TRANSACTIONS. 
ANNUAL REPORT. 
To His Excelkncy, Lucius Fairchild, 
Governor of Wisconsin 
In submitting the report of the State Agricultural Society 
for the year 1869, it is gratifying to be able again to congratu¬ 
late the people of Wisconsin upon the favorable circumstances 
which have characterized the period embraced. The public 
health has been almost universal; the order and peace of 
society have been undisturbed ; a good degree of success has 
crowned our efforts in every department of labor; population 
has increased with more than usual rapidity; internal improve*- 
ments have steadily advanced; and, although we have not 
wholly escaped the general depression and embarrassment 
consequent upon a heavy public debt, the unsettled condition 
of the national finances and the lack of a well-determined 
national policy, in common with our sister states, we have 
had immunity from those overwhelming financial disasters, 
which at other periods in our history, have caused an almost 
total stagnation of commerce and palsied the hands of our 
manifold industry. 
The agriculture of the state suffered considerably from 
two or three causes worthy of mention. 
In the first place, many of our farmers had not recovered 
from the serious effects consequent on the almost universal 
Ag. Tb.—2. 
