Iowa County, Wisconsin - Chapter 18, 1881 (part 6 of 17)

When the fish retire to the deep water, they are followed with miles of nets, and the poor fish are entangled on every side. There is a marked falling off in the number and size of whitefish and trout taken, when compared with early years. When fish were only captured with seines, they had abundant chance to escape and multiply so as to keep an even balance in number. Only by artificial propagation and well enforced laws protecting them during the spawning season, can we hope now to restore the balance. In order to give some idea of the valuable labors of the state fish commissioners, I will state briefly that they have purchased for the state a piece of property, situated three miles from Madison, known as the Nine Springs, including forty acres of land, on which they have erected a dwelling-house, barn and hatchery, also constructed several ponds, in which can be seen many valuable fish in the enjoyment of perfect health and vigor. As equipped, it is, undoubtedly, one of the best, if not the best, hatchery in the states. In this permanent establishment the commission design to hatch and distribute to the small lakes and rivers of the interior the most valuable of our indigenous fish, such as bass, pike, trout, etc., etc., as well as many valuable foreign varieties. During the past season, many fish have been distributed from this state hatchery. At the Milwaukee Water Works, the commission have equipped a hatchery on a large scale, using the water as pumped directly from the lake. During the past season there was a prodigious multitude of young trout and whitefish distributed from this point. The success of Superintendent Welcher in hatching whitefish at Milwaukee has been the best yet gained, nearly ninety per cent, of the eggs "laid down" being hatched. Pisciculturists will appreciate this wonderful success, as they well know how difficult it is to manage the spawn of the whitefish.

They were distributed as follows, in the month of May, 1877 : Whitefish planted in Lake Michigan, at Racine, 1,000,000; at Milwaukee, 3,260,000; between Manitowoc and Two Rivers 1,000,000; in Green bay, 1,000,000; in Elkhart lake, 40,000.

Salmon trout were turned out as follows: Lake Michigan, near Milwaukee, 600,000; Brown's lake, Racine county, 40,000 ; Delavan lake, Walworth county, 40,000 ; Troy lake, Walworth county, 40,000; Pleasant lake, Walworth county, 40,000; Lansdale lake, Walworth county, 40,000; Ella lake, Milwaukee county, 16,000; Cedar lake, Washington county, 40,000; Elkhart lake, Sheboygan county, 40,000; Clear lake, Rock county, 40,000; Ripley lake,

Jefferson county, 40,000; Mendota lake, Dane county, 100,000; Fox lake. Dodge county, 40,000 ; Swan and Silver lakes, Columbia county, 40,000 ; Little Green lake. Green Lake county, 40,000; Big Green lake. Green Lake county, 100,000; Bass lake, St. Croix county, 40,000; Twin lakes, St. Croix county, 40,000; Long lake, CJhippewa county, 40,000; Oconomowoc lake, Waukesha county, 100,000; Pine lake, Waukesha county, 40,000; Pewaukee lake, Waukesha county, 100,000; North lake, Waukesha county, 40,000 ; Nagawicka lake, Waukesha county, 40,000; Okanche lake, Waukesha county, 40,000.

Fifty years ago, the territory now included in the state of Wisconsin, was nearly in a state of nature, all the large wild animals were then abundant. Now, all has changed. The ax and plow, gun and dog, railway and telegraph, have metamorphosed the face of nature. Most of the large quadrupeds have been either exterminated, or have hid themselves away in the wilderness. In a short time, all of these will have disappeared from the state. The date and order in which animals become extinct within the boundaries of the state, is a. subject of great interest. There was a time when the antelope, the woodland caribou, the buffalo, and the wild turkey, were abundant, but are now no longer to be found.

The Antelope, Antilocarpa Americana, now confined to the Western plains, did, two hundred years ago, inhabit Wisconsin as far east as Michigan. In October, 1679, Father Hennepin, with La Salle and party, in four canoes, coasted along the Western shore of Lake Michigan. In Hennepin's narrative, he says; " The oldest of them " (the Indians) " came to us the next morning with their calumet of peace, and brought some wild goats." This was somewhere north of Milwaukee. "Being in sore distress, we saw upon the coast a great many ravens and eagles " (turkey vultures), " from whence we conjectured there was some prey, and having landed upon that place, we found above the half of a fat 7vild goai, which the wolves had strangled. This provision was verj' acceptable to us, and the rudest of our men could not but praise the Divine Providence which took so particular care of us." This must have been somewhere near Racine. "On the i6th" (October, 1679), " we met with abundance of game. A savage we had with us, killed several stags (deer) and wild goats, and our men a great many turkeys, very fat and big." This must have been south of Racine. These goats were undoubtedly antelopes. Schoolcraft mentions antelopes as occupying the Northwest territory.

When the last buffalo crossed the Mississippi is not precisely known. It is certain they lingered in Wisconsin in 1825. It is said there was a buffalo shot on the St. Croix river as late as 1832, so Wisconsin claims the last buffalo. The woodland caribou - Rangi/er caribou - were never numerous within the limits of the state. A few were seen not far from La Pointe in C045. The last wild turkey in the eastern portion of the state, was in 1846. On the Mississippi, one was killed in 1856. I am told by Dr. Walcott, that turkeys were abundant in Wisconsin previous to the hard winter of 1842-3, when snow was yet two feet deep in March, with a stout crust, so that the turkeys could not get to the ground. They became so poor and weak, that they could not fly, and thus became an easy prey to the wolves, foxes, wild cats, minks, etc., which exterminated almost the entire race. The Doctor says he saw but one single individual the next winter. Elk were on Hay river in 1863, and I have little doubt a few yet remain. Moose are not numerous, a few yet remain in the northwestern part of the state. I saw moose tracks on the Montreal river, near Lake Superior, in the summer of 1845. A few panthers may still inhabit the wilderness of Wisconsin. Benjamin Bones, of Racine, shot one on the headwaters of

Black river, December, 1863. Badgers are now nearly gone, and in a few years more, the only badgers found within the state, will be two legged ones. Beavers are yet numerous in the small lakes in the northern regions. Wolverines are occasionally met with in the northern forests. Bears, wolves, and deer, will continue to flourish in the northern and central counties, where underbrush, timber, and small lakes abound.

All large animals will soon be driven by civilization out of Wisconsin. The railroad and improved firearms will do the work, and thus we lose the primitive denizens of the forest and prairies.

Peculiarities Of The Bird Fauna

The facts recorded in this paper, were obtained by personal observations within fifteen miles of Racine, Wisconsin, latitude 42° 46' north, longitude 87° 48' west. This city is situated on the western shore of Lake Michigan, at the extreme southern point of the heavy lumbered district, the base of which rests on Lake Superior. Racine e.xtends six miles further into the lake than Milwaukee, and two miles further than Kenosha. At this point the great prairie approaches near the lake from the west. The extreme rise of the mercury in summer, is from go° to 100° Fahrenheit. The isothermal line comes further north in summer, and retires further south in winter than it does east of the great lakes, which physical condition will sufficiently explain the remarkable peculiarities of its animal life, the overlapping, as it were, of two distinct faunas. More especially is this true of birds, that are enabled to change their locality with the greatest facility. Within the past thirty years, I have collected and observed over three hundred species of birds, nearly half of all birds found in North America. Many species, considered rare in other sections, are found here in the greatest abundance. A striking peculiarity of the ornithological fauna of this section, is that southern birds go farther north in summer, while northern species go farther south in winter than they do east of the lakes. Of summer birds that visit us, I will ennumerate a few of the many that belong to a more southern latitude in the Atlantic States. Nearly all nest with us, or, at least, did some years ago.

Yellow-breasted chat, Ictcria virdis ; mocking bird, Mimus pollyglottus ; great Carolina wren, Thriothorus ludoviciamis ; prothonotary warbler, Protonoiaria citrea; summer red bird, Pyrangia ^eftiva; wood ibis, Tantalus loadator.

Snowy owl, Nyclea nivea; great gray owl, Syrnium cinerus; hawk owl, Surtiia ulula; Arctic three-toed woodpecker, Picoides arcticus ; banded three-toed woodpecker, Picoides hirsutus; magpie. Pica hudsonica; Canada jay, Pcrisorius canadensis ; evening grosbeak, Hespcriplwna vespertina; Hudson titmouse. Pants hudsonicus; king eder, Somateria spec/abilis; black-throated diver, Colymbus arcticus; glaucus gull, Laurus glaucus.

