8o 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
It cannot convene its members for frequent discussions, nor in 
other respects' supply the place of the local club, but it can gather 
together, annually at least, the farmers and their products, and 
thus afford opportunity for all to see the best results that have 
been achieved by the most successful farmer, stockbreeder, fruit 
grower, mechanic, manufacturer, housewife, and artist, of the whole 
country. 
The primary object of agricultural, horticultural and household 
exhibitions is not merely to award premiums. The great central 
idea, besides the social and moral development is, that by bring¬ 
ing to one place occasionally, animals and articles of superior ex¬ 
cellence as models , so that they can be conveniently seen, studied 
and compared, every one may have an opportunity of becoming 
acquainted with the appearance, at least of whatever is best and 
most profitable of its kind ; the horse of the fittest proportions, 
either for work or for speed, the cow best suited for milk or but¬ 
ter, or as breeder, the hog that promises the greatest returns fora 
given amount of care and food, the sheep best adapted to each 
farmer’s circumstances, either for wool or the market, or both, and 
so on through the whole range of stock, and fruits, household, 
arts and manufactured products. Every one, by careful inquiry, 
is enabled to learn much of the means by which these best results 
were secured, and may, perhaps, be put in the way of obtaining 
their like for his own use and advantage. The chance is offered 
to see and acquire the most approved of everything in the way of 
implements, machinery, and various mechanical devices, for the 
convenience of the farmer and his working force, for the saving of 
labor and for the better execution of his work. Add to these ad¬ 
vantages the stimulus which one derives from the discovery ofhis 
inferiority in practical farming, and the encouragement another re¬ 
ceives from his recognized superiority, and we have some of the 
special fruits of the industrial exhibition, the planning and man¬ 
agement of which constitutes the chief work of the county society. 
But aside from these direct and special advantages to the far¬ 
mer, there are some other fruits which grow out of these annual 
exhibitions, the indirect benefit of which should not be overlooked. 
They give encouragement to the mechanical and manufacturing 
clashes by affording them an opportunity to exhibit their inven- 
