142 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
to 50 or 60 cents, in currency, per bushel. In 1860, great 
crops were raised in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and sold for 50 
or 60 cents in gold. And yet people murmured and com¬ 
plained, and all looked forward to the time when they should 
have railroads, by which to transport their products to better 
markets. But now, ten years since that time, it is worth less 
in currency than it was then in gold. Many people had nothing 
but wheat from which to expect a cent of revenue, a few years 
ago, and many of them mortgaged their lands and run into 
debt, and hardly any of them were able to pay their debts, 
and many of them went through the long cold winters without 
being able to procure even a new suit of clothes. They hung 
on to their wheat, waiting for better prices, until at last they 
were obliged to sell for what they could get, and many were 
obliged to yield all their crops at last, even at a discount, in or- 
* 
der to cancel their old debts. 
Many demagogues attribute that state of disaster to the 
revenue system of the country. But it was a false and fraud¬ 
ulent pretence. If the people had had cheese, beef, pork, wool, 
mutton, etc., to turn off, it would have saved them from the 
disaster consequent upon too much wheat raising, and they 
might have realized fine returns for their labor instead of dis¬ 
aster and ruin. 
Another much needed thing is cheap transportation. Much 
of the net profits ol raising grain is pocketed by monopolies 
and giant corporations organized for the transportation of grain 
to the markets, so that the farmer is deprived of the greater 
portion of the profits to be derived from his own labor. 
Another thing in the way of prosperity is the want of man¬ 
ufacturing establishments in our midst. There is not a thresh¬ 
ing machine manufactured in the state of Minnesota. Proba¬ 
bly a million of dollars a year are paid out for agricultural im¬ 
plements, and but a very few are manufactured in the state. 
The consequence is, that the country is drained of its money, 
which is carried off to other places, and paid for those things. 
Every farmer in Minnesota who buys one of Case’s threshers, 
