THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 383 



den, and Mr. Osborn is also engaged in the cultivation 

 of trees. Both of them are old settlers here, although 

 both are but little past the prime of life; both have 

 been successful in their business, and both have an ex- 

 tensive acquaintance among the farmers throughout the 

 State. Neither is or has been, as far as I can learn, a 

 politician. In my conversations with these men my aim 

 was chiefly to learn as much as possible about the con- 

 dition of the farmers of this State, socially and pecuni- 

 arily, the causes of their want of prosperity, if they fail 

 to make farming profitable, and the remedy which the 

 Grange and the farmers generally propose. As I have 

 already treated at some length, in a former letter, of 

 the relations of the Wisconsin farmers to the railroads 

 of the State, I shall now confine myself to other topics 

 of discussion. 



" The staple crop of Wisconsin is wheat, though, from 

 my observation in travelling through the State, and 

 without any statistics before me, I should judge that 

 other crops constitute a considerable per centage of the 

 total value of its agricultural products. The dairy in- 

 terest is already a large and rapidly growing one; 

 stock-raising and feeding has been found profitable by 

 many of the farmers; wool-growing is engaged in by 

 some of the best farmers of the State ; I think that pork 

 enough is made to supply the demand in the lumber 

 regions of the State with a surplus for export, and the 

 hop and tobacco crops will bring in considerable money. 

 Of corn and potatoes I think the surplus is not large. 

 The wheat crop this year is the largest since that of 

 1860, and the grain is of excellent quality. The season 

 was in every way favorable. After the wheat once be- 

 gan to grow, it came forward with unusual rapidity, and 



