611 and
whose pages were filled, consciously or unconsciously, with a
fine relish for life, came nearest to making a complete revela¬
tion on the score of pleasure. In his Epistle to the Reader he
undertook to explain the motives which produced his
observacions whereby I may the better encourage Gentlemen and lovers of
travell to undertake journeys beyond the seas. ... Of all the pleasures
in the world travell is (in my opinion) the sweetest and most delightful.
For what can be more pleasant than to see passing variety of beautiful
Cities, Kings and Princes Courts, gorgeous Palaces, impregnable Castles and
Fortresses, Towers piercing in a manner up to the cloudes, fertill territories
replenished with a very Cornucopia of all manner of commodities . . .
tending both to pleasure and profit, that the heart of man can wish for:
flourishing Universities (whereof only Germany yeeldeth no lesse than three
and twenty) furnished with store of learned men of all faculties, by
whose conversation a learned traveller may much inform and augment his
knowledge. What a singular and incomparable comfort it is to conferre
with those learned men in forraine Universities and noble Cities, whose ex¬
cellent workes we reade in our private studies at home.9
Coryat was quite aware that his interests were much closer to
those of the antiquarian than they were to those of the student
8 Moryson, op. cit., XXI.
9 Thomas Coryat, Coryat’ s Crudities (Glasgow, 1905), I, 8.
Barker — George Sandy’s Relation
259
of government. In answer to criticism launched against him on
that score he defended himself by declaring :
It hath ben© oftentimes objected unto me since my coming home, by
certain Gentlemen of eminent note, and as it were laid in my dish as a
choaking peare, that for the short time that I was abroad© I observed
more solid matters than any English man did in the like space this long
time. For I copied out more inscriptions and epitaphes (said a certain
Knight) that are written upon solid peeces of stone, then any judicious
traveller would have done in many yeares. For which cause he branded me
with the note of tomb e-stone traveller. Whereas it had been much more
laudable (said he) to have observed the government of common-weales,
and affaires of state. I answer© him, that because I am a private man and
no statist, matters of policie are impertinent to me.10
These remarks are of especial interest when set against the
creeds of other travellers, and particularly against that of
Sandys, because while they include many of the conventional
attitudes, the sense of the man’s own personal delight in travel
is allowed to dominate them, and the way in which this sense
pervades the whole of his work gives to it a flavor which most
other accounts either lack or possess to a lesser degree.
That George Sandys should have set out on a long journey
and that he should have published an account of his travels needs
no explanation. His position in society made that a perfectly
natural thing to do. As a son of the Archbishop of York he was
given the traditional education of the upper class young man of
his day; he studied at Oxford and a few years later set out to
complete his education by travel. Although one of a number of
sons, the one brother with whom he seemed to share the most
interests was Edwin, the eldest, who had begun to distinguish
himself at an early age. Just as George later followed Edwin’s
example by devoting some of the best years of his life to the
work of administration in the new colony of Virginia, so in this
earlier period he was probably influenced by the fact that Edwin
had spent some years on the continent. There Edwin had spe¬
cialized in a study of the state of religion in the principal coun¬
tries. This study resulted in a book written under the title of
Europa Speculum , dated April 1559, Paris, but not published
until 1605 when it appeared without his consent as A Relation of
the State of Religion . While not a travel book, the work was not
Coryat, op. cit., I, 11.
260 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters
without comment on social conditions in the countries in which
he spent some time.
George Sandys left England in 1610. He dated the begin¬
ning of his journey by mentioning the fact that he travelled
through France just at the time of the murder of Henry the
Fourth. It is significant that he did not commence his journal
until after he had left Venice, for “France I forbear to speak
of, and the less remote parts of Italy, daily surveyed and exactly
related.”11 Fie obviously felt that his duty to the state demanded
that he penetrate into less often frequented lands that he might
return with fresh information for his sovereign.
This book, as well as all his later works, was dedicated to
Charles I, then Prince of Wales. Because this dedication in¬
dicates so clearly the attitude that Sandys took toward the obli¬
gations of the traveller to his government and because he at no
other time made a direct reference to this responsibility, it is
worth quoting at length :
The Eminence of the degree wherin God and Nature hath placed you,
doth allure the eyes; and the hopefulness of your Virtues, win the love of
all men. For virtue being in a private person an exemplary ornament;
advanceth it self in a Prince to a publick blessing. And, as the Sun to
the world, so bringeth it both light and life to a Kingdom; a light of direc¬
tion by glorious example, and a life of joy through a gracious Government.
From the just and serious consideration whereof, there springeth in minds
not brutish, a thankful correspondence of affection and duty; still pressing
to express themselves in endeavours of service. Which also hath caused me
(most noble Prince) not furnished by better means, to offer in humble zeal
to your Princely view these my doubled Travels; once with some toil and
danger performed, and now recorded with sincerity and diligence. The
parts I speak of are the most renowned Countries and Kingdoms: once
the seats of most glorious and triumphant Empires; the Theatres of valour
and heroical actions; the soils enriched with all earthly felicities; the
places where Nature hath produced her wonderful works; where Arts and
Sciences have been invented and perfected; where wisdom, virtue, policy,
and civility have been planted, have flourished: and lastly where God
himself did place his own Commonwealth, gave Laws and Oracles, inspired
his Prophets, sent Angels to converse with men; above all, where the Son
of God descended to become man. . . Which Countries . . . are now
through vice and ingratitude, become the most deplored spectacles of ex¬
treme misery; the wild beasts of mankind having broken in upon them, and
rooted out all civility, and the pride of a stern and barbarous Tyrant pos¬
sessing the Thrones of ancient and just Dominions. Who aiming only at
the height of greatness and sensuality, hath in tract of time reduced so
George Sandys, A Relation of a Journey begun An. Dorn. 1610, (London, 1670), p. 1.
Barker— George Sandy's Relation
261
greatly and goodly a part of the world, to that lamentable distress and
servitude, under which (to the astonishment of the understanding behold¬
ers) it now faints and groaneth. ... I have not only related what I saw
of their present condition, but so far as conveniency might permit, presented
a brief view of their former estates, and first antiquities of those peoples
and countries: thence to draw a right image of the frailty of man, the
mutability of whatsoever is worldly; .and assurance that as there is noth¬
ing unchangeable saving God, so nothing stable but his Grace and Pro¬
tection. Accept, great Prince, these weak endeavours of a strong desire:
which shall be always devoted to your Highness all acceptable service, and
ever rejoice in your prosperity and happiness.12
This was the great age of dedications and panegyric verses.
Absolute sincerity and candor was not always their most essen¬
tial quality. The patron usually possessed the sum total of all
virtues, and the humble author through excessive understate¬
ment was apt to make himself out as quite a fellow. Every
page of Sandys' Relation, however, is an evidence that he did
record “with sincerity and diligence/' and that his one great
concern was the enlightenment of his fellow countrymen. Thus
Sandys presents the perfect example of the type of traveller who
undertook his journey with an almost entirely educational pur¬
pose in mind, the type “who showed in his character an inclina¬
tion toward puritanism, and in his work a tendency toward spe¬
cialization.”13
In starting out for Constantinople, Sandys followed the fa¬
vorite route of tourists of the time, that of going first to Venice,
and then of making the remainder of the journey by sea. To
accomplish this he was forced to make the voyage in stages.
His first ship took him as far as Zante where it was quite cus¬
tomary to pick up another boat for eastern waters ; his second
carried him as far as Sio, the classical Chios, an island of the
Aegean; and a third completed the journey.
Although it would have been possible to make the trip from
Zante to Constantinople by land across Greece, a route which
might be expected to appeal to the Renaissance traveller, almost
no one went that way. It must be granted that the way itself
was made difficult; Thomas Dallam, who crossed with seven
others, reported that they were stalked part of the journey by
natives who tried to arrange with their guides to cut their
12 Sandys, op. tit., Preface, n.p.
13 Lewis Einstein, The Italian Renaissance in England, (New York, 1902), p. 120.
262 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters
throats. However, it would seem, that the state of Greece at the
moment had little to offer the traveller and that his interest in
antiquity did not carry him toward Greek relics. It will be re¬
membered, with respect to English travellers in Italy, that those
who went about the middle of the sixteenth century were zealous
in their pursuit of remains of the ancient world. In the records
of both Sir Thomas Hoby14 and of William Thomas.15 This is
apparent at every step. Thomas, in particular, while moralizing
on the decadence of the once great city of Rome, described in
detail the Roman antiquities. As the century went on this in¬
terest in antiquity began to decline, an interest in contemporary
Italy replacing it in the minds of travelling Englishmen. The
fervor of the first antiquarians did not carry them as far as
Greece, and by the time travellers began to report on their jour¬
neys into the east there had been a shift of interest which left
Greece with little to attract the tourist.
For this reason Sandys’ account of his voyage through the
waters skirting Greece is immediately striking ; it differs mark¬
edly in tone from the records of other travellers following the
same path. The others, practically to a man, drag up the ghost
of Leander as they pass between Sestos and Abydos. They view
the site of the city of Troy, stirred by genuine emotions, but for
most of them it is the city of Virgil rather than the Troy of
Homer from which they draw their associations. William Lith-
gow, who crossed Greece on land in 1609, was inspired by the
villages of Argo and Micene “from the which unhappy Helen
was ravished”16 to compose an original poem filled not with the
memory of Helen but with moral indignation against the Helens
of all times. Beyond examples of this sort, few references to
the classical past of Greece are to be found in these works.
Sandys, on the other hand, moved slowly through these scenes
steeping himself in literary associations, calling not only on
Virgil, but on Ovid, Lucretius, Menander, and most of all on
Homer for allusions to the places he was passing.
14 Sir Thomas Hoby, The Travels and Life of Sir Thomas Hoby. Written by Himself, 1547-
1564. Ed. by Edgar Powell for Camden Society, Third Series, IV. (London, 1902).
15 William Thomas, The Works of William Thomas, Clerk of the Privy Council in the Year
1549, I, 22.
18 William Lithgow, The Rare Adventures and Painful Peregrinations of long Nineteen Yeares
Travayles from Scotland to the most famous Kingdomes in Europe, Asia and Affrica, (1632),
(Glasgow, 1906), 63.
Barker— George Sandy's Relation
263
Rich as these paragraphs are in their references to antiquity,
the flavor of the guide-book still dominates them, chiefly in the
precision with which the material is ordered:
We sailed close by Cephalenia, retaining that ancient name of Cephalus,
the son of Deioneus; who banished Athens for the unfortunate slaughter
of Procris, repaid to Thebes, and accompanying Amphitryo in his wars,
made his abode in this island; which was called formerly Teleboas and
Helena. It is triangular in form, and 160 miles in circumference: the
Mountaines intermixed with profitable Vallies, and the Woods with Cham-
pain. Unwatered with Rivers; and poor in Fountains, but abounding with
Wheat, Honey, Currans, Manna, Cheese, Wool, Turkies, excellent Oyl, In¬
comparable (though not lasting) Muscadines, and Powder for the dying of
Scarlet. This grows like a blister of the leaf of the holy Oak, a little
shrub, yet producing acorns, being gathered, they rub out of it a certain
red dust, that converteth after a while into worms, which they kill with
wine, when they begin to quicken. Among her many harbours, Argostoli
is the principal, capacious enough for a navy. The inhabitants of this
island are Grecians, and Venetians their Sovereigns.17
Seldom satisfied with merely passing by memorable spots he
often took special pains to get the actual feel of famous soil
under his feet:
Now against Cape Janizary (desirous to see those celebrated fields where
once stood Ilium the glory of Asia that hath afforded to rarest wits so
plentiful an argument) with much importunity and promise of reward)
it being a matter of danger) I got them to set me ashore. When accompan¬
ied with two or three of them, we ascended the not high Promontory, level
above, and crowned with a ruinous City, whose imperfect walls do show
to the Sea their antiquity. . . . This is that famous Promontory of Sigeum
honoured with the sepulchre of Achilles, which Alexander (visiting it in
his Asian expedition) covered with flowers and ran naked about it, as then
the custom was in Funerals.18
In its general form Sandys’ account of Constantinople fol¬
lows the usual formula of the traveller's “relation." An engrav¬
ing of the city supplied with a key indicating its chief topograph¬
ical features and principal buildings is first presented. The his¬
tory of the city is briefly sketched. Its general plan is described,
and its most noteworthy buildings are named, with attention
centered on the Mosque of Sancta Sophia and the seraglio of the
sultan. In common with other travellers of the time his first
1T Sandys, op. cit., p. 4.
18 Ibid., p. 15.
264 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters
impression of the city suffered a severe reversal once he found
himself in its midst:
I think there is not in the world an object that promiseth so much afar
off to the beholders, and entred so deceiveth the expectation; the best of
their private buildings, inferior to the most contemptible sort of ours.
For the Turks are nothing curious of their houses: not only for that their
possessions are not hereditary, but esteeming it egregious folly to erect
such sumptuous habitations, as if to live forever, forgetful of their graves,
and human vicissitude.19
The history of the Turks is sketched, and some account of the
present Turkish government and policy is given with an Eng¬
lishman’s emphasis upon its tyrannical nature.
The two subjects with which Sandys’ discussion of Turkey
is most concerned are the military forces and the Mohammedan
religion. It is obvious from the scrupulous care with which the
organization of the army is analysed that it was with Turkey
as a military power that western Europe was most impressed
and that Sandys was here fulfilling one of his most important
duties to his Prince and country in making a detailed report of
that military system. Although in no way sympathetic with
Mohammedanism, his account of the religion is much more ob¬
jective and exhaustive than that to be found in the reports of
most travellers.
Several pages are devoted to the Turkish character, to man¬
ners and customs, in which are described the people’s appear¬
ance, their clothing, foods, marriage ceremonies, position of
women, and funeral rites. In comparing Sandys’ handling of
material of this kind with that of his contemporaries, one feels
that he comes much closer approximating the approach of the
modern historian or sociologist than did most. He was less con¬
cerned with arriving at easy and striking generalizations; he
reported with the eye of a careful observer who ranged widely
in his search for the salient features that could be fitted together
to form a whole and consistent pattern of a nation’s culture.
He found the Turks “generally well complectioned, of good
statures, and full bodies.”20 He was most impressed with their
cleanliness and their slothfulness, “ a lazy people that work but
by fits, and more esteem of their ease, than their profit, yet are
19 Sandys, op. cit., p. 27.
20 Ibid., p. 49.
Barker — George Sandy's Relation
265
they excessive covetous. And although they have not the wit to
deceive (for they are gross-headed) yet have they the will,
breaking all compacts with the Christians that they find diseom-
modious."21 As did other English travellers, he commented on
the fact that the Turk's religion did not permit the drinking of
wine. He did not take kindly to “Coffa" which he found them
sipping most of the day, and was shocked by the prevalence of
opium taking. In the arts and sciences he found that they had
some knowledge of philosophy, physics, and astronomy. Their
poetry and painting pleased him, but he had no liking for their
music. He discovered that they studied neither rhetoric nor
logic and that they had little taste for reading which he believed
they rejected on the grounds that learning might “subvert their
false grounded religion and policy, which is better preserved by
an ignorant obedience."22 Unlike Moryson, who, without ex¬
plaining his grounds for comparison between the past and the
present, found signs of demoralization in Turkey, in the less
warlike nature of the emperors, in signs of internal rebellion in
the army, in a decrease in religion, and in increase in extortion
and suppression, Sandys did not imply such a state of affairs
although his picture of the then reigning monarch, Sultan Ach-
met, was not one that would lead his readers to expect any great
things to be accomplished under such a weakling.
Book II of the volume deals with Sandys' travels in Egypt,
his next objective after leaving Turkey. Although his method
of handling the material is essentially the same as that of the
first book, the emphasis is inevitably different. The Egypt of
the moment offered little to interest him except what served as
a means of contrast with the past. For him “Alexandria hath
nothing left her but her ruines, and those ill witnesses of her
perished beauties, declaring rather that Towns as well as men,
have their ages and their destinies."23 The phenomenon of the
Nile was, of course, a source of wonder to him. The strange
animals of the country, the crocodile, the ichneumon, and the
chameleon, he found worth describing. Of the habits of the
latter he repeated a theory that must long have had currency
21 Sandys, op. cit., p. 57.
22 Ibid., p. 58.
23 Ibid., p. 89.
266 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
inasmuch as it had been seriously reported by Leo Africanus
when he visited the country a century before:
Camelions are said to bear a deadly hatred to the Serpent: insomuch as
when they espy them basking in the Sun, or in the shade, they will climb
to the overhanging branches, and let down from their months a thread, like
to that of a Spinster, having at the end a little round drop that shineth like
Quick-silver, that falling on their heads doth destroy them: and what is
more to be admired, if the boughs hang not so over, that the thread may
perpendicularly descend, with their former feet they will so direct it, that
it shall fall directly.24
Sandys was also impressed by the method of incubating eggs in
warm ovens which the Egyptians had invented. But for the
most part, it was the Egypt with a history stretching back into
the dim reaches of the past that caught his imagination, the
Egypt of an ancient religion, the Egypt that “first invented
Arithmetick, Music, and Geometry: and by reason of the per¬
petual serenity of the air, found out the course of the Sun and
the Stars,”25 the Egypt of the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and of
mummies marvelously preserved.
Sandys made his way from Cairo to Jerusalem by carvavan,
bribing guides along the route to insure protection against the
Arabian marauders who were a constant menace to pilgrims.
After getting lost in the mountains and suffering other hard¬
ships, the party reached the gates of the city where they were
met by two Franciscan friars who conducted them to the Roman
Catholic monastery of San Salvatore, “for all that come must
repair to their Convent, otherwise they shall be accused for
spies, and suffer much trouble.”26 Inasmuch as none of the Prot¬
estant rulers of Europe contributed to the upkeep of any founda¬
tion in Jerusalem, all western Europeans were consequently
classed together, and the convent gave shelter to Protestant and
Catholic alike. Sandys and his three companions, at the end of
their eight day stay, paid the monastery about one hundred dol¬
lars for its hospitality only to be told that that had scarcely paid
for their food. He considered this a costly rate for a monastic
diet, but he preferred it to the extortion he would have suffered
at the hands of Turkish hosts.
“Sandys, op. cit., p. 95.
*5 Ibid., p. 81.
™Ibid., p. 124.
Barker— George Sandy's Relation
267
Before beginning his account of the city of Jerusalem, he
seemed to feel that some apology to his readers was necessary:
Although divers both upon inquisition and view, have with much labour
related the site and state of this City, with the places adjoyning, (though
not to my knowledge in our language) insomuch as I may seem to some,
but to write what hath been written already: yet notwithstanding, as well
to continue the course of this discourse, as to deliver the reader from many
erring reports of the too credulous devote, and too too vain glorious, I
will declare what I have observed, unswayed with either of their vices.2?
It would seem that Sandys took some pains to arrive at Jer¬
usalem just in time for the Easter ceremonies. Two events, in
particular, attracted vast numbers of pilgrims at this season.
The first was the only excursion of the year to the River Jordan;
the second, the descent of the Holy Fire from heaven into the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is interesting to compare the
accounts of the various celebrations as seen through the eyes of
Sandys, Lithgow, Cory at, and Pietro Della Valle, an Italian, who
were in Jerusalem at Easter in the years 1611, 1612, 1614, and
1616, respectively.
Sandy followed the usual pilgrim custom of going to the
Temple of Christ's Sepulchre on Maundy Thursday and of spend¬
ing the next three nights lying on its cold stones. There he
found himself in the midst of a strange assemblage, gathered
from many nations, speaking different languages, each racial
group engaged in its own rituals accompanied by dancing, leap¬
ing, wailing, singing to strange instruments, and other forms of
religious excitement. He took a much more moderate tone in
describing these performances than did Lithgow, who branded
most of the rites as “sinfull, odious, and damnable idolatry."28
Sandys' picture of the descent of the Holy Fire, which to the
European was no more than an object of interest, Catholic and
Protestant alike disbelieving its actuality as openly as the Turk,
catches the bizarre flavor of the whole scene and gives an indi¬
cation of his own attitude :
But the Greeks do here surpass all the rest in multitudes; and the Armen¬
ians in bravery, who instead of Musical Instruments, have Sawcers of
Brass (which they strike against one another) set about with gingles.
All differ in habit, and most in rites; yet all conjoin (the Latines excepted)
in celebration of the impostury of fetching fire from the Sepulchre on
2T Sandys, op. cit., p. 120.
