216 
to devote almost entirely the considerations I should offer. My limited 
remaining space will be occupied with that subject. 
Fourteen years ago, and till 1846, it was thought that Wisconsin 
would become the greatest wheat bearing State in the Union. The crop 
was sure; the grain was of superior quality ; the yield was abundant, 
almost beyond precedent, often amounting to thirty, forty and fifty bush¬ 
els per acre. In addition to these substantial facts, there was the enthu¬ 
siasm of the early emigrants to new countries—cultivation was easy—the 
earth yielded its fruit almost spontaneously—there was the prestige of 
triumph over the first rude obstacles of nature to the husbandman's toil 
—there was the lightest labor rewarded with the magnificence of the 
harvest—there was the encouragement of hope. 
How, these things are looked upon but as the dreams of an unreason¬ 
ing enthusiasm, that was as blind to present facts as to future prospects. 
After a little reflection, however, they will not be so viewed. There are 
reasons why it was all possible—if possible it was probably true. The 
soil was new. It was strong and rich with the decayed and decaying 
vegetation of centuries. It was a fallow, which had lain idle immemorial 
ages. The seed was new to the soil, and found in it new and rare ele¬ 
ments of life and vigor. The earth brought as tribute its wealth of vir¬ 
gin fertility to enrich the growing crop. 
The reason of a failure in this extraordinary productiveness is equally 
apparent. The little amount of labor required to raise the few first crops 
inducted the farmer into a shiftless method of farming. In plowing he 
but skimmed the surface; he seldom or never fallowed his fields; he 
sowed one crop after another of the same kind—there was nothing care¬ 
ful, calculating and thorough in the whole system of agriculture. There 
were other reasons. The large majority of emigrants were poor. They 
were striving for the first necessities of life. They could clear but few 
acres; upon those they of course expected to produce from year to year 
the staple crop. To many it was a new and untried avocation. Perhaps 
from want of means to follow their trade or business, perhaps from false 
and painted expectancy of Saturnian quietude and plenty that had fled, 
and were to be found, in boundless wild-s ; of industry that was not toil; 
of bounteous harvests that were to be enjoyed with labor that was but 
pastime; they had entered upon the cultivation of the soil, but to learn 
