ANNUAL ADDEESS 



DELIVERED AT THE 



STATE AGRICULTURAL FAIR, 



In Milwaukee, Oct. 10th, 1856. 

 WISCONSIN— ITS CONDITION, PROSPECTS, ETC. 



BY HON. A. CONSTANTINE BARRY, 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — I appear before 

 you to-day in answer to an invitation from the Executive Com- 

 mittee of tlie Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. And while 

 I feel deeply gratefal for this expression of their partiality, I also 

 feel that I am unworthy of the honor conferred upon me. This 

 feeling arises from a consciousness of my inability to meet fully 

 the demand of the occasion, in the discussion of those topics 

 which shall be adapted to the time, the place, and the audience 

 who listen to me. Once a farmer-boy — initiated into the art and 

 mysteries of farm-life, and now a farmer on a very small scale i 

 yet a quarter of a century devoted to professional duty, and the 

 thought and study attendant upon the same, have measurably 

 drawn my mind away from subjects which only are adapted to 

 occasions like this. I have but little familiarity with them. 

 Still, I have ever strongly sympathised with the working-man 

 of whatever trade or occupation. I respect and honor him, how- 

 ever humble his birth or position — I extend the hand of broth- 

 erly friendship and regard to him. I like the look of that face 

 made brown by daily exposm-e, and those hands hardened by 

 daily toil, equally with the pale brow that is seamed by thought 

 and the inky fingers that guide the mighty pen, or manipulate 