These examples are sufficient to indicate the rich avi fauna of Wisconsin. It is doubtful if there is another locality where the Canada jay and its associates visit in winter where the mocking bird nests in summer, or where the hawk owl flies silently over the spot occupied during the warmer days by the summer red bird and the yellow-breasted chat. But the ax has already leveled much of the great woods, so that there is now a great falling off in numbers of our old familiar feathered friends. It is now extremely doubtful if such a collection can ever again be mad; within the boundaries of this state, or indeed, of any other.

Educational History

From the time of the earliest advent of the families of French traders into the region now known as Wisconsin, to the year 1818, when that region became part of Michigan territory, education was mostly confined to private mstruction, or was sought by the children of the wealthier in the distant cities of Quebec, Montreal, and Detroit. The early Jesuit missionaries, and - subsequently to 1816, when it came under the military control of the United States - representatives of various other religious denominations, sought to teach the Indian tribes of this section. In 1823, Rev. Eleazar Williams, well known for his subsequent claim to be the Dauphin of France, and who was in the employ of the Episcopal Missionary Society, started a school of white and half-breed children on the west side of Fox river, opposite " Shanty-Town." A Catholic mission school for Indians was organized by an Italian priest near Green Bay, in 1830. A clause of the treaty with the Winnebago Indians, in 1832, bound the United States to maintain a school for their children near Prairie du Chien for a period of twenty-seven years.

From 1818 to 1S36, Wisconsin formed part of Michigan territory. In the year 1837, Michigan was admitted into the Union as a state, and Wisconsin, embracing what is now Minnesota, Iowa, and a considerable region still further westward, was, by act of congress approved April 20th of the year i)revious, established as a separate territory. The act provided that the existing laws of tlie territory of Michigan should be extended over the new territory so far as compatible with tlie provisions of the act, subject to alteration or repeal by the new government created. Thus with the other statutes, the school code of Michigan became the original code of Wisconsin, and it was soon formally adopted, with almost no change, by the first territorial legislature, which met at Belmont. Although modified in some of its provisions almost every year, this imperfect code continued in force until the adoption of the state constitution in 1848. The first material changes in the code were made by the territorial legislature at its second session, in 1S37, by tlie passage of a bill " to regulate the sale of school lands, and to provide for organizing, regulating, and perfecting common schools." It was provided in this act that as soon as twenty electors should reside in a surveyed township, they should elect a board of three commissioners, holding office three years, to lay off districts, to apply the proceeds of the leases of school lands to the payment of teachers' wages, and to call school meetings. It was also provided that each district should elect a board of three directors, holding office one year, to locate school-houses, hire teachers for at least three months in the year, and levy taxes for the support of schools. It was further provided that a third board of five inspectors should be elected annually in each town to examine and license teachers and inspect the schools. Two years subsequently (1839) the law was revised and the family, instead of the electors, was made the basis of the town organization. Every town with not less than ten families was made a school district and required to provide a competent teacher. More populous towns were divided into two or more districts. The office of town commissioner was abolished, its duties with certain others being transferred to the inspectors. The rate-bill system of taxation, previously in existence, was repealed, and a tax on the whole county for building school-houses and support- ing schools was provided for. One or two years later the office of town commissioners was restored, and the duties of the inspectors were assigned to the same. Other somewhat important amendments were made at the same time.

In 1840, a memorial to congress from the legislature represented that the people were anxious to establish a common-school system, with suitable resources for its support. From lack of sufficient funds many of the schools were poorly organized. The rate-bill ta.\ or private subscription was often necessary to supplement the scanty results of county ta.xation. Until a state government should be organized, the fund accruing from the sale of school lands could not be available. Congress had made to Wisconsin, as to other new states, for educational purposes, a donation of lands. These lands embraced the sixteenth section in every township in the state, the 500,000 acres to which the state was entitled by the provisions of an act of congress passed in 1841, and any grant of lands from the United States, the purposes of which were not specified. To obtain the benefits of this large fund was a leading object in forming the state constitution.

Shortly before the admission of the state the subject of free schools began to be quite widely discussed. In February, 1845, Col. M. Frank, of Kenosha, a member of the territorial legislature, introduced a bill, which became a law, authorizing the legal voters of his own town to vote taxes on all the assessed property tor the full support of its schools. A provision of the act required its submission to the people of the town before it could take effect. It met with strenuous opposition, but after many public meetings and lectures held in the interests of public enlightenment, the act was ratified by a small majority in the fall of 1845, and thus the first free school in thestatewas legally organized. Subsequently, in the legislature, in the two constitutional conventions, and in educational assemblies, the question of a free-school system for the new state soon to be organized provoked much interest and discussion. In the constitution framed by the convention of 1846, was provided the basis of a free-school system similar to that in our present constitution. The question of establishing the office of state superintendent, more than any other feature of the proposed school system, elicited discussion in that body. The necessity of this office, and the advantages of free schools supported by taxation, were ably presented to the convention by Hon. Henry Barnard, of Connecticut, in an evening address. He afterward prepared, by request, a draft of a free-school system, with a state superintendent at its head, which was accepted and subsequently embodied in the constitution and the school law. In the second constitutional convention, in 1848, the same questions again received careful attention, and the article on education previously prepared, was, after a few changes, brought into the shape in which we now find it. Immediately after the ratification by the people, of the constitution prepared by the second convention, three commissioners were appointed to revise the statutes. To one of these. Col. Frank, the needed revision of the school laws was assigned. The work was acceptably performed, and the new school code of 1849, largely the same as the present one, went into operation May first of that year.

In the state constitution was laid the broad foundation of our present school system. The four corner stones were: (i) The guaranteed freedom of the schools; (2) the school fund created ; (3) the system of supervision ; (4) a state university for higher instruction. The school fund has five distinct sources for its creation indicated in the constitution: (i) Proceeds from the sale of lands granted to the state by the United States for educational purposes; (2) all moneys accruing from forfeiture or escheat; (3) all fines collected in the several counties for breach of the penal laws ; (4) all moneys paid for exemption from military duty ; (5) five per cent, of the sale of government lands within the state. In addition to these constitutional sources of the school fund, another and sixth source was open from 1S56 to 1S70. By an act of the state legislature in tlie former year, three-fourths of the net proceeds of the sales of the swamp and overflowed lands, granted to the state by congress, Sept. 28, 1850, were added to the commonschool fund, the other fourth going into a fund for drainage, under certain circumstances ; but if not paid over to any town for that purpose within two years, to become a part of the school fund. The following year one of these fourths was converted into the normal-school fund, leaving one-half for the common-school fund. In 1858, another fourth was given to the drainage fund, thus providing for the latter one-half the income from the sales, and leaving for the school fund, until the year 1865, only the remaining one-fourth. In the latter year this was transferred to the normal-school fund, with the provision, however, that one-fourth of the income of this fund should be transferred to the common-school fund until the annual income of the latter fund should reach $200,000. In 1870 this provision was repealed, and the whole income of the normal fund left applicable to the support of normal schools and teachers' institutes.

At the first session of the state legislature in 1848, several acts were passed which carried in some degree the educational provisions of the constitution. A law was enacted to provide for the election, and to define the duties, of a state superintendent of public instruction. A district board was created, consisting of a moderator, director, and treasurer; the office of town superintendent was established, and provision was made for the creation of town libraries, and for the distribution of the school fund. The present school code of Wisconsin is substantially that passed by the legislature of 1848, and which went into operation May i, 1849. The most important change since made was the abolition of the office of town superintendent, and the substitution therefor of the county superintendency. This change took effect January i, 1862.

The first annual report of the state superintendent, for the year 1849, gives the income of the school fund for that year as $588, or eight and three-tenth mills per child. Milwaukee county received the largest amount, $69.63, and St. Croix county the smallest, twenty-four cents. The average in the state was forty-seven cents per district. The following table will show at a glance the quinquennial increase in the income of the fund, the corresponding increase in the number of school children, and the apportionment per child, from 1849 to 1875, inclusive; also, the last published apportionment, that for 1878. It will be seen that since 1855 the increase of the fund has not kept pace with the increase of school population :

School Fund' Child

The amount of productive school fund reported September 30, 1878, was 12,680,703.27. The portion of the fund not invested at that date, was 158,823.70.

