GENERAL REPORT. 
41 
this view that the State Agricultural Society has, for some 
years, encouraged thorough-breeding by the offer of extra pre¬ 
miums and the jDrivilege of a fair test of nerve and power of 
endurance on the occasion of our Annual Exhibitions. 
At the present rate of progress, ten years will suffice to 
make the value of the horses of Wisconsin, number for num¬ 
ber, fifty to one hundred per cent, greater than it is to-day. 
Cattle Breeding does not yet receive its proportionate share 
of attention. Returns even show a diminution in numbers from 
1860 to 1866 in the proportion of 554,903 to 413,459. This 
falling off, if it has really occurred, is probably owing to the 
extra attention concentrated upon wool-growing and other 
branches of farming during that period. 
The Durhams and Devons still are, as they must continue to 
be,—until some entirely new breed is developed,—the favorite 
breed; the former having no rival for beef, and the latter none 
for work. There are also a few small herds of Alderneys and 
Ayreshires, but, as yet, their influence is hardly perceptible. 
Dairies for the manufacture of butter and cheese are doubt¬ 
less fewer, relatively,than in 1860 ; first, for the reason already 
assigned for the falling off in cattle, and secondl}^, because of 
the late establishment, in various sections of the State, of 
cheese ffictories managed by private firms, joint stock compa¬ 
nies, and mutual benefit associations. 
That this system of throwing the milkings of a neighbor¬ 
hood together and carr 3 dng on the manufacture under one gen¬ 
eral management would naturally result in a more uniform 
product of better average quality to begin with, and a much 
greater probability of improvement, by means of a more care¬ 
ful and intelligent study of the scientific principles involved, 
is at once apparent; and the wonder is that the fertile Yankee 
mind did not get a conception of its value long before. 
The scheme originated in New York, the great Dairy State of 
the Union, only a few years since ; and though at first received 
with much scepticism, after two or three successful trials, it 
