The face of the country is perhaps as level as any part of the State, though in places it is gently and beautifully undulating. No part of the county has a poor soil, yet in many places the land should be cleared and drained before it can be called rich and productive. The principal forest trees are oak, ash, walnut, hickory and beech, the two latter greatly preponderating. When properly farmed, good crops of wheat, corn, grass, and the usual products of the climate may be raised without difficulty, and it is favorable especially for cattle, horses and hogs. The surplus products and articles exported in 1848 were estimated at $52,000. There are in the county six gristmills, nine sawmills, three manufactories for cordage, one do. for tobacco, and three for palm leaf hats, seven stores, three lawyers, nine physicians, twenty preachers and seventy-six mechanics, of the trades most in demand. The Episcopal Methodists have five churches, the Wesleyans one, the New School Presbyterians two, the Baptists one and the Christians one. AT Portland is the Jay Seminary, and at Camden the Penn Seminary, and commons schools have been established in almost all the districts.

There is one Indian Reserve of four sections, not in market, and about 600 acres still belonging to the United States; all the other lands in the county are taxable.

Among the anecdotes of the early settlers of the county it is stated that an Indian, on visiting it, said he had found "one very rich man on the Salamonie." Whether he had much land, or money, or many horses, did not appear, but "he must be rich, as he had five children and eleven dogs."