In his message to the first territorial legislature, in 1836, Governor Dodge recommended asking from congress aid for the establishment of a state educational institution, to be governed by the legislature. This was the first official action looking to the establishment of a state university. The same legislature passed an act to establish and locate the Wisconsin university at Belmont, in the county of Iowa. At its second session, the following year, the legislature passed an act, which was approved January 19, 183S, establishing " at or near Madison, the seat of government, a university for the purpose of educating youth, the name whereof shall be ' The University of the Territory of Wisconsin. " A resolution was passed at the same session, directing the territorial delegate in congress to ask of that body an appropriation of $20,000 for the erection of the buildings ol said university, and also to appropriate two townships of vacant land for its endowment. Congress accordingly appropriated, in 1S3S, seventy-two sections, or two townships, for the support of a " seminary of learning in the territory of Wisconsin," and this was afterward confirmed to the state for the use of the university. No effectual provision, however, was made for the establishment of the university until ten years later, when the state was organized. Congress, as has been said, had made a donation of lands to the territory for the support of such an institution, but these lands could not be made available for that purpose until the territory should become a state. The state constitution, adopted in 1848, declared that provision should be made for the establishment of a state university, and that the proceeds of all lands donated by the United States to the state for the support of a university should remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which should be appropriated to its support

The state legislature, at its first session, passed an act, approved July 26, 1848, establishing the University of Wisconsin, defining its location, its government, and its various departments, and authorizing the regents to purchase a suitable site for the buildings, and to proceed to the erection of the same, after having obtained from the legislature the approval of plans. This act repealed the previous act of 1838. The regents were soon after appointed, and theirfirst annual report was presented to the legislature, January 30, 1849. This report announced the selection of a site, subject to the approval of the legislature, announced the organization of a preparatorydepartment, and the election of a chancellor or president. The university was thus organized,, with John H. Lathrop, president of the University of Missouri, as its first chancellor, and John W. Sterling as principal of the preparatory department, which was opened February 5, 1849. Chancellor Lathrop was not formally inaugurated until January i6, 1850.

Owing to the short-sighted policy of the state in locating without due care, and in appraising and selling so low the lands of the original grant, the fund produced was entirely inadequate to the support of the institution. Congress, therefore, made, in 1854, an additional grant of seventy-two sections of land for its use. These, however, were located and sold in the same inconsiderate and unfortunate manner, for so low a price as to be a means of inducing immigration, indeed, but not of producing a fund adequate for the support of a successful state university. Of the 92,160 acres comprised in the two grants, there had been sold prior to September 30, 1866, 74,178 acres for the sum of $264,570.13, or at an average price of but little more than $3-5° per acre.* Besides this, the state had allowed the university to anticipate its income to the extent of over $100,000 for the erection of buildings. By a law of 1862 the sum of $104,339.43 was taken from its fund (already too small) to pay for these buildings. The resulting embarrassment made necessary the re-organization of 1866, which added to the slender resources of the institution the agricultural college fund, arising from the sale of lands donated to the state by the congressional act of 1862.

-Compare the price obtained for the lands of the University of Michigan. The first sale of those lands averaged $22.85 P" acre, and brought in a single year (1837) $150,447.90. Sales were made in succeeding yean at $15, $17, and $iq per acre.

The first university building erected was the north dormitory, which was completed in 1851. This is 110 feet in length by 40 in breadth, and four stories in height. The south dormitory, of the same size, was completed in 1855. The main central edifice, known as University Hall, was finished in 1859. The Ladies' College was completed in 1872. This latter was built with an appropriation of $50,000, made by the legislature in 1870 - the first actual donation the university had ever received from the state. The legislature of 1875 appropriated $80,000 for the erection of Science Hall, a building to be devoted to instruction in the physical sciences. This was completed and ready for occupancy at the opening of the fall term of 1877.

The growth of this institution during the past fourteen years, and especially since its reorganization in 1866, has been rapid and substantial. Its productive fund on the 30th day of September, 1877, aside from the agricultural college fund, was §223,240 32. The combined university and agricultural funds amounted, at the same date, to $464,032 aa. An act of the legislature in 1867 appropriated to the university income for that year, and annually for the next ten years, the sum of $7,303.76, being the interest upon the sum taken from the university fund by the law of 1862 for the erection of buildings, as before mentioned. Chapter 100 of the general laws of 1872 also provided for an annual state tax of $10,000 to increase the income of the university. Chapter 119 of the laws of 1S76 provides for an annual state tax of one-tenth of one mill on the taxable property of the state for the increase of the university fund income, this tax to be "/« lieu of all other appropriations before provided for the benefit of said fund income," and to be " deemed a full compensation for all deficiencies in said income arising from the disposition of the lands donated to the state by congress, in trust, for the benefit of said income." The entire income of the university from all sources, including this tax (which was $42,359.62), was, for the year ending September 30, 1878, $81,442.63. The university has a faculty of over thirty professors and instructors, and during the past year - 1S77-8 - it had in its various departments 388 students. The law department, organized in 1S68, has since been in successful operaation. Ladies are admitted into all the departments and classes of the university.

The agricultural college fund, granted to the state by the congressional act of 1862, was by a subsequent legislative enactment (1S66) applied to the su])port, not of a separate agricultural college, but of a department of agriculture in the existing university, thus rendering it unnecessary for the state to erect separate buildings elsewhere. Under the provisions of chapter 114, laws of 1866, the county of Dane issued to the state, for the purpose of purchasing an experimental farm, bonds to the amount of $40,000. .A. farm of about 200 acres, adjoining the university grounds, was purchased, and a four years' course of study provided, designed to be thorough and extensive in the branches that relate to agriculture, in connection with its practical application upon the experimental farm.

The propriety of making some special provision for the instruction of teachers was acknowledged in the very organization of the state, a provision for normal schools having been embodied in the constitution itself, which ordains that after the support and maintenance of the common schools is insured, the residue of the school fund shall be appropriated to academies and normal scliools. The state legislature, in its first 'session in 1S48, in the act establishing the University of Wisconsin, declared that one of the four departments thereof should be a department of the theory and practice of elementary instruction. The first institution ever chartered in the state as a normal school was incorporated by the legislature at its second session - 1849 - under the title of the " Jefferson County Normal School." This, however, was never organized.

The regents, when organizing the university, at their meeting in 1849, ordained the establishment of a normal professorship, and declared that in organizing the normal department it was their fi.xed intention " to make the University of Wisconsin subsidiary to the great cause of popular education, by making it, througli its normal department, the nursery of the educators of the popular mind, and the central point of union and harmony to the educational interests of the commonwealth." They declared that instruction in the normal department should be free to all suitable candidates. Little was accomplished, however, in this direction during the next ten years. In 1857 an act was passed by the legislature appropriating twenty-five per cent, of the income of the swamp-land fund " to normal institutes and academies under the supervision and direction of a board of regents of normal schools," who were to be appointed in accordance with the provisions of the act. Distribution of this income was made to such colleges, academies, and high schools as maintained a normal class, in proportion to the number of pupils passing a successful examination conducted by an agent of the board. In 1S59, Dr. Henry Barnard, who had become chancellor of the university, was made agent of the normal regents. He inaugurated a system of teachers' institutes, and gave fresh vigor to the normal work throughout the state. Resigning, however, on account of ill-health, within two years. Professor Chas. H. Allen, who had been conducting institutes under his direction, succeeded him as agent of the normal regents, and was elected principal of the normal department of the university, entering upon liis work as the latter in March, 1864. He managed the department with signal ability and success, but at the end of one or two years resigned. Meantime the educational sentiment of the state had manifested itself for the establishment of separate normal schools.