28 Lithgow, op. cit., p. 241.
268 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters
Easter-Eve. The Turks deride, yet throng to behold it, the Galleries of
the round Temple being pestered with spectators. All the Lamps within
the Church are at that time extinguished; when they often compassing
the Sepulchre in a joint procession, are fore-run and followed by the people
with savage clamors (the women whistling) and frantick behaviours, be¬
fitting better the solemnities of Bacchus, extending their bare arms with
unlighted tapers. At length the chief bishops approach the door of the
Sepulchre, but the Aethiopian Priest first enters (without whom they say
the miracle will not fadge) who after a long stay (meanwhile the people
hurrying about like mad men) returns with the sacred flame, supposed at
his prayers to burst out of the Sepulchre ; whereat confusedly they fire their
lights, and snatching them from one another, strive who should convey it
to their particular Chapels, thrusting the flame amongst their cloaths, and
into their bosoms, (but withdrawing it) perswading strangers that it will
not burn them: kindling therewith all their lamps, unlighted with other
fire until that day twelve-month.29
Although he visited with avid interest the principal sacred
spots of Jerusalem, made the Easter-Monday journey on an ass
to Emmaus to see the place where Jesus had broken bread with
Cleophas and the mountain from which Joshua had commanded
the sun and moon to stand still, went to Bethlehem where he
described the place of Christ's nativity with the same exacting
detail he had used in describing Christ's Sepulchre and the Sep¬
ulchre of the Holy Virgin, and sought out most of the other
spots of religious significance in the Holy Land, his whole ac¬
count is so objective and concrete that one sees him most of the
time in the role of the detached and intelligent tourist and only
very briefly as anything approaching the devout pilgrim. Once
upon entering the Temple of Christ's Sepulchre he broke out,
“Oh, who can without sorrow, without indignation, behold the
enemies of Christ to be the Lords of his Sepulchre ! who at fes¬
tival times sit mounted under a Canopy, to gather money of
such as do enter."30 And again before a picture of the Resur¬
rection :
Here thousands of Christians perform their vows, and offer their tears
yearly, with all the expressions of sorrow, humility, affection and penitence.
It is a frozen zeal that will not be warmed by the sight thereof. And, Oh
that I could retain the effects that it wrought, with an unfainting per¬
severance! who then did dedicate this hymn to my redeemer.
Savior of mankind, Man, Emanuel;
Who sinless died for sin, who vanquished Hell:
29 Sandys, op. cit., p. 134.
30 Ibid., p. 125.
Barker — George Sandy's Relation
269
The first-fruits of the Grave; whose life did give
Light to our darkness ; in whose death we live ;
O strengthen thou my faith, correct my will,
That mine may thine obey ; protect me still,
So othat the latter death may not devour
My soul seaPd with thy seal. So in the hour
When thou, whose body sanctified this Tomb,
Unjustly judged, a glorious Judge shalt come
To judge the world with justice; by that sign
I may be known, and entertain’d for thine.si
So few are the original poems of Sandys that it is especially
gratifying to come upon this fervent prayer which, while prob¬
ably not his first poem, must stand for us as his first.
In the last book of the volume, Sandys has turned his face
toward England; this is his account of his voyage through the
Mediterranean. He touched on various islands along the way,
made a considerable stay at Naples, and finally reached Venice,
where, as it had started, the journal ends. Again, as in the
opening book, this part is full of the atmosphere of a literary
pilgrimage. The pages are strongly scored with quotations from
Homer, Ovid, Virgil, and other poets of antiquity. This is to
the modern reader the least interesting of any part of the volume
because it is so little more than a classical handbook to the
islands of Cyprus, Crete, Malta, and Sicily.
His description of Naples does offer an opportunity for com¬
parisons with the observations of his compatriots. Both Mory-
son and Lithgow visited Naples within a few years of the date
of Sandys. In reading the accounts of these three men and
noting some of their marked similarities, one becomes convinced
that Italian cities must have become very much aware of tour¬
ists and that, as in the case of modern cities, they saw to it that
certain stock attractions were insistently called to the attention
of every traveller before he left for other parts. Vesuvius, the
sepulchre of Virgil, the Court of Vulcan, the amphitheatre, the
villa of Cicero, the Grot of the Cumean Sibyl, the Lake of Ag-
nano, the Lake Avernus, and the Cave of the Dog were visited
in almost regular order by these three men and commented on in
much the same terms. All three tried the traditional test at the
Cave of the Dog, that of thrusting a dog, always thoughtfully
provided by a native, into the vaporous mouth of the cave. When
31 Sandys, op . cit., p. 130.
270 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters
the dog was dragged out seemingly dead, he was then tossed into
the nearby waters of the Lake of Agnano where he was sup¬
posed to revive. For both Sandys and Moryson the experiment
worked according to rule and the dogs recovered. Lithgow, how¬
ever, was unwilling to pay the exorbitant price the owner of the
dog wanted to charge; so he entered the cave himself in spite
of the many legends of fatalities that surrounded it, and stayed
there until he nearly suffocated. As soon as he had taken some
wine to restore himself, the dog owner accused him of being the
devil but offered to put the dog through his paces for a much
smaller sum than he had indicated at first. When the dog was
pulled out, he was dead; even the waters of the lake could not
resuscitate him. The owner was so grief stricken to have his
source of livelihood removed that the tourists paid him a double
fee before leaving the scene.
As has been indicated before, what is probably the most dis¬
tinctive feature of the Relation is the profusion of classical quo¬
tations scattered through its pages which give to the work a
more authentic literary coloring than any of the other travel
books of the period possess. Not only Virgil, Homer, and Ovid,
either his favorites or the most logical sources for place and
character allusions in the eastern waters of the Mediterranean,
but also Lucan, Horace, Martial, Juvenal, Lucretius, Cicero, and
many of the less familiar writers, such as Propertius, Sidonius,
and Statius are quoted. Anthony Wood was probably resorting
to conjecture when he described the actual process of the writing
of the book by saying that Sandys returned to England “where
digesting his notes and interlarding them with various parts of
Poetry, according to the fashion of the time, published them in
English.”32
Lavish as the Elizabethans and their successors were with
quotations in most types of their prose, quoting was not a habit
that had been taken over very widely by travel books. Coryat
prefixed his chapters with Latin lines from Scaliger describing
the cities with which he was about to deal; Moryson seldom
went beyond inserting Latin epitaphs that had caught his fancy ;
Lithgow sometimes introduced a Latin quotation, but he was
more apt to offer original verses of his own written in very
clumsy couplets.
Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, (2nd. ed., London, 1721), II, 46.
Barker — George Sandy's Relation
271
That Sandys should have made such frequent use of quota¬
tions is the more noteworthy because he otherwise so closely
followed the conventional pattern of the travel journal. Nor
does one feel justified in accusing him, as one can many of the
prose writers of the time, of introducing quotations as little
more than a means of parading learning, for those of Sandys
are too deeply woven into the text. His first concern was to
bring home with him an honest picture of the peoples and the
lands he visited as they were at the time, but he was also deeply
aware of the mark that the past had left on these peoples and
places. For himself and for his fellow Englishmen he must have
felt that that glorious past could only be linked with the present
by steeping oneself in the great writings that had come out of
those other times. He was in no sense romantically attempting
to identify himself with antiquity ; his purpose was educational.
The very fact that he found justification for printing his quota¬
tions in two forms, in parallel columns, first in the Latin, then in
his own translations, shows how anxious he was to make that
union of the past and the present as easy as possible for his
readers.33
What Sandys gained in the dignity and even tone of his work,
in the distinct charm of his prose, in his strict adherence to an
impersonal and objective point of view in the handling of his
material, he often lost in the absence of the more genial quali¬
ties which some of the other travel writers displayed and which
gives a variety to their writing that his lacks. So little of the
man himself emerges ; one feels the pity of this as soon as one
discovers the scantiness of biographical material dealing with
his personality. On not more than two or three occasions in the
whole book does he allow anything approaching a personal
anecdote to appear. Travelling was far from an easy matter in
those days ; yet, aside from storms at sea, little ever seemed to
interfere seriously with his movements. Moryson, on the other
hand, seldom stirred without some sort of an adventure. It was
his delight to court danger and to devise elaborate means of
escape. He managed to see the inside of a Spanish fort by dis-
33 The quotations range in length from a single line to a dozen or more. With only a few
exceptions, such as those from the Odes of Horace which are done in four-foot lines, the transla¬
tions are in the form of decasyllabic couplets, the form he was later to use in his own translation
of the Metamorphoses of Ovid. One notes that the Homeric quotations appear alongside a Latin
rather than a Greek text.
272 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and. Letters
guising himself as a German;34 as a Frenchman he got inside
the Jesuit college at Rome;35 he made his way through a band
of German robbers by dressing as a poor Bohemian, without
cloak or sword.36 On another occasion he was robbed by French
soldiers of even his inner doublet in which he had quilted his
money, but even this did not leave him penniless as he had con¬
cealed some gold crowns in a box of “stinking ointment” which
the soldiers threw down in disgust.37 Lithgow seemed always
to be having trouble with his papers, and finally suffered the
most excessive tortures at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition,
the account of which forms one of the most thrilling records in
all travel literature.
One looks in vain in Sandys for signs of personal tastes or
eccentricities such as one finds in the amusing observations of
Coryat, in Moryson’s absorption with money which even caused
him to prefix his volume with a chart indicating the rate of ex¬
change in various countries, or in the violent anti-Catholic feel¬
ing that so dominated every view of Lithgow and caused him
continually to torture his prose by piling epithet on epithet.
But against these criticisms there still stands the thorough¬
ness and soundness of Sandys’ account with which the rest can
seldom compare. The others are often more sprightly than he,
but when they are dull, they are apt to be infinitely more pe¬
destrian than he ever is. His prose is dignified and scholarly,
and often nobly rhetorical in style, as is this apostrophe to Eng¬
land :
Now shape we our course for England. Beloved soil; as in scite,
— Wholly from all the World disjoined;
so in thy felicities. The Summer burns thee not, nor the Winter be-
nums thee; defended by the Sea from wastful incursions, and by the valour
of thy Sons from hostile invasions. All other Countrys are in some things
defective; when thou, a provident Parent, dost minister unto thine what¬
soever is useful: foreign additions but only tending to vanity and luxury.
Virtue in thee at the least is praised, and Vices are branded with their
names, if not pursued with punishments. That Ulysses
Who knew many mens manners, and saw many Cities : if as sound in
judgment as ripe in experience, will confess thee to be the Land that
floweth with Milk and Honey. 39
34 Moryson, op. cit., Ill, 411.
33 Ibid., I, 304.
36 Ibid., I, 78-80.
3' Ibid., I, 309.
89 Sandys, op. cit., p. 170.
Barker — George Sandy's Relation
273
His sentences are sometimes, as are those of most of the con¬
temporary prose writers, lengthy, cumbersome, and obscure
through too great compression. But against these may be set
any number of strikingly clear and pointed pieces of description
or comment, as when he says of the Arabs, “They dwell in tents,
which they remove like walking cities, for opportunity of prey
and benefit of pasture,” or his picture of the people of an Aegean
isle, “a happy people that live according to nature and want not
much in that they covet but little.”
Sandys’ finest prose writing is that which arises from a grave
mood of melancholy, a mood very similar to that which gives to
the greatest pages of Raleigh their sombre majesty. In such
passages Sandys achieves rhythms and harmonies not unlike
those of Raleigh. Much that he saw awakened such feeling in
him, the pyramids, Alexandria with its ghostly sense of a bril¬
liant past, the Holy Sepulchre in the hands of the pagans ; but
this emotion is probably given its finest expression in that part
of the dedication to the Prince in which he sums up in moving
periods that sense of perpetual change, “of the frailty of man,
the mutability of whatsoever is worldly/' which so often turns
his mind from the transient glories of this world to the assur¬
ance that “there is nothing unchangeable saving God.”
THE RISE OF PROFESSIONALISM IN SWITZERLAND
ABOUT 1700
John Paul von Grueningen
University of Wisconsin
Foreword
Sometime ago there were turned over to the writer two High-
Alemannic parchment manuscripts which had been a family pos¬
session for six generations. The first, entitled “Lehrbrieff,” is
a letter of release granted in 1677 by the Association of Master
Surgeons of Bern, certifying the completion in Thun by an Isaac
von Grueningen of Saanen of an apprenticeship in surgery; the
second, entitled “Attestation,” is a testimonial issued by the
mayor of Thun, Niclaus von Diessbach, who in his capacity as
chief magistrate discloses the description and outcome of twen¬
ty-two surgical cases within his jurisdiction and under the care
of the Oculiss, Bein- Bruch- Schnitt - und Wundartzt, Ysaac Von
Grunigen (evidently a variant spelling of the name in the “Lehr-
brieff”) , resident at Interlaken in 1695.
The question of the possible philological and medico-histori¬
cal significance of these instruments led to a critical study of
their texts and to the present attempt to place them in historical
perspective. It may be said at the outset that linguistically they
document a number of interesting examples of the comparatively
late preservation in the Canton of Bern of different MHG. and
EG. (see p. 298) language characteristics as well as the extent of
the influence, as late as the close of the seventeenth century, and
as far west as Bern, of the syntactical style and legalistic phrase¬
ology of the German imperial chanceries. The substance itself
is of sufficient cultural and medico-historical interest to warrant
its wider availability; therefore, the writer has prepared an
English translation of the texts and a glossary of words now
obsolete or peculiar to the High-Alemannic dialect of this period.
With respect to the authenticity and ownership of the docu¬
ments, it may be said that there is an Isaac von Griiningen iden¬
tified in the parish records of Saanen, Canton Bern, in 1696 as
276 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters
Bruch Schneit and again in 1697 as Bruchartzet.1 He is evi¬
dently the “surviving, legitimate son of the honorable etc. Peter
von Grueningen” of the “Lehrbrieff” and the O cutis s etc. of the
“Attestation.” The Saanen baptismal register records on August
22, 1645 the baptism of Isaac, the third son of Peter von Grun-
igen and Katri Wursten.2 If this is the apprentice of the “Lehr-
brieff,” he was not quite 32 years old in 1677 when granted his
release and 50 in 1695 when given the “Attestation.”3 A younger
son of Peter and Katri is the father of Hanns,4 the father of
Johannes,5 the father of Jacob,6 in whose possession the writer’s
father, who emigrated from Saanen in 1871, and his sister, Eliz¬
abeth Pliiss-von Gr unigen, first knew the manuscripts to be.
Upon the death of all other interested parties Mme Pluss in¬
herited the manuscripts and in 1925 presented them to the
writer.
The Strife between Medicine and Surgery
The story of the struggle between medicine and surgery con¬
stitutes an interesting chapter in European cultural history. In
the Bernese highlands, where in certain respects the mists of
medievalism lingered longer than elsewhere and where in other
respects there was civic progress far in advance of the time,
there is afforded toward the close of the seventeenth century a
peculiarly significant picture of the development of professional¬
ism in surgery. Owing in part to the comparatively late flour¬
ishing of the guilds, organized surgery could maintain and ad¬
vance its own professional dignity and interests precisely at a
time when dogmatism in the universities sorely impeded the
advance of medical science and when there was thriving not
only in secret corners but in the market places, often under politi¬
cal protection, a superstitious quackery unbelievably brutal and
ignorant.
1 Saanen Taufrodel vol. 7:272 and 284.
2 Ibid. 6:61.
3 This instrument is thus obviously not a diploma granted upon the completion of a proba¬
tionary period of practice but a testimonial of “transfer” enabling the surgeon, who moved his
place of residence from Interlaken to Saanen, the better to establish himself in his new location.
4 Saanen Taufrodel 7:160.
5 Ibid. 8:237.
6 Ibid. 10:192.
Von Grueningem— Professionalism in Switzerland 277
The Rise and Decline of Science
The decline of the spirit of academic freedom in medicine is
vividly portrayed by Brunner and Muralt.7 Leading professors
of medicine were teaching about 1700 a mixture of mathematical
mysticism and hocus-pocus in the name of medical science that
Paracelsus of the sixteenth and the scientists of the early and
middle seventeenth century would have been ashamed of. Even
in the university of Basel, where surgical instruction had exper¬
ienced a promising beginning under Caspar Bauhin in the last
quarter of the sixteenth century, there was a sorry decadence
toward the end of the seventeenth. The unprecedented rise of
science in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries
would seem to augur anything rather than a set-back of scholar ¬
ly achievement for almost two centuries. The study of medicine
begun by the Greeks had been quite forgotten in the middle ages.
With the rediscovery of Hippocrates a revitalizing influence
came to be exerted in the West. Paracelsus (d. 1541), remem¬
bered for his advancing the study of chemistry, had fearlessly
thundered against the abuses of faith healing and had contri¬
buted toward a more scientific approach to medicine. Galileo
(d. 1642), Kepler (d. 1630), Torricelle (d. 1647), Guercke (d.
1686), Boyle (d. 1691), and Newton (d. 1727) had vastly ex¬
tended scientific knowledge in astronomy, physics, and mathe¬
matics. Bacon (d. 1626), Descartes (d. 1650), and Spinoza
(d. 1627), had liberalized the mind in philosophy. Tournefort
(d. 1707) had discovered the new principle in botany of plant
analysis based on the blossom™- an incalculable advance over the
method of classification according to months of growth ; Harvey
(d. 1657) had discovered the circulation of the blood and Cow-
per (d. 1709), the capillary system, while Malphigi (d. 1694)
had become founder of microscopical anatomy. Furthermore,
with the beginning of the seventeenth century there were insti¬
tuted numerous scientific and medical societies contributive to
the advancement of learning. There were founded: in 1603,
the Academia dei Lincei in Italy ; in 1632, the Academia Caesa-
reo Leopoldina in Germany, a society of physicians including in
its membership the foremost German-speaking scholars of Eur-
7 Brunner, C. und Muralt, W. Aus den Brief en hervorragender Schweizer Arzte des 17. Jahr-
hunderts, Basel. 1919.
278 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
ope; in 1645, the Royal Society of England ; and in 1666, the
French Academy of Sciences .
It is not our purpose here to investigate the factors respon¬
sible for the long period of academic stultification coming with
the turn of a cycle upon these promising beginnings. Suffice it
to say that perhaps nowhere is there to be found a more telling
example of the full sweep of this decline than in the history of
the science and practice of medicine. In many instances every
further progress had to await the coming of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. Thus the beginning of instruction in hospi¬
talization under Felix Platers I in Basel came to an end in 1677
(the date of our older manuscript) and it was not until the mid¬
dle of the nineteenth century that serious attention was directed,
for example, to the worthy surgical care of wounded soldiers.
Again, the discovery by Leeuwenhoek, made in 1671 with the aid
of a microscope, of foreign animal life in boils led only to the
idea of contagium animatum, and almost two centuries had to
elapse before the discovery of bacteria. As early as 1667 Jean
Denis successfully carried out transfusions of blood and experi¬
ments by means of injecting medicants into the blood stream,
but the immediately following century was at an utter loss in
taking the succeeding step leading to serum therapy.
There arose in the seventeenth century three leading schools
or movements in medicine. The theoretically schooled physician
received little practical experience while in training. In his ca¬
pacity as healer he would find the lines of least resistance in
adhering to one of the contemporary schools, a circumstance
that precluded methodical investigations of independence. The
first of these schools, the iatrochemical, based in part on Para¬
celsus and in part on chemistry and philosophy, had received
impetus from Holland through Franz de la Boe of Leyden (d.
1672). All sickness was believed to have its origin in the mix¬
ture of juices, in fermentation, or chemical action. The function
of the doctor was to prescribe the proper medicants for counter¬
action. The principal occupation of practicing physicians came
to be that of making trial-and-error experiments with all man¬
ner of mixtures. A second school, the Hippocratic, forerunners
of which had been Santoro (d. 1636) and Borelli (d. 1679), the
latter called the founder of physiology, was based chiefly on
physics. Disease, it was held, is of a mechanical nature. By
carefully weighing, measuring and counting whatever can be
Von Grueningen — Professionalism in Switzerland 279
weighed, measured and counted, one can discover what needs
to be corrected. The procedure accurately applied did indeed
yield some very substantial gains in the advancement of knowl¬
edge, for example, in connection with the study of the muscles,
the mechanics of breathing, and physical optics, but on the whole
the school gave rise to a pseudo-scholarship that floundered in
its nonsensical attempts at applying higher mathematics, calcu¬
lus and logarithms, hydraulics, centrifugal and centripetal
forces in reading the deeper secrets of healing. The third school,
called the empirical, grew out of the theory of objective observa¬
tion of the course of diseases as advocated and taught by Syden¬
ham (d. 1689). The school added materially to the exact knowl¬
edge of diseases. Sydenham's recording of the symptoms and
the course of hysteria, St. Vitus dance, gout, pleurisy, pneu¬
monia, erysipelas, and croup are still recognized as being mas¬
terfully done. Toward the end of the century this school, too,
led to dogmatism. The panacea of the empiricists was “regu¬
larity." Their medical theory is reflected in their favorite ap¬
horism to the effect that a good clown is more conducive to the
public health of a town than twenty asses laden with drugs.
Fischer8 and Heinemann9 describe the typical physician about
1750. In that he was more than half a century in the making,
he may serve to throw light on the physician about 1700. With
all the airs of academic arrogance he strides through the streets
in stately dignity, wearing a powdered peruke, jabot, scarlet
velvet breeches, a long robe, frills of lace at his wrists (the scorn
of all practical surgeons), carrying a heavy cane used as a chin
rest when diagnosing particularly perplexing cases. To him fell
the city, court, and university appointments and the fat support
of the patricians, so that he could well afford to ignore the guild
of surgeons that had come up by way of the barber shop.
