Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 357 
larger returns are the result. I would recommend that premiums 
be given to professionals as well as non-professionals in this depart¬ 
ment so that exhibitors in each class may compete against each 
other, and not against those of the other class. The exhibition of 
butter and cheese was a great improvement compared with the dis¬ 
play of these articles at any former State Fair. The quality was 
the very best. I am informed that the number of cheese factories in 
the state is between sixty and seventy, with an annual product of two 
million pounds. Go on gentlemen of the great dairy interest, enrich 
yourselves and your noble state; exporting more than you import. 
Mr. E. Elliot made a creditable display of watermelons, and having 
had the pleasure of eating at one—for they were so large no one 
could eat a whole one—I can testify to their delicious flavor. 
HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 
O. S. WILLEY, SUPERINTENDENT. 
The number of entries, and the large space occupied by the ex¬ 
hibitors in the Fruit and Floral Department at the annual exhibition 
in 1874, evidenced to the regular fair-visitor that there was no lack 
of interest in this field of labor throughout the state. Old contrib¬ 
utors, the u regulars, 11 of the horticultural army, were present with 
the fruits of their labors, while many volunteer recruits came with 
joy and gladness upon their faces, and placed at Pomona’s feet their 
/ 
first fruit-offerings. This was gratifying, and gave general cheer 
to all. 
The anxious lookers-on, as the hall was thronged with visitors 
from u early morn to dewy eve, 11 told how earnestly the people 
watch the horticulture of Wisconsin. Shall we say; can we say 
that Wisconsin is not a fruit state? Experience forbids. All 
climes are alike, in that none are exempt from severe drawbacks. 
Michigan has the yellows and curculios to contend with; Illinois is 
but little better, and both are very subject to Greenland’s frost. 
Even old Michigan is to-day planting more crab-apple trees than 
ever before; and though they may boast of their luscious peach and 
the melting pear, yet they are not happy, and long for the transcen- 
