ANNUAL REPORT—AGRICULTURE. 
41 
is paid for at so mucli the gallon, and the product of a whole 
neighborhood is brought together, quantity will be the chief 
consideration with those who sell. 
This objection has less weight where cheese alone is con¬ 
sidered ; and when butter manufacture comes to assume the 
same importance in a co-operative way, some just means will 
• doubtless be devised whereby quality may also be made a con¬ 
sideration. 
So far as I have been able to learn, the question of breed 
has not yet received sufficient attention. It may therefore be 
again urged upon those who make it an important part of their 
operations to produce milk, whether special attention should 
not be given to the breeding with direct reference to the milk- 
producing qualities of their herds. 
It has long been almost, if not universally, conceded that the 
Ayrshires are the best milkers of any ; and yet I hardly know 
of a half-dozen animals of this breed in Wisconsin. If one 
wants milk, the main question is milk, not the amount of beef 
the cow will make when age renders her less fit for the dairy. 
The question is wholly one of profit. And if a cow remarka¬ 
ble for the quantity and quality of her milk will yield to the 
owner a larger total profit on the milk produced during her 
prime than an ordinary milker will yield him on both milk 
and beef, it is a clear case that the milher is the more profitable 
animal, all in all. 
FRUIT GROWING. 
« ' 
Horticulture is still making good progress. Hew local 
societies for its encouragement are springing up all over the 
state. Their influence is no less marked upon the general 
advancement of fruit-growing than upon the localities where 
they exist. Whatsoever can be done by the state to encourage 
the formation of such societies, and to help them to a yet 
greater efficiency, ought by all means to be done—not 
doubtingly and grudgingly, but with assurance and a wise 
liberality. 
The report of the State Horticultural Society, herewith 