In 1865, the legislature passed an act repealing that of two years before, and providing instead that one-half of the swamp-land fund should be set apart as a normal-school fund, the income of which should be applied to establishing and supporting normal schools under the direction and management of the board of normal regents, with a proviso, however, that onefourth of such income should be annually transferred to the common-school fund income, until the latter should amount annually to $200,000. This proviso was repealed by the legislature of 1870, and the entire income of one-half the swamp-land fund has since been devoted to normalschool purposes. During the same year proposals were invited for aid in the establishment of a normal school, in money, land, or buildings, and propositions from various places were received and considered. In 1S66, the board of regents was incorporated by the legislature. In the same year Platteville was conditionally selected as the site of a school, and as there was already a productive fund of about $600,000, with an income of over $30,000, and a prospect of a steady increase asthelands were sold, the board decided upon the policy of establishing several schools, located in different parts of the state. In pursuance of this policy, there have already been completed, and are now in very successful operation, the Platteville Normal School, opened October 9, 1866; the Whitewater Normal School, opened April 21, 186S ; the Oshkosh Normal School, opened September 19, 1S71, and the River Falls Normal School, opened September 2, 1875. Each assembly district in the state is entitled to eight representatives in the normal schools. These are nominated by county and city superintendents. Tuition is free to all normal students. There are in the normal schools two courses of study - an elementary course o{ two years, and an advanced course of {out years. The student completing the former, receives a certificate ; the one completing the latter, a diploma. The certificate, when the holder has successfully taught one year after graduation, may be countersigned by the sup« erinlendent of public instruction, when it becomes equivalent to a five-years' state certificate. The diploma, when tlius countersigned, after a like interval, is equivalent to a permanent state certificate.

It is believed that the normal-school system of Wisconsin rests upon a broader and more secure basis tlian tlie corresponding system of any other state. That basis is an independent and ]jermanent fund, which has already reached a million dollars. The precise amount of this securely invested and productive fund, September 30, 1878, was Ji, 004,907. 67, and the sum of ^33,290.88 remained uninvested.

In addition to the work of the normal schools, the board of regents is authorized to expend $5,000 annually to defray the expenses of teachers' institutes. A law of 187 1, amended in 1876, provides for normal institutes, which shall be lield for not less than two consecutive weeks, and appropriates from the state treasury a sum not exceeding $2,000 per annum for their support. There were held in the State, in 1878, sixty-six institutes, varying in length from one to two weeks. The total number of persons enrolled as attendants was 4,944

Including those in the cities, the graded schools of the State number about four hundred. The annual report of the State superintendent for 1878 gives the number with two departments as 207, and the number with three or more as 225.

A law of March, 1872, provided that "all graduates of any graded school of the state, wh& shall have passed an examination at such graded school satisfactory to the faculty of the university for admission into the sub-freshman class and college classes of the university, shall be at once and at all times entitled to free tuition in all the colleges of the university." A considerable number of graduates of graded schools entered the university under this law during the next four years, but it being deemed an unwise discrimination in favor of this class of students, in 1876, in the same act which provided for the tax of one tenth of one mill, the legislature provided that from and after the 4th of July of that year no student, except students in law and those taking extra studies, should be required to pay any fees for tuition. Few graded schools of the state are able as yet to fully prepare students for entrance into the regular classes of the classical department of the university. The larger number prepared by them still enter the scientific department or the sub-freshman class.

In 1869 the legislature passed a law authorizing towns to adopt by vote the " township system of school government." Under this system each town becomes one school district, and the several school districts already existing become sub-districts. Each sub-district elects a clerk, and these clerks constitute a body corporate under the name of the " board of school directors," and are invested with the title and custody of all school houses, school-house sites, and other property belonging to the sub-districts, with power to control them for the best interests of the schools of the town. Tlie law provides for an executive committee to execute the orders of the board, employ teachers, etc., and for a secretary to record proceedings of the board, liave immediate charge and supervision of the schools, and perform other specified duties. But few towns ha\e as yet made trial of this system, although it is in successful operation in Pensylvania, Massachusetts, and some other states, and where fully and fairly tried in our own, has proved entirely satisfactory. It is the general belief of our enlightened educational men that the plan has such merits as ought to secure its voluntary adoption by the people of the state.

In 1875 the legislature enacted that any town, incorporated village, or city, may establish and maintain not more than two free high schools, and provided for an annual appropriation of not to e.xceed $25,000, to refund one-half of the actual cost of instruction in such schools, but no school to draw in any one year more than $500. At the session of 1877 the benefits of the act were extended to such high schools already established as shall show by a proper report that they have conformed to the requirements of the law. If towns decline to establish such a school, one or more adjoining districts in the same have the privilege of doing so. The law has met with much favor. For the school year ending August 31, 1S76 (the first year in which it was in operation), twenty such schools reported, and to these the sum of $7,466.50 was paid, being an average of $373.32 per school. For the year ending August 31, 1878, eighty-five schools reported and received a pro rata division of the maximum appropriation. The high school law was primarily designed to bring to rural neighborhoods the twofold advantages of (i) a higher instruction than the common district schools afford, and (2) a better class of teachers for these schools. It was anticipated, however, from the first that the immediate results of the law would be chiefly the improvement of existing graded schools in the larger villages and in cities.

School Officers. The school officers of Wisconsin are, a state superintendent of public instruction, sixty-four county superintendents, twenty-eight city superintendents, and a school board in each district, consisting of a director, treasurer, and clerk. The state and county superintendents hold office two years, the district officers three years. In each independent city there is a board of education, and the larger cities have each a city superintendent, who in some cases is also principal of the high school. He is appointed for one year. The county board of supervisors determine, within certain limits, the amount of money to be raised annually in each town and ward of their county for school purposes, levy an additional amount for the salary of the county superintendents, may authorize a special school tax, and may under certain circumstances determine that there shall be two superintendents for their county. The town board of supervisors have authority to form and alter school districts, to issue notice for first meeting, to form union districts for high school purposes, and appoint first boards for the same, to locate and establish school-house sites under certain circumstances, to extinguish districts that have neglected to maintain school for two years, and to dispose of the property of the same. The district clerks report annually to the town clerks, the town clerks to the county superintendents, and the county and city superintendents to the state superintendent, who in turn makes an annual report to the governor.

The state superintendent is authorized by law "to issue state certificates of high grade to teachers of eminent qualifications." Two grades of these are given, one unlimited, and the other good for five years. The examination is conducted by a board of three examiners, appointed annually by the state superintendent, and acting under rules and regulations prescribed by him.

Besides the Wisconsin State Teachers' Association, holding its annual session in the summer and a semi-annual or " executive " session in the winter, there are, in several parts of the state, county or district associations, holding stated meetings. The number of such associations is annually increasing.

The utility of public libraries as a part of the means of popular enlightenment, was early recognized in this state. The constitution, as set forth in 1848, required that a portion of the income of the school fund should be applied to the " purchase of suitable libraries and apparatus " for the common schools. The same year the legislature of the state, at its first session, enacted that as soon as this income should amount to $60,000 a year (afterwards changed to $30,000), each town superintendent might devote one tenth of the portion of this income received by his town annually, to town library purposes, the libraries thus formed to be distributed among the districts, in sections, and in rotation, once in three months. Districts were also empowered to raise money for library books. The operation of this discretionary and voluntary system was not successful. In ten years (1S58) only about one third of the districts (1,121) had libraries, embracing in all but 38,755 volumes, and the state superintendent, Hon. Lyman C. Draper, urged upon the legislature a better system, of " town libraries," and a state tax for their creation and maintenance. In 1857, the legislature enacted that ten per cent, of the yearly income of the school fund should be applied to the purchase of town school libraries, and that an annual tax of one tenth of one mill should be levied for the same purpose. The law was left incomplete, however, and in 1862, before the system had been perfected, the exigencies of the civil war led to the repeal of the law, and the library fund which had accumulated from the ten per cent, of the school fund income, and from the library tax, amounting in all to $88,784.78, was transferred to the general fund. This may be considered a debt to the educational interests of the slate that should be repaid. .Meanwhile the single district library system languishes and yearly grows weaker. The re-enacting of a town library system, in which local effort and expenditure shall be stimulated and supplemented by State aid, has been recommended by the State Teachers' Association, and will, it is hoped, be secured, at no distant day, as a part of a complete town system of schools and of public education.

The act creating the office was passed at the first session of the state legislature, in 1848. The incumbents up to the present time have been as follows :

Name Ok Incumbent. Duration Of Incumbency

Beloit College was founded in 1847, at Beloit, under the auspices of the Congregational and Presbyterian churches of Wisconsin and northern Illinois. In 1848, Rev. Joseph Emerson and Rev. J. J. Bushnell were appointed professors, and in 1849, Rev. A. L. Chapin was appointed president, and has continued such until the present time The institution has had a steady growth, has maintained a high standard of scholarship and done excellent work, both in its preparatory and college departments. Two hundred and thirty-six young men have graduated. Its lands and buildings are valued at $78,000, and its endowments and funds amount to about $122,000.

