38 
STATE AGRICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 
present year, throughout the State, will be so great that we 
dare not venture an estimate. 
The yield in various parts of the State often equals one ton 
to the acre, and the Wisconsin hop commands the highest 
price in the Eastern markets. 
It is hardly the business of a review to anticipate the fu¬ 
ture ; but we cannot forbear a few words of warning to the 
farming public, whose permanent interests are endangered by 
.the strong hold this mania has taken upon them. They who 
■were quick to discover the deficiency of the supply, and 
prompt to act, have undoubtedly reaped rich harvests of profit, 
and will still continue for a time to make it a paying business. 
But it is certainly questionable whether it be policy at this late 
day to make a beginning. There will probably be no imme¬ 
diate end to the drinking of beer and the consequent demand 
for hops in large and perhaps increasing quantities, but there 
is certainly a limit to the demand; and it is equally certain 
that Wisconsin is not the only portion of the country in which 
hops can or wdll be grown. Already the hop-louse, that great 
enemy of the plant, has discovered our magnificent crop of the 
present year, and sent out his skirmishers to prepare the way, 
doubtless, for a general attack. Moreover the price seems 
sure to decline before any newly planted yard or field can 
possibly yield its first marketable crop. Fifty-five cents, the 
price of last year’s crop, paid magnificently; but twenty-five 
would hardly warrant the sacrifice of every other interest to go 
into this particular business. 
AGRICULTUEAL IMPLEMENTS. 
As to the mechanical branch of agriculture, we may safely 
assert that it has made more progress during the years em¬ 
braced in this Report than ever before within the same length , 
of time. The number of original inventions maj'' not have 
been greater, but under the stimulus of necessity during the 
war, very great improvements have been made in nearly every 
class of machines and implements, until now there seems but 
