ANNUAL REPORT 
FOR THE YEAR 1866. 
His Excellency^ Lucius Fairchild, 
Governor of the State of Wisconsin : 
Sir : In conformity with the provisions of Chapter 80 of the 
Revised States, I submit herewith, the Treasurer's Annual 
Statement of the Fiscal Transactions of the Wisconsin State 
Agricultural Society for the year ending Dec. 12th, 1865. 
It is a source of gratification to the officers of the Society, 
as well as to all friends of industrial improvement, that the 
first general Exhibition held by the Society since the close of 
so protracted a war, should have been the most successful, in 
every respect, ever held in the State; for it demonstrates two 
important facts—first, that, so far from having been in any 
sense exhausted by a four years draft upon our industrial re¬ 
sources and energies, there has been a steady advancement of 
the State in every department of productive industry; and, 
secondly, that the people are more than ever alive to the im¬ 
portance of fostering and encouraging every agency whose end 
is the material and social welfare of the State. 
It will appear by the Fiscal Report that the finances of the 
Society are in a healthy condition. It is the desire of the Soci¬ 
ety not only to increase the encouragement it offers in certain 
important departments of industry, but also to undertake, at 
the earliest day practicable, a series of scientific investigations, 
which, taken together, shall constitute an agricultural survey of 
the State; and the Society is therefore confident that at an 
early day it will be well for the State to restore the appropria- 
