EXHIBITION OF 1876 . 
OPENING ADDRESS. 
BY ELI STILSON, PRESIDENT. 
Felloav-citizens and members of the State Agricultural 
Society: We have convened here to-day to formally open the 
twenty-third exhibition of this society to the public. This society, 
founded soon after the young state of Wisconsin entered the galaxy 
of states as one of its brightest gems, has done much to improve 
and promote agriculture. Its annual exhibitions have yearly called 
out much of its finest and best products, and, together with its dis¬ 
cussions, has given an impetus to progressive agriculture that will 
roll on, with the continued help that it is in duty bound to receive, 
until the state of Wisconsin will soon distance many of the older 
states of the Union in agriculture. When the pioneers of this state 
first came here, they found the beautiful prairies and openings in¬ 
viting and teeming with luxuriant verdure; prairie flowers of every 
hue waving to the breeze and perfuming the air. But with the 
cultivation of so rich a soil came innumerable pests, both insect and 
vegetable, to sweep away the hopes of the husbandman, and his 
brightest hopes often ended in severe disappointments. Rust and 
mildew, the Hessian fly and chinch bug, the moth, with his numer¬ 
ous species, came to devour and eat up the labor of the farmer. 
But, thanks to a diversified and experienced agriculture, we are 
now able to ward off, in a measure, the severities caused by the 
partial failure of a single great staple crop of the state. The con¬ 
sternation, dismay and distress caused by the blight of the hedge¬ 
row wheat in 1851 and 1852 will long be remembered by the hardy 
pioneers of the state. The folly of the agriculture of a state being 
dependent on the success or failure of a single crop then became 
apparent. But first, for want of practical avenues of communication 
