ANNUAL REPORT—AGRICULTURE. 
37 
Thirdly, by saving all the refuse of the materials so con 
clensed, and properly returning them to his lands, he will be 
enabled to keep up the fertility of his farm. 
These are advantages that cannot be gainsayed, and the 
farmer who most regards them will be best rewarded. 
In this state, there is another very important and peculiar 
advantage, namely, the almost entire immunity, so far, from 
those destructive diseases which in so many of the other states 
have at times made stock-raising not only hazardous to all, 
but ruinous to many who have been largely engaged in it. Our 
farmers have been almost total strangers as well to the pleuro¬ 
pneumonia and foot-ail of New England, .the murrains of the 
middle states, the choleras of the states of Illinois and Iowa, 
and the infections of the southwest. This important fact can¬ 
not be accidental, but is evidently due to the exceptional 
healthfulness of the Wisconsin climate, and to the freedom of 
our flocks and herds from those exposures to which those of 
other states are liable. 
As announced in previous reports of recent years, there is 
evident in Wisconsin a growing appreciation, of stock-raising 
as an essential element of good farming. It shows itself not 
so much perhaps in the increased number of domestic animals 
raised as in the constantly improving qualities of them. 
Table showing the the number of Domestic Animals in Wisconsin in the 
years 1850,1860 and 1870, with the total value thereof. 
Animals. 
1850. 
I860. 
1870. 
Horses. 
30,179 
116,180 
252,019 
Asses and Mules. 
156 
1,030 
4,135 
Milch Cows. 
64, 339 
203,001 
308,377 
Working Oxen. 
42, 801 
93, 652 
52,615 
Other cattle. 
76, 293 
225,207 
331,301 
Sheep. 
124,896 
332, 954 
1, 069,282 
Swine. 
159,276 
334, 055 
512, 777 
Whole No. of animals 
497,940 
1,306,080 
2.530, 506 
Value of all live stock.. 
$4,897,385 
$17, 807,375 
$45,310,882 
