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5S Wisconsin state agricultural soceitt. 
erate lines by the General Government, which is, to say the least, 
of questionable propriety. 
MANUFACTURING. 
I cannot let an occasion pass, however often it may occur, with¬ 
out bringing to the attention of our people the vital importance 
of manufacturing. I believe that no people, purely agricultural, 
ever became a thrifty and prosperous community, but that agri¬ 
culture is advanced and successful as diversified industries find a 
home, and build up in its midst. Statistics of English agricul¬ 
ture show that in the northern portion of that country, which 
embrace the coal region, the seat of mining and manufacturing 
industries, that the price of labor averaged some 37 per cent, 
higher than in the southern portion of England, where the people 
were almost exclusively engaged in agriculture. Thus the labor¬ 
ers wages were advanced and the proprietor’s profits increased, as 
he sold his products at his very door at remunerative prices, with 
no cost of transportation added. As the various industries of a 
people prosper, society improves, and land and labor become more 
valuable, and the general good of a state is advanced. The far¬ 
mer and manufacturer are mutually dependent upon one another, 
and as these mutual interests are recognized and encouraged, and 
their proper relations with other trade and commercial interests 
better known, and their harmonious workings more fully under¬ 
stood and wisely adjusted, will true progress and civilization 
advance. 
Agriculture in its rudest forms, unaided by other industries 
and pursuits, furnished little more for man than for the beast of 
the field which feed upon its herbage. The land had little value; 
but as manufacturing and the varied industries of the world 
began to develop—each exchanging with the other its products— 
land became of value and the grade of civilization was raised. 
The conditions of society incident to, or closely connected with 
the mutual interests of the farmer and manufacturer are strik¬ 
ingly illustrated by contrasting the large manufacturing districts 
of our own country with those strictly agricultural and far 
removed from other pursuits. In the former case the lands are 
