Exhibition of i 872 —opening address. 
x 43 
upon an examination of our annual reports. How successful they 
they have been, as an influence, leading to reforms in agiicultural 
practice; to the introduction of better breeds of stock of every 
kind; to the improvement of farm machinery and its general use; 
to the influx of immigration based on the demonstration they have 
made of the fertility of our soils, the favorableness of our climate, 
etc’, contributing to the success of railways and the necessary in¬ 
ternal improvements, stimulating the inventor, the artisan and the 
manufacturer to greater effort, and helping to secure to Wisconsin 
a high standing as an enterprising and prosperous commonwealth, 
—how much they have done for the state in all these ways, can 
hardly be estimated. We have a right to assume, however, that 
thev are entitled to much credit on these accounts, and that those 
i/ 7 
who have been bold enough to deny their great utility, have there¬ 
by convicted themselves of a narrowness and short-sightedness of 
which any citizen claiming to be intelligent has reason to be 
ashamed. 
* We have confirmation of the correctness of this view in this 
very fact of a radical change in sentiment on this subject. Farm¬ 
ers who, at first, not only did not voluntarily place themselves on 
the list of exhibitors, but were seldom seen to show their faces at 
the Annual Fairs , have at length become their efficient promot¬ 
ers. Manufacturers vie with each other in the extent and attract- 
« 
iveness of their displays, and the railway companies, in the most 
cordial spirit, offer the society those necessary facilities for trans¬ 
portation which were formerly most grudgingly granted, or denied 
altogether. 
The general utility of our exhibitions is further endorsed by 
the liberal patronage they receive from an intelligent public. Ho 
fairs in the United States—except those of St Louis, which, with 
the advantages of a location central to the great valley of the 
Mississippi, and the home patronage of over three hundred thou¬ 
sand fair-going people, have assumed the proportions of a national 
exhibition—have been more numerously attended than ours, not¬ 
withstanding the extent of our area and the sparseness of our pop¬ 
ulation. 
In the planning and management of our exhibitions, we have 
assumed their main uses to be these: 
1 