Lawrence University, at .\ppleton, under the patronage of the Methodist church, was organized as a college in 1850, having been an " institute " or academy for three years previous, under the Rev. W. H. Sampson. The first president was Rev. Edward Cook ; the second, R. Z. Mason ; the present one is the Rev. George M. Steele, D. D. It is open to both sexes, and has graduated 130 young men, and 68 young women. It still maintains a preparatory department. It has been an institution of great benefit in a new region of country, in the northeastern part of the state. Receiving a liberal donation at the outset from the Hon. Amos A. Lawrence, of Boston, it has land and buildings valued at $47,000, at Appleton, and funds and endowments amounting to $60,000.

Milton College, an institution under the care of the Seventh Day Baptists, was opened as a college in 1867, having been conducted as an academy since 1844. Rev. W. C. Whitford, the president, was for many years the principal of the academy The institution has done much valuable work, particularly in preparing teachers for our public schools. The college has graduated 38 young men and women, having previously graduated 93 academic students. It has lands, buildings and endowments to the amount of about $50,000.

Ripon College, which was known till 1864 as Brockway College, was organized in 1853, at Ripen, and is supported by the Congregational church. Since its re-organization, in 1S63, it has graduated 77 students (of botli sexes) in the college courses, and has always maintained a large and flourishing preparatory department. Under its present efficient head, the Rev, E. H. Merrell, A. M., it is meeting with continued success. Its property amounts to about $125,000.

Racine College was founded by the Episcopal Church, at Racine, in 1852, under the Rev. Roswell Park, D. D., as its first President. It was for a long time under the efficient administration of Rev. James De Koven, D D., now deceased, who was succeeded by Rev. D. Stevens Parker. It maintains a large boys' school also, and a preparatory department. It was designed, in part, to train young men for the Nashotah Theological Seminary. It has property, including five buildings, to the amount of about $180,000, and has graduated ninety-nine young men. Its principal work, in which it has had great success, is that of a boys' school, modeled somewhat after the English schools.

The Seminary of St. Francis of Sales, an ecclesiastical school, was established at St. Francis Station, near Milwaukee, chiefly by the combined efforts of two learned and zealous priests, the Rev. Michael Heiss, now bishop of La Crosse, and the Rev. Joseph Salzmann. It was opened in January, 1S56, with Rev. M. Heiss as rector, and with 25 students. Rev. Joseph Salzmann was rector from September, 1868, to the time of his death, January 17, 1874, since which time Rev. C. Wapelhorst has held the rectorship. The latter is now assisted by twelve professors, and the students number 267, of whom 105 are theologians, 31 students of philosophy, and the rest classical students.

Pio Nono College is a Roman Catholic institution, at St. Francis Station, in the immediate neighborhood of the Seminary of St. Francis. It was founded in 187 i, by Rev. Joseph Salzmann, * The statistics in this division were obtained in 1877, and are for the previous year.

who was the first rector. He was succeeded in 1874 by the present rector, Rev. Thomas Briiener, who is assisted by a corps of seven professors. Besides the college proper, there is a normal department, in which, in addition to the education that qualifies for teaching in common and liigher schools, particular attention is given to church music. There is also, under the same management, but in an adjoining building, an institution for the instruction of the deaf and dumb. The pupils in the latter, both boys and girls, numbering about 30, are taught to speak by sounds, and it is said with the best success.

An institution was organized in 1865, at Prairie du Chien, under the name of Prairie du Chien College, and under the care of J. T. Lovewell, as principal. In the course of two or three years it passed into the hands of the Roman Catholic church, and is now known as St. John's College. It has so far performed principally preparatory work.

Sinsinawa Mound College, a Roman Catholic institution, was founded in 1848, through the labors of Father Mazzuchelli, but after doing a successful work, was closed in 1863, and in 1867 the St. Clara academy was opened in the same buildings.

The Northwestern University, which is under the Lutheran church, was organized in 1865, at Watertown, under Rev. August F. Ernst, as president. It has graduated 21 young men, and has a preparatory department. Its property is valued at $50,000.

Galesville University was organized in 1859, under the patronage of the Methodist church at Galesville, in the northwest part of the state. The first president was the Rev. Samuel Fallows, since state superintendent. It has graduated ten young men and eight young women, its work hitherto having been mostly preparatory. It is now under the patronage of the Presbyterian denomination, with J. W. McLaury, A. M., as president. It has property valued at $30,000, and an endowment of about $50,000.

Carroll College was established at Waukesha, by the Presbyterian church, in 1846. Prof. I. W. Sterling, now of the state university, taught its primary classes that year. Under President John A. Savage, D.D., with an able corps of professors, it took a high rank and' graduated classes ; but for several years past it has confined its work principally to academic studies. Under W. L. Rankin, A. M.,the present principal, the school is doing good service.

Wayland University was established as a college, by the Baptists, at Beaver Dam, in 1854, hut never performed much college work. For three years past, it has been working under a new charter as an academy and preparatory school, and is now known as Wayland Institute.

In 184:, the Protestant Episcopal church established a mission in the wilds of Waukesha county, and, at an early day, steps were taken to establish in connection therewith an institution of learning. This was incorporated in 1847, by the name of Nashotah House. In 1852 the classical school was located at Racine, and Nashotah House became distinctively a theological seminary. It has an endowment of one professorship, the faculty and students being otherwise sustained by voluntary contributions. It has a faculty of five protessors, with Rev. A. D. Cole, D.D., as president, buildings pleasantly situated, and has graduated 185 theological students.

Two institutions have been known under this designation. The Milwaukee Female College was founded in 1852, and ably conducted for several years, under the principalship of Miss Mary Mortimer, now deceased. It furnished an advanced grade of secondary instruction. The Wisconsin Female College, located at Fox Lake, was first incorporated in 1855, and re-organized in 1863. It has never reached a collegiate course, is now known as Fox Lake Seminary, and admits both sexes. Rev. A. O. Wright, A. M., is the present principal.

Agriculture

The following institutions of academic grade, are now in operation: Albion Academy ; Benton Academy; Big Foot Academy; Elroy Seminary; Fox Lake Seminary; two German and English academies in Milwaukee ; Janesville Academy; Kemper Hall, Kenosha ; Lake Geneva Seminary, Geneva; Lakeside Seminary, Oconomowoc; Marshall Academy, Marshall; Merrill Institute, Fond du Lac; Milwaukee Academy; Racine Academy; River Falls Institute; Rochester Seminary; St. Catherine's Academy, Racine; St. Clara Academy; Sinsinawa Mound; St. Mary's Institute, Milwaukee; Sharon Academy; and Wayland Institute, Beaver Dam. Similar institutions formerly in operation but suspended or merged in other institutions, were : Allen's Grove Academy ; Appleton Collegiate Institute ; Baraboo Collegiate Institute; Beloit Female Seminary; Beloit Seminary; Brunson Institute, Mount Hope; Evansville Seminary ; Janesville Academy (merged in the high school) ; KiLbourn Institute ; Lancaster Institute; Milton Academy; Platteville Academy ; Southport Academy (Kenosha); Waterloo Academy; \Vaukesha Seminary ; Wesleyan Seminary, Eau Claire ; and Patch Grove Academy. The most important of these were the Milton and Platteville Academies, the former merged in Milton College, the latter in the Platteville Normal School. Of the others, several were superseded by the establishment of public high schools in the same localities.

Schools of this character, aiming to furnish what is called a business education, exist in Milwaukee, Janesville, Madison, LaCrosse, Green Bay, Oshkosh and Fond du Lac. The oldest and largest is in Milwaukee, under the care of Prof. R. C. Spencer, and enrolls from two to three hundred students annually.

