174 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
SWINE DEPARTMENT. 
BY J. H. WARREN, SUPERINTENDENT. 
The number, and especially the quality, of swine exhibited at 
our annual fair at Milwaukee, September, 1872, was very fine in¬ 
deed, and gave evidence that this branch of stock breeding is re¬ 
ceiving, throughout the state, that attention it justly deserves, and 
it is very gratifying, both to the society and to those visiting our 
fairs, to see this department so improving as to compare favorably 
with other departments* and also with exhibitions of swine at the 
annual fairs of other western states. 
For several years the state of Wisconsin fell far behind other 
western states in this, one of the most profitable productions of 
the farm, but, from present indications, it is evidently rapidly re¬ 
covering, and will, in a few years, make a better showing of swine 
products than it has heretofore done. To Messrs. Plankinton k 
Armour, Layton k Co., Jas. T. Woolley, Van Kirk k McGreoch, 
and L. Farlan, pork packers of Milwaukee, the society is under 
obligations for their liberal special premiums for swine, which have 
done much to bring out exhibitors and stimulate competition. It 
is hoped they will be. disposed to continue their generous encour¬ 
agement of improvement in this department in which they are so 
vitally interested. 
In numbers, the Chester Whites, Berkshires and Poland-Chinas 
took the lead and seemed to be the breeds most esteemed by swine 
growers in general, while the Cheshire and Essex were repre¬ 
sented by fine specimens, giving evidence of worthy claim to pub¬ 
lic favor. 
The exhibition as a whole was a complete success, and gave 
evidence conclusive to the thousands who visited it, that in no 
class of farm stock is there a wider range between the good and 
poor, the profitable and the unprofitable, and that to be success¬ 
ful, the swine grower must have a good breed, and that to obtain 
such, he need not go out of his own state. 
