408 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
largely of the agricultural produce of tlie surrounding country, and as the 
manufacturing enterprises increase, the proportion of home consumption is 
constantly becoming larger; as a consequence, prices are tending to become 
more remunerative. 
That the county of Fond du Lac is making rapid advances in wealth and 
population, is undeniable. In 18G0 its population was 34,155; in 1870 it is 
40,392, a gain of 12,138 in ten years. During the same time, the tine county 
of Dodge has made but slight progress. We ascribe this result to the fact 
that Fond du Lac has large and constantly increasing manufacturing inter¬ 
ests, whereas Dodge county has hardly any, and is almost exclusively an 
agricultural county; but having no home interchange of agricultural pro¬ 
ducts, it is drained of its earnings for the benefit of other and more favored 
sections. Winnebago county, in which is the lively manufacturing city of 
Oshkosh, is another illustration. Its population in 1800 was 23,709. It is 
now 37,325, a proportionate gain even larger than that of Fond du Lac. 
Still, for several causes which we deem unnecessary to name, except that 
Fond du Lac controls the local trade of a much larger territory, we think 
the latter city will retain the rank of second city which it has attained. 
Outagamie county, which has doubled its population within the last decade, 
and Brown, which has done even better, are other illustrations. Dodge, if 
not superior to the other three counties named, is certainly equal to them in 
an agricultural point of view. Walworth and Washington counties, which 
are purely agricultural, have either retrograded or made very slight ad¬ 
vances in spite of increased railroad facilities; which is a further confirma¬ 
tion of the fact, well established the world over, that no purely agricultural 
(country ever attains the highest prosperity; that is reserved for those sections 
which combine manufacturing and commercial interests with those of agri¬ 
culture. The truth of this position is incontrovertible. New England, New 
York, Pennsylvania, England, France and other countries are living proofs 
of its truth. Land will always command the highest prices and agricul¬ 
ture flourish most in the neighborhood of large manufacturing and com¬ 
mercial centers, where capital always accumulates. It makes very little 
difference to the general prosperity of the country whether the city or the 
farming interest secures the balance of trade in its favor; for that balance 
of trade is never remitted abroad. In either case it stays at home; and 
whichever of the three interests—manufacturing, commercial or agricultu¬ 
ral, makes the largest profits, simply adds most to the general gains from 
which nothing is detracted, nothing removed or carried away; but all of 
which remains at home to swell the general prosperity and the general 
wealth. Contrast the condition of Spain, Italy, Austria, Greece, Turkey, all 
purely agricultural countries, with that of the other countries named above, 
and draw your own inferences! 
The manufacturing and commercial countries are not ahead of those just 
named in material well-being merely, but also morally, socially and intel- 