The trend of the earliest industries of a country, is the result of the circumstances under which those industries are developed. The attention of pioneers is confined to supplying the immediate wants of food, shelter, and clothing. Hence, the firs tsettlers of a country are farmers, miners, trappers, or fishermen, according as they can most readily secure the means of present sustenance for themselves and their families. In the early history of Wisconsin this law is well exemplified. The southern part of the state, consisting of alternations of prairie and timber, was first settled by farmers. As the country has developed, wealth accumulated, and means of transportation have been furnished, farming has ceased to be the sole interest. Manufactories have been built along the rivers, and the mining industry of the southwestern part of the state has grown to one of considerable importance. The shore of Lake Michigan was first mainly settled tied by fishermen, but the later growth of agriculture and manufactures has nearly overshadowed the fishing interest; as has the production of lumber, in the north half of the state, eclipsed the trapping and fur interests of the first settlers. That the most important industry of Wisconsin is farming, may be seen from the following statistics of the occupation of the people as given by the United States census. Out of each one hundred inhabitants, of all occupations, 68 were farmers, in 1840; 52 in 1850; 54 in i860; 55 in 1870. The rapid growth of the agriculture of the state is illustrated by the increase in the number of acres of improved land in farms, and in the value of farms and of farm implements and machinery, as shown by the following table, compiled from the United States census :

Machinery

Farming, at the present time, is almost entirely confined to the south half of liie state, the northern half being still largely covered by forests. A notable exception to this statement is found in the counties on the western border, which are well settled by farmers much farther north. The surface of the agricultural jiortion of the state is for the most part gently undulating, affording ready drainage, without being so abruptly broken as to render cultivation difficult. The soil is varied in character, and mostly very fertile. The southern portion of the state consists of undulating prairies of variable size - the largest being Rock prairie - alternating with oak openings. The prairies have the rich alluvial soil so characteristic of the western prairies, and are easily worked. The soil of the "openings " land is usually a sandy loam, readily tilled, fertile, but not as " strong " as soils havinc; more clay. The proportion of timber to prairie increases passing north from the southern boundary of the state, and forests of maple, basswood and elm, replace, to some e.vtent, the oak lands. In these localities, the soil is more clayey, is strong and fertile, not as easily tilled, and not as quickly exhausted as are the more sandy soils of the oak lands. In that portion of the state known geologically as the " driftless " region, the soil is invariably good where the surface rock is limestone. In some of the valleys, however, where the lime-rock has been removed by erosion, leaving the underlying sandstone as the surface rock, the soil is sandy and unproductive, except in those localities where a large amount of alluvial matter has been deposited by the streams. The soils of the pine lands of the north of the state, are generally sandy and but slightly fertile. However, where pine is replaced by maple, oak, birch, elm and basswood, the soil is "heavier " and very fertile, even to the shores of Lake Superior.

The same natural conditions that make Wisconsin an agricultural state, determined that during its earlier years the main interest should be grain-growing. The fertile prairies covering large portions of the southern part of the state had but to be plowed and sowed with grain to produce an abundant yield. From the raising of cereals the pioneer farmer could get the quickest returns for his labor. Hence in 1850, two years after its admission to the Union, Wisconsin was the ninth state in order in the production of wheat, while in i860 this rank was raised to third, Illinois and Indiana only raising more. The true rank of the state is not shown by these figures. Were the number of inhabitants and the number of acres of land in actual cultivation taken into account in the comparison, the state would stand still higher in rank than is here indicated. There is the same struggle for existence, and the same desire for gain the world over, and hence the various phases of development of the same industry in different civilized countries is mainly the result of the widely varying economical conditions imposed upon that industry. Land is thoroughly cultivated in Europe, not because the Europeans have any inherent love for good cultivation, but because there land is scarce and costly, while labor is superabundant and cheap. In America, on the other hand, and especially in the newer states* land is abundant and cheap, while labor is scarce and costly. In its productive industries each country is alike economical in the use of the costly element in production, and more lavish in the use of that which is cheaper. Each is alike economically wise in following such a course when it is not carried to too great extremes. With each the end sought is the greatest return for ilie expenditure of a given amount of capital. In accordance with this law of economy, the early agriculture of Wisconsin was mere land-skimming. Good cultivation of the soil was never thought of The same land was planted successively to one crop, as long as it yielded enough to pay for cultivation. The economical principle above stated was carried to an extreme. Farming as then practiced was a quick method of land exhaustion. It was always taking out of the purse, and never putting in. No attention was paid to sustaining the soil's fertility. The only aim was to secure the largest crop. for the smallest outlay of capital, without regard to the future. Manures were never used, and such as unavoidably accumulated was regarded as a great nuisance, often rendering necessary the removal of stables and outbuildings. Straw-stacks were invariably burned as the most convenient means of disposing of them. Wheat, the principal product, brought a low price, often not more than fifty cents a bushel, and had to be marketed by teams at some point from which it could be carried by water, as this was, at an early day, the only means of transportation. On account of the sparse settlement of the country, roads were poor, and the farmer, after raising and threshing his wheat, had to spend, with a team, from two to five days, marketing the few bushels that a team could draw. So that the farmer had every obstacle to contend with except cheap and very fertile land, that with the poorest of cultivation gave a comparatively abundant yield of grain. Better tillage, accompanied with the use of manures and other fertilizers, would not, upon the virgin soils, have added sufficiently to the yield to pay the cost of applying them. Hence, to the first fanners of the state, poor farming was the only profitable farming, and consequently the only good farming, an agriculturo-economical paradox from which there was no escape. Notwithstanding the fact that farmers could economically follow no other system than that of land-exhaustion, as described, such a course was none the less injurious to the state, as it was undermining its foundation of future wealth, by destroying the fertility of the soil, that upon which the i)ermanent wealth and prosperity of every agricultural community is first dependent. Besides this evil, and together with it, came the habit of loose and slovenly farming acquired by pioneers, which continued after the conditions making that method a necessity had passed away. With the rapid growth of the northwest came better home markets and increased facilities for transportation to foreign markets, bringing with them higher prices for all products of the farm. As a consequence of these better conditions, land in farms in the state increased rapidly in value, from $9.58 per acre in 1850, to $16.61 in i860, an increase of 62 per cent., while the total number of acres in farms increased during the same time from 2,976,6.58 acres to 7,893,587 acres, or 265 percent. With this increase in the value of land, and the higher prices paid for grain, should have come an improved system of husbandry which would prevent the soil from deteriorating in fertility. This could have been accomplished either by returning to the soil, in manures and fertilizers, those ingredients of which it was being rapidly drained by continued grain-growing, or by the adoption of a system of mixed husbandry, which should include the raising of stock and a judicious rotation of crops. Such a system is sure to come. Indeed, it is now slowly coming. Great progress upon the earlier methods of farming have already been made. Rut so radical and thorough a change in the habits of any class of people as that from the farming of pioneers to a rational method that will preserve the soil's fertility and pay for the labor it demands, requires many years for its full accomplishment. It will not even keep jjace witli changes in those economical conditions which favor it. In the rapid settlement of the northwestern states this change has come most rapidly with the replacement of the jjioneer farmers by immigrants accustomed to better methods of culture. In such cases the pioneers usually '' go west '' again, to begin anew their frontier farming upon virgin soil, as their peculiar method of cultivation fails to give them a livelihood. In Wisconsin as rapid progress is being made in the system of agriculture as, all things considered, could reasonably be e.xpected. This change for the better has been quite rapid for the past ten years, and is gaining in velocity and momentum each year. It is partly the result of increased intelligence relating to farming, and partly the result of necessity caused by the unprofitableness of the old method.

The estimated value of all agricultural products of the state, including that of orchards, market gardens, and betterments, was, in 1870, as given in the census of that year, §79,072,967, which places Wisconsin twelfth in rank among the agricultural states of the Union. In 1875, according to the " Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture," the value of the principal farm crops in this state was $58,957,050. According to this estimation the state ranks ninth in agricultui-al importance. As has been before stated, Wisconsin is essentially a grain-growing state. This interest has been the principal one, not because the soil is better adapted to grain-growing than to general, stock, or dairy farming, but rather because this course, which was at an early day most immediately profitable, has been since persistently followed from force of habit, even after it had failed to be remunerative.

