36 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Several richly equipped and efficient appearing Military and 
Fire companies paraded upon the grounds during the Fair, dis¬ 
playing superior tactics, and gayly enlivening the scene. 
Altogether the occasion was one of extraordinary gratifica¬ 
tion and usefulness to all parties, and passed off with the 
utmost good feeling in all respects, evidencing anew to all 
observers, that such agricultural jubilees are a natural out¬ 
growth of our age and people, and highly proper to be encour¬ 
aged and fostered as schools of usefulness for the great masses 
of the people. 
The want of permanent and -well fitted Fair Grounds for 
these occasions is sadly felt, and is a source of large expendi¬ 
ture and trouble annually in making the requisite provision, 
saying nothing of the fact, that, at best, temporary arrange¬ 
ments but poorly accommodate the interests and parties con¬ 
cerned. If some common central location could be agreed 
and settled upon, and fitted permanently for these purposes, 
it would greatly simplify, as well as diminish, the annual labors 
and expenditures of the Society. Until such permanent fitting 
is had, our agricultural fairs will fall considerably short of 
what they ought to be. 
The Executive Committee w T ould express a wish that the law 
authorizing the collection of the annual statistics of the agri¬ 
cultural productions of the State, should be continued, and so 
amended, if need be, as to render its operation more certain 
and complete. 
The collecting of such annual reliable information of the 
quantities of grain grown, of the various varieties ; of the 
horses, the stock and animals ; of the increase or decrease, 
advancing or retrograding, of the different interests, seems to 
them a matter of the first importance, not only to our own peo¬ 
ple, but to those looking this way from without the State for a 
market in which to buy or deal in our staple commercial pro¬ 
ducts. When once fully understood by the officers whose duty 
it is to collect and embody such statistical facts, it would seem 
a simple duty to perform, and one that needs entail but little 
additional expense upon the people. 
