V 
ANNUAL REPORT 
FOR THE YEAR 1866. 
His Excellency^ Lucius Fairchild, 
Governor of the State of Wisco7isin : 
Sir : I have the honor, herewith, to submit the Treasurer’s 
Annual Statement of the financial transactions of the Wiscon¬ 
sin State Agricultural Society, for the year ending Dec. 12, 
1866. 
Although not remarkable for a bountiful yield of the vari¬ 
ous agricultural crops produced, the year just closed has, nev¬ 
ertheless, been characterized by a very general prosperity in 
all departments of industry. 
While the agriculture of the State is making a steady pro¬ 
gress, as a whole, the manifestly growing disposition of our 
farmers to adopt a more diversified system than heretofore, is 
especially worthy of notice. The agriculture of no country 
can continue,to flourish for any considerable number of years, 
in which the prevailing practice of raising grain for exporta¬ 
tion, is indulged in to the great neglect of stock-raising. This 
is so palpable as not to require comment, and yet the farmers 
of Wisconsin have long been practically regardless of the nat¬ 
ural laws on which this theory is based—cultivating wheat to 
the exclusion, comparatively speaking, of everything else, 
and thus robbing soils of their fertility, which, under a judi¬ 
cious system, might be rather increased than diminished in 
productiveness. Our State is well adapted to every branch of 
stock-raising, and, for the more profitable branches, is inferior 
to no State in the Union. Wool-growing has made great pro- 
