State Convention—Grass is King. 
403 
ates with the rise and fall of capricious and distant markets; and 
consists largely, or is chiefly contingent upon transportation. 
Deducting from the one hundred and twenty-five thousand dol¬ 
lars expended by the State, district, and county agricultural associ¬ 
ations in annual exhibitions in Wisconsin, the piemiums on ma¬ 
chinery and manufactures from points outside of the county in 
which they are exhibited; and also the purses given to miserable, 
pedigreeless, and itinerant nine-spot sporting-nags, that trot just 
fast enough to beat their owners by diverting attention and time 
which might be more advantageously and usefully devoted to breed¬ 
ing valuable roadsters, carriage- and draft-horses, cattle or sheep; 
and also deducting the expenses incurred in parade, and in procur¬ 
ing highfalutin orators who do not know a monkey-wrench from a 
hydraulic ram, or rye from barley except in fluid forms, to what 
slender proportions do we find the actual and direct aid given to 
ascertaining and disseminating correct and definite information of a 
practical nature in regard to the best means of maintaining a high 
degree of productiveness in the soil, or rich results in its products? 
SKILLED OR EDUCATED INDUSTRY. 
First and foremost among the indispensable means of maintain¬ 
ing sound principles in regard to agriculture, which forms the 
foundation of commerce, is the general diffusion of knowledge 
among the people, not only in reference to public, governmental, 
and international affairs, but also in regard to the nature of ingre¬ 
dients of the soils, the most effectual methods of arresting its decay 
and increasing its productiveness, the most economical system of 
effecting exchanges of the natural product of the earth and of hu¬ 
man skill and toil. These points involve acquaintance with the 
realms of nature, science, art, and statesmanship; for the farmer’s 
investigations into these affairs, which affect his personal welfare, 
must necessarily enlarge his vision of surrounding objects of inter¬ 
est and beauty, just as one’s ascent to commanding altitude in the 
highlands will expand his views of scenery whose enchantments 
are unappreciated by the collier or lowlander. 
The observance of this educational feature of agriculture and in¬ 
dustry has given to the world some of the most able, pure, and use¬ 
ful men who were ever called into public service and to stations of 
honor, trust, and usefulness, from the farms and work-shops of this- 
