2%2 Wisconsin State Hobticultural Society. 



farmer and his family can be induced to become interested, and 

 seek for knowledge by experiment and observation, the result 

 would be largely to increase their general stock of intelligence 

 and refinement. There is no occupation or opportunity, when 

 directed by a commanding degree of intelligence, that would grow 

 to be as important in determining the future of our country, as 

 that in control of the great resource resulting from the cultiva- 

 tion of the soil. More than any other, the farmer's occupation 

 is the foundation of all industries; his work has to do with the 

 subsistence of all labor, and under our free system of proprietor- 

 ship, with proper attention to a larger development of intelli- 

 gence, the time will come when the proprietors of the land will 

 be accorded a position] in our body politic that they do not now 

 occupy. They hold the key to the situation, and it is they who 

 are to determine the future of our republic. 



"We cannot close this paper without recognizing the great good 

 that is being accomplished in the direction we have indicated, by 

 organized effort, through societies similar to your own; and we 

 are certain that this state does not expend money in a wiser way 

 than to encourage efforts to disseminate knowledge pertaining to 

 agriculture. That this is being well understood is evident by the 

 appropriations made by our legislators in general government 

 for this purpose. That we have been slow in arriving at this wise 

 conclusion appears in the fact that the first national agricult- 

 ural convention was held this winter, demonstrating in its results, 

 however, the great value to the country of such opportunities to 

 bring together the most intelligent of those engaged in the 

 development of our great and varied resources. 



THE MENTAL OUT-EEACH OF WOMEN. 



Mrs. J. Clark, Galesville. 



The mental out- reach of a large majority of our American 

 women, farmers' wives in particular, is necessarily circumscribed 

 to a great degree. The discharging of the domestic duties of 

 the faithful wife and mother tends to narrow down her field of 



