262 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY . 
tures than in agriculture. I hope to see the day when there will 
be made a finer display in manufacturers 7 hall, and in the machin¬ 
ery and implement departments of the products of our own me¬ 
chanical industry than is found by this entire collection of both 
home and foreign products here to-day, large and attractive as 
it is. 
It but remains for me in the further discharge of this official 
duty to congratulate the members of this society, and the people 
of Dane county in general on the successful issue of the efforts 
which, for several months past, have been earnestly and persist¬ 
ently put forth by the officers and exhibitors here assembled, to 
make this exhibition worthy of the county and of the cause our 
society was organized to promote; to thank in the most cordial 
manner, and in the name of the society, the several enterprising 
and liberal gentlemen who so strongly supplemented our prize 
list by the offer of many handsome special premiums, and to urge 
the utmost faithfulness upon all who are charged with the labori¬ 
ous duties of superintendence, or with the difficult and delicate 
duties of comparing the large number of articles shown in the 
several classes, and of pronouncing upon their relative merits. 
A few words more. The primary object of fairs is not merely 
to award premiums. The great central idea of agricultural, 
mechanical, horticultural and household exhibitions, aside from 
that social and moral development, is that by bringing to one place 
occasionally, animals and articles of superior excellence as models, 
so that they may be conveniently seen and studied, every one 
may have an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the ap¬ 
pearance at least of whatever is best and most profitable; the 
horse of the most just proportions either for work or speed; the 
cow that tells best, either as breeder, milker or butter friaker; 
the hog that appears the most economical in producing the greatest 
return for a given amount of corn and food; the sheep best 
adapted to each farmer’s circumstances, either for wool, the market 
or both, and so on in general terms through the entire range of 
manufactured products. Considerations like these, with a view to 
bring from without and add to the very excellent aggregate within 
Dane county, induced the officers to solicit, and those enterprising 
manufacturers and dealers, Fuller, Williams & Co., S. L. Sheldon, 