The Early History of Surgery
Surgery may be said to have had two lines of ancestry, both
dating from the eleventh century. When it was decreed in Rouen
in 1092 that monks were not to wear beards, there came into
being a new servant of the church in the capacity of barber. In
8 Fischer, Georg Chirurgte vor 100 Jahren Hannover, 1876.
9 Heinemann, Franz Die Zunft der Barbiere und Scharer, genannt “Chirurgische Societat” der
Stadt und alten Landschaft Bern votn 16.-19. Jahrundert. Neues Berner Taschenbuch auf das Jahr
1900, pp. 76-98.
280 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
the course of time he acquired certain concessions entitling him
to train apprentices, to practice blood-letting, to bandage
wounds, and to perform minor surgical operations. But the story
of barber-surgery is not one of steady advance. In fact the
shop and the business of the barber soon fell into evil repute,
evoking the wrath of the church and the fury of the trade guilds.
The church, which had first given rise to the barber-surgeon and
which had developed its own hospitals and asylums in the early
middle ages, vigorously opposed surgery in principle, denying
the right of priesthood to anyone who had been operated upon.
As to trade guilds-— there are evidences up to the fifteenth cen¬
tury that some of these organizations required of their members
an oath to the effect that they were not “bastards, barbers, bath-
keepers, nor Wends.” The other ancestor of the surgeon is the
medieval bath-keeper. He and his hospital first appeared to com¬
bat leprosy carried to Europe by the returning eleventh-century
crusaders. The obliging bather soon learned to operate with
clysters and plasters and began competing with the barber in
the treatment of open sores and wounds, and in blood-letting.
The bitter struggles between barbers and bath-keepers were
anything but salutary for the elevation of surgery to a reputable
profession. At the Congress of Augsburg in 1548, however,
barber-surgeons were granted guild privileges. Once organized
they steadily managed to get the greater part of chirurgery into
their hands. In 1682 by official recognition of Emperor Leopold
I, surgery throughout the empire was classed as an art not as a
trade. Mutual consultations between doctors and surgeons were
encouraged by the guilds and the city councils, but the gap be¬
tween the dogmatically trained physician and the guild-born
surgeon was usually too wide to be bridged. To make matters
worse for the surgeon there was the serious competition of itin¬
erant and market-crying quacks, among them the hangman, who
was presumably in possession of a store of healing secrets con¬
fessed by witches, — and witches were executed in Geneva as
late as 1652, and in Glarus as late as 1787. Thus between two
evils — one, as it were, from above and the other from below —
professional surgery in Switzerland in the seventeenth century,
bent on vindicating itself, actually paved the way to a new as¬
cendancy, thanks, in part, to the imperial recognition the profes¬
sion enjoyed; in part, to the dignity, vitality, and political
alertness of the guild; and in part, certainly, to that unmistak-
Von Grueningen — Professionalism in Switzerland 281
able socio-civic consciousness characteristic of Swiss municipal
citizenship. It may be of interest to note in this connection an
example from the “Attestation” bearing upon problems unsolved
to this day, chief among them the question of the place of the
state with respect to the rights and privileges of practioners.
The surgeon in this case, desirous of changing his place of resi¬
dence and practice, requests from the mayor of Thun (who is
at the same time a member of the great council of the City of
Bern), an official testimonial certifying his accomplished recov¬
eries. The mayor, who is ready to comply with the request
“since . . . testimony contributing to the truth should be refused
no one but delivered to petitioners for (their) future help,”
causes the former patients to be questioned and enters their
testimony upon a “true legal document . . . secured ... by my
noble seal,” granted to the petitioner for his future possession.
The close association between the guild of master-surgeons
and the city council of Bern is repeatedly revealed throughout
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The history of the
progress of the surgical guilds in Switzerland is told by Brun¬
ner.10 A local surgical organization had been effected in Bern
as early as 1502, or 46 years prior to the granting of guild priv¬
ileges by the Congress of Augsburg. There is in 1502 consider¬
able emphasis on “shearing” or barbering. It is vagabond bar¬
bers who are to be examined and debarred if found wanting.
By 1628 the chief concern of the guild seems to be surgery, for
there appeared in that year before the city council a joint com¬
mittee of city physicians and guild surgeons praying for a newT
charter enabling them the better to cope with quackery. The
new ordinances drawn up called for an apprenticeship of three
years and a journeymanship of six years on the part of all candi¬
dates desiring to enter the surgical profession. By the end of
the seventeenth century barbering had probably come to be re¬
garded beyond the pale of true professional interests of the
guild, although it may have been practiced incidentally because
of economic necessity. In England by way of comparison the
barber-surgeon is in evidence up to 1745.* 11 There is no ref¬
erence, however, to shearing in the “Lehrbrieff,” while the im¬
posing title of the surgeon of the “Attestation,” may give an
10 Brunner, Conrad Die Zunft der Sckarer und ihre hervorragenden V ertreter unter den
Schweizerischen Wundarzten des XVI Jahrhunderts. Ziirich, 1891.
11 Garrison, Fielding Hudson An Introduction to the History of Medicine. Phil. 1929, p. 294.
282 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters
intimation of the scope and possibly of the supposed ranking of
his different professional activities. He is Oculiss, Bein-> Bruch-
Schnitt - und Wundartzt, that is to say in order of enumeration,
(1) a fitter of spectacles — which the seventeenth century was
learning to mount on the nose, (2) an amputator, (8) an oper¬
ator for inguinal rupture, (4) an incisor for harelip and excisor
of growths, and (5) a treater of wounds and open sores.
Questions touching the status of apprentices and journeymen
and their mutual relations, were constantly arising. Efforts
were made to answer these questions in 1649 and again in 1663,
when it was decreed that candidates be apprenticed and released
only in presence of the entire guild in convention assembled, a
practice substantiated in the “Lehrbrieff” of 1677. The candi¬
date from Saanen is documented as having been apprenticed
“some time ago in the presence of our entire association of mas¬
ter surgeons in accordance with this profession’s custom and
usage,” and his request for release is granted by the association
“while in session as a guild of masters in accordance with local
usage.”
The character of the powerful association of master sur¬
geons in Bern is reflected in their professional code. No mem¬
ber of the laudable profession is permitted to solicit votes in the
guild; patients with a grievance are to be granted a hearing
before the guild — the appellate court is the city council ; no mem¬
ber is to criticise a colleague in the presence of a patient, but if
there is cause, the surgeon is obliged to criticise in private, re¬
porting the circumstances to the guild; no major operation may
be undertaken by any member without the presence of an ex¬
perienced colleague ; consultation is to be encouraged, and those
asked are to advise freely but not so as to betray to the patient
that a mistake has been made ; no one is to remove the bandage
placed by a colleague nor secretly to view the wound treated by
another; no one is to disparage the skill of a colleague, especi¬
ally not in the presence of apprentices ; fraternizing with vaga¬
bond quacks is strictly prohibited ; robbing money from thought¬
less people by tinkering, soothsaying, and kindred frauds are all
abominations devoutly to be despised; no member is to absent
himself from the funeral of a colleague.
Owing either to the apprenticeship system of training or to
the hostility of the academicians, or to both, the chief contribu-
Von Grueningen — Professionalism in Switzerland 283
tion of the masters, however, was not so much the furtherance
of surgical knowledge and skill as it was the creation of profes¬
sional spirit. Garrison observes that in comparison with the
extensive development of anatomy in the seventeenth century,
its literature of surgery seems meagre. This is not surprising
if conditions obtaining in Switzerland are at all indicative of
conditions elsewhere. To be sure there are genuine contribu¬
tions by master surgeons, some as early as the sixteenth century,
for example, those of Jacob Ruff ( Trostbuchle , 1554) and Felix
Wirz (d. 1563) of Zurich, and Fabricius Hildanus (d. 1624) of
Bern. But as a rule the masters did not publish. Some of them
no doubt had studied medicine — and indeed surgery— as it was
then offered in the universities. In Basel the faculty decreed in
1674 that surgical students be permitted to make practical oper¬
ations. In Leyden and Strassburg there were lectures on sur¬
gery. But these and similar opportunities were after all rare
and limited to apprentices of means. A medical student in Paris
in 1677 complains that only few are allowed to witness surgical
operations and these only upon their sacrificing several gold
pieces. Everywhere except in Italy there was also the problem
of available cadavers.
That apprentices were permitted, perhaps encouraged, to
hear lectures on surgery or to gain practice at the universities
or elsewhere in addition to that which the masters could give is
reflected in the ‘“Lehrbrieff.” The request for release is pref¬
aced with the statement that the apprentice whose term has been
completed “now intends with the help of God to visit also other
localities and foreign countries and to strive after further per¬
fection in the free laudable art, to which end an authentic cre¬
dential and certificate with respect to his learning would be nec¬
essary/' and is concluded with a recommendation of the candi¬
date to all “Doctores Medicinae, Chirurgos, und operatores.” It
is quite likely that journeymen who had completed their appren¬
ticeship under the direction of a surgeon should be particularly
desirous of gaining experience if possible under the direction of
a physician. The final examination for mastership was con¬
ducted by a doctor of medicine.12
12 The writer is indebted for this information to Professor R. Feller of the University of Bern,
who kindly suggested source material and rendered some aid with the glossary. Professor Feller
writes, “Die Meisterschaft in der Zunft der Barbierer und Schiirer zu Bern wurde erlangt nach
Absolvierung einer vorgeschriebenen Lehrzeit . . . und nach dem vor einem Dr. medicinae abgelegten
Examen.”
284 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters
Within the jurisdiction of the guild there came also the regu¬
lation of the rights and privileges of “country” over against
“city” practioners. The contrast between these two groups about
1700 may not have been vastly dissimilar to the lingering dis¬
parity between physicians and surgeons. The security and re¬
wards of the country surgeon were uncertain. He was consid¬
ered on general principles to be professionally inferior and was
relegated to practice in the county, often at a disadvantage and
under difficulties. It is in all probability an example of the man¬
ner of limiting practice, that there is recorded in the “Attesta¬
tion,” not a single case in the city of Thun, where the surgeon
was trained, nor at Interlaken, his legal place of residence. All
of the cases mentioned are in the country, — six at Bluhmen-
stein, five at Thieracheren, three at Kilchdorf, two at Amsold-
ingen, two at Stocken, one at Langenige, and one at Homberg.
The mention of the surgeon’s moderate fee, the recording of the
gratitude of the patient who paid the notary’s bill, and the ref¬
erence in two instances to the futility and expense of other
previously tried remedies disclose not only what came within
the then ethical code, but also that the emoluments were prob¬
ably meagre and now and then had to be taken in kind. The
prospect of moving to his home town at the age of 50, may in¬
deed have appeared to the surgeon of 1695 as a promising be¬
ginning.
An interesting documentation of the conception of the re¬
sponsibility of an operator in Thun at this time is found in the
formula in the “Attestation,” implying that the surgeon’s work
was not held to be discharged with the completion of the opera¬
tion. It is said that Frere Jacques, the strolling incisor (who
in 1697 introduced lateral operation for stone) would deliver
his patients with the words, “The operation has been successful ;
now may God heal you.” The formula in the “Attestation,” by
way of contrast, reads : “. . . with the help and succour of God
did successfully operate and heal . . . and by means of applied
attention and requisite medicaments did restore to health.”
Of the twenty-two cases recorded, fifteen are operations on
males for inguinal rupture, nine are described as congenital;
three cases are treatments of open sores ; two are amputations,
“a femur at the hip,” and the removal of both legs of a child,
then also there are: one operation for an “abdominal injury,”
one incision for harelip, and the removal of “a large misgrowth.”
Von Grueningen — Professionalism in Switzerland 285
The ages of patients, given in fifteen instances, range from seven
weeks to 60 years ; five are infants less than a year old, five are
more than four and less than fifteen, and five are between 20
and 60. Singular is the matter-of-fact report of the healing of a
patient “partly in eight days, partly in ten days, etc.”
Form and Style
In form and appearance both manuscripts display the pre¬
tentious elegance characteristic of the late medieval guilds. The
seals are missing but sharp incisions show where they had been
fastened. The “Lehrbrieff” measures 36 by 56 cm., the “Attes¬
tation,” 63 by 74. The text in each case begins with an arab¬
esque capital “W” designed of endlessly curved and crossing
lines into a strikingly pompous initial, surmounted upon a back¬
ground of interlaced ornamentation that defies imitation. The
initial letter of the “Attestation” measures 14 by 30 cm., while
that of the “Lehrbrieff” is not quite half as large. In both manu¬
scripts the first four lines are of different sizes of lettering,
gradually diminishing in succeeding lines to that of the writing
proper beginning in the fifth line and done apparently by the
less skilled hands of ordinary notaries, who evidently procured
from special penmen the perhaps standard opening lines done
in magnificent form. The beauty of some of the lettering is
unsurpassed. The German handwriting throughout is easily
legible and in general consistent though rich in variations and
flourishes. Latin formulas, Actum ut supra , Doctores Medi -
cinae, etc., and words of Latin or Greek origin, admittirt, Attes¬
tation , Chirurgos, Notarium, patienten, Recommendation, etc ,
are done in script. However, when there are German prefixes
or suffixes the German elements are scrupulously done in Ger¬
man writing. Thus beside Cur we have zecurieren and curiert ;
furthermore accidenten, Medicamenten , and Opera toren — over
against operator es in the “Lehrbrieff.” The word Liberey (see
Glossary) which is entirely in German writing was evidently
felt to be thoroughly Germanized.
In spelling (see H 9 under “Spelling Practices” p. 297), es¬
pecially in the practice of compounding, there is considerable un¬
certainty of feeling. Thus the word Mutterleib (so spelled only
once) has four different spellings. It appears also as two words,
286 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
Mutter Leib, as a solid word with two capital letters, Mutter-
Leib, and as Mutter Lyb. There are here and there other incon¬
sistencies; nit and nicht, for example, occur side by side. In
one instance there is interesting evidence of the determining
factor in the choice of a dialectal variant. In connection with
the proper noun Kilchdorf (the first syllable of which has pre¬
served its dialectal form) we have Kilchhorj , but everywhere
else the word is Kirchhorj — Kirchhorj Ansoltingen, Kirchhorj
Thieracheren, Kirchhorj Stefiszburg, but Kilchhorj Kilchdorf.
In syntax there is an obvious form-consciousness showing
itself in a studious avoidance of repetition and in the display of
diversity of expression. For the formula, the above-mentioned,
there are employed no less than a dozen synonyms — angeregt,
anzogen, jetzanzogen, obanzogen, voranzogen, gedacht, obge-
dacht, mehrermellt, mehrgedeiit, obgemelt offtgesagt, and mehr-
gesagt. For the adjective congenital there is a formula varied
by the use of four different verbs — von Mutterleib her getragen,
-gehabt, -gebracht, -erzihlet, that convey no significant distinc¬
tions of meaning.
A striking preservation of MHG. language characteristics is
evident in both documents. There are a number of words en¬
tirely unchanged, such as a denlich, beschechen, eilf, forme (r)k-
lich, har, inne, menigcklich, and wolbescheiden. There are oth¬
ers but slightly modified, such as erzihlet, weilund, wollen, zeiig-
same, and ihme, — in fact there is even an accusative form ihne,
perhaps by analogy to ihme. The MHG. practice of combining
the particle ge with an infinitive is to be noted in gedeuten and
gefolgen. The MHG. particle ze (HG. zu) is found in such con¬
structions as zehaben and zecurieren. The use of the prefix
ver- for HG. be- is found in verwahrt. The genitive of welch
(replaced in HG. by dessen) is here welchessen. Interesting is
the derivation of the High-Alemannic noun Bott from MHG
gebot. Among the EG. words are befelch, beschulden, fur-
bringen, fursichtig, verartznen, and volgends. The High Ale-
mannic dialect was and is one of the last to outgrow its MHG.
and EG. language characteristics. The name itself appears in
the “Lehrbrieff” in perfect MHG. form, Grueningen, although
the form Griiningen is documented in Zurich in 1374, 11 and in
11 Strickler, G. Geschichte der Herrschaft Griiningen, Zurich 1908 p. 16 “Griidninger Ambt” in
1354, " vest und stat ze Griiningen” in 1374.
Von Grueningen — Professionalism in Switzerland 287
Freiburg in 1450.12 In the Saanen dialect the first syllable is
still pronounced as a diphthong.
The Text of the Manuscripts
Lehrbrieff
Zu gonsten desz wolbescheidnen Ehr und
Kunstliebenden Junglings Isaac von Griieningens, geblihrtig in
der Landvogtey Sanen, Berner Jurisdiction.13
W I R Obmann Und ein gantze M e i s ter¬
se h a f f t der Wund- und SchnittArtz-
ney in der Freyen Republic Loblicher
Statt Bern geseszen; Thund kund Jeder-
menigcklichen hiermit Dasz auf heiit zu
Endgemeltem Dato vor uns in versambletem Bott Persohnlich
erschinen ist, Der Ehrengeachte, fromme, Ehrsame, and Weise,
herr Moses Jants, der Zeith L a n d a m a n der Landschafft
Sanen, jn gebiihr furbringend, und uns erinnerende, wie das der
Ehr- und kunst liebende Jungling Jsaac von Gruen¬
ingen, weilund des Ehrsamen, und wolbescheidnen Peter
von Griieningens saligen us gemelter Landschafft
Sanen, zu Ruckgelasner Ehelicher Sohn, vor etwas Zeiths, vor
uns der gantzen Meisterschafft, nach diser kunst brauch- und
gewonheit, zu dem Ehrengeachten, kunstreichen, fiirsichtigen,
und weisen Herren Samuel Bischoff, Burgeren,
Wund- und Schnitt Artzet der Statt Thun, unserem gelieb-
ten Mittmeister auffgedinget worden, bey Jhme die Lobliche
kunst der Wund-und Schnitt Artzney zuer-
lehrnen und zuergreiffen; Und n u h n dismahlen seine
Lehrzeith zu End gelangt und verflosen, und er auch selbige
ordenlich ausgestanden : Jetzundaber vorhabens seye,
mit der Hilff Gottes auch andere Ohrt und frombde Land zu
besuchen, undt der Freyen Loblichen kunst noch ferners nach
zu werben, darzu Jhme dan ein glaubwiirdiger Schein und
Lehrbrieff, seines Lehrnens und verhaltens halben von
Nothen seye, dienst freiindlich bittende, das wir Jhme selbigen
gonstigest ertheillen und gefolgen Lasen wollind. W a n n
n u h n solch sein begehren nicht unzimblich, und Jedermenig-
cklich die Liebe Wahrheit zu befiirderen Schuldig. A 1 s s a -
18 Godet, M. et Ttirler, H. Dictionnaire Historique et Biographique de la Suisse, Neuchatel.
3 This appears on the back of the manuscript.
288 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
g e n d i und bezeiigend wir, bey unseren wahren Trewen, das
obgedachter Jsaac von Griieningen Jn wahrender
seiner Lehrzeith (: so viel uns dismahlen Jn wiisen :) sich
From, getrew, geflisen, Gottsforchtig und wohl verhalten, be¬
dell te kiinst der Wund-und Schnitt Artzney,
auch alle gutte Handgriff derselben, und was dero anhengig,
bey angeregtem seinem Lehrherren, so weit sich die gelegenheit
begeben und zugetragen, Loblich und wohlerlehrnet, und sich
gegen Jedermenigcklichen Also erzeigt und erwisen, wie es
einem Ehrliebenden Lehrknaben wohl ansteht und geblihrt :
D a h e r o wir uns zu seinem begehren willig geneigt, und
Jnne Jn versambletem Meister Bott nach hiesiger gewonheit,
seiner ausgestandenen LehrJahren halben, formeklich Ledig und
Loosgesprochen, und desendwegen Jhme zu beforden und fort-
setzung seiner Erlehrneten klinsten, gegenwertigen S c h e i n
und Lehrbrieff, gern Mitttheillen und zustellen wollen :
- Gelangt demnach an alle und Jede Herren Doc-
tores Medicinae , Chirurgos, und operatores, und hiermit an Je-
den der kunstliebhaberen, als auch meingcklichen (sic) , Jn was
Hochheit, wiirden und stand die seyend, unser gantz freiind-
liche und fleisige bitt, Mehrgesagten Jsaac von Griieningen Jn
gonstiger Recommendation und befelch zehaben, Jhme umb
seiner Ehrlichen verhaltung willen, gunst, Liebe, und alle an-
geneme befiirderung zu erweisen, und zuerzeigen ; S o 1 c h e s
umb einen Jeden nach standts gebiihr hinwiderumb zubeschiil-
den, wollend wir uns Jn der gleichen, oder anderen begeben-
heiten, zu Jeder Zeith gantz willig erfunden Lasen. - J n n
krafft dis Brieffs, der desen zu wahrem urkund, mit
unserem gewonten groszen Handwercks Jnsigel ( : uns, und un¬
seren Erben Jedoch ohnschadlich :) verwahrt und bekrefftiget,
von dem underzeichneten geschwornen Notario verfertiget, und
Jhme von Griieningen zu seinem kdnfftigen behelff zugestelt
worden. So Beschechen den Sibenzechenden
Tag Brachmonats, Als Mann von C h r i s t i des Herren ge-
buhrt Zalt Ein Tausend, Sechshundert, Siben
und Sibentzig Jahi\ 167 7.
