2 6 
Wisconsin state agricultural society. 
of farming upon such lands, with such and such conditions, facil¬ 
ities for transportation ; and if so, whether the dairy would behest, 
or the raising of cattle for market. No other branch of business 
requires so large an area for successful operations, and this natu¬ 
rally tends to place at a much greater distance those engaged in 
agriculture, and thus are lost many of those social, refining, and 
elevating influences which attach to other callings or professions, 
where a more frequent intercourse and interchange of ideas can be 
had. This, however, is being happily obviated by the weekly, 
semi-monthly and monthly meetings of these local agricultural ed¬ 
ucational societies, and these are sources of information and cul¬ 
ture which cannot be too highly encouraged and sustained. 
AGRICULTURE. 
WHEAT. 
/ 
The acreage of this great staple was somewhat larger than the 
year previous, and the yield per acre largely in excess of 1870 or 
’71; probably one fourth greater, except in one or two counties, 
where the chinch bug and the extreme heat of mid-summer very 
materially injured it. This large increase was more marked and 
striking, upon the old lands than upon the new ; and is to be ac¬ 
counted for from the extreme heat, and dryness of the atmosphere 
during a portion of the growing season, thereby affecting more se¬ 
riously the shallow breaking or new sod land, than the older, 
deeper tilled and more thoroughly pulverized soils. The increased 
yield per acre was due no doubt to many causes, but chiefly 
to the improved condition of the soil by the favorable winter and 
spring; the ground freezing slightly, and the frost having almost 
entirely disappeaaed when the snow began to melt, allowing the 
water, rich in ammonia, to pass into the soil, making it not only 
light and friable, but increasing largely the amount of plant food 
for the crop. The quality was rarely, if ever, better in the state. 
CORN". 
This crop, the great cereal for the farmer, was of excellent 
quality, and some eight per cent, greater in quantity than in 1870. 
