402 
Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
hundred thousand dollars. Doubtless, upon investigation, it would 
be found that beets and oil-cake contributed largely to the produc¬ 
tion of the marketable cattle, while the cattle and sheep contributed 
to the production of the materials used in the factories; and that 
grass instead of grain was the commanding crop of that valuable 
farm. The importance and value of the beet crop in Europe may 
be inferred from the fact that the annual production of beet-root 
sugar reaches a quarter of a million of tons in France, nearly two 
hundred thousand tons in Germany, over one hundred thou¬ 
sand tons in Austria, a similar quantity in Russia, thirty-five 
thousand tons in Belgium, fifteen thousand tons in Poland and 
Sweden, and ten thousand tons in Holland. Estimating this sugar, 
which compares favorably with the best quality of white loaf- 
sugar, according to specimens sent to me by a Wisconsin gen¬ 
tleman who gave some attention to it during a visit to France, at 
the low price of ten cents per pound, ive find the value of this pro¬ 
duct alone, in the countries above mentioned, aggregating six hun¬ 
dred and eighty-five thousand tons, gross weight, is one hundred 
and forty-three millions, four hundred and forty thousand dollars 
annually. 
NEED OF MORE PRACTICAL INFORMATION. 
Whether the discussions, addresses, lectures, editorials and re¬ 
ports of agricultural teachers have been too technical and lofty for 
common comprehension, or not; and whether the large expendi¬ 
tures of time and money in connection with the numerous national, 
State, and county agricultural exhibitions, (which are too often mis¬ 
erable imitations of a good horse-race, with enough pumpkins and 
squashes to fake off the curse so as to increase receipts,) have been 
successful in imparting needed instruction to the masses, as to the 
best modes of making the soil productive or not; and whether 
proper and well-devised efforts have been made to direct the labor 
and capital of farmers into the most remunerative branches of ag¬ 
riculture or not; we are forced to admit, that the improvements 
in American agriculture have not kept pace with the mechanical 
skill and ingenuity, which have filled the country with labor-saving- 
machinery, and stimulated a pernicious system of gathering or rais¬ 
ing (instead of cultivating) bulky grain-crops, whose value fluctu- 