Wilhelm Henni
Notr:
Von Grueningen— Professionalism in Switzerland 289
ATTESTATION
ZU Gunsten
Herren Operatoris
Von Grunigen13
WIR NICLAUS VON DIESSBACH DES
GROSSEN RAHTS Loblicher Statt Bern
Und Diser Zeit Schultheiss Der Statt
Und Graaffschafft Tuhn (sic) ; Tuhn (sic)
Kund Hiemit; Demnach Der Ehrenhaffte
Und Kunst- Erfahrne Herr Ysaac von Grunigen, Oculiss,
Bein- Bruch- Schnitt- und Wundartzt, geburtig zu Sanen, Disz-
mahlen aber zu Jnterlacken Wohn- und Saszhafft, mir in ge-
buhr zuerkennen geben, waszmaszen Er eine kurtze Zeit dahar
von underschidenlichen Elenden, Brasthafften, alten und j ungen
Persohnen in meiner Amtsverwaltung /: so mit Lystenbriichen,
Hasenscharten und vilen anderen Gefahrlichen Leibschaden
Behafftet gewesen :/ Einstandig Ersucht und gebetten worden,
selbige um einen Leidenlichen Preis anzunemen, und volgends
von Jhren groszen Leibsgebrasten wo moglich durch Schnitt und
Medicaments n zuentledigen und zecwrieren, welche er nit nur
admittirt und angenomen, sonderen auch mit der Hilf und By¬
stand Gottes Glucklich geschnitten und nachvolgende grosze
Leibs accidents n in kurtzer Zeit Geheilet, und vermittlest ange-
wendten Fleiszes und erforderlichen Medicamentsn auf Freyen
Fus gestellt habe ; Als Erstlich, Herr Statthalter Winck-
lers Sohn Jacob zu Thieracheren, so fiinfzehen Jahr alt, an einem
von Mutter Leib her getragenen Lystenbruch; Z u m an¬
deren Hanns Meyer dem Wihrt zu Bluhmenstein Ein halb-
Jahrig Knablin an einem Lystenbruch ; Zum Dritten
Hanns Mettler zu gedachtem Bluhmenstein ein Mann von Drey-
sig Jahren an einem sehr groszen und von Mutterleib her ge¬
tragenen Lystenbruch, wie auch Zum Vierten sein siben
wochiges Knablin an einem von Mutter Leib her gebrachten
Leibschaden ; Zum Funfften Melcher Trachsel von
zwanzig Jahren zu voranzognem Bluhmenstein, an einem Zehen
Jahr lang gehabten Lystenbruch; Zum Sechsten
Christen Stalders sel: Fiinfzehen Jahriger Knaben zu mehrge-
deutem Bluhmenstein an Einem von MutterLeib her getragenen
Lystenbruch ; Zum Sibenden Peter Wenger von offt-
290 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters
gesagtem Ort, von Sechszig Jahren, an einem sehr groszen von
MutterLeib her getragenen Lystenbruch, neben noch einem ab-
geschnittenen groszen Miszgewachs; Z u m Achten
Christen Kiintzi zu Thieracheren ein Eilfwiichiges Zweylling
Knabli, an einem von Mutter Leib her erzihleten Lystenbruch;
Zum Neiinten Hanns Meyessen von Ubeschj Kirchhorj
Thieracheren Ein Jahrig Knablin an einem von Mutterleib her
getragenen Lystenbruch; Zum Zehenden Christen
Zimermans des Schuhmachers im Kehr zu angeregtem Thierach¬
eren Vier Jahrigen Knablin an einem von Mutter Leib her ge-
habten Lystenbruch ; Zum Eilfften David Garmatter
Chorweibel zu mehrermelltem Thieracheren, ein Mann von
fiinfzig Jahren, an einem sehr groszen Lystenbruch; Zum
Zwolf f ten Haubtmann Hanns Kiintzi zu Uttigen Kilch-
horj Kilchdorf auf beiden seiten und funfzehen Jahr Lang ge-
habten groszen Lystenbriichen ; und Zum Dreyzehen-
d e n seiner Schwoster Sohn daselbsten, so Funfzehen Jahr alt,
an einem von Mutter Leib her getragenen Lystenbruch ; Zum
Vierzehenden Vincenz Sageszemann dem Nagler im
Heimberg Kirchhorj Stefiszburg ein Jahrig Knablin an einem
Lystenbruch Geschnitten und Teihls darunder in acht Tagen,
Teihl(sic) in zehen Tagen und Teihls in dreyen Wochen wohl
Curirt habe ; Verners und zum Fiinf zehenden
habe er Hanns Wylers Hausfrau im Lengenbuhl Kirchhorj An-
soltingen (sic), ein Frau von vierzig Jahren an einem Fus zwey
sonderlich grosze offene locher, welche siben Jahr lang desz-
wegen nicht von Haus gehen konnen und mehr als Einhundert
Tahler Vergeblich Verartznet, in kurtzer Zeit wohl geheilet;
Zum Sechszehenden Hanns Gaszner von Anzognem
Ansoldingen (sic) ein Schanckel an der Hufft hinweggenomen,
und in kurtzer Zeit iiber Jemands verwunderung seiner Schmer-
tzen entlediget und geheilet ; Zum Sibenzehenden
Hanns Matzinger von Kilchdorf ein Jahriges Knablin an einer
Zweyfachen Hasenscharten wohl geschnitten ; Zum Acht-
zehenden Seckelmr Peter Schwendimann von Stocken an
einem Bein so grosz geschwollen, und etliche Jahr lang under-
schidenliche Locher darinn gehabt, und in selbiger Zeit vil ohne
verspiihrende hilf darmit geartznet und in kurtzer Zeit wohl
Curirt, wie dann auch Zum Neiinzehenden sein
Schwoster an einem gleichen zufahl wohl geholfen und Jhrer
Von Grueningen— Professionalism in Switzerland 291
Schmertzen Entlediget ; Nachdeme ich aber angeregte
Persohnen, deszwegen und ihres gehabten zustandes halber Er-
heischender Nohtdurfft nach durch ihre vorgesetzten befragen
laszen, als haben mir dieselbigen angebracht, dasz sie mit oban
zognen groszen Leibsgebrasten behafftet gewesen und von den-
selbigen mit der Hilf Gottes durch Jhne obgemelten Hrn Opera -
toren von Grunigen glucklich geschnitten, und anderer ihrer
Leibsgebrasten halber innert kurtzer Zeit wohl Curirt worden
seyen, Hieriiber nun besagter Herr von Grunigen mich freiind-
lich ersucht und gebetten, dasz Jch Ihme, sein sotahnen Ver-
richteten Curen halber einen urkuhndlichen Schein und Attes¬
tation willfahren laszen wolle, welcheszen begehren ich nit un-
zimlich befunden, und diewylen auch zeligsame der Wahrheit
zusteiiren Niemanden versagt, sonderen den begehrenden zu
konfftigem behelf erteihlt werden soli, als habe zu wahrem ur-
kuhnd disere Attestation durch Endsvermelten geschwornen No-
tarium verfertigen und mit meinem adenlichen Einsigel /: Je-
doch mir ohnnachteihlig :/ Verwahrt zustellen laszen wollen.
Actum den vier und zwanzigsten August j des Sechszehenhun-
dert, Neiinzig, und funfften Jahrs 1 6 9 5.
Jos: Fridenrich Gysj
Landtschreiber in Thun Notr :
Zuwiiszen seye hiemit; Dasz annoch vol-
gende, von Hrn Operator von Grunigen, glucklich ver-
richtete Curen droben vergeszen worden ynzustellen, als Nam-
lich, Hat Er desz Ullj Gerbers am Homberg Knab, Nahmens
Niclaus vor (sic. von?) etwa vier Jahren beide bein abgenomen,
und in einem Monat wohl curiert, das einte ob dem Knie und
das ander under dem Knie, und als er das einte abgenomen, habe
der Knab gesagt, mann soile Jhm das andere auch geschwind
abnemen; Denne desz Hanns Biirckis Knablj an der Langenige
an einem von Muter Lyb har getragenen Lystenbruch ; Wie dann
endlich auch Ullj Fahrnj zu Branzigkosten Freye Gricht Stefis-
burg zu Beiden Seiten an zweyen Lystenbriichen, so er by
acht Jahren gehabt geschnitten, und in Kurtzer Zeit, allerseits
wohl curiert ; maszen dann solches, von Jetzanzogner patienten
Elteren, Wahr seyn attestie rt, und von denselben hier ynzusetz-
en begehrt worden. Bynebens hat Haubtmann Kiintzj hier-
voryngesetzt, disere Attestation, mit angehenckter Liber ey,
mehrermelten Hrn von Grunigen, zu bezeugung seines danck-
292 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters
bahren willens, wegen an ihme glucklich verrichteter Cur in
seinem eignen Costen, zugestelt und verehrt. Actum ut Supra.
Jos: Fried : Gysj
Notr : idem
The Texts in English Translation
Letter of Release
In favor of the well-beseen honor-and-art-
loving youth, Isaac von Grlieningen, born in the provincial dis¬
trict of Sanen, in the jurisdiction of Bern.
WE, Chairman, And one entire Asso¬
ciation of Masters of Surgery convened
in the Free Republic’s Worshipful City
of Bern; Make known to Everyone,
herewith That today on the date recorded at the
end, there appeared personally before us in assembled guild,
The respected, upright, honorable, and wise Herr Moses Jantz,
former high bailiff and chairman of the district of Sanen, prop¬
erly placing before us and reminding us that the honor-and-art-
loving youth, Isaac von Grlieningen, whilom, surviving, legiti¬
mate son of the honorable and well-beseen Peter von Grliening-
en, deceased, of the above-mentioned district of Sanen, had some
time ago in the presence of our entire association of master sur¬
geons, in accordance with this profession’s custom and usage,
been duly apprenticed to the honorable, accomplished, discern¬
ing, and wise Herr Samuel Bischoff, citizen, surgeon and opera¬
tor, of the city of Thun, our beloved fellow-master, to learn from
him the praiseworthy arts of surgery and incision, and to gain
practice therein; Whereas, his apprenticeship has now
passed and come to an end, and he has properly completed the
same, (and) now intends with the help of God to visit also other
localities and foreign countries and to strive after further per¬
fection in the free laudable art, to which end an authentic cre¬
dential and certificate with respect to his learning and conduct
would be necessary, (he) respectfully requests that we kindly
grant and issue the same, in case his request be not inadmissable
and everyone concerned feel beholden to substantiate the truth.
Thus we say and testify upon our honor that the above-men¬
tioned Isaac von Griieningen has conducted himself during his
apprenticeship ( : in so far as we now know:) seemly, faith-
Von Grueningen — - Professionalism in Switzerland 293
fully, assiduously, God-fearingly, and well, learning commend-
ably and well, from his above-named master, (the) important
arts of surgery and incision and all good hand-skills of the same,
and whatsoever pertains thereto, in so far as the opportunity
thereto did present itself and occur, as it well behooves and is
meet for an honor-loving apprentice : Therefore have
we willingly yielded to his request, and, while in session as a
guild of masters in accordance with local usage, because of his
successfully accomplished years of apprenticeship, be it noted,
declared him released and free, and in order to further him and
the continuation of his acquired arts, are pleased to grant and
deliver this certificate and letter of release ; Transmitted
herewith to each and all Doctors of Medicine and Chirur-
gery and operators and to every lover of arts as well as everyone
in whatsoever eminence, dignity, or station they be, our kindly
and urgent request to esteem and have favorably in mind the
oft-mentioned Isaac von Grueningen, to render and show him
for the sake of his honest conduct : favor, love, and all desirable
promotion; Then to compensate in return unto everyone
as befits his station, we will be found in similar and other events
at all times quite ready and willing. By virtue of
this Letter which through our customary great seal of
the guild ( : without detriment, however, to ourselves and our
heirs:) secures and confirms the same a true deposition pre¬
pared by the undersigned sworn notary and delivered to von
Grueningen for his future use. SO done this seventeenth
day of June as one computes from the birth of Christ the Lord,
one thousand six hundred seventy and seven years. 1 6 7 7.
ATTESTATION
IN Favor
of Herr Operator
Von Grunigen
WE NICLAUS VON DIESSBACH OF
THE GREAT COUNCIL OF THE WOR¬
SHIPFUL CITY OF BERN, And At This
Time Mayor Of The City and County of Tuhn,
Make Known Herewith: That The Honorable And Profession¬
ally Experienced Herr Ysaac von Grunigen, oculist, amputator,
operator for rupture, incisor, and treater of wounds, native of
294 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
Sanen, at present however resident and settled at Interlacken,
having duly apprised me to what extent a short time ago he had
been urgently besought and requested by diverse miserable, in¬
firm persons old and young within my jurisdiction (who had
been afflicted with inguinal ruptures, harelip, and many other
dangerous bodily disorders) to accept them for a reasonable
price and in ensuance to relieve and to cure them of their great
bodily ailments if possible through operation and medical rem¬
edies, whom he not only admitted and accepted, but also with
the help and succour of God did successfully operate and heal in
a short time of the following great bodily maladies and by means
of applied attention and requisite medicaments did restore to
health ; In the first place, Chairman Winckler’s
five-year-old son, Jacob, at Thieracheren, of a congenital in¬
guinal rupture ; In the second place, (for) Hanns
Meyer, the inn-keeper at Bluhmenstein, a half-year-old little
boy, of an inguinal rupture; In the third place,
Hanns Mettler, in the above-mentioned Bluhmenstein, a man of
thirty years, of a very large congenital inguinal rupture: as
also, In the fourth place, his seven-weeks-old
little boy of a bodily injury dating from his birth; In the
fifth place, Melcher Trachsel, twenty years old, of the
previously named Bluhmenstein, of an inguinal rupture had for
ten years ; In the sixth place, the late Christian
Stalder’s fifteen-year-old boy, at the repeatedly-stated Bluhmen¬
stein, of a congenital inguinal rupture ; In the seventh
place, Peter Wenger of the oft-said locality, sixty years of
age, of a very large congenital inguinal rupture, besides also a
large misgrowth cut off; In the eighth place,
(for) Christian Kiintzi of Thieracheren, an eleven- weeks-old
twin boy, of an inguinal rupture dating from birth ; In t h e
ninth place, (for) Hanns Meyessen of Ubeschi, parish
of Thieracheren, a year-old little boy of a congenital inguinal
rupture ; In the tenth place, a four-year-old little
boy of Christen Zimmern, the shoemaker at Kehr, in the re-
ferred-to Thieracheren, of an inguinal rupture had from birth;
In the eleventh place, David Garmater, choir¬
master of the several-times-mentioned Thieracheren, a man of
fifty years, of a very large inguinal rupture; In the
twelfth place, Captain Hanns Kiintzi of Utigen, parish
Von Grueningen — Pro fessionalism in Switzerland 295
of Kilehdorf, of large inguinal ruptures on both sides had for
fifteen years ; In the thirteenth place, his sis¬
ter's son thereat, some fifteen years old, of a congenital inguinal
rupture; In the fourteenth place, (for) Vin-
cenz Sageszemann, the nail-maker in Heimberg, parish of Stef-
iszburg, a year-old little boy, operated for an inguinal rupture
and successfully cured the same, partly (thereunder) in eight
days, partly in ten days, and partly in three weeks; Further¬
more and in the fifteenth place, that he had
well healed in a short time Hanns Wyler's housewife at Lengen-
btihl, parish of Amsoldingen, a woman of forty years, having on
one foot two exceptionally large open sores, who because of them
could not go out from her house for seven years and had use¬
lessly spent more than one hundred Thalers for doctors and
medicines ; In the sixteenth place, (for) Hanns
Gaszner of the said Amsoldingen, amputated a femur at the hip,
and in a short time to one's amazement relieved him of his pains
and healed him; in the seventeenth place,
Hanns Matzinger’s one-year-old little boy, of Kilchdorf, a double
harelip successfully operated; In the eighteenth
place, Peter Schwendimann, treasurer of Stocken, one leg
greatly swollen and for several years affected with different
open sores, in which time he had doctored much without notice¬
able help, well cured in a short time; as then also in the
nineteenth place, his sister well helped of a like
malady and relieved of her pains ; Whereas, I now have
caused the afore-mentioned persons to be questioned thereabout
and as to their former condition, inquiring in so far as neces¬
sary* of their superiors, thus have they reported to me: that,
having been afflicted with the above-mentioned grave bodily dis¬
eases, they had with the help of God been successfully operated
by him, the above-mentioned Herr von Grunigen, surgeon, and
within a short time well cured of their other bodily ills ; Now
since in this matter the said Herr von Grunigen has kindly re¬
quested and besought me, that I, because of his so-accomplished
recoveries, grant an official Certificate of Attestation, which re¬
quest I have not found improper, and since, moreover, testimony
contributing to the truth should be refused no one but delivered
to petitioners for (their) future help, therefore (do I) cause
That is to say, in the case of children.
296 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters
this attestation made a true legal document through the sworn
notary entered below and secured (however without detriment
to myself) with my noble seal. Done August the four and twen¬
tieth of the sixteen hundred ninety and fifth year 1 6 9 5.
Jos. Fridenrich Gysi, Notary
Clerk in Thun
Be it known herewith, that to be included are also the following
successfully accomplished cures of Herr von Grunigen, surgeon,
forgotten above; namely, about four years ago he amputated
both legs of Ulli Gerber’s boy, Niclaus, at Homberg, and satis¬
factorily cured him in a month, the one above the knee and the
other below the knee, and after he had taken off the one, the
boy is said to have said that the other should also be quickly
taken off for him ; then Hanns Biircki’s little boy of Langenige
of a congenital inguinal rupture ; and then finally also Ulli Farm
of Branzigkosten, free-district of Stefisburg, two ruptures, on
both sides, that he had had for about eight years, operated and
completely healed in a short time: subsequently investigated
these and through the here-mentioned patients’ parents attested
as being true, and desired by them to be here included; more¬
over, the hereabove-stated Captain Kiintzi, to give proof of
his grateful disposition because of the successful cure accom¬
plished upon him, has at his own expense delivered and pre¬
sented this Attestation with appended postscript to the repeated¬
ly-mentioned Herrn von Grunigen. Actum ut supra.
Jos : Frid : Gysi
Notr : idem
Spelling Practices
In the appended Glossary is an alphabetical list of words now
obsolete or current only in dialect. Words the spelling of which
differs but little from that of today are not included. The fol¬
lowing practices are to be noted:
(1) The use of tz and dt after liquids and nasals where HG.
has 2 and d respectively— Artzt, gantz, kurtz, sibentzig, schmer-
tzen, sandt, etc.;
(2) The use of an unassimilated labial after corresponding
nasal, i.e. mb for m, nt for n— hinwiderumb, versambletem,
frombde, unzimblich, desendwegen, einte;
Von Grueningen — Professionalism in Switzerland 297
(3) The appearance of lenis labials where HG. has fortis —
Haubtmann, darunder, underschidenlich ;
(4) The doubling of voiceless stops and affricates, as ck for
HG. k, tt for t, ff for / — Interlacken, Schanckel, gutt, auff,
Brieff, Graaffschafft, behafftet, Nohtdurfft, bekrefftigt ;
(5) The omission of h where it is used as a sign of lengthen¬
ing in HG. — anzunemen, gewont ;
(6) The insertion of h as a sign of lengthening and its use
as a final letter where it is not used today — Bluhmenstein,
danckbahr, dismahlen, erlehrnet, gebiihrtig, nahmens, nuhn,
Ohrt, Persohnen, Raht, Tahler, tuhn, Wihrt, Zeith;
(7) The use of pure back vowels where HG. has correspond¬
ing umlaut or diphthongization — Burger, hufft, loblich, us, Zalt,
zuRuckgelasner ;
(8) The use of single s where HG. has ss — wiisen, lasen,
geflisen, desen;
(9) The use of both y and ei, giving us side by side the spell¬
ings: Lyb and Leib, yn and ein (ynzusetzen, hievoryngesetzt,
and einstandig, Einsigel, where HG. has instandig, and Insie-
gel) ;
(10) The diphthong ey and y where HG. has ei — bey and by,
Lystenbruch, diewylen, dreysig, frey, seye, zweyfach, zweylling;
(11) The umlauting of u in the diphthong eii- — frelindlich,
gedelit, heut, neiin, zusteuren;
(12) The MHG. spelling of syllables having i without the use
of e as in HG. — -diser, siben, vilen;
(13) The rounding of e and i in speech, accounting for the
spellings— frombde, Schwoster, wiisen;
(14) The phonetic spelling of salig, sasshaft, Schanckel, gon-
stigest, Gottsf orchtig, befurderen, bekrefftiget, eilf wuchig ;
(15) The use of unweakened inflectional and other syllables
especially en, est , and et where HG. has contraction— anderen,
bekrefftiget, gonstigest, leidenlich, vermitlest;
(16) The use of contracted forms — gemelt for gemeldet,
geacht for geachtet, Gricht for Gericht ;
(17) The use of an overlined m and n to signify doubling.
