o o 
? y 
PREFACE. 
After a lapse of eight years, including the whole period of 
the late war, the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society is at 
length enabled, by means of Legislative provision, to present 
to the public another volume of its Transactions—a volume, 
which, happily, is also the beginning of a series of publica¬ 
tions hereafter to appear annually. If it be found to contain 
a less variety of original matter than some previous volumes, 
it is because we have had no alternative but to make it just 
what it is—a series, mainly, of official reports. 
Nevertheless, these reports—completing, as they do, the So¬ 
ciety’s record from the date of the last publication in 1860, to 
the end of 1868, together with several valuable addresses, and 
the proceedings of the State Horticultural Society, which also 
contain matter of practical importance—constitute, in the aggre 
gate, a volume that doubtless will be welcome wherever re¬ 
ceived, and not less because of the information it contains than 
for the reason that it bridges over a long period, during which 
it has been impracticable to issue any volume whatever. 
The condensed reports of the Secretary, as State Commis¬ 
sioner, on the London International Exhibition of 1862, and 
the Paris Universal Exposition of 1867 are embraced in the 
3 
