56 
STATE AGRICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
in the manufacture of railroad iron. We know not the iron 
anywhere that is its equal for this purpose. For the reasons 
given in the present and previous discussions of this subject in 
our columns, it is our belief also, that better and more economi¬ 
cal rails for general use than those of steel manufacture ever, 
can be, yes, are being made, by The Iron Eolling Mill Com¬ 
pany of Milwaukee.” 
THE COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATE 
Has been very considerable during the year past, owing to the 
large increase in the number and capacity of the manvifactur- 
ing establishments, of various kinds, the improvement of har¬ 
bors, and the important additions, made and initiated, to our 
facilities for transportation. 
Perhaps it can hardly be said that Wisconsin had, until very 
recently, been backward and wantii\g in sagacity and foresight 
in providing for this great interest ; indeed I do not think she 
had, in view of her recent organization and actual accomplish¬ 
ment. But during the past year or two, there has been so 
profound and universal an awakening upon Hie subject of in¬ 
ternal improvements, so much actual accomplishment of very 
important results, and so much work in the way of planning 
and inaugurating new enterprises looking to the future great¬ 
ness and power of the state, that one, for the moment, thinks 
of the past as slow and improvident. 
It was my desire to be able to present, in this report^ a full 
showing of the actual amount of general commercial business 
done during the year 1869, not only by the lake ports, but by 
the larger inland towns. Up to this moment, however, my 
urgent applications to the proper authorities, have not secured 
the required information. Of all the ports, Milwaukee has 
alone responded. 
But Milwaukee is so metropolitan to the othef cities and 
towns of the state, and does so large a proportion of its gen¬ 
eral commercial business, that stiitistics of, and bearing upon, 
its commerce convey a just idea of the commercial prosperity 
