Oi 



illustration of this tnitb, the force of which is felt by the farmei-s of Wisconsin, 

 sxifficientlv to admonish them of the expediency of extending the cultivation of 

 corn, of oats, of barley, of flax, and other annual i^roducts — of introducing ex- 

 tensively stock raising, dairy, and avooI growing, to all which uses the soil and 

 climate of our state is admirably adapted. 



Out of this extensive range of culture, it will doubtless be good policy for the 

 individual farmer to select for his leading object, such form of husbandry as may 

 be best adapted, in his judgment, to the soil he has to deal with, and the posi- 

 tion of his farm with respect to market — and to cany along such collateral objects 

 of culture as may prevent the exhaustion of the soil, and fill up his time by fur- 

 nishing business for every season of the yeai*. 



By this course of pohcy, the advantages of the di\ision of labor may be secured 

 to agriculture, precisely as far as it would be profitable to carry it ; improvements 

 would be more likely to be introduced ; and greater skill and economy would 

 accrue to the executive processes. 



In new and spai-sely settled sections of the country where land is abundant, 

 and labor greatly in defect, there exists, from the nature of the case, a strong 

 tendency to spread cultivation over a large surface, overtaxing the superficial 

 powei-s of the soil, in order to give the greatest immediate effect to the limited 

 amount of human agency. 



Looking to immediate results, the settler, no doubt accomplishes his purpose ; but 

 the habit of slovenly and unthrifty farming thus acquired, is apt to be persevered 

 in, long after the necessity which seemed, at fii-st, to justify it, has passed away. 

 The soil, robbed of its apparent productive elements, refuses to yield its increase, 

 and through the discouragement and impoverishment of the farmer, is condenmed 

 to years of sterility — when under a different treatment, it would have steadily 

 improved in productive power, and have made a more and more grateful return 

 for the good husbandry bestowed upon it. 



The importance of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the theory, as well as 

 practice of Agriculture, cannot, therefore, be urged too early or too forcibly on 

 the farmers of Wisconsin. The education of the American farmer, does not now 

 terminate in a mere knowledge of the routine of sowing and cropping, and in 

 a dutifid adherence to the practice of his i^xther and his grandfather. 



There is scarcely a branch of natural and physical science, which has not now, 

 its known and acknowledp-ed bearing-s on Ao-riculture. 



The construction and the working of agricultural implements of every class, 

 call into daily operation the principles of Mechanics. Hydrostatics and Hydrau- 

 lics have their manifest uses, on, and about the farm. It were vain to assume 

 that the practice of stock raising has nothing to ask from the truths of Animal 

 Physiolog}-. And as man and the entire animal kingdom, seek their sustenancey 