298 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters
Glossary
Abbreviations used
adenlich, a. [MHG. adenlich, HG. adelig.] Noble,
angeregt, past p. [EG. anregen to touch, HG. anregen to men¬
tion.] Mentioned.
anzogen (jetzanzogen, obanzogen, voranzogen), p.a. [EG. anzie -
hen to quote.] Mentioned; named; designated,
bedeiite, a. [MHG. bediuten to make understandable; bediute,
adv., HG. bedeutend .] Important; significant,
befelch, n.m. [MHG. bevelhen to commit to someone’s protec¬
tion; EG. befelch recommendation, memory.] Mind; mem¬
ory. “Jn gonstiger Recommendation und befelch zehaben”
to esteem and have favorably in mind,
beschechen, past. p. [MHG. beschechen, EG. geschehen to come
to pass.] Done; enacted.
beschulden, v. infin. [EG. beschulden to reimburse, to fulfill.]
To compensate for; to repay.
Bott, n.m. and neut. [MHG. gebot, Al. dial. D’s gross Bott “die
. . . Hauptversammlung der . . . Zunfte in Bern.” (Cf. S-T 4 :
Von Grueningen — Professionalism in Switzerland 299
1896) B. dial, al hot einmal now and then.] The semi-annual
general session of the Bernese guilds,
brasthafft, a. [HG. bresthaft .] Invalid; infirm,
dahar, adv. [HG. daher.] Therefore, therefrom,
eilf, num. [MHG. eilf<ein-lif ; HG. elf.] Eleven,
erzihlet, past, p.; infin. erzihlen. [MHG. erziln produce; gen¬
erate. For introduction of gutteral h after i in B. dial. cf.
clfio ichi come in; HG. erzielen obtain.] Brought forth. “Von
Mutterleib her erzihlet ” Dating from birth,
formeklich, adv. [MHG. for + merklich before + notably; for
elision of r cf. HG. fodern, variant for fordern < OHG. for-
daron.] To be well noted.
fiirbringen, v. [EG. einem etwas fiirbringen to place before
someone.] To place before.
gedeiiten (mehrgedeuten), p.a. [MHG. diuten show, designate.
See also No. 11 under “Spelling Practices” above. The par¬
ticle ge- is here combined with the infin. as in MHG.] To
show; refer.
gefolgen, v. [HG. folgen.] To follow,
har, adv. [HG. her.] Here; hither.
ihme, pers. pron. dat. sing. [MHG. im. In the older MHG. mss.
the dat. sing, is ime ; cf. P-G p. 100.] Him.
ihne, pers. pron. acc. sing. [MHG. in.] Him.
inn, prep, and adv. [MHG. inne.] In.
inne in, adv. [Cf. MHG. in diu during; Jnne jn while inside.]
Within ; while in session.
innert, prep. w. dat. [Cf. B. dial, innet, S-T 1 :295.] Within,
.jnn, see inn.
jedermenigcklichen, see menigcklich.
jetzanzognen, p.a. (See anzogen.) Now designated.
Kilchhorj, n.f. [Kilch Al. dial, church; EG. horen, HG. gehoren
belong.] Parish.
Kirchhorj, n.f. [MHG. Kirch-hoere] Parish.
Landamann, n.m. [Goth, andbahti; OHG. ambat; MHG. ambet;
HG. Amt; lant + man an official pronouncing sen¬
tence; burgomaster.] High bailiff; chairman.
Leibsgebrasten, n (See brasthafft) Bodily ailments; infirmities,
leidenlich, a [HG. leidlich. See No. 15 under “Spelling Practices”
above.] Fair ; reasonable.
Liberey, n.f. [LL. liberare to deliver; HG. liefern.] That which
is delivered herewith ( ?) ; “. . . mit angehenckter Liberey ”
300 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters
evidently here synonymous with appended codicile or post¬
script.
mehrgedeuten, p. (See gedeiiten.) Repeatedly referred to.
meingcklichen, (Evidently this spelling is owing to a misplaced
“i” dot. See menigcklich.) Everyone.
Nohtdurfft, n.f. [MHG. notdurft.'] Necessity. “Erheischender
N. nach” inquiring in so far as necessary,
menigcklich ( jedermenigcklichen) , adv. [MHG. menic a. many ;
manig n.f . multitude. When alL or jeder- is combined with
mdnnig the meaning is, general, universal. S-T 4 :293.] To
everyone. “Thund kund j. hiermit” herewith make known
to everyone.
obanzognen, p.a. (See anzogen.) Above-designated; mentioned.
Obmann, n.m. [ In B. President bei . . .Gemeindeversammlung-
en, usw.” S-T 4:245.] Chairman; presiding officer.
Secklmr, (Sackelmeister) n.m. [MHG. seckel money bag.]
Treasurer.
Schultheiss, n.m. [OHG. scultheizo one who assigns duties and
tasks ; town mayor “Das der Chuehirt zum Schultis is worde”
S-T 2 : 1684.] Chief magistrate of a city or town; mayor,
sotahnen, p.a. [EG. sotan such.] Such ; so done.
Statthalter, n.m. [In 1436 vice-mayor. “Wenn ein schults von
der statt ryt, dass er dann soil ein statthalter haben.” S-T
2:1684. In Thierachern about 1700 “eine von der Obrigkeit
angestellte Amtsperson, die den Landvogt oder Schultheiss
von Thun im Bezirksgericht vertrat und zugleich Vorsteher
des Dorfes Thierachern war.” — R. Feller. See footnote 12.]
Chairman.
Trewen, n.f. pi. [HG. treu!\ Good faith ; honor. “ Bey unseren
wahren Trewen” Upon our honor,
verartznen, v. [EG. verarz(e)nen.\ To spend money for doctors
and medicines.
verwahrt, v. [MHG. verwarn ; HG. bewahren.'] Secure ; keep,
volgends, adv. [EG. folgends. ] Consequently ; ensuingly.
voranzognen, p.a. (See anzogen.) Before-mentioned,
vorhabens, pres. p. [HG. v or haben. Al. dial, vorhabens sin w.
zu and infin. to intend to. “Wenn d’r vorhabes sid, wider
z’boue.” S-T 2:910.] Intending. ((Jetzundaber vorhabens
seye . . . zu” Now intends to.
Von Grueningen — Professionalism in Switzerland 301
wahrender, p. [MHG. wern; OHG. weren to last; HG. wahrend
prep. w. gen.] During. “Jn wahrender seiner Lehrzeit” dur¬
ing his apprenticeship.
weilund a . and adv. [OHG. wilom; MHG. ivilent; HG. wetland.]
Former (ly) ; whilom.
welchessen, rel. pron. gen. [MHG. welch and wilch . HG. welcher
gen. replaced by dessen.] Whose.
wolbescheiden, a. [MHG. bescheiden informed; HG. bescheiden
moderate, modest; cf. beschieden endowed.] Seemly; well-
beseen.
wollen, v. [MHG. wellen.\ To will; to be determined.
ze- prep, and particle [MHG. ze; HG. zu. Cf. zehaben , zecur -
ieren.] To.
zechen, num. [HG. zehn. See No. 11 under “Spelling Practices”
above.] Ten.
zeugsame, n.f. [MHG. ziugsame .] Proof ; testimony.
AMLETH’S SHIELD: A COMMENT ON THE PICTORIAL
ELEMENTS OF THE HAMLET STORY
Julia Grace Wales
University of Wisconsm
Pictured background and the spectacular aspects of action
are powerful factors— factors both creative and preservative —
in the evolution of all story. A good case could be made for the
possibility that Shakespeare’s selection of material was as often
determined by picture-evoking passages as by any other element
in his sources.
Behind Belleforest, French narrator of the sixteenth century,
behind Saxo Grammaticus, Danish historian of the end of the
twelfth century, scholars have pursued teasing resemblances to
the Hamlet story. Professor Kemp Malone has followed them in
the region in which our own epic literature had its birth. The
researches of Sir Israel Gollancz and others have traversed not
only Denmark but Iceland, Ireland, and Mediterranean lands.
Dr. Schick has been lured to India and China. Space does not
permit us to recapitulate these adventures nor to review the
treasury of stories thus collected. We may note only that Gol¬
lancz finds the first mention of Hamlet in a brief quotation from
the poet Snaebjorn (preserved by Snorri Sturlason, who wrote
about 1230) :
’Tis said that far out, beyond the skirts of the earth, the Nine Mjaidens
of the Island Mill stir amain the host-cruel Skerry-quern — they who
in ages past ground Hamlet’s meal. The good Chieftain furrows the
hull’s lair with his ship’s beaked prow.
Gollancz thinks “the underlying reference is certainly to the
great world-mill deep down in the sea, the great cosmic force,
which the ancient Northerners and other races conceived as the
cause of storms and showers, and of all the disintegrating
changes wrought on mountains, rocks, and shores.”
With Saxo and Belleforest we are nearer home — not so far
from the beat of the casual reader, who turns to Shakespeare
for poetry and drama, not for curiosities of scholarship. Even
here, however, most readers do not know the material well
304 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters
enough to draw from it a larger imaginative experience into
which they can fit Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Gollancz says, in the Introduction to his Sources of Hamlet
(1926), “Geoffrey’s priceless gift of Arthurian romance has not
proved richer than Saxo’s wild barbaric tale of Hamlet’s fate.”
The events of the old tale may be found summarized in most of
the popular introductions to Shakespeare’s play, but the reader
is urged to go back and read the whole story in Elton’s transla¬
tion of Saxo’s sonorous Latin.
It is at least in part because of the pictorial quality of his
story that Saxo’s version has such vitality. It is interesting that
Saxo was quite aware of these pictorial elements, enjoyed them
to the full, and himself sums them up in a remarkable passage
describing Amleth’s shield. The pictured shield is of course con¬
ventional in epic literature, expressive of the more or less re¬
flective love of stopping the onward movement of time and hold¬
ing the picture as an arrested thing, and also the naive love of
the whole story in its successive stages made simultaneously
visible. The passage is here quoted in full because it suggested
the present study and serves as its point of departure.
He also had a shield made for him, whereon the whole series of
his exploits, beginning with his earliest youth, was painted in exquisite
designs. This he bore as a record of his deeds of prowess, and gained
great increase of fame thereby. Here were to be seen depicted the slay¬
ing of Horwendil ; the fratricide and incest of Feng ; the infamous uncle,
the whimsical nephew; the shapes of the hooked stakes; the stepfather
suspecting, the stepson dissembling; the various temptations offered,
and the woman brought to beguile him; the gaping wolf; the finding
of the rudder; the passing of the sand; the entering of the wood; the
putting of the straw through the gadfly; the warning of the youth by
the tokens ; and the privy dealings with the maiden after the escort was
eluded. And likewise could be seen the picture of the palace; the queen
there with her son; the slaying of the eavesdropper; and how, after
being killed, he was boiled down, and so dropped into the sewer, and
so thrown out to the swine ; how his limbs were strewn in the mud, and
so left for the beasts to finish. Also it could be seen how Amleth sur¬
prised the secret of his sleeping attendants, how he erased the letters,
and put new characters in their places; how he disdained the banquet
and scorned the drink; how he condemned the face of the king and
taxed the queen with faulty behaviour. There was also represented the
hanging of the envoys, and the young man’s wedding; then the voyage
back to Denmark; the festive celebration of the funeral rites; Amleth,
in answer to questions, pointing to the sticks in place of his attendants,
acting as cup-bearer, and purposely drawing his sword and pricking
Wales — Amleth's Shield
305
his fingers; the sword riveted through, the swelling cheers of the
banquet, the dance growing fast and furious; the hangings flung upon
the sleepers, then fastened with the interlacing crooks, and wrapped
tightly round them as they slumbered; the brand set to the mansion,
the burning of the guests, the royal palace consumed with fire and
tottering down; the visit to the sleeping-room of Feng, the theft of his
sword, the useless one set in its place ; and the king slain with his own
sword’s point by his stepson’s hand. All this was there, painted upon
Amleth’s battle-shield by a careful craftsman in the choicest of handi¬
work; he copied truth in his figures, and embodied real deeds in his
outlines. Moreover, Amleth’s followers, to increase the splendour of
their presence, wore shields which were gilt over.
Saxo's word pictures are not confined to the shield passage.
One detail of the final scene of vengeance in the hall of the pal¬
ace is arresting and may be highly significant, since it might
serve, in the absence of other evidence, to suggest to us that the
Elizabethan dramatist, through whatever intermediate version
the plot was obtained, did not fail to consult Saxo directly:
“Then, to prevent his loose dress hampering his walk, he girded
his sword upon his side." (Et ne gressum laxior vestis offenderet
latus gladio cinxit) . Surely the energetic outlines of this figure
reappear in “my sea-gown scarfed about me".
These and certain other pictorial passages, which we have
not space to review here, are omitted in Belleforest's version.
Belleforest lacks the zest, color, and rhythm of movement found
in Saxo, and he is more given to moralizing. His pious reflec¬
tions, however, humble metal as they are, the alchemy of Eliza¬
bethan poetry could transmute into Hamlet's address to Horatio
and his meditation on the range of human nature from brutality
to the apprehension of a god. Belleforest's passage on the
black art, too, may have combined with another stage tradition
to suggest to the dramatist how to make full use of the ghost,
not only as a spectacular element in the outer action, but as a
mysterious and supernatural agent stimulating to the lurid pag¬
eantry of the mind.
Much of the spectacular element common to the two narra¬
tives no doubt conditions the dramatic form. For example, in
the concluding scenes of vengeance, different as these are from
the scenes of the play, it is easy to see how the pictures called up
in the mind of the Elizabethan dramatist may have given him
hints both for color and for action: grim humour in the midst
of horror, unseemly behaviour at what was to have been a fun-
306 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters
eral, the spectacle of cumulative, onrushing disaster. To the
dramatist : — we should perhaps here say, to the dramatists. I
have purposely refrained from theorizing on how far Shake¬
speare may have been dependent on an earlier drama for access
to this material. But whatever may be the extent to which
Hamlet is derived from an Ur-Hamlet, it seems to me by no
means proved that before giving his play its final form Shake¬
speare did not make every effort to consult all available versions
of the story.
Highly significant in the scene of vengeance, is the with¬
drawal of Fengon from the banquet hall. Perhaps no scene of
Shakespeare's play has been the center of more controversy than
that in which Hamlet spares Claudius at prayer. The dramatist
may have introduced the incident in the first place in order to
make use of the spectacular element suggested by Belleforest of
a scene by night in the king's chamber; he may have added the
circumstance of the king's praying, in order to avoid following
Belleforest to the end of the scene, and thus ending his story
prematurely. The scene having been introduced, Shakespeare
exploits it dramatically.
Later variants of the story of course do not directly concern
any problems of the Shakespearean play. Yet there may be a
point in noting how certain elements have elsewhere been seized
on and given emphasis, how the germ has grown in new soil and
what it has grown into.
The popular (late) story of Brjam, contains a strange mix¬
ture of elements, a fairy tale atmosphere, an intelligent cow, able
to come by herself home from the pasture, a king a-hunting,
whose wish for the cow recalls the parable of the ewe lamb, the
killing of her owner by the king’s men, the strange callousness
of Brjam, who is let live “for he was a witless fool"; riddling
questions, and words that miraculously fulfill themselves (the
boy is told by his mother what to answer and always gives the
right answer too late and is punished) ; the king's banquet, the
whittling of pieces of wood, garments nailed to the floor, and
guests killing each other; a happy ending. Brjam is accepted
as the queen's servant and at last “married the king's daughter,
and became king in that realm, and laid aside all his hare¬
brained folly. Thus ends this story."
Wales — Amleth’s Shield
307
In this folk tale (as in aspects of the Havelok material dealt
with by Gollancz) the sub-normal element is strangely linked
with the super-normal. Idiocy has a subterraneous connection
with powers of divination, and these are combined in Brjam
with the word that has the power to fulfill itself. These over¬
tones, or undertones, haunt the various versions ; and it is pos¬
sible — we are again reminded-— that in Shakespeare one of their
palpable ways of emerging is in the person of a ghost, a being
of another ancestry, yet perhaps also a spontaneous expression
of the magic element of the story.
In the Ambales Saga , a northern variant belonging to the
sixteenth or early seventeenth century, spectacular elements are
present in profusion : the big unsightly man-child "dark-skinned
with bristle hair, black as coal, yet beautiful by reason of
his eyes”, cursed by the witch ("all men shall hold him witless”),
scorned of the king; the sad queen rocking the cradle; the
prince strangely callous to the horrible death of father and
brother; the usurper crowned in the kingly seat, sceptre in
hand ; the queen forced to be called his consort, though her per¬
son is protected by an enchantment; the prince haunting the
kitchenstead, careless in dress, ugly and contrary in behaviour,
whittling wooden spits, playing the fool at the king's feast,
threatening the king with sword-play, sent to be a herdsman
and scattering the flocks, but defending the herdsmen against
giants and robbers ; the herdsmen in the king's hall ; the king's
comment — "Amlode's words [the form of the name varies] are
wise and witless”, a storm raging "so that towers fell far and
wide”; the uproar made by Ambales in the queen's chamber,
the queen keeping quiet in her bed, the sewing maids huddled
in terror, the steward crouching under the bed; Ambales, un¬
known to any, killing the steward with his spear and after¬
wards at night successfully disposing of the body; the prince
betaking himself "to woods and wastes as was his wont” ; the
dragon-ship "with golden vanes and wanded sails ... all steel-
bound down to the water mark”, the rocky strand of Scythia, a
wilderness, a farmstead, a mid-day meal and sleep beside a
stream ; the banquet in the hall of Tamerlaus ; the second sight
of Ambales, who reveals the king’s secrets; the Yule-tide fes¬
tivities in Cimbria; the prince disguised, a cloak over silken
raiment, a grotesque mask over his face, the spits hidden in a
308 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
leathern bag; the prince playing the fool, resting under the
benches, pinning down the robes of drunken courtiers, the
bundle cast into the queen's lap, flung to Gamaliel, Gamaliel
reading the letter in a whisper in the ear of the queen, her weep¬
ing, her passing out of the hall; the fool going on with his
pranks so as to turn their minds from the departure of the
queen, carrying Gamaliel gently from the hall, slamming the
door, leaping over the threshold as the flames burst forth from a
bundle which lay there ; the hall ablaze.
Here the essence seems to be the wronged and thwarted one,
— child, yet growing into man; horror unconfessed, fear and
cunning, half-idiocy; all power held down and driven into de¬
vious channels, a spirit isolated, at odds with its world, brooding
and waiting, repellant, yet not wholly unlovable, commanding
the reader’s sympathy. In fact, there seems to be here a curious
identification of writer, and perhaps reader, or rather story¬
teller (who is a little of both) with Ambales the thwarted one;
and the resolution of the story has some of the typical psychol¬
ogy, more or less infantile, of wish fulfillment. The outcast be¬
comes king ; the isolated one wins friendship ; the thwarted one
becomes the powerful. There is pathos in the wary cunning
with which the identity is guarded, the natural impulse ever
reversed, the secret hidden. None may pluck the heart out of
his mystery. It is the story of the naughty child who is, how¬
ever, the wronged child. A strange wistfulness runs through¬
out : the wound and the queen mother bathing it ; the shelter of
the queen’s chamber ; the occasional kindness, like coals of fire ;
the fierceness of the final revenge ; the sense of release when it
is over, as of a suddenly dispersed storm; the serene ending.
In the final release of the Ambales saga the dream quality lin¬
gers, is most apparent.
To read the variants through swiftly and continuously is to
emerge with a sense of a great vitality, a panorama of the most
intense color, an action of unparalled energy. The scenes, wheth¬
er in primitive or sophisticated forms, are a phantasmagoria
intoxicating to the imagination, philosophically blind as a dream
at times, yet with a tantalizing hint of other than literal impli¬
cations, and in the final version wrought into coherence and
compelled to yield its hidden meaning. It is an illusion of course
that the whole flowering of the tale was in the germ from the
Wales — AmletKs Shield
809
beginning. Yet something fertilizing at least was there which
in the matrix of the human mind has grown like the tree of the
world until the philosophies of mankind have nested in the
branches.
The theme throughout the various versions is the great one
of thwarted human nature, bursting its bonds at last into action.
The theme of the Shakespearean play is enlarged to comprehend
the range of human nature from beastliness to divinity, which
Hamlet harps on morbidly, his mind obsessed with it. And this
element has to do with the central problem of the play : is Ham¬
let essentially incapable of action — only able to act under sudden
spur, or is he, however gradually and painfully, integrating
himself for action? Is his mind on the whole retreating from
action or setting toward action ? Is this a story of a mind bound
by lethargy and thwarted by a time out of joint, at length free¬
ing itself to be itself? The old story in its variants seems to
lend color to the latter idea. Nor could there be a dramatic
motif of more universal appeal, since all human life is just
that, — a struggle for release, of a spirit, somehow imprisoned,
bounded in a nutshell, yet fit to be king of infinite space.
Shakespeare has gathered up the values of this terrible old
tale and let no part escape. The prince of mysterious endow¬
ment is here — gifted with powers of self-preservation and ven¬
geance, of cunning and patient delay and of violent action ; iso¬
lated and self-contained, brooding and perverse, haunted with
evil and in league with supernatural agencies, at odds with his
universe and finally triumphing over it f baffled, disillusioned,
and the victim of wrong.
