GENERAL REPORT. 
89 
little more wanting to give the farmer comparative independ¬ 
ence of the slow manual labor on which but one or two decades 
since he was compelled to rely altogether. For the incalcu¬ 
lable service they have rendered during our national struggle, 
and for the yet greater service they will render in the future 
by means of still farther improvement and indefinite multipli¬ 
cation, the American inventor, manufacturer, and we may 
even add vendor of agricultural implements and machines, are 
entitled to rich material reward and the gratitude of the nation 
and the world. 
No matter how great the industry and patriotism of the peo¬ 
ple, it is universally conceded that the success of our Govern¬ 
ment in bringing the late war to. a favorable issue in so short 
a time and without serious financial distress or disturbance of 
social order, is very largely due to the numberless labor-saving 
inventions wfith which American industry has been so pre-emi¬ 
nently blessed. 
Our farmers are, nevertheless, all the more in need of warn¬ 
ing, lest the ease with which crops may be grown and harv¬ 
ested should tempt them to cover even larger areas than here¬ 
tofore, without the possibility of proper manuring, and then 
aggravate and perpetuate that old mania for large present 
profits, though at the cost of ruin to their lands, which thus 
far has been the characteristic curse of our agriculture in the 
Western States. 
The number of reapers and mowers annually sold in Wis¬ 
consin, during the period under review, is really marvellous; 
compelling the conviction that at present there must be very 
few farmers unsupplied. One single firm in the city of Madi¬ 
son is this year selling no less than six thousand machines of 
a particular patent. And judging from the equal activity and 
large income returns, of other agents, not only at this one 
point, but in various portions of the State, this number will be 
many times multiplied. 
The number of farmers in the State is no criterion, however, 
by which to judge of the number of implements or machines 
of a given class that may be sold. For many of our farmers 
