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shall offer at this time will be confined principally, to our prospects, 
present and future, as farmers and mechanics of the West. 
Probably the farmers of Central and Southern Wisconsin have endured 
more hardships, combated with more difficulties, and surmounted more 
obstacles, in establishing themselves in their present circumstances, than 
those of almost any other portion of the State. With a soil and climate un¬ 
surpassed in richness and fertility—our prairies needing but to be plowed 
and sowed to yield up their abundant treasures—with our broad meadows 
affording the finest grazing for cattle and sheep; all the favors which nature 
could lavishly bestow upon any country, in her kindest mood, we have 
enjoyed—with our granaries full and running over; with all the appli¬ 
ances necessary to feed and clothe a nation; in the midst of an abundance 
we were poor—dwelling in the very sunshine of nature’s richest smiles, 
darkness brooded over our future. “ One thing was needed.” We 
needed connections with the world outside. We needed a market. Yet, 
amid the days of discouragements and hardships, our people clung to* 
their Wisconsin homes, with a tenacity equalled only by that of the na¬ 
tives, our predecessors, who could only be expelled from these beautiful 
groves and plains by force of the white man’s arms. We spoke of dark 
days—we mean, of course, commercially. They are of but too recent 
occurrence to be forgotten; we all recollect them well. Waiving further 
reflection on them, we turn to contemplate th q present and future. 
It is only by comparison and contrast that we know one set of circum¬ 
stances to be better than another. It is by this means only, that we 
arrive at a knowledge of the fact that progress is made in any depart¬ 
ment. 
Now, to ascertain whether as farmers and mechanics we are advancing; 
whether we have reason for brighter hopes, and whether we are actually 
any better off, upon the whole, than we were one year ago, we have 
only to compare the present with our circumstances at that time. Let 
us see. 
One year ago we had no more access to the world at large than we 
had ever here enjoyed. Our marketing was done in the old style, of 
drawing away our farm products over rough roads to some lake port, or 
selling them at home for such prices as buyers were pleased to give; the 
proceeds of sale to the farmer, after deducting expenses, being in either 