In all literature where is there anything as spectacular as
this play? On Hamlet's shield what pictures are painted-— the
still cold of the platform, the august figure of the dead king
stalking in the moonlight three times past the watch, the prince
freeing himself from his companions to follow it, swearing his
companions to secrecy upon the hilt of the sword ; the new king
speaking from his throne, the prince sombre among the figures
of the courtiers ; the disheveled Hamlet looking over his shoulder
at frightened Ophelia ; Ophelia giving back her gifts ; the play
scene, the furtive Hamlet, the shrinking Claudius, the watching
Horatio ; Claudius at prayer, and the sinister figure behind him ;
the queen weeping in her chamber, Hamlet crying out after the
310 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters
Ghost, who glides across the chamber like a mote on the eyeball
— “Look where he goes e’en now, out at the portal”; Hamlet
holding the pictures before the queen, Hamlet dragging in the
dead Polonius; the soldiers of Fortinbras marching; Hamlet,
his seagown girt about him, sealing the letters; the sea-fight;
Laertes holding the door against the mob; Ophelia scattering
her flowers ; Hamlet with the skull in his hand ; the funeral pro¬
cession; Hamlet grappling with Laertes in the grave; Hamlet
wounded by the envenomed point, stabbing the king, wresting
the cup from Horatio ; borne aloft to the solemn tramp of feet
and the music of the dead march.
In Shakespeare the whole treatment is indefinitely deepened
— the outer spectacle reflected in a procession of mental images :
the trappings and the suits of woe; the unweeded garden of this
world; Hyperion, and a satyr; Niobe all tears; the sepulchre
opening ponderous and marble jaws; the trivial, fond records
of youth and observation ; Yorick, romping with the little prince
on his back ; with his flashes of merriment setting the table on
a roar ; a sterile promontory and a foul and pestilential congre¬
gation of vapours; the players and their parts- — king, knight,
and lover, clown, and lady; the guilty creature sitting at the
play. Here the theme is repeated in another register, in the
tortured idealism which is part of the thwarting. Outer and
inner movements come together in the great final spectacle,
where the terrible release into action is followed by an encom¬
passing silence — a silence that itself finds voice in the steadfast
continuance of Horatio and his voluntarily assumed responsi¬
bility. The childish ending is gone, its place taken by a pro¬
founder resolution.
For this prince was more than the brooding, violent hero of
the old barbaric story; knew other scruples and fears, ideals,
illusions, affections, duties ; yet stood no less isolated in a world
no less baffling and hostile, where man’s own part was a ques¬
tion
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles.
Indeed so have all these vistas extended and deepened that the
whole is like some great tapestry hung in too shallow a chamber ;
Wales - — Amleth's Shield
311
we cannot see it all at once; it does not come perfectly into
focus.
Hence in the interpretation of the play much is forever un¬
certain, affording matter for perpetual controversy. The ele¬
ment of mystery in the central figure is always emphasized, of
repression tending toward madness, sullen, secretive, shrouded
in both physical and psychological disguise ; and the atmosphere
that hangs over it too is mysterious— a sombre and stormy back¬
ground, and a driving and looming fate that universalizes the
story and hints at cosmic significances. Even individual con¬
sistency seems at times subordinate to this pictorial, atmo¬
spheric, and reflective element. Reflective seems the best word
to characterize the intellectual factor; for the mind seems less
a logical and directing agent than an imaginative and passive
mirror of experience, correlating through picture, rather than
reason, and arriving less at explanation, than mystery and awe,
the true tragic mood. Yet it does not preclude explanation, and
the whole drama remains, more than any other story, the fas¬
cinating material of philosophic thought. Nor is this to say
that the apparently passive elements in Hamlet's mind are not
crystallizing into will to action; for they are here presented in
an essentially poetic medium, just as great effort, seen in retro¬
spect, seems to have sunk into passivity, partaking of the lethar¬
gic quality of a dream, and the things one has done with in-
tensest output of energy seem only to have happened to one.
In Hamlet whether or not we find a “tragic" flaw in any
Aristotelian sense, there is the bewilderment of an eager mind,
contemplating life, wrestling with it, struggling to drag forward
the clogging weight of mortality. At best the reflective mind
integrates slowly, but in proportion as it is honest, its very
reflection is a struggle toward integration. Perhaps Shakespeare
came at the character more or less by accident, being acted upon
himself, as he worked at the material, not merely by suggestions
in the prototypes of Hamlet but by reactions in himself to ele¬
ments of Hamlet's story. If his own imagination is somewhat
passive before the spectacle, absorbed in its chiaroscuro, the
character of the central figure, giving to the author and the
reader as it does a point of view from which to look at the pan¬
orama of the action, will take on at moments a passive and re¬
flective aspect. Motion, moreover, is relative. Even though
312 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters
Hamlet be moving, fate moves faster ; literally his destiny over¬
takes him ; yet he collects himself in time to turn upon it. There
was delay — true ; so was there in the old story ; so is there in
life — pitiful delay, even in the course of respectable achieve¬
ment; and at last the task is done, after a fashion, accidents
aiding our will, accidents making it appallingly miscarry, and
nothing quite as we would have it be. “The readiness is all” —
to pull ourselves together somehow, somehow to face the issue.
The spectacular aspect of Hamlet goes deeper, then, than mere
consideration of theatrical effect and Elizabethan popular ap¬
peal.
To sum up, Saxo, finding stimulus for his imagination in
legendary material of both southern and northern Europe, was
in love with the pictorial elements of the Hamlet story. These
elements of sombre background, violent action, and mystery of
the mind have persisted both through Belleforest to Shake¬
speare, and in variants of Icelandic literature. Because of the
energy with which Shakespeare’s imagination dealt with the
old materials, they are in his Hamlet turned into profound
drama. Yet the spectacular element is still strong as a condi¬
tioning factor ; it furnishes much of the suffusing atmosphere of
poetry; and many of the major difficulties of the play are
illumined by reference to its naive origins. Verily the great
world mill has ground Hamlet’s meal.
A SUGGESTION FOR A HISTORY OF SHAKESPEAREAN
CRITICISM BY PLAYS
Julia Grace Wales
University of Wisconsin
The field of Shakespearean study has been and is so rapidly
enlarging that even the most limited and modest contribution
has now to be preceded by extended research, if the student is to
orient himself accurately enough to be sure what has and what
has not already been done on the point he has in mind — if he is
to get out to the frontiers of his subject and know positively
that he has succeeded in doing so. Valuable as are the recent
bibliographies and surveys, a more complete apparatus of ori¬
entation is greatly needed.*
It may be very soundly argued that it is more possible to do
an original interpretation of a play if we do not know too much
about what has been said on it already. Even so, the most inde¬
pendent of critics is or ought to be glad to check his own findings
with those of others before giving his own their final form,
especially if the checking can be done without too great outlay
of energy and time. And it is all to the good to have the means
of arriving at the weight of opinion on any issue and to see how
ideas recur and with what varying emphasis.
The writer would suggest that a history of Shakespearean
criticism more complete than any at present available be under¬
taken by plays — a volume being devoted to each play — to include
for each play a chronological survey of research and criticism
from the beginning to the present time.
If the work is to fulfill its purpose, the following fields at
least would have to be taken into consideration :
(1) textual criticism
(2) line by line criticism
(3) studies of background and sources
* Since this suggestion was presented at the meeting of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences,
Arts, and Letters in June, 1936, the need has been met in part in- the case of Hamlet by the
invaluable work of Mr. Anton Adolf Raven, A Hamlet Bibliography and Reference Guide, 1877-1935
(University of Chicago Press, 1936). This work does not, however, undertake to give a chrono¬
logical development of the subject.
314 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters
(4) the stage history of the play
(5) various types of interpretative criticism
Now the first two — textual and line by line criticism — have
been dealt with in the Variorum down to the date of publication
or will be dealt with as the work of the Variorum is continued.
This work of course should not be duplicated. The other fields,
however, — more especially studies of background and sources,
and general criticism, — would have to be thoroughly surveyed,
and all fields would have to be chronologically correlated.
The exhaustive bibliography which Dr. S. A. Tannenbaum,
secretary of the Shakespeare Association of America, has in
hand would be invaluable as a starting point.
It would be of the utmost advantage to the present project
to proceed in the rear of the Variorum and to make use of the
winnowed harvest of material in the volumes already issued and
the forthcoming volumes. It must be re-emphasized, however,
that the purpose of the history is quite different from that of
the Variorum . The Variorum is concerned primarily with pro¬
viding an apparatus for understanding the play. The object of
the history of criticism, on the other hand, is to throw into per¬
spective the story of the impact of the play on the human mind,
to give a chronological account of the growth of knowledge of
the play, and the development of thought about it. It would pro¬
ceed by years, decades, half centuries, summing its findings at
regular intervals, or as organic divisions might appear in the
material in consequence of conditioning events or influences.
Even negative results would have to be included to some extent,
for it is important to know when a line of investigation has led
only to a dead end. The order of the emergence, the acceptance,
the rejection, perhaps the re-emergence of ideas would be exam¬
ined, and their interaction, and also the thought of the period in
which specific ideas occur in so far as it throws light on their
significance. The method should be descriptive and objective,
though evaluation will be implied in the record of the fate of
ideas, as well as in proportion of treatment.
It is true that much of this material has been and is being
dealt with in period histories of Shakespearean criticism. The
history by plays, however, proceeding on a different scale, and
at right angles, as it were, to the period histories, will not only
deal with some of the elements more exhaustively but will or-
Wales — History of Shakespearean Criticism
315
ganize them all in a different way, will endeavor to trace period
changes in continuity for its own purposes, and will have its own
special task to interpret them organically in relation to the sin¬
gle play. It does not need to be said that Shakespeare criticism,
national and international, is a highly significant aspect of the
history of thought. We believe that it is in relation to the single
play that it can, on some sides at least, be most precisely studied.
Ideally the work ought to be kept up to date in future sup¬
plements, but to complete it to any definite date would be worth
while.
The most economical way to do the work would be to collect
the material for all plays simultaneously, since many of the same
sources would have to be gone through for all. The difficulties
of organizing these labors would be very great. Collaborators
would have to keep in touch for purposes of division of labor
and exchange of data. Even if the work has to be done a section
at a time over a long period, each worker or group of workers
will incidentally file much material toward the general project.
While the task as a whole is one for co-operative scholarship,
any part of it could if necessary be separately undertaken,
such as a history of the scholarship and criticism in the field of
one play , or one group of plays (say, one tragedy, or the early
comedies, or the early histories) . This, if well done, ought to be
useful even if nothing more came of it.
SPENSER AS AN HISTORIAN IN PROSE
Rudolf B. Gottfried
University of Wisconsin
The points at which the orbits of poetic luminaries intersect
are often data of incomparable value; and even the least of
them, however unimportant in itself, may enable us to gauge a
difference of direction between important bodies. A case of
this significant divergence over a small matter might be found,
I think, near the beginning of Milton's History of England in a
passage which treats one of the early British kings :
Brutus, therefore, surnamed Greenshield, . . . fought a second
battle in Henault, with Brunchild, at the mouth of Scaldis,
and encamped on the river Hania. Of which our Spencer
also thus sings:
Let Scaldis tell, and let tell Hania,
And let the marsh of Esthambruges tell
What colour were their waters that same day,
And all the moor 'twixt Elversham and Dell,
With blood of Henalois, which therein fell ;
How oft that day did sad Brunchildis see
The Greenshield dyed in dolorous vermeil, &c.
But Henault, and Brunchild, and Greenshield, seem newer
names than for a story pretended thus ancient.1
Through his discussion of a rather pale subject Milton clearly,
if unemphatically, betrays his attitude toward a predecessor.
The reference to “our Spencer" can only be interpreted as a
spark of that affectionate enthusiasm which had already warmed
such phrases as “our sage and serious poet," “a better teacher
than Scotus or Aquinas" ; but here, where it is a case of histori¬
cal and not moral authority, Milton makes it no less evident
that he does not follow Spenser's leadership. The Faerie Queene
is quoted only to be questioned. Milton has glimpsed what
Miss Harper was later to demonstrate in detail, that the treat¬
ment of historical material in the Faerie Queene is astonishingly
1 Milton, Prose Works, ed. Charles Symmons, London, 1806, IV, 13; Faerie Queene, II.x.24.1-7.
For an evaluation of Milton as an historian I am indebted to Harry Glicksman, “The Sources of
Milton’s History of Britain”, University of Wisconsin Studies in Language and Literature, XI
(1920), 105-41,
318 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences f Arts , and Letters
credulous and irrational.2 Somewhere between the two poets
lies the discovery of the modern sense of historical fact.
In defense of both Spenser and Milton it may be urged, of
course, that the Faerie Queene is poetry, not prose history ; that
the History of England is in every sense prose ; and that there¬
fore a divergence of viewpoint between them has no unusual
significance. Indeed Milton, although he quotes poetry to illus¬
trate history, must have observed a distinction of this kind for
himself; but precisely his ability to draw a line is what makes
this slight disagreement with his predecessor significant. Spen¬
ser nowhere appears to assume, much less to have consciously
decided, that the poetic fancy and the perception of historical
fact may belong to organs distinct in quality and frequently
opposed in function. His Phantastes is merely a younger Eum-
nestes, an historian of the future; he describes the chronicles
of Fairyland as a companion volume for the chronicles of Bri¬
tain ; and the Faerie Queene as a whole profits by a simplifica¬
tion which brings material from the most various sources within
the single focus of the poet’s fancy.3 But his failure to develop
a distinct sense of historical fact, the short end of the same
stick, is more clearly revealed without the guidance of his muse
in sober prose.
Spenser’s prose dialogue, A View of the Present State of Ire¬
land , has promoted a great deal of Irish wrath since its publica¬
tion in 1633; occasionally the indignation aroused by his pro¬
posals to reform the island has taken an easy vengeance by
pointing out how vulnerable is his treatise on the side of history.
In the seventeenth century John Lynch, for example, comparing
Spenser’s abhorrence of the Irish mantle with the venerable
pedigree he ascribes to it, calls him “the most prejudiced cal¬
umniator.”4 But a heavier attack was at the same period de¬
livered by the distinguished Gaelic scholar, Eoderic O’Flaherty;
2 Carrie A. Harper, The Sources of British CItronicle History in Spenser's Faerie Queene, Phil¬
adelphia, 1910, passim.
3 Faerie Queene, II.ix.47-60. Spenser’s failure to distinguish the poetic fancy from the
perception of scientific fact may well be connected with the uncertainty whether the muse of the
Faerie Queene be Clio or Calliope. (Frederick M. Padelford, “The Muse of the Faerie Queene ,”
SP, XXVII (1930), 111-24. Josephine W. Bennett. “Spenser’s Muse”, JEGP, XXXI (1932),
200-19).
4 “Spenserus author est gestatam fuisse pennulam a Judaeis, Chaldaeis, Aegyptiis, Graecis, et
Latinis, quae gestatio cum nullam iis barbariae notam inuserit, iniquissimus erit ille rerum aestimator
habendus, qui gestationis ejusdem consortio junctos, alios barbarie maculatos, alios immunes pronun-
tiabit.” ( Cambrensis Eversus, ed. Matthew Kelly, Dublin, 1848-1851, II, 202 and 203) View, ed.
W. L. Renwick, London, 1934 pp. 66-9.
Gottfried — Spenser As An Historian
319
before the inadvertance of the View he exclaims with pedantic
glee: “Speetatum admissi risam teneatis amici? . . . We can¬
not but admire the poet’s knowledge in domestic affairs! We
are astonished at the politician’s puerility in history ! So Cicero
very justly compares those who are unacquainted with the his¬
torical transactions of former ages, to children.— -However, it
is not my design at present to refute the false and calumnious
assertions of this writer.”5
Before resuming his Irish annals O’Flaherty nevertheless
contrives to trip Spenser up on several points in English his¬
tory. The assertion of the View that William the Conqueror in¬
troduced Common Law into England is easily overthrown by
references to Sleidan and Camden.6 When Spenser likewise de¬
clares that Robert Vere, Earl of Oxford, fled into Ireland during
the Barons’ Wars and that he was afterwards put to death in
England, he merely shows his own incompetence as an his¬
torian : the Earl of Oxford never visited Ireland, and he died in
exile at Louvain.7 But the most curious of the errors O’Flaherty
has detected occurs in the statement that Edward the fourth
sent to Ireland his brother the Duke of Clarence, who married
the heiress of Ulster and would have redeemed the island from
the re-encroachments of the natives if he had not been recalled
to England and there basely murdered; it can be shown that
while George Duke of Clarence, the brother of Edward the
fourth, served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, he neither visited
that kingdom nor married the heiress of Ulster ; that lady had
in fact married his ancestor, Lionel Duke of Clarence.8
O’Flaherty, however, fails to call attention to circumstances
which both extend and partially explain Spenser’s error. We
can be sure, in the first place, that by “the Duke of Clarence”
he meant George, the brother of Edward the fourth, who was
Lord Lieutenant at various times between 1462 and 1477 : the
View dates his supposed deeds after the troubles which Ireland
suffered from the enlistment of her landowners in the Wars of
the Roses, and the “synister meanes” of his death can only be an
5 Ogygia, trans. Rev. James Hely, Dublin, 1793, II, 285 and 288; for the original Latin see
the edition of London, 1685, pp. 367-9.
9 View, ed. Renwick, pp. 6-7 and 252; Ogygia, II, 286-7. A failure to read the whole of
Camden’s explanation may have caused Spenser’s mistake. ( Britannia , London, 1590, pp. 88-9).
7 View, ed. Renwick, pp. 85 and 273; Ogygia, II, 286.
* View, ed. Renwick, pp. 20-1; Ogygia, II, 285-8. Ware had already noted the error, ( The
Historic of Ireland, Dublin, 1633, p. 121 of Spenser’s View),
320 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
allusion to the famous malmsey butt.9 On the other hand, Spen¬
ser tells us that his departure from Ireland was followed by an
uprising under one of the O’Briens, a certain Murrogh en
Ranagh, who devastated large parts of Connaught and Munster;
unfortunately the Four Masters mention the devastations of
Murrogh en Ranagh O’Brien under 1382, and another authority
confirms his death in the following year.10 The muddle of chron¬
ology which results can only be explained by interpreting Spen¬
ser’s Duke as Lionel of Clarence, who married the heiress of
Ulster in 1347 and who governed Ireland, for the most part in
person, between 1361 and 1366.* 11 It is therefore obvious that
under the title “Duke of Clarence” two very different noblemen,
whose lives were separated by a century of Irish history, have
been confused. This mistake, it should be added, was probably
supported by a second confusion: the names of three places
which the View tells us were laid waste by Murrogh en Ranagh
O’Brien seem to have come from a document alluding to the de¬
vastations made by another Murrogh O’Brien after the death of
George of Clarence and in the reign of Edward the fourth.12
Thus one error is the counterpart of the other.
The double confusion of the two Dukes of Clarence and the
two Murrogh O’Briens would not be worth investigating, how¬
ever, were it merely an anomaly; but it reveals in their most
elaborate form the qualities which are typical of Spenser as an
historian. His mind, on the one hand, has little or no respect
for facts ; details of knowledge which should have emerged from
Holinshed or Camden, for example the marriage of the heiress
of Ulster to a son of Edward the third and not to a brother of
Edward the fourth, cause him no uneasiness.13 With this myopia
goes a patrician disregard for numbers: the text of the View
does not contain a single date, and in almost every passage
which involves arithmetic the author’s results are an embarrass¬
ment to ordinary scholarship. On the other hand, an analogy,
a similarity of reference, or the attractive tail feather of a mem-
9 View, ed. Renwick, pp. 19 and 21; DNB, article on George of Clarence by James Tait.
19 View, ed. Renwick, pp. 21-2; Four Masters, ed. John O’Donovan, Dublin, 1856, IV, 689
and 691; Annals of Ulster, ed. B. MacCarthy, Dublin, 1887-1901, III, 12-3.
11 DNB, article on Lionel of Clarence by T. F. Tout. For his reconquests see Edmund Curtis,
“The Viceroyalty of Lionel, Duke of Clarence,” Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries o)
It eland, XL VIII (1918), 67.
12 See “Irish Geography in Spenser’s View," an article forthcoming in ELH.
13 Britannia, pp. 361 and 705.
Gottfried — Spenser As An Historian
321
ory fills him with all the conviction which an historian usually
accords to points beyond dispute : the identity of the two Dukes
of Clarence could only have been received as truth by a mind
trained to seize, not on facts but on resemblances.
Illustrations of the latter tendency are not limited, of course,
to the field of English history. Classical literature occasionally
furnishes Spenser's historical arguments with a support bewil¬
dering to one of his German annotators.14 His discussion of the
mantle, for example, includes the following observation: “The
Egyptians lykewise vsed yt as yee maye reade in Herodotus and
maye be gathered, by the descryption of Berenice in the greeke
Comentaries vpon Callymachus."15 Herodotus, whatever the
probability that he might so have written, does not actually
write of the Egyptians' using the mantle; the most which can
be said for the View is that he mentions a similar garment
among the Babylonians.16 But “the descryption of Berenice in
the greeke Comentaries vpon Callymachus', involves a more in¬
teresting error.