Buckwheat

From these statistics it will be seen that the increase in the production of grain was very rapid up to 1870, while since that time it has been very slight. This rapid increase in grain raising is first attributable to the ease with which this branch of farming was carried on upon the new and very rich soils of the state, while in the older states this branch of husbandry has been growing more difficult and expensive, and also to the fact that the war in our own country so increased the demand for grain from 1S61 to 1866 as to make this course the most immediately profitable. But with the close of the war came a diminished demand. Farmers were slow to recognize this fact, and change the character of their productions to accord with the wants of the market, but rather continued to produce the cereals in excess of the demand. The chinch bug and an occasional poor season seriously injured the crops, leaving those who relied princijiaily upon the production of grain little or nothing for their support. Hard times resulted from these poor crops. More wheat and corn was the farmer's usual remedy for hard times. So that more wheat and corn were planted. More crop failures with low prices brought harder times, until gradually the farmers of the state have opened their eyes to the truth that they can succeed in other branches of agriculture than grain growing, and to the necessity of catering to the demands of the market. The vahie in 1869 of all farm products and betterments of the state was $79,072,967. There were raised of wheat tlie same year 25,606,344 bushels, which at $1.03 per bushel, the mean price reported by the Milwaukee board of trade, for No. 2 wheat (the leading grade), for the year ending July 31, 1870, amounts to $26,374,524, or one third the value of all agricultural products and betterments. The average production per acre, as estimated by the commissioner of agriculture, was 14 bushels. Hence there were 1,829,024 acres of land devoted to this one crop, nearly one third of all tiie improved land in the state. Of the wheat crop of 1869 24,375,435 bushels were spring wheat, and 1,230,909 bushels were winter wheat, which is 19.8 bushels of spring to i bushel of winter wheat. The latter is scarcely sown at all on the jjrairies, or upon light opening soils. In some of the timbered regions hardy varieties do well, but it is not a certain crop, as it is not able to withstand the winters, unless covered by snow or litter. It is not injured as seriously by the hard freezing, as by the alternate freezing and thawing of February and March.

The continued cropping of land with grain is a certain means of e.\hausting the soil of the phosphates, and of those nitrogenous compounds that are essential to the production of grain, and yet are present even in the most fertile soils in but small quantities. To the diminished yield, partly attributable to the overcropping of the land, and partially to poor seasons and chinch bugs, and to the decline in prices soon after the war, owing to an over production of wheat, may largely be attributed the hard times experienced by the grain growing farmers of Wisconsin from 1872 to X877. The continued raising of wheat upon the same land, alternated, if any alternation occurred, with barley, oats, or corn, has produced its sure results. The lesson has cost the farmers of the state dearly, but it has not been altogether lost. A better condition of affairs has already begun. Wheat is gradually losing its prestige as the farmers' sole dependence, while stock, dairy, and mixed farming are rapidly increasing. The number of bushels of wheat j-aised to each inhabitant in the state was in 1850 fourteen, in i860 twenty-three and eight tenths, in 1870 twenty-four, and in 1875 twenty and four tenths. These figures do not indicate a diminished productiveness of the state, but show, with the greatly increased production in other branches of husbandry, that farmers are changing their system to one more diversified and rational. Straw stacks are no longer burned, and manure heaps are not looked upon as altogether useless. Much more attention is now paid to the use of fertilizers. Clover with plaster is looked upon with constantly increasing favor, and there is a greater seeking for light upon the more difficult problems of a profitable agriculture

Corn is raised to a large extent, although Wisconsin has never ranked as high in corn, as in wheat growing. Sixteen states raised more corn in 1870 than this state, and in 1875, seventeen states raised more. Corn requires a rich, moist soil, with a long extended season of warm sunshine. While this crop can be raised with great ease in the larger portion of the state, it will always succeed better farther south, both on account of the longer summers and the greater amount of rainfall. According to the statistics of the commissioner of agriculture, the average yield per acre for a period of ten years, is about 30 bushels. Corn is an important crop in the economy of the farmer, as from it he obtains much food for his stock, and it is his principal dependence for fattening pork. On these accounts it will, without doubt, retain its place in the husbandry of the state, even when stock and dairy farming are followed to a much greater extent than at present. Barley is cultivated largely throughout the state, but five states produced more in 1870, than Wisconsin. The great quantity of beer brewed here, furnishes a good home market for this grain. Barley succeeds best in a rather moist climate, having a long growing season. The dry, short summers of Wisconsin, are not well adapted to its growth. Hence the average yield is but a medium one, and the quality of the grain is only fair. According to the returns furnished the commissioner of agriculture, the average yield for a period of ten years, is 22 bushels per acre.

Next to- wheat, more bushels of oats are raised than of any other grain. Wisconsin was, in i860, fifth in rank among the oat-growing states; in 1870, si.xth. The rich soils of the state raise an abundant croi) of oats witli but little labor, and hence their growth in large quantities is not necessarily an indication of good husbandry. They will bear jwor cultivation better than corn, and are frequently grown upon land too weedy to produce that grain. It is a favorite grain for feeding, especially to horses. With the best farmers, oats are looked ujwn with less favor than corn, because it is apt to leave land well seeded with weeds which are difficult to exterminate. In the production of rye, Wisconsin ranked seventh in 1S60, and fourth in 1870. It is a much surer crop in this state than winter wheat, as it is less easily winter-killed when not protected by snow, than is that grain. Besides, it ripens so early as not to be seriously injured by drouth in summer, and succeeds well even upon the jxiorer soils. The average yield per acre is about 16 bushels.

But few hops were grown in Wisconsin, up to i860, when owing to an increased demand by the breweries < f the state, there was a gradual but healthful increase in hop culture. A few years later the advent of the hop louse, and other causes of failure at the east, so raised the price of hops as to make them a very profitable crop to grow. Many acres were planted in this state from 1863 to 1865, when the total product was valued at nearly $350,000. The success of those engaged in this new branch of farming, encouraged others to adopt it. The profits were large. Wheat growing had not for several years been remunerative, and in 1867 and 1S68, the " hop fever" became an epidemic, almost a plague. The crop of Sauk county alone was estimated at over 4,000,000 pounds, worth over ^2,000,000. The quality of the crop was excellent, the yield lar"e and the price unusually high. The secretary of the State .\gricultural society says, in his report for that year, " Cases are numerous in which the first crop has paid for the land and all the improvements." To many farmers hop raising appeared to offer a sure and speedy course to wealth. But a change came quickly. The hop louse ruined the crop, and low prices caused by over production, aided in bringing ruin to many farmers. In 1867, the price of hops was from 40 to ss cents per pound, while in 1869 it was from 10 to 15 cents, some of poor quality selling as low as 3 cents. Many hop yards were plowed up during 1869 and 1S70. The area under cultivation to this crop in 1875, was, according to the " Report ot the Secretary of State," 10,932

The production of tobacco has greatly increased since i860, when there were raised in the state 87,340 pounds. In 1870, the product was 960,813 pounds. As is well known, the quality of tobacco grown in the northern states is greatly inferior for chewing and smoking, to that grown in the south, although varieties having a large, tough leaf, suitable for cigar wrappers, do well here. The variety principally grown is the Connecticut seed leaf. Tobacco can only be grown successfully on rich, fertile soils, and it is very exhausting to the land. Of the amount produced in 1S70, there were raised in Rock county 645,408 pounds, and in Dane county, 229,568 pounds; the entire remaining jwrtion of the state raised but 85,737 jwunds. According to the reix)rt of the secretary of state, the whole number of acres planted to tobacco in 1875, was 3,296. Of this amount Rock county planted 1,676 acres, and Dane county, 1,454 acres, leaving for the remainder of the state but 166 acres. While the crop has been fairly jjroductive and profitable, these statistics show that up to the present lime tobacco-raising has been a merely local interest.

counties of Kenosha, Grant, Iowa and LaFayette. Of flax fibre, Kenosha county raised in 1869, nearly four fifths of the entire amount grown in the state, the total being 497,398 pounds. With the high price of labor and the low price of cotton now ruling, it is scarcely possible to make the raising of flax fibre profitable. Flax seed is raised to a small extent in the other counties mentioned. The present price of oil makes this a fairly profitable crop. If farmers fully appreciated that in addition to the oil, the oil cake is of great value as a food for cattle and sheep, and also that the manure made by the animals eating it, is of three times the value of that made by animals fed upon corn, doubtless much more flax seed would be raised than is at present. American oil-cake finds a ready market in England, at prices which pay well for its exportation. If English farmers can afford to carry food for their stock so far, American farmers may well strive to ascertain if they can afford to allow the exportation of so valuable food. When greater attention is paid in our own country to the quality of the manure made by our stock, more oil-cake will be fed at home, and a much smaller proportion of that made here will be exported.

