420 STATE AGKICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 
were, ourselves, hardly prepared for so sudden and fatal a col¬ 
lapse as has already befallen this business in many portions of 
our State. As might have been anticipated, the suffering has 
been greatest in those districts where the enterprise had its ori¬ 
gin. In Sauk county the ruin effected by the hop-louse has been 
equal to, if not greater, than the notable prosperity by which 
it was preceded. For, whereas, previous to the hop mania the 
agriculture of that section was as prosperous as in any part of 
the State, and the farmers were gradually acquiring an inde¬ 
pendence, and even wealth, now, by reason of the neglect of 
other branches of husbandry, and the investment of large 
amounts in new hop fields and curing establishments, very 
many have not only sunk their fabulous profits of the three 
or four years’ previous business, but have even come out of the 
speculation very much worse off than when they engaged in 
it. The price, too, as was predicted, has declined to less than 
half what it was in 1867, and that not only in the districts in¬ 
fected by the destructive insects referred to, where the crop 
was damaged, but throughout the entire country; so that the 
great hop speculation may be supposed to have come to an end 
for the present. 
The improvement in manufacturing industry is yearly 
more manifest. Establishments for working up our metallic 
ores, factories for converting the timber of our forests into 
the numberless articles of farm and household use, woolen 
mills for working up our increasing amounts of wool, tan¬ 
neries for the manfacture of leather, and a multitude of other 
kindred establishments are growing up on every hand, to the 
great encouragement of all citizens of Wisconsin who realize 
the importance of a diversified industry, wherever nature has 
indicated such a policy by supplying the requisite facilities. 
Whether a judicious political economy would dictate the en- 
curagement of this important branch of industry by granting 
to capital to be invested therein a limited immunity from tax¬ 
ation, as has been, at times suggested, or not, it is unques¬ 
tionably competent for the State, and eminently its duty, to do 
everything in its power to further the interests, not only of 