The Hymns of Callimachus do not allude to any mantle of
Berenice, the Queen of Egypt, and his poem on her hair survives
only in the Latin translation of Catullus, which is without Greek
commentary and contains only a vague reference to clothes
(11.80-1). But Spenser's comment, however hopeless it appears
at a first glance, may be explained as a confused recollection.
The Hymns of Callimachus twice call Artemis the “Goddess of
the Mantle" and in a third passage describe the mantle itself:
“give me to gird me in a tunic with embroidered border reaching
to the knee."17 On the “embroidered border" the Renaissance
was familiar with a Greek scholium to the effect that the poet
meant a fringe or row of tassels around the mantle and that
Homer similarly refers to tassels of solid gold.18 Furthermore,
the passage of Callimachus thus annotated was long ago con¬
nected by Upton with Spenser's description of Belphoebe in the
Faerie Queene, where the skirt of her “silken camus" is said to
14 Wilhelm Riedner, Spensers Belesenheit, in Munchner Beitrdge zur Romanischen und Eng-
lischen Philologie, XXXVIII, Leipzig, 1908, passim.
15 View, ed. Renwick, p. 66.
18 Riedner, p. 46; View, ed. Renwick, pp. 268-9.
11 Hymns, I, 76; III, 225; III, 11-2; for the last the Loeb Classics edition, trans. A. W.
Mair, p. 61.
18 Hymni, ed. Henri Estienne, Geneva, 1577, p. 13. For the interpretation of the scholium
I am indebted to Dr. W. D. Patton.
322 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
have been “hemd with golden fringe.”19 From these circum¬
stances it seems fair to conclude that in the View Spenser is re¬
ferring to a scholium on the robe of Artemis which he had
already used in describing Belphoebe; the substitution of Ber¬
enice for Artemis is understandable since the same Callimachus
had written a well known poem on Berenice ; and the mantle of
the goddess was the more easily appropriated to the Queen of
Egypt since the View is bent on proving that the Egyptians,
along with other ancient peoples, used the mantle. The same
knot of plausible associations, we may observe, has bred fine
poetry and false history.
Spenser's failure to criticize the bases of his information
frequently appears in a less subjective form, where an error may
have been the result of some ordinary oversight, a slip of mem¬
ory or faulty notes. Along with these there are the more com¬
plicated cases in which he pays the penalty for borrowing at
second hand. In one passage, for example, he assures us :
the Gaules (as is stronglie to bee proued by many ancyent
and verie athenticall writers) did first inhabite all the sea
cost of Spaine even vnto Gales & the mouth of the straightes
. . . which appeareth by sundrye cytties and havens in Spaine,
called of them, as Portingallia, Gallecia, Galdunum, and also
by sondrye nacions therein dwellinge, which yet haue re-
serued there owne names of the Gaules : as the Rhegine Pre -
samarie Tamariti Nerij and dy verse others. All which Pom-
peus Mela : beinge him self a Spanyard, yet saith to haue
discended from the Colties of France.20
Unfortunately Mela writes only that the Celts occupy the Span¬
ish peninsula and that the Gronii, Presamarci, Tamarici, and
Nerii hold subdivisions of it, not that these tribes are descended
from the Celts of France.21 But the origin of Spenser’s error
is clarified by turning to a passage in George Buchanan’s His¬
tory of Scotland :
Ephorus, according to Strabo, extended the length of Gaul
as far as Cadiz; and surely the whole side of Spain which
faces north witnesses by the names of its peoples and its
nations that it was long ago of Gallic origin .... and, if we
are to believe Pomponius Mela, a native Spaniard, from the
19 Faerie Queene, II. iii. 26; ed. John Upton, London, 1758, II, 445.
20 View, ed. Renwick, p. 54.
31 Chorographia, lib. Ill, cap. 1; Riedner, p. 124.
Gottfried — Spenser As An Historian
323
mouth of the river Douro as far as the cape called either
Celticum or Nerium [Finisterre] the Celts dwell under their
several cognomens of Gronii, Presamarci, Tamarici, and
Nerii.22
From Buchanan Spenser has obviously borrowed his reference
to Mela and the subdivisions of the Spanish Celts; the surest
proof of this is his mistake in crediting Mela with a theory which
is properly Buchanan's, that the Spanish Celts are of Gallic
origin. In addition to thus trapping himself, he also commits
minor blunders. The “Gronii" of his source are transformed
into the “Rhegine,” perhaps through confusion with the “Regni"
later mentioned by the View.23 Pomponius becomes “Pompeus”
Mela, a mistake of which something will be said hereafter. And
the statement that the Gauls inhabited “all the sea cost of Spaine
even vnto Gales & the mouth of the straightes” seems to be an
unlucky reminiscence of the two citations by Buchanan, that
Gaul extended “as far as Cadiz" and that the Celts dwelt “from
the mouth of the river Douro to the cape" of Finisterre. Spen¬
ser, in other words, comes off badly from his appeal to the au¬
thority of Mela.
On the next page, however, he is not afraid to risk another
unlicensed borrowing. This time Tacitus is said to affirm that
Spaniards had once settled in southwestern Ireland; but the
only relevant passage in the Roman historian is a suggestion
that the Iberians may have crossed into south Wales.24 Ware,
the first editor of the View, noted the discrepancy and called
attention to the following in Buchanan :
C. Tacitus affirms on sure conjecture, as it seems to him, that
the western side of Britain, or Albion, was inhabited by de¬
scendants of the Spaniards. It is hardly credible, however,
that the Spaniards, leaving behind them Ireland, a country
both nearer [home] and of a softer air and soil, should first
22 “Ephorus, teste Strabone, Galliae longitudinem ad Gades vsque porrexerit, et certe totum
latus Hispaniae ad septentriones versum populorum, et gentium nominibus diu Gallicum testata est
originem. . . . et, si Pomponio Melae homini Hispano credimus, a Durij fluminis ostio ad pro-
montorium vsque, quod siue Celticum, siue Nerium vocant, Celtici colunt cognominibus distincti,
nempe Gronij, Praesamarci, Tamarici, Nerij.” ( Rerum Scoticarum Historia, Edinburgh, 1583, f.
15r) Fritz Mezger, Archiv jiir das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, CL (1926), 234.
23 View, ed. Renwick, p. 60.
24 View, ed. Renwick, p. 55; Agricola, cap. 11.
324 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
have landed in Albion rather than first put ashore in Ireland
and thence despatched their settlers into Britain.25
That Spenser derived his allusion to Tacitus from this passage
is made clear by the peculiar twist of his error. Tacitus sug¬
gests that a Spanish people settled in southwestern Britain;
Buchanan, using this idea, proposes that they must first have
settled in Ireland; and Spenser cites Tacitus (from Buchanan)
as his authority for believing that the Spaniards settled in
southwestern Ireland. The misconception has a logic of its own.
The discussion of this and the former cases is justified, not
so much by their strangeness, however, $s by the prevalence of
similar errors in the View. The historical ineptitude of the
dialogue might be illustrated with a hundred details.
Spenser, for example, remarks through Irenius that he has
read of no king of all Ireland before Edward le Bruce ; but
Holinshed makes repeated reference to such monarchs before
the Anglo-Norman conquest.26 When he reports that Caesar
will not allow that the bards deliver any truth, Spenser may
confuse the bards and druids ; yet Caesar does not attack the
veracity of the druids either.27 Spenser says that Buchanan
gives above three hundred Gallic names in Scotland ; he means
about two hundred scattered throughout Europe.28 His state¬
ment that “Ireland is by Dyodorus Siculus, and by Strabo called
Bryttania, and a parte of great Bryttaine” has no foundation ;
in fact the second writer clearly distinguishes between Ireland
and Britain.29 In his account of the battle between Cyrus and
Tomyris, Herodotus omits the cries which Spenser finds there.30
Richard Stanyhurst, the Irish man of letters, is attacked for
advancing a theory on the Egyptian colonization of Ireland
which he specifically calls in question.31 The lamentations raised
25 “Q Tacitus occidentale latus Britanniae, siue Albij a posteris Hispanorum coli certa. vt
ipsi videtur, coniectura affirmat Verisimile autem non est Hispanos relicta a tergo Hibernia terra
propiore, et caeli, et soli mitioris, in Albium primum descendisse, sed prinuim in Hiberniam appuiisse,
atque inde in Britanniam colonos missos.” {Historia, f. lSv) View, ed. Ware, pp. 122-3 ; Mezger,
p. 234.
28 View, ed. Renwick, p. 22 ; Raphael Holinshed, The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and
Ireland, London, 1807-1808, VI, 88-9, 94, 133.
21 View, ed. Renwick, p. S3; ed. Ware, p. 122 ; De Bello Gallico, lib. VI, cap. 13.
28 View, ed. Renwick, p. 59; Historia, ff. 18v-20v.
29 View, ed. Renwick, p. 61 ; Strabo, Geography, trans. H. C. Hamilton and W. Falconer,
Bohn Library, I, 298-9.
30 View, ed. Renwick, p. 70; Herodotus, History, trans. George Rawlinson, London, 1858-1860,
Book I, chap. 214.
31 View, ed. Renwick, pp. 71-2 and 270; TLS, Correspondence, Oct. 31, 1936.
Gottfried — Spenser As An Historian
325
by the Egyptians at the death of Jacob are misappropriated to
Joseph.32. Evidence for the nationality of Homer is referred by
Spenser to the so-called Plutarchan life of the poet, which is not
by Plutarch; the evidence is actually found in the so-called
Herodotean life of Homer, which is not by Herodotus.33 When
Spenser attributes to Lucian the information that the Scythians
swear by fire and sword which are the powers fitted to work
revenge on perjurors, he doubly misinterprets; according to
Lucian they swear by wind and sword as the powers which cause
life and death.34 A medieval letter to which the View attaches
much importance is, through confusion with the heading of an¬
other letter encountered in the same manuscript, wrongly said
to have been written to the Earl of Shrewsbury rather than the
Earl of Rutland.35 Not Telamon, as Spenser writes, but his son
Ajax Telamonius married Tecmissa; and in ascribing a source
for the story of Cyrus and the Lydians he confuses Aristotle
with Herodotus.36 He mistakes the meaning of Holinshed and
Camden when he writes that Palladius died in Ireland before
the arrival of St. Patrick; Camden’s correct definition of the
Romescot is apparently forgotten when Spenser chooses to re¬
define it as a rent charged by the Romans for the upkeep of
their soldiers ; while he obviously follows the account in Holins¬
hed of Alfred’s government, he revises the meaning of such
terms as lathe, hundred, and wapentake ; for wapentake, in turn,
he misrecollects the etymology given by Camden.37
The list of such errors might be considerably extended, but
the enlargement would not alter their significance. They are
not errors which can be attributed to the general credulity or
ignorance of Renaissance historians, since in the majority of
cases Spenser misreads or misremembers the evidence available
to his age. The individual points for which the View either
names or directly imples its sources are about 97 (the count
w View, ed. Renwick, pp. 72-3; Genesis, 50.3.
33 View, ed. Renwick, p. 75; ed. Ware, p. 41; Wilhelm Christ, Geschichte Griechische IJter-
atur, Nordlingen, 1889, 24; Herodotus, Opera, Latin trans. Conrad Heresbach, Cologne, 1537,
pp. 273-4.
34 View, ed. Renwick, p. 76; Lucian, Dialogues, trans. F. G. Fowler, Oxford, 1905, III, 57.
35 View, ed. Renwick, pp. 83 and 272-3; F. F. Covington, Jr., “Spenser’s Use of Irish History
in the Veue of the Present State of Ireland,” University of Texas Bulletin, Studies in English, IV
(1924), 11-2.
38 View, ed. Renwick, pp. 89 and 90-1; Herodotus, Book I, chaps. 155-6.
31 View, ed. Renwick, pp. 110, 162, 185-6, and 198-9; Holinshed, VI, 83 and I, 257-9;
Britannia, pp. 683, 316, and 97-8.
326 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
cannot be scientifically fixed) ; of these points 45, or nearly half,
involve crucial mistakes.38
Nor is his irresponsibility limited to the use which Spenser
makes of bona-fide authorities ; he acquires authorities by similar
means. In one passage of the View he enumerates those writers
whom he has found helpful in the study of Irish antiquities : “of
the oulder: Cesar Strabo Tacitus Ptolomie Plinnie, [Solinus,]
Pompeus Mela & Berosus of the latter Vincentius, Aeneas Silu-
ius, Luddus & Buckhanan .”39 At a first glance the list is suspect
inasmuch as Berosus, Vincent of Beauvais, and Eneo Silvio Pic-
colomini cannot be said by any stretch of the imagination to
have written on Irish antiquities ; of those named, in fact, only
Humphrey Llwyd and Buchanan had made a special study of
the subject; furthermore, we know from another passage that
“Pompeus Mela” is not two names but a mistake for that of
Pomponius Mela.40 These problems, however, are clarified when
we turn to an antiquarian work by Johannes Boemus, a writer
whom Spenser later cites directly ; Boemus begins his discussion
by specifying as his authorities “Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus,
Berosus, Strabo, Solinus, Trogus Pompeius, Ptolemeus, Plinius,
Cornelius Tacitus, Dionysius Afer, Pomponius Mela, Caesar,
Iosephus: et ex recentioribus nonnulli, Vi[n]centius, Aeneas
Syluius,” and others.41 From this passage there can be little
doubt that Spenser culled all the names on his own list except
Llwyd and Buchanan, the two whose works are really pertinent
to the View ; and the debt to Boemus is corroborated by “Pom¬
peus Mela,” the bastard of “Pomponius Mela” and “Trogus
Pompeius.” — Not that the unacknowledged debt to Boemus was
necessarily dishonest from the standpoint of the Renaissance;
what it does reveal is Spenser’s unusual deficiency in a sense of
historical fact.
Overwhelming evidence for such a deficiency exists in the
View. But if we accept this unavoidable conclusion, we are
immediately faced with a paradox : how can a deficient sense of
historical fact be reconciled with the reputation which the dia-
38 Among the 97 I include a large number of laws, which Spenser reports with more accuracy
than any other body of material.
39 View, ed. Renwick, p. 52.
40 View, ed. Renwick, p. 54. see also above. Spenser’s reference to Berosus, it is interesting,
overlooks Camden’s suspicion that the Chaldaici Antiquitates were a forgery. ( Britannia , p. 11).
41 Omnium Gentium Mores, Leges et Ritus, Antwerp, 1571, p. 7; Mezger, pp. 233-4; View,
ed. Renwick, p. 64.
Gottfried — Spenser As An Historian
327
logue has always enjoyed? In 1598 it was apparently considered
for publication ; and whatever reasons then interfered, they did
not prevent its reproduction in more than a dozen manu¬
scripts.42 The Carew Papers at Lambeth also contain a set of
careful notes made from the View ; and sometime before 1620
Fynes Moryson studied it as if it were the definitive account of
Ireland.43 When the dialogue finally reached print in 1633, the
same editor who pointed out historical errors commended Spen¬
ser for “his learning and deepe judgement.”44 Subsequent at¬
tacks by native historians like Keating and Lynch and O’Flaher-
ty implicitly recognized that the View was an influence in their
time; since a second edition appeared in the collected folio of
1679, it has been republished frequently; and today it suffers
from no tendency among scholars to depreciate it as an his¬
torical document. How then can we reconcile the character of
the View itself with evidence of its good fame?
In the beginning, if Moryson and the anonymous note-taker
of the Carew Papers may be considered typical readers, the
View served as an authoritative summary of all that was known
about contemporary Ireland. On Brehon law, tanistry, kin-
cogish, and a whole body of native institutions ; on the galloglas,
kern, bards, carrows, landlords, tenants, all the classes of Irish
society ; on the corruption and incompetence of English officials,
high and low; on Tyrone and Feagh MacHugh, rebels of recent
memory, and the best plans of campaign against them ; on the
distribution of permanent garrisons and the apportioning of
composition money for their support ; on the civil redivision of
Irish communities, on the reformation of the Irish church, on
the increased powers of the governor; on these and a hundred
other issues the View offered the most up-to-date and often the
most practical information. Even today, although Spenser's ma¬
terial of this kind may now be supplemented and corrected from
many other sources, the dialogue retains its value as the most
complete picture an Elizabethan has left us of contemporary
Ireland; it is, in short, an historical document of the first im¬
portance.
43 F. I. Carpenter, A Reference Guide to Edmund Spenser, Chicago, 1923, p. 206; View, ed.
Renwick, pp. 305-6.
43 TLS, Correspondence, Feb. 8, 1936; a forthcoming article in PQ on “The Debt of Fynes
Moryson to Spenser’s View."
44 View, ed. Ware, second page of preface.
328 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
But this does not mean that Spenser was in any real sense
an historian. What he saw around him with his own eyes and
gathered from the words of his fellow officials, perhaps just
because it filtered through a layer of contemporary prejudice,
he reports vigorously and well; what, on the other hand, he
read at haphazard and hastily transcribed from the records of
the past, he presents without judgment or accuracy. And the
distinction between the two sides of the View, the contemporary
scene and the material which for Spenser belonged to the his¬
torical past, is not merely an affair of his relative success in this
passage or that: the dialogue itself underlines the difference.
Although the discussion of history is widely distributed, the
greater part of it appears in the first half of the View ; when
“antiquities,” as they are called, are specifically introduced near
the beginning, we are told to expect only such as have a bearing
on the present customs of the Irish ; and at the close the promise
of a second dialogue on antiquities alone shows that in his own
mind Spenser thought of them as a subject apart from the evils
of Elizabethan Ireland.45 Furthermore, their connection with
contemporary customs is stated and repeated rather than
proved; with the possible exception of those which support the
Tudor claims upon the Irish crown, none of the antiquities are
essential to Spenser’s real business, the suffering and reforma¬
tion of the country; some of them, for instance those dealing
with the mantle, offset or actually conflict with his picture of a
barbarian world; and the deletion of two fairly long historical
passages which have survived in single manuscripts confesses
the irrelevance of much similar material.46 We can only con¬
clude, therefore, that the antiquities are a competely separable
element, a kind of historical decoration on the facade of the
View ; if they are also flimsy in character, they cause no weak¬
ening of its broad and solid structure.
But when these antiquities are finally considered, as they
should be, by themselves, where shall we find a key to the inter¬
pretation of their flimsiness and their irrelevance? A conven¬
ient answer might seem to lie in the haste with which the View
was obviously thrown together; Spenser must have written at
45 View, ed. Renwick, pp. 48-9 and 219. The distinction occasionally appears in sentences
like the following: “All which to rehearse should rather be to Cronicle tymes, then to search into
the reformacion of abuses in that realme.” (p. 28).
48 See footnote 4 above. View, ed. Ware, p. 121; ed. Renwick, pp. 2 S 7-64.
Gottfried — Spenser As An Historian
329
top speed, consulting scanty notes and only a few of the sources
he intimates; yet haste will not explain why he should feel it
necessary to include material so unripe. The same factor of his
individual choice would discredit an explanation based entirely
on theories common in his age; it has been suggested that the
“probabillitie of thinges” on which the View relies for historical
evidence is a reflection of the “assensio probabilis” of Jean Bo-
din; but in that case we may well ask why Spenser chose the
“assensio probabilis” and not the “necessaria” and “religiosa,”
types of evidence which Bodin also recommends.47 The inter¬
pretation merely returns to what is personal in Spenser’s mind.
The aspect of his personality with which we have to deal is
obliquely discovered, I suggest, by a phrase which the View ap¬
plies to Virgil, that he “was a verie greate Antiquarie.”48 In
Spenser’s mind the study of antiquities was associated with
poetry of a high order, and more or less unconsciously he allows
this collocation to govern his treatment of antiquities in prose.
If they serve the View for not better use than ornament, we may
remember that the chronicles of Britain are from the standpoint
of logic just as inessential to the Faerie Queene; the difference
lies in the virtue of poetry, and chiefly Spenser’s poetry, to make
its ornaments the vehicle of an essential fancy. And so likewise
the disregard of fact which nullifies his efforts as a prose his¬
torian is only the dark side of his poetic star, the brilliant world
of fanciful resemblances, of metaphors and allegories and Flori-
mels both false and true, which beckons to the other stars.
41 View, ed . Renwick, p. 52; H. S. V. Jones, “Spenser’s Defense of Lord Grey,” University
oi Illinois Studies in Language and Literature, V (1919), 180 and 204.
48 View, ed. Renwick, p. 66.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY
Sixty-fifth Annual Meeting
The sixty-fifth annual meeting1 of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences,
Arts and Letters was held, in joint session with the Wisconsin, the Mil¬
waukee and the Northeast Wisconsin Sections of the American Chemical
Society, at Beloit College, Beloit, April 12 and 13, 1935. Exactly 173 in¬
dividuals registered for the two-day session. The meeting was formally
opened by an address of welcome by Dr. Irving Maurer, president of Beloit
College, after which the following program of fifty-four papers and one
public lecture were presented:
Friday morning. — Rufus M. Bagg, A geologist looks at the Hawaiian
Islands; Lowell E. Noland, The sponge fisheries of Tarpon Springs,
Florida; P. W. Boutwell, S. Pearl Lathrop, a pioneer chemist in Wisconsin;
H. A. Schuette, David Boswell Reid, chemist, educator and ventilation en¬
gineer; Casimir D. Zdanowicz, The French Academy: 1635-1935; and
Silas Evans (introduced by Rufus M. Bagg), Education in sciences vs. the
arts.
