Exhibition—A nnual Addresses. 
non-productive—a course which must sooner or later cripple pro¬ 
duction and dry up the source of all wealth. Under such circum¬ 
stances each succeeding year finds us nearer to bankruptcy than 
the preceding; the mortgages on our farms are gradually increasing; 
our industries grow less and less vigorous, and death gradually 
spreads its pall over us. This whole question may be summed up 
in the one incontrovertible statement: Legitimate business cannot 
pay ten per cent, interest and long survive the drain. Least of all, 
can agriculture sustain itself under such a pressure. In 1870 the 
farms of Wisconsin were valued at $300,000,000. It is believed 
that the estimate that one-third of this value was in mortgages is 
not unreasonable. The interest upon one-third of $300,000,000 at 
ten per cent, would be $10,000,000. Now, it is calculated that 
THE PROFIT OF FARMERS 
is not more than three and one-half per cent., which on $314,000,000 
—the value of farms and farming implements—would be about 
$11,000,000. More than nine-tenths, therefore, of the net-earnings 
of the farmers of the State went for interest in 1870. In Illinois 
the value of farms and farming implements was $954,000,000, and 
interest upon one-third of that would amount to $32,000,000, 
and the profits, at three and one-half per cent., would be about 
$33,000,000. The farmers of Illinois had one million of dollars 
after paying their interest in 1870. In. Michigan the value was 
$400,000,000, which, at three and one-half per cent., would yield a 
profit of about $14,000,000, and, to nearly exhaust this, the interest 
on one-third of $400,000,000 would be about $13,000,000. The ra¬ 
tio is, of course, the same everywhere, and these States are cited 
only to more fully demonstrate the subject to your minds. Of 
course, the increase in the valuation of the farms must be taken in¬ 
to consideration, and in estimating this we can scarcely do more 
than conjecture. It is true we can ascertain the percentage of in¬ 
crease in the valuation of farm-lands from one census to another. 
In Wisconsin, from 1860 to 1870, it was three and one-half per 
cent.; in Illinois it was five and one-half per cent.; in Michigan it 
was nine per cent.; and this rather looks as if farming was a pretty 
profitable business after all. A. careless observer might be induced 
to believe from these figures that a high rate of interest did little 
to cripple an industry which produced such highly respectable re- 
