104 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
superintendence of its preparation, have covered it with im¬ 
provements which adapt it to our convenient use, while they 
challenge the admiration of friends and beholders. 
The Exhibition, too—the horses and cattle; the sheep and 
swine; the products of the field, garden and workshop; and 
the finer products of artistic genius in yonder Hall of Art— 
these are worthy of the year, the place, and the occasion. 
Allow me then, Farmers and Artizans of every character 
and class, to congratulate you on the abundant success which 
has attended your efforts as producers, manufacturers, and 
exhibitors; and you, members of the Society; and you, my 
colleagues of the Executive Committee, on the prosperity 
which has thi3 year attended the organization whose large and 
important interests have been intrusted to our guardianship. 
It could not be expected that in ten years, during which 
time the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society has had a cor¬ 
porate existence, we should have attained to that degree of 
strength and world-wide reputation which mark similar institu¬ 
tions in New York and some other older states; but in view of 
our youth as a Society and as a State, I feel that I am war¬ 
ranted in claiming for both, a degree of development and 
of character highly creditable to our people and commonwealth. 
As a State, we have subdued the native wildness of the territory, 
and covered it with luxuriant crops; we have built hundreds of 
beautiful villages, and one noble commercial city; we havo 
made costly improvements on our great lakes and navigable 
streams; we have banded our domain with railroads, and 
threaded it with telegraphs; we have organized systems of ed¬ 
ucation which are now offering the boon of intelligence to 
almost every community and neighborhood within our borders,, 
and which even look to the highest culture of all; and we have 
increased our population from a few tens of thousands to almost 
a million of people! 
As a Society, we have contributed largely to the aforesaid 
results, by fostering and dignifying the industrial arts, by 
stimulating individuals to increased efforts for excellence, by 
diversifying labor and by prompting communities to that or- 
