208 
Annual Be port of the 
AGRICULTURE—A GLIMPSE AT ITS PAST, PRESENT, 
AND FUTURE. 
BY J. M. SMITH. 
President Northern Wisconsin Agricultural and Mechanical Association. 
When Adam and Eve were driven forth from the garden of 
Eden, they were followed with denunciations, among which were 
these remarkable words: “Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in 
sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and 
thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of 
the field. In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread, till thou 
return unto the ground; for out of it thou was’t taken; dust thou 
art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” 
Whatever opinions we may entertain as to the condition of the 
earth previous to the utterance of these words, there seems to be 
no doubt of the fact, that since that time the earth has steadily 
refused to support any large number of her population with any 
degree of comfort, except by cultivating the soil. Another fact 
may here be stated, viz; that the history of the world shows that 
nations have become civilized, prosperous and wealthy, just as the 
agricultural conditions of those nations have been permanently 
prosperous or depressed. It follows almost as a matter of course, 
that such must have been the case in the past, and such must still 
continue to be the case in the future, from the fact that the first 
great and imperative wants of any people are plenty of food and 
clothing. It is useless to look for or expect any permanent advan¬ 
ces in the fine-arts until these two great wants are supplied; and 
the supply promises to be both plenty and permanent. The facts 
are. that the people have neither the time nor the disposition to 
devote themselves to other things until such is the case. 
In the preceeding remarks, I refer of course to civilized nations, 
and not to the savage tribes of the world who live from day to day 
without thought or care for the morrow, nor to those semi-bar¬ 
barous and nomadic nations, like the Huns, Goths and Vandals, 
