100 
WISCONSIN STATE AGEICtTLTUEAL SOCIETY. 
are almost the only reminders to the great body of the people 
that the long reign of peace which followed the war of 1812, 
has been disturbed in all our borders? 
What better evidence could be given of the vastness of our 
material resources and the mighty energies of our people. 
The people of Wisconsin have a richer inheritance than even 
the most thoughtful and best impressed are able to realize. A 
healthful climate; scenery which for beauty and variety is unsur 
passed by any equal area on the globe; soils variously adapted 
and of great fertility ; forests of timber whose extent is almost 
without parallel on the continent, and whose market is the em¬ 
pire of the west; exhaustless supplies of the most essential 
minerals; quarries, water-powers without rival; and natural 
commercial facilities which are the envy of her sister states ;— 
all these and more are hers by the gift of God. 
To these there has been added by this first generation of 
inheritors more than a thousand cities and villages, embracing 
with the country dwellings, nearly two hundred thousand 
houses; permanent agricultural improvements valued at nearly 
three hundred millions of dollars, besides stock and imple¬ 
ments worth over one hundred and fifty millions; more than 
seven thousand manufacturies, representing a capital of some 
fifty millions of dollars ; over a thousand miles of railway; 
a tonnage of some hundreds of thousands of tons of shipping; 
to say nothing of the countless number of other improvements 
that cannot be enumerated here, and which, aggregate a value 
amounting to scores of millions of money. A magnificent ac¬ 
complishment indeed for the pioneer generation , results all the 
more astonishing because they have come in large measure as 
they would, independent of any system of development or well- 
formed plan of operations on the part of the state. 
Now let us have a comprehensive, far-seeing statesmanship 
for the guidance of the public affairs, and we shall see how far 
it is possible for the next ten years to transcend the past. 
On behalf of the Executive Board, 
Your obedient servant, 
J. W. HOYT, Secretary. 
State Aricultural Rooms, Madison, March, 1871. 