Friday afternoon , Section A. — L. F. Graber, Some refinements of en¬
vironmental control in Wisconsin; Eric R. Miller, The droughts in Wiscon¬
sin; E. R. Bean, The Mineral resources of Wisconsin; R. R, Shrock and
J. H. Havard, Washington Island — its geology and natural history ; Loyal
Durand, Jr., A farms area map of Wisconsin; Esther Aberdeen, Study of
the contact between the Galena and Platteville limestones in southwestern
Wisconsin; E. H. Powell (introduced by R. R. Shrock), The chemical com¬
position of the Lodi shale; 0. L. Kowalke, An unusual pitting in Niagara
limestone; Carl A. Bays, The Miohawkian succession in western Wisconsin;
and Alden F. Megrew (introduced by John MacHarg), Mountain climbing
in the Zermatt and Chamonix regions of Switzerland and France.
Friday afternoon , Section B. — George W. Woolley (introduced by L. J.
Cole), The second stage of the introduction of cattle into Wisconsin; Louis
Kahlenberg, A comparison of the relative affinity of different seeds for
water; Alfred Senn, The early development of man’s vocabulary; John
Paul von Grueningen, Professional surgery in Switzerland about 1677.
Sidelights from two unfinished manuscripts; 0. N. de Weerdt (introduced
by P. W. Boutwell), The psychology of special abilities and disabilities;
S.R. Ellis (introduced by J. F. Groves), Practical education in Soviet Rus¬
sia; John B. MacHarg, Leica photography in education; E. Ralph Guentzel,
Wisconsin Indian pottery.
Saturday morning, Section D. — Carl Welty and Jean Leland, Eye-reflex
experiments with the guppy; Raphael Poepple, Eighty-five genera of
protozoa collected from lakes and streams of Fond du Lac County; Arthur
D. Hasler (introduced by Chancey Juday), Some digestive enzymes of
332 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters
Daphnia: A contribution to the physiology of digestion in Plankton Cru¬
stacea; Robert W. Pennak (introduced by Chancey Juday), The relation
of hydrogen ion concentration to fecundity and length of life in the rotifer,
Euchlanis dilatata ; Herman F. Geske, X-ray studies of the injected cir¬
culatory system of the lobster; Sylvia Losey (introduced by L. J. Cole),
Attempts to breed the flicker- tail gopher ( Citellus richardsonii ) in cap¬
tivity; Aldo Leopold, The Chase Journal — an early record of Wisconsin wild
life; R. A. Brink, palatability tests with Melilotus dentatus (W. K.) Pers;
James Johnson, Acquired immunity to plant viruses; Alphonse L. Heun,
The cytology of apogamy in Pteris creticu var. Albo-lineata; Harry V. Tru¬
man, Fossil evidence of two prairie invastions of Wisconsin; S. C. Wad-
mond, Notes on Wisconsin phytogeography (by title) ; Hilary J. Deason
and Ralph Hile, Age and size composition of the commercial stock of
Lake Michigan Kiyi ( Leucichtkys kiyi Koelz) populations off Port Wash¬
ington, Wisconsin, and Manistique, Michigan (by title) ; Ruth Marshall,
Preliminary list of the hydracarina of Wisconsin. V. (by title) ; Mary Edith
Pinney and Janet F. MacNaughton, Some early bird records of Wisconsin
and neighboring territory to the west and north (1896-1900) and of In¬
diana (1876-1877), (by title).
Saturday morning , Section C. — Frederick C. Oppen, The evolution of
the vacuum distillation multiple receiver; E. J. Schwoegler, The seed oils of
the caprifoliaceae. Preliminary report; Elizabeth M. Smyth and P. W.
Wilson, Concerning the alleged fixation of nitrogen by germinating peas;
Everett Bowden (introduced by Richard Fischer), Esterolysis of esters;
Milford A. Cowley, Levulinic acid. VI. The molecular refractions of several
of its alkyl esters; Norris F. Hall, Acidity and relative acid strength;
Loren C. Hurd, Rhenium in the qualitative scheme of analysis; R. Benson
and H. N. Calderwood, A. chemical examination of the seeds of Abies
balsamea (L) Miller; N. F. Hall and W. F. Spengeman, Conductimetric
titrations in glacial acetic acid; William Krause and Louis Kahlenberg,
Palladium-hydrogen; J. L. Oncley (introduced by J. H. Mathews), A study
of the ClausiUs-Mosotti relationship in compressed gases; V. W. Meloche,
The determination of magnesium in lake water and its residues; Norris F.
Hall and T. 0. Jones, The preparation of light water; and Loren C. Hurd,
The chemistry of rhenium (by title).
The Friday afternoon sessions closed at four o’clock after which the
members of the Academy and their guests assembled in the exhibition room
of Theodore Lyman Wright Art Hall to partake of the complimentary tea
tendered by the faculty of the College.
The annual business meeting of the Academy was held Friday, April 12,
at 5:00 P.M. Nominations for membership from seventeen individuals
being presented, the secretary was instructed by unanimous vote to cast
the ballot of the Academy in their favor. The list of newly elected mem¬
bers, which includes eight elected on February 1, 1935, by council action,
follows: Esther Aberdeen, Milwaukee; Robert J. Barnes, Oshkosh; Carl A.
Bays, Webster Grove Mo.; Elliott Rowland Downing, Williams Bay; Loyal
Durand, Jr., Madison; Evelyn I. Fernald, Rockford, Ill.; Herman F. Geske,
Proceedings of the Academy
333
Milwaukee; E. Ralph Guentzel, Boscobel; Clarence Ml Gwin, Saegertown,
Pa.; Edward J. Ireland, Madison; Paul B. Jenkins, Williams Bay; Victor
Jollos, Madison; John B. MacHarg, Appleton; Irving Maurer, Beloit;
Arthur E. Meyer, Rockford, Ill.; M. Starr Nichols, Madison, Frederick C.
Oppen, Milwaukee; Raphael Poeppel, Milwaukee; Edward J. Schwoegler,
Madison; Warren Strain, La Crosse; Harry V. Truman, Beloit; Carl
Welty, Beloit; M. E. Wing, Beloit; Elizabeth Wilson, Appleton, and Fred R.
Zimmermann, Chicago. The status of Richard T. Ely was changed from
that of annual to corresponding member.
The secretary then presented the following report on membership cor¬
rected to date: honorary members, 3; life members, 11; corresponding mem¬
bers, 15; active members, 349; total 378. Membership losses during the
year were: deceased, 3; resigned, 0; dropped for non-payment of dues, 16.
The following deaths were reported: George C. Comstock, May 31,
1934; Ernest B. Skinner, April 3, 1935; Gardner P. Stickney, February 25,
1935.
Votes of thanks were tendered the authorities of Beloit College for
placing the facilities of the College at the disposal of the Academy, to the
members of the faculty for their hospitality, and to the local commitee on
arrangements who in no small measure helped make for the success of the
meeting.
Resolutions, felicitating the French Academy on the three-hundredth
anniversary of its founding and congratulating it not only because of its
distinguished record but also because of the notable accomplishments of its
members, were passed.
The secretary-treasurer reported informally on the present condition of
the Academy’s finances stating that the balance in the treasury, after mak¬
ing as advance payment of $762.43 for materials and labor for printing
the second half of volume 29 of the Transactions is $772.61.
Endowment Fund
Home Owners Loan Corporation bonds . ...$1,050.00
Rock County Highway bond . . . . 500.00
U. S. Treasury bond . . 500.00
Commonwealth Telephone Company bonds . 400.00
Chapman Block bonds (in default) . 400.00
Wisconsin Power and Light Company bonds .... 200.00
Capitol Square Realty Company bonds . 200.00
Cash . . . 114.22
Total . $3,364.22
The annual dinner was held in Emerson Hall with approximately one
hundred in attendance. Following this, at eight o’clock, Prof. Norris F.
Hall of the University of Wisconsin delivered the annual public lecture
at Eaton chapel on the subject “Chemistry Looks at Nature and at Man.”
H. A. Schuette,
Secretary-Treasurer
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY
Sixty-sixth Annual Meeting
The sixty-sixth annual meeting' of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences,
Arts and Letters was held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, April
17 and 18, 1936, in the Memorial Union Building. Approximately 150 in¬
dividuals were in attendance. Two general addresses, one by Dr. Joseph
Schafer, Superintendent of the State Historical Society, entitled “ Profes¬
sional Farming”, and the other by Dr. Rufus Mathew Bagg, the retiring
president of the Academy, entitled “Geologic Contributions to Human
Progress”, and thirty-six papers in ten different fields of interest comprised
the scientific program. Entertainment for the ladies consisted of an auto
ride around the city, a concert by Mr. W. Norris Wentworth from the
University’s new Memorial Carrillon Tower and a tea at the home of Prof,
and Mrs. H. A. Schuette. The program of papers which were presented
follows:
Friday morning. — Eric R. Miller, The solar climate of Madison, Wis¬
consin; Ernest F. Bean, The state geological surveys of Wisconsin; Ralph
Linton, (introduced by H. A. Schuette), New light on aboriginal Wiscon¬
sin; H. A. Schuette, the eighty-year research record of the Chemistry De¬
partment of the University of Wisconsin.
Friday afternoon. — W H. Twenhofel, The greensands of Wisconsin;
Rufus M. Bagg, The record artesian well for Wisconsin; 0. L. Kowalke
and E. F. Kowalke, The topography of some abandoned beach ridges at
Ellison Bay, Wisconsin; Warren Strain, The geography of the northwest
dairy region of Wisconsin; Gilbert 0. Raasch and Carl A. Bays, Member
nomenclature of the Platteville formation of Wisconsin; Russell H. Barker,
George Sandy’s Relation ; Julia Grace Wales, A project for a history of
Shakespearean criticism by plays; Rudolph B. Gottfried (introduced by
Arthur Beatty), Spenser’s View and essay; Julia Grace Wales, Amleth’s
shield: a comment on the pictorial elements of the Hamlet story (by title).
Saturday morning, Section A. — Edmund Peracchio and V. W. Meloche,
The determination of alkali metals by means of the polarograph; Earl Ol¬
son and V. W. Meloche, Oxidation of selenium in the glow discharge;
V. L. Plotter and C. A. Elvehjem (introduced by W. H. Peterson), A method
for the study of tissue oxidations; Don J. Huenink (introduced by H. A.
Schuette), On the phosphorus, calcium and magnesium content of honey;
Frederick C. Oppen, The viscometric determination of moisture in honey;
Louis Kahlenberg, On the function of sterols in plant and animal life
(by title); Aldo Leopold, Teaching wild life conservation; A. W. Schorger,
The range of the bison in Wisconsin; L. W. Wing and associates (intro¬
duced by Aldo Leopold), The winter “die-outs” of 1934-35 and 1935-36;
Paul L. Errington, Emergency values of some winter pheasant foods.
336 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
Saturday morning, Section B. — John T. Curtis, The germination of
seeds by some native Wisconsin Orchids; Vance G. Sprague (introduced by
L. F. Graber), Factors influencing the winter survival of plants; 0. A.
Bushnell and W. B. Sarles, The root nodule bacteria of certain wild
leguminous plants of Wisconsin; Norman C. Fassett, Preliminary reports
on the flora of Wisconsin. XXV. Arales (by title) ; Sidney 0. Fogelberg,
Preliminary reports on the flora of Wisconsin. XXVI. Convolculaceae (by
title) ; H. R. James, Analysis of absorption of radiation by lake waters;
William A. Spoor (introduced by Chancey Juday), The age and growth of
the suckers of Muskellunge Lake; Robert W. Plennak (introduced by Chan¬
cey Juday), A quantitative study of the bottom fauna of some northern
Wisconsin lakes; Clarence L. Schloemer (introduced by Chancey Juday),
Growth of the muskellunge in various lakes and drainage areas of north¬
ern Wisconsin; James R. Neidhoefer, A case of anteversion of the heart of
the frog; Paul L. Carroll, S. J., and James R. Neidhoefer, A method of
making permanent mounts of celared specimens; Paul J. Carroll, S. J.,
Reaction of melanophores in tadpoles to theelin; Ruth Marshall, Prelim¬
inary list of the Hydracarina of Wisconsin. VI. (by title).
The annual business meeting was held Friday, April 17, at 4:30 P.M.
Nominations for membership from twenty-two individuals were presented
and the Secretary was instructed by unanimous vote to cast the ballot of
the Academy in their favor. The list of the newly elected members fol¬
lows: Homer Adkins, Madison; Russell H. Barker, Madison; Ralph J.
Bushnell, Madison; Grace J. Calder, Milwaukee; Hulsey Cason, Madison;
L. E. Cassida, Madison; A. E. Darlow, Madison; Sidney 0. Fogelberg,
Madison; Glenn Frank, Madison; Oren E. Frazee, LaCrosse; Ray C.
Friesner, Indianapolis, Indiana; Alfred Edward A’Courte Hudson, Golds¬
boro, North Carolina; S. Paul Jones, Waukesha; William S. Middleton,
Madison; Mary M. M'cCalmont, Menomonie; James Russell Neidhoefer,
Milwaukee; Fred W. Trezise, Appleton; Arthur H. Uhl, Madison; George
Walter Woolley, Madison; Rudolph B. Gottfried, Madison; Frank E.
Eggleton, Madison; and Lewis C. Palmer, Madison.
The secretary then presented the following report on membership:
honorary members, 3; life members, 11; corresponding members, 16;
active members, 342; total, 372. Membership losses during the year were:
deceased, 5; resigned, 14; dropped for non-payment of dues, 10.
The following deaths were reported: Charles R. Bardeen, June 12,
1935; R. E. N. Dodge, August 30, 1935; Charles E. Mendenhall, August 18,
19i35; Mrs. Arthur C. Neville, July 7, 1935; Aleida Peters, April 6, 1936.
The grant-in-aid of research, which was made possible by an allotment
of one hundred dollars from the American Association for the Advance¬
ment of Science in lieu of the refund formerly made by it as a credit
towards the annual dues of those members of the Academy holding also
memberships in the Association, was equally divided between John W.
Brooks, a graduate student in the University of Wisconsin, for his studies
on the chemistry of the seed oils of the Caprifoliaceae and Prof. Paul L.
The Academy Constitution
337
Carroll, S. J., of Marquette Univerity for the re-evaluation of the arterial
system of the common frog.
Service charges, postage, etc .
Total . . . .
Balance in treasury .
Endowment Fund
Home Owners Loan Corporation bonds . . $1,050.00
Rock County Highway bond . 500.00
U. S. Treasury bond . 500.00
Commonwealth Telephone Company bonds ..... 400.00
Chapman Block bonds (in default) . . 400.00
Wisconsin Power and Light Company bonds .... 200.00
Capitol Square Realty Company bonds . 200.00
Cash . . . . . 459-09
Total . $3,709.09
The annual dinner was held in Tripp Commons with approximately
eighty-five in attendance. Following this, Dr. Glenn Frank, President of
the University of Wisconsin, presented a paper entitled “Science and
Society.”
H. A. Schuette,
Secretary -Treasurer
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE WISCONSIN ACADEMY
OF SCIENCES, ARTS AND LETTERS
( January 1, 1937)
Article I — Name and Location
This association shall be known as the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences,
Arts and Letters, and shall be located at the city of Madison.
Article II — Object
The object of the Academy shall be the promotion of sciences, arts and
letters in the state of Wisconsin. Among the special objects shall be the
publication of the results of investigation and the formation of a library.
Article hi — Membership
The Academy shall include four classes of members, viz. : life members,
honorary members, corresponding members and active members, to be
elected by ballot.
1. Life members shall be elected on account of special services rendered
the Academy. Life membership may also be obtained by the payment of
one hundred dollars and election by the Academy. Life members shall be
allowed to vote and to hold office.
2. Honorary members shall be elected by the Academy and shall be men
who have rendered conspicuous services to science, arts or letters.
3. Corresponding members shall be elected from those who have been
active members of the Academy, but who have removed from the state.
By special vote of the Academy men of attainments in science or letters
may be elected corresponding members. They shall have no vote in the
meetings of the Academy.
4. Active members shall be elected by the Academy or by the council,
and shall enter upon membership on payment of the first annual dues.
Article IV — Officers
The officers of the Academy shall be a president, a vice-president for
each of the three departments, sciences, arts and letters, a secretary, a li¬
brarian, a treasurer, and a custodian. These officers shall be chosen by
ballot, on recommendation of the committee on nomination of officers, by
the Academy at an annual meeting and shall hold office for three years.
Their duties shall be those usually performed by officers thus named in
scientific societies. It shall be one of the duties of the president to pre¬
pare an address which shall be delivered before the Academy at the an¬
nual meeting at which his term of office expires.
340 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters
Article V— Council
The council of the Academy shall be entrusted with the management
of its affairs during the intervals between regular meetings, and shall con¬
sist of the president, the three vice-presidents, the secretary, the treasurer,
the librarian, and the past presidents who retain their residence in Wis¬
consin. Three members of the council shall constitute a quorum for the
transaction of business, provided the secretary and one of the presiding
officers be included in the number.
Article VI— Committees
The standing committees of the Academy shall be a committee on pub¬
lication, a library committee, and a committee on nomination of mem¬
bers. These committees shall be elected at the annual meeting of the
Academy in the same manner as the other officers of the Academy, and
shall hold office for the same term.
1. The committee on publication shall consist of the president and sec¬
retary and a third member elected by the Academy. They shall determine
the matter which shall be printed in the publications of the Academy.
They may at their discretion refer papers of a doubtful character to
specialists for their opinion as to scientific value and relevancy.
2. The library committee shall consist of five members, of which the li¬
brarian shall be ex officio chairman, and of which a majority shall not be
from the same city.
3. The committee on nomination of members shall consist of five mem¬
bers, one of whom shall be the secretary of the Academy.
Article VIII — Meetings
The annual meeting of the Academy shall be held at such time and place
as the council may designate; but all regular meetings for the election of
the board of officers shall be held at Madison. Summer field meetings shall
be held at such times and places as the Academy or the council may de¬
cide. Special meetings may be called by the council.
Article VIII — Publications
The regular publication of the Academy shall be known as its Transac¬
tions, and shall include suitable papers, a record of its proceedings, and
any other matter pertaining to the Academy. This shall be printed by the
state as provided in the statutes of Wisconsin.
Article IX— Amendments
Amendments to this constitution may be made at any annual meeting
by a vote of three-fourths of all members present; provided, that the amend¬
ment has been proposed by five members, and that notice has been sent to
all the members at least one month before the meeting.
The Academy Constitution
341
BY-LAWS OF THE WISCONSIN ACADEMY OF
SCIENCES, ARTS AND LETTERS
1. The annual dues shall be two dollars for each active member, to be
charged to his account on the first day of January of each year. Five
dollars, paid in advance, shall constitute full payment for three years’
annual dues.
2. The annual dues shall be remitted for the secretary-treasurer and
librarian during their term of office.
3. As soon as possible after January first of each year the secretary-
treasurer shall send to members statements of dues payable, and in case
of non-payment shall, within the succeeding four months, send a second
and, if necessary, a third notice.
4. The secretary-treasurer shall strike from the list of members the
names of those who are one year or more in arrears in the payment of
their dues, and shall notify such members of this action offering at the
same time to reinstate them upon receipt of the dues in arrears plus the
dues for the current year.
5. Each member of the Academy shall receive the current issue of the
Transactions provided that his dues are paid. Any member in arrears at
the time the Transactions are published shall receive his copy as soon as
his dues are paid.
6. The fee received from life members shall be set apart as a per¬
manent endowment fund to be invested exclusively in securities which are
legal as investments for Wisconsin trust companies or savings banks. The
income alone from such fund may be used for the general purposes of the
Academy.
7. The secretary-treasurer shall receive annually an allowance of two
hundred dollars for services.
8. The secretary-treasurer shall be charged with the special duty of
editing and overseeing the publication of the Transactions. In the per¬
formance of this duty he shall be advised by the committee on publication.
9. The Transactions shall contain in each volume: (a) a list of the offi¬
cers of the Academy (b) the minutes of the annual meeting and (c) such
papers as are accepted under the provisions of Section 10 of these By-
Laws and no others.
10. Papers to be published in the Transactions must be approved as to
content and form by the committee on publication. They must represent
genuine original contributions to the knowledge of the subject discussed.
Preference shall be given to papers of special interest to the State of Wis¬
consin and to papers presented at a regular meeting of the Academy. The
privilege of publishing in the Transactions shall be reserved for the mem¬
bers of the Academy.
342 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
11. The Constitution and By-Laws and the names and addresses of the
members of the Academy shall be published every third year in the Tran¬
sactions. The Constitution and By-Laws shall also be available in reprint
form from the secretary-treasury at any time.
12. Amendments to these By-Laws may be made at any annual meet¬
ing by vote of three-fourths of all the members present.