ANNUAL EXHIBITION—OPENING ADDRESS. 
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OPENING ADDEESS. 
Delivered on the Pair Grounds, Sept. 29, 1869. 
BY PRESIDENT B. R. HINKLEY, 
Fellow Citizens :—After anotlier full period of seed-sow¬ 
ing, of cultivating the various crops that flourish in this nor¬ 
thern, but yet not ungenial, climate, and of gathering in a boun¬ 
tiful harvest, the farmers of Wisconsin have again met to 
compare the fruits of their annual labors, and to rejoice over 
that general good fortune which has marked their operations 
in nearly every section of the state. Here, also, are gathered 
our many enterprising gardeners,vintners and orchardists, whose 
well directed and persevering labors have already done so 
much to insure the success of fruit-growing in the northwestern 
states, and whose samples of apples, pears, plums, grapes and 
other fruits are higher praise than any mere words by whom¬ 
soever uttered. 
And here are our inventors with their many ingenious con¬ 
trivances, their labor-saving implements and machines; our 
practical mechanics, whose many handicrafts add so much to 
the progress of every branch of industry ; and our manufac¬ 
turers with their multiform illustrations of the recent progress 
of the mechanic arts. Here, too, are our own artists, with the 
products of their genius and skill; and last, but by no means 
least, our country-women and our ladies of city and town, with 
the substantial products of their domestic industry and the 
many pleasing evidences of cultivated taste. 
Nor is this great gathering confined to individual devotees 
of the several arts and professions. Here are likewise the rep¬ 
resentatives and the best collections of products of whole 
counties, some of the more spirited of which, in a most hon¬ 
orable rivalry, are found vicing with each other in a demonstra- 
