their ability to aid us in tlie cultivation of the earth, or as food to supply 

 the constantly occurring waste, in the complicated organization of our 

 bodies, also demand a prominent place in the mind of the agriculturist. 

 In speaking upon these subjects, I shall advance nothing except what 

 has fallen under my own observation, and shall detail such experiments 

 only as have been tried in Wisconsin, and which, under most circumstan- 

 ces of soil and season, and without any great departure from this latitude 

 would be likely again to produce the same results. 



In order to treat in a more condensed manner, the several branches of 

 Agriculture, I will arrange them under their respective heads, commenc- 

 ing with the great staple, wheat : 



Wheat. — For the first few years after the settlement of Wisconsin had 

 commenced, the cultivation of wheat, we may safely say, formed the 

 principal occupation of the agricultural portion of our community. Our 

 cattle and horses were furnished by the neighboring States of Illinois 

 and Indiana, and often as many as thirty thousand head of animals were 

 driven from thoses States and sold in Wisconsin yearly. Wheat forming 

 the only agricultural product that could be exported to an Eastern market 

 and pay for transportation, many sowed from one hundred to three hun- 

 dred acres, while other branches of agriculture were abandoned in a 

 great measure. The virgin strength of the soil was thus transported to 

 an Eastern market, leaving the farmer at best but barely sufficient to 

 remunerate him for his labor, and oftentimes not even that. The profits 

 realized from the crop were apparently fair, but no means were used ta 

 keep the land up to its natural state of fertility, and in ninety-nine cases, 

 out of every hundred, Ave venture to assert that no returns were ever 

 made to the ground for the very large stock of valuable materials carted 

 away to distant markets. Our farmers, fortunately, perhaps providen- 

 tially, were checked in this headlong race to ruin, by the partial, and in 

 some portions, almost entire failure of the wheat crop for three or four 

 years. These failures occurred from different causes. In some of our 

 best wheat-growing districts, the fly appeared and made great ravages. 

 To avoid this enemy to the wheat crop, late sowing was substituted, and. 

 that subjected the crop to rust, and consequently poor and imperfect grain 

 was produced, diminished in quantity and inferior in quality. Finally, 

 many concluded that the wheat crop would not pay, and pretty much 

 abandoned its cultivation, except, perhaps, growing what might be neces- 

 sary for the bread of the family. Had the truth been sought, in regard 



