Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
m 
Mr. Wickson stated that another feature of the influence of the 
trade upon the manufacture is seen in the enormous increase in the 
amounts produced, and it is fortunate that the trade affords indica¬ 
tions also that the profitable demand will he continued. Accord¬ 
ing to a common theory of political economy the supply had been 
constantly endeavoring to meet the demand, and still the supply is 
unfilled. While cheese has continued to gain profitable prices, oth¬ 
er specialties in agriculture have fallen and risen again several times, 
and there is every reason to expect a maintenance of profitable 
prices. Professor Cairnes draws from his study of market prices 
the conclusion that agricultural products of vegetable origin are 
subject to sudden and considerable fluctuations, while the commo¬ 
dities of animal origin rarely rise rapidly, but when an advance is 
established it is commonly held for a long time. He illustrates by 
instancing butchers 1 meat in England, which has shown the most 
marked advance in price, and states that there seems not the slight¬ 
est probability it will ever return to the price at which it was sold 
twenty years ago. So long as butchers 1 meat is beyond the reach 
of the English laborer, as it is now, American cheese will meet with 
profitable sale in England. The lesson which the trades reflect up¬ 
on the manufacture is that the signs are for an endurance of the 
prosperity of the dairy industry, and this is an important consider¬ 
ation in view of the fact that the industry finds its productive pow¬ 
er increasing each succeeding year. 
The speaker next treated at some length the improved methods 
of marketing which have been devised by the dairymen, tracing 
the steps from the old-fashioned sale in the fall at the factory, to 
the recent Board of Trade plan, and claiming that the development 
in the trade has been as marked as in the manufacture. The Board 
of Trade plan was discussed at length, and it was shown to be the 
natural outgrowth of culminating conditions and worthy of wide 
support by producers. 
The speaker urged the improvement of the county boards of trade 
by the adoption of more approved methods of sale. 
Mr. Wickson passed then to another branch of his subject, the 
probable commercial effects of the tendency toward novelties in 
manufacture. The production of creamery butter has proved ex¬ 
ceptionally remunerative, and the demand for this delicious material 
grows faster than the supply. The improvement which has been 
