4.0 



ducts are allowed to be manufactured and sold; our reputation and markets 

 lost, or at least damaged at home and abroad. Millions are thereby lost to 

 the farmers that a few unscrupulous persons, worse than counterfeiters, may 

 defraud consumers out of a few thousands. Yet there has been no effectual 

 law devised or passed ; no effort worthy of the name been made to prevent or 

 check the evil. The farmers, an unorganized class, are not capable of help- 

 ing themselves. The state department of agriculture, as the only organized 

 representative and guardian of the agricultural interests of the state, should 

 repeatedly urge and secure the legislation required in this matter. The law on 

 this subject passed last winter (chapter 40) accomplished nothing, as it was 

 evidently intended it should accomplish nothing. 



Again, the science of agriculture is yet comparatively undeveloped. True, 

 it has made great advances in this country during the last half century, 

 mainly by the knowledge gained by the experiments of private individuals. 

 Like all sciences, money generally precedes experimental demonstration. 

 To the private citizen experimental demonstration is often expensive or im- 

 practicable for the lack of facilities. The state department of agriculture 

 should have some system of direct communication with the practical agricul- 

 turists of the state, by which inquiries might be solicited and answered, and 

 the necessary experiments made at the expense of the state. An agricultural 

 newspaper connected with the department might answer the purpose and be 

 at least partially self-sustaining. 



For instance, at the present time our stock and dairy interests require an 

 immediate answer to the question of the economy and practicability of the 

 preservation and use of ensilage as food for stock. We want no floating 

 rumors picked here and there, but an authoritative answer based on the 

 demonstration of reliable experiment. 



Tjus indefinitely questions daily present themselves to the practical far- 

 mer, and if you will inaugurate a system by which they may be satisfactorily 

 answered by the department of agriculture, you will greatly benefit the agri" 

 cultural industries of the state. 



I am very respectfully, 



WM. P. PHILLIPS. 



[From A. J. Russell, President Wisconsin State Cane Growers' Association.] 



Janesville, Wis., December 19, 1881. 

 Prof. W. A. Henry : 



Dear Sir — In reply to your favor of the 8th, I would say that we have not 

 purchased cane by the ton heretofore, as there was no reliable data to en- 

 able the manufacturer to determine the value of the different qualities of 

 cane that was produced on difl'erent soils, and delivered at the mill in various 

 conditions. 



An imperfect knowledge, and no well developed system of determining 

 the true value of the canes, as delivered promiscuously from a large variety 



