28 
STATE AGEICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
may be guilty as a people and State ? True, if any particular 
brancb of business be overdone, that fact will appear in course 
of time, either by the depreciation in the value of its products, 
or, what, as in the case of deterioration of soil, is often much 
more serious, by a manifest depreciation in power and capacity 
of the agencies necessary to their production. But would it 
not be vastly better to provide ourselves with the means of ac¬ 
curate information at once ? Besides, it is quite as important 
to know in what particulars we are not doing enough as in 
what we are doing too much ; and it is this class of errors— 
errors of omission—that can only come to our knowledge 
through the medium of statistical reports. We md^jguess that 
we are going wild on hops, but if we have no statistics as to 
the number of acres actually planted in excess of last year, the 
prospective amount required to supply the markets from the 
time the present planting will be ready for the harvest until 
we shall have reaped the profits, together with the circum¬ 
stances that are likely to govern the markets in the future, we 
shall act without intelligence and very possibly against our own 
interests. We may guess that we are raising great quantities 
of wheat, very few cattle and very little wool, but so long as 
there is nothing definite and positive, we incline to slur over 
these great practical faults and slide along as we have been 
wont. Figures, on the contrary, have point and will prick us 
to a realization of our blunders as nothing else can. 
What would be thought of a merchant who should attempt 
to do a wholesale business in all the departments of trade with¬ 
out keeping accounts of any sort? That he was either a 
madman or a fool, and that very soon his neighbors would 
have a practical illustration of the best method of doing a 
smashing commercial business. 
But is not the State of Wisconsin doing very much the same 
thing. Agriculture, mining, manufactures, commerce—all these 
important branches of industry are being carried on without 
any definite knowledge on the part of the State as to how 
much is being accomplished by any one of them. We are pro¬ 
ducing much, carrying much, and importing much; but hoiv 
