ANNUAL KEPORT—1861. 85 
that foreign capital, so much needed, may be indueed to invest' 
in this important branch of our industry. 
Upon agricultural societies the past has been a very trying 
year, for the reason that the public mind has been in a con¬ 
stant fever of excitement upon subjects connected with the 
welfare of the country, and has consequently found much less 
interest than usual in the industrial enterprises which engage 
the efforts of associations of that class. Most of the county 
societies held fairs, however—some of them, with even more 
than usual success. 
The State Agricultural Society has suffered from special 
causes worthy of mention by the Committee and of considera¬ 
tion by the Executive and Legislative Departments of State 
and by the people. Eeference is made to the occupation of 
the Society’s Fair Grounds by the troops of the State, to the 
exclusion of the Society therefrom. This has been not only 
an embarrassment but a serious damage. From motives of 
economy, the Society located the Annual Exhibition at Madi¬ 
son for two years. But this made it necessary that the build¬ 
ings, fences and other improvements should be of a more sub¬ 
stantial character than had been usual, though, at the same 
time, it warranted a neatness of construction which very mate¬ 
rially added to the attraction of the grounds and the comfort 
of the people in attendance upon the exhibitions. Still the 
Society would have made a considerable gain by the said loca¬ 
tion for two years, could it have held the second exhibition as 
arranged ; since, in addition to putting a large proportion of the 
receipts of the Fair and the Madison city subscription into the 
treasury, it would have added thereto the whole amount accru¬ 
ing from tlic sales of material—thus leaving the Society in a 
most excellent financial condition. The grounds were desired, 
however, by the Governor, for the use of our volunteer troops, 
and the Executive committee, feeling that, in this time of na¬ 
tional peril, the interests of the Government were paramount 
to those of the Society, cheerfully tendered them to the Exec¬ 
utive for military occupation, and subsequently relinquished 
the holding of the proposed Annual Fair, rather than subject 
