214 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
lias not been able to make two blades grow anywhere, or pro¬ 
duce a single text book upon mixed agriculture. 
The farmer who plods along with his improved machinery, 
owes science nothing for the plans he adopts for next year’s 
management of the soil. Science may not be to blame for not 
accomplishing what we wish, still the farmer would like to be 
under obligations to it for more facts. He procures a chemical 
analysis of his soil, he learns the components of the cereals he 
raises and supplies the missing constituent to his land, but for 
want of proper heat or moisture his plan does not succeed, and 
“ apples of the desert ” are produced where he expected thirty 
bushels of wheat to the acre ; he closes his book, and ever after 
plants his potatoes in the old of the moon, and manages his 
stock when the sign is right. Should he be a man of sufficient 
strength of mind to guide him into paying back to the soil, by 
way of manure, a portion of what he has borrowed by way of 
grain taken to market, we present to you the average Wiscon¬ 
sin farmer. 
To preserve the fertility of the soil, to cultivate it to the 
greatest advantage, to raise its products at the least expense, 
to procure the best implements of husbandry, to select the 
best stock, to feed them in the most judicious manner, and 
preserve the respect of all classes of men, should be the end 
and aim sought by a system of mixed husbandry; and a thorough 
education to ensure the attainment of these objects is what 
the people of the state demand of those entrusted with the 
management of the agricultural schools and societies of the 
state. 
We have no one staple product in this state to which the 
farmer can give his undivided attention, and we have not been 
induced to make a specialty of any one thing, except to a lim¬ 
ited extent during the hop fever. Farming cannot be profita¬ 
ble or complete without pursuing it in all its branches, and 
hence mixed husbandry is essential to success in Wisconsin. 
To farmers just beginning, or those who have pursued farm¬ 
ing without results satisfactory to themselves, we would make 
a few suggestions. 
