430 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTUKB. 



in the eastern section of the country, has stimulated the people of Wis- 

 consin to efforts in the same direction, and already the system is in 

 successful operation in various sections of the State. Eegular market- 

 days have been established, and the purchaser has been practically 

 brought to the very door of the i)roducer. The result has beeu so satis- 

 factory that farmers* in other leading branches of agriculture are urged 

 to co-operate with each other in the sale of their products. Societies, 

 including State, county, and so on, down to town-club and grange, are 

 complimented as having accomplished much good, and as being capable 

 of conferring yet greater benefits as educators of the industrial masses. 

 The secretary says : 



A mutual interchange of ideas, an intelligent co-operative action on the part of those 

 whose interests are identical, is much needed. Farmers mast more with the age, keep 

 up with the other professions, not years behind. Individual effort can accomi)liBh but 

 little. Organization is what now moves the world. Combinations of capitalists go be- 

 fore legislatures and get all they ask, or prevent what they do not desire. Were we 

 farmers ever known to organize and ask the legislature for special privileges, or to pre- 

 vent the enactment of class laws against our interests t Farmers should not be legal 

 food for other organizations to feed upon, without preparing to devour in return for 

 self-protection. They can at least be just to others, and at the same time generous to 

 themselves, if they will but combine and work together for their interests as other 

 classes do. The more intelligence, the more successful and better will the organization 

 be Agricultural papers are doing much to stimulate and build up the intluotrial in- 

 terests of the State, and thoy should be encouraged and sustained ; but " a face to face 

 talk " will do more good in an hour to educate and impress upon the mind facts and 

 principles than all the articles read in a paper during the year. Hence, farmers should 

 organize, give their experience to each other, read, talk, counsel, advse, become more 

 intelligent, and be better prepared to govern and direct the affairs of State and nation. 



The first annual report of the commissioners of fisheries of the State is 

 contained in this volume. The commission received, through Professor 

 Baird, 100,000 spawn of the California salmon. Mr. Palmer, one of 

 the commissioners, who owns a private hatchinghouwse at Boscobel, 

 undertook the hatching process and the distribution of the young fry. 

 From these spawn he hatched some 01,000 fry in excellent condition, 

 and when distributed thc;!i|fcwero unusually strong and healthy. Nine- 

 teen thousand of these fr> were distributed in the waters of Grant, Craw- 

 ford, and La Fay^'tte Counties, and the remainder in the northwestern 

 counties and among the lakes and rivers of Sheboygan, Fond du Lac, 

 and Winnebago. The commissioners affirm that there is no other State 

 in the Union, disconnected from the seaboard, so well adapted to fish- 

 culture as the State of Wisconsin. There are two hundred and twenty- 

 five lakes in the following-named sixteen counties: Kenosha, Kacine, 

 Walworth, Waukesha, Jefferson, Dane, Washington, Dodge, Columbia, 

 Sheboygan, Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Marquette, Waushara, Wau- 

 paca, and Winnebago. These lakes cover 388 square miles, or 248,320 

 acres of water, which large surface is now comparatively unproductive. 



The State agricultural convention was held at Madison, (from Janu- 

 ary 27 to 30, inclusive,) and was largely attended by the leading farmers 

 and fruit-growers of the State. The session was opened by President 

 Eli Sulson, who read a paper entitled, "How shall we iniTirove the ag- 

 riculture of Wisconsin ■?" During the sessions of the convention the 

 following-named papers were read, and, in many cases, commented upon 

 at considerable length : " Peat, a cheap fuel in the near future," by W. 

 H.Newton; ''Protection from lightning," by Prof. John W. Sterling; 

 " Object'? and methods of cultivation," by Prof. W. W. Daniels ; " Some 

 of the lessons of the past season," by J. W. Wood ; " Economy in farm- 

 ing," by John Bascom, president of the University of Wisconsin ; " The 

 need of organization among producers," by M. K. Young ; " Compara- 



