470 
STATE AGRICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 
OPENING ADDRESS. 
Delivered on the State Fair Grounds, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 1868, 
BY ACTING PRESIDENT B. R. HINKLEY. 
[ Owing to an unfortunate error in making up the preceding form for the press, 
the following address was omitted from its proper place, and therefore appears here.}' 
Oendemm of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society : 
Pellow Citizens: —The duties of President of this organization having 
been unexpectedly devolved upon me, I have naturally assumed them with 
some reluctance, knowing from past experience how responsible they are, 
and how difiacult of performance to the satisfaction of all parties interested. 
Still, where so much of what ordinarily devolves upon a President is regu¬ 
larly done, and so well done, by our indefatigable and most efficient Secre¬ 
tary, the burden is so greatly lightened that, with the further co-operation of 
other officers, and of the superintendents and awarding committees, I may 
hope for reasonable success in the discharge of my official duties. 
After the lapse of another year, we, the members of the State Agricultu¬ 
ral Society and the friends of industrial improvement generally are again 
assembled upon these beautiful grounds to compare our relative success as 
farmers, gardeners, mechanics and artists, and to measure the progress of all 
the industrial arts during the past twelve months. 
In former times, societies like ours and exhibitions like these were un¬ 
known ; and, after being once instituted, the exhibitions were only occasion¬ 
ally held—once in several years. 
But, at the present day, the progress in scientific discovery and in the inven¬ 
tion and improvement of labor-saving implements and machinery is so rapid 
that the public find it hardly convenient to meet and compare results as of¬ 
ten as these interests really require. The utility of, I will say the necessity 
for, such organizations and exhibitions, especially under a Government like 
ours, where so large a proportion of those who labor in the industrial pursuits 
are producers on their own account, is just now remarkably demonstrated 
and enforced by the condition of things in the Southern States, and by the 
earnest appeals made by their wisest statesman for the immediate organiza¬ 
tion and liberal support of agricultural and mechanical associations, and the 
