70 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Oswego and Ogclensburgh, or the Canadian cities, and the mouth of the St. 
Lawrence, to St. Louis, New Orleans, and the Balize. 
“This is certainly indicative of a new era in the practice of inland nav¬ 
igation, as it will open at once an easy and direct communication between 
New York and the new States of Wisconsin and Iowa, and the Minnesota 
Territ;ry, render any of the above named points on the Mississippi river 
easier of access by way of the lakes than St. Louis itself. 
This line of communication brings the lead mines of Galena nearer by a 
hundred miles to the lakes than to St. Louis, and to it ultimately all the 
hidden wealth of the upper Mississippi valley—incalculable in its amount, 
and apparently inexhaustible—must become tributary, inasmuch as for the 
transmission of heavy freight and produce, this is the easiest and most 
direct, and therefore the cheapest channel.” 
These results have not all been realized yet, but the reasons 
for believing that they may be a part of the future history of 
the State are no less valid now than they were eight years ago. 
The other public improvements — embracing harbors, State 
and plank roads, bridges, State and United States buildings, 
&c., &c., are of a character highly creditable to so young a 
State as Wisconsin, and a most cheering earnest of what may 
be expected when another decade shall have been added to her 
history. 
INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATIONS. 
One of the most hopeful signs of the times, industrially con¬ 
sidered, is the growing disposition on the part of the industrial 
classes to associate themselves together for mutual improve¬ 
ment and the more rapid progress of the arts to which they 
are severally devoted. Among the professional and commer¬ 
cial classes, societies, associations and clubs, have been common 
enough from time immemorial; but industrial associations are 
entirely a modern improvement. It is to this circumstance 
that we may attribute, to a large extent, the slow progress of 
Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts from the time of their early 
origin down to the present century. 
Being in closer proximity, in the cities where their arts are 
chiefly practiced, it was natural that mechanics of various kinds 
should have been first of all the producing classes to avail them¬ 
selves of this potent means of advancement; and on the other 
hand, it was equally natural that the farmer, who is necessarily 
