PRESENTATION OF PRIZE BANNER. 
131 
And now, sir, on behalf of the Wisconsin State Agricultural 
Society, and of the citizens of Madison, I have the honor to 
present, through you, to the Agricultural Society of the County 
of Pierce, this Banner, alike honorable to the public spirit of 
its donors, the skill of the artist who executed it, and the su¬ 
perior enterprise of those to whom it has been awarded. 
Worthily won, I trust that the future of your County will 
give permanent sanction to the wisdom and justness of the 
award. To this end you will bear in mind the spirit and zeal of 
the noble County of Winnebago, which shares with you the 
honors conferred by the Awarding Committee, and which, by 
the results of this year’s exhibitions, will be stimulated to yet 
more vigorous competition in the time to come. Let ifc be yours 
to 'preserve as well as to gain—to transmit to those who come af¬ 
ter you this symbol of your present triumph with not less of 
meaning and inspiration than it has for you this day. 
On receiving the banner, Mr. Gunn made the following 
response: 
Dr. Iloyt and Gentlemen of the Wisconsin State Agricultural 
Society: The people of Pierce County were early apprized of 
the fact that the citizens of Madison had offered through your 
Society, a Prize Banner to that county in the State (excepting 
Dane) which should make the best exhibition of agricultural 
products at the State Fair the present year. With this stim¬ 
ulus before us, although one of the youngest counties in the 
State, we resolved to enter the list of competitors and take the 
chances of success or failure. In either event we felt that our 
labor would not be wholly in vain; since the opportunity to 
demonstrate the capacity of our county for agricultural pro¬ 
ducts and to un-deceive those who supposed we were so far 
towards the frozen regions, that the climate could not bring 
the products of the soil to perfection, would be an abundant 
reward. 
While southern Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, and, 
in fact, most of the States of the Union have suffered from 
frosts, blight, drought and mildew, during the ten years of my 
residence there, I have never known Pierce County to fail in 