The amount of maple sugar produced diminishes as the settlement of the state increases, and is now scarcely sufficient in amount to be an item in the state's productions. The increase in the price of sugar from 1S61 to 1S68 caused many farmers to try sorghum raising. But the present low prices of this staple has caused an abandonment of the enterprise. Two attempts have been made in Wisconsin to manufacture beet-root sugar, the first at Fond du Lac in 1867 the second at Black Hawk, Sauk county, in 1870. The Fond du Lac company removed their works to California in 1869, not having been successful in their efforts. The Black Hawk company made, in 1871, more than 134,000 pounds of sugar, but have since abandoned the business. Both these failures may be attributed to several causes, first of which was the want of sufficient capital to build and carry on a factory sufficiently large to enable the work to be done economically ; secondly, the difficulty of sufficiently interesting farmers in the business to induce them to raise beets on so large a scale as to warrant the building of such a factory; and, thirdly, the high price of labor and the low price of sugar. The quality of beets raised was good, the polarization test showing in many instances as high as sixteen per cent, of sugar. The larger proportion of hay made in the state is from the natural meadows, the low lands or marshes, where wild grasses grow in abundance, and hay only costs the cutting and curing. Cultivated grasses do well throughout the state, and " tame hay " can be made as easily here as elsewhere. The limestone soils, where timber originally grew, are of the uplands, most natural to grass, and, consequently, furnish the richest meadows, and yield the best pasturage. Ye e only soils where grasses do not readily grow, are those which are so sandy and dry as to be nearly barrens. Clover grows throughout the state in the greatest luxuriance. There is occasionally a season so dry as to make "seeding down " a failure, and upon light soils clover, when not covered with snow, is apt to winter-kill. Yet it is gaining in favor with farmers, botii on account of the valuable pasturage and hay it affords, and on account of its value as a soil renovator. In wheat-growing regions, clover is now recognized to be of the greatest value in a " rotation," on account of its ameliorating influence upon the soil, 'i'hroughout the stock and dairy regions, clover is depended upon to a large extent for jjasturage, and to a less extent for hay.

There has been a growing interest in stock raising for the past ten years, although the increase has not been a rapid one. Many of the herds of pure-blood cattle in the state rank high for their great excellence. The improvement of horses has been less rapid than that of cattle, sheep, and swine ; yet this important branch of stock farming is improving each year. The most attention is given to the improvement of draught and farm horses, while roadsters and fast horses are not altogether neglected. There are now owned in the state a large number of horses of the heavier English and French breeds, which are imparting to their progeny their own characteristics of excellence, the effects of which are already visible in many of the older regions of the state. Of the different breeds of cattle, the Short-horns, the Ayrshires, the Devons, and the Jerseys are well represented. The Short-horns have met with most favor with the general farmer, the grades of this breed being large, and possessing in a high degree the quiet habits and readiness to fatten, so characteristic of the full-bloods. Without doubt, the grade Short-horns will continue in the high favor in which they are now held, as stock-raising becomes a more important branch of the husbandry of the state. Of pure blood Short-horns there are many herds, some of which are of the very highest excellence. At the public sales of herds from this state, tlie prices have ranked high universally, and in a few cases have reached the highest of " fancy " prices, showing the estimate placed by professional breeders upon the herds of Wisconsin. The Ayrshires are increasing in numbers, and are held in high esteem by many dairymen. They are not yet, however, as generally disseminated over the state, as their great merit as a milking breed would warrant. The rapid growth of the dairy interest will doubtless increase their numbers greatly, at least as grades, in the dairying region. Of pure bred Devons and Jerseys, there are fewer than of the former breeds. The latter are principally kept in towns and cities to furnish milk for a single family. The following table shows the relative importance of stock raising in the state for the years mentioned. The figures are an additional proof to those already given, that the grain industry has held sway in Wisconsin to the detriment of other branches of farming, as well as to the state's greatest increase in wealth.

Head

The growth and present condition of sheep husbandry, compare much more favorably with the general development of the state than does that of cattle raising. In a large degree this may be accounted for by the impetus given to wool raising during our civil war by the scarcity of cotton, and the necessary substitution to a great extent, of woolen for cotton goods. This great demand for wool for manufacturing purposes produced a rapid rise in the price of tliis staple, making its production a very profitable branch of farming. With the close of the war came a lessened demand, and consequently lower prices. Yet at no time has the price of wool fallen below that at which it could be profitably produced. This is the more notably true when the value of sheep in keeping up the fertility and productiveness of land, is taken into account. The foregoing table shows the improvement in this branch of husbandry since 1850

Although many more sheep might profitably be kept in the state, the above figures show that the wool interest is fairly developed, and the average weight of fleece is an assurance of more than ordinarily good stock. The fine-wooled sheep and their grades predominate, although there are in the state some excellent stock of long-wools - mostly Cotswold - and of Southdowns.

Of all the agricultural interests of the state, no other has made as rapid growth during the last ten years, as has that of dairying. With the failure of hop-growing, began the growth zf the factory system of butter and cheese making, and the downfall of the one was scarcely more rapid than has been the upbuilding of the other. The following statistics of the production of butter and cheese illustrate this rapid progress. It will be remembered that for the years 1850, i86o, and 1870 the statistics are from the U. S. census, and hence include all the butler antl cheese made in the state, while for the remaining years, only that made by factories and professional dairymen as reported to the secretary of the State Dairymen's Association, is included It has been found impossible to obtain the statistics of butter, except for the census years.

Year Butter

The quality of Wisconsin dairy products is excellent, as may be judged by the fact that, at the Centennial Exhibition, Wisconsin cheese received twenty awards, a larger number than was given to any other state except New York, and for butter Wisconsin received five awards. No state received more, and only New York and Illinois received as many. Wisconsin received one award for each fourteen cheeses on exhibition No other state received so large a proportion. New York received the largest number of awards, viz., twenty-one, but only secured one award for each thirty cheeses on exhibition. The number of cheese and butter factories is increasing each year, and there is being made in the better grazing regions of the state, as rapid a transition from grain to dairy-farming as is consistent with a healthful growth. This interest, which is now an important one in the state's industrial economy, has before it a promising future, both in its own development, and in its indirect influence upon the improvement of the agriculture of the state.

The history of the earlier attempts in fruit raising in Wisconsin would be little more than a record of failures. The pioneers planted apple, peach, plum, and cherry trees, but they gathered little or no fruit. As was natural, they planted those varieties that were known to do well in the older states of the same latitude. Little was known of the climate, and there was no apparent reason why those varieties should not do well here. The first orchards died The same varieties were replanted, and again the orchards died. Gradually, through the costly school of experience, it was learned that the climate was different from that of the eastern states, and that to succeed here varieties of fruit must be such as were adapted to the peculiar climate of this state. These peculiarities are hot, and for the most part, dry summers, cold and dry winters. The dryness of the climate has been the greatest obstacle to success, as this is indirectly the cause of the great extremes of temperature experienced here. The summers are often so dry that the growtli of the trees is not completed, and the wood sufficiently well ripened to enable it to withstand the rigors of winter. And the clear, dry atmosphere of winter allows the sun's rays to pass through it so unobstructedly as to warm the body of the tree upon the sunny side, above the freezing point, even though the temperature of the air is much lower. The alternate thawing and freezing ruptures the tender cells connecting the bark and wood, producing a complete separation of these parts, and often besides bursts the bark. The separation of bark and wood destroys the circulation of the sap upon that side of the tree, thus enfeebling the entire plant. The tree is not able to form new bark over the ruptured part, and a diseased spot results. Such a plant makes but a feeble growth of poorly ripened wood, and soon dies altogether. Besides the above cause, the extreme cold weather occasionally experienced will kill healthy trees of all varieties not extremely hardy. Notwithstanding these natural obstacles, a good degree of success has been attained in the raising of apples and grapes. This success has been the result of persevering effort upon the part of the horticulturists of the state, who have sought the causes of failure in order that they might be removed or avoided. It is thus by intelligent observation that the fruit growers have gained the experience which brings with it a creditable success. The first requisite to success is the planting of varieties sufficiently hardy to withstand our severe winters. Tliis has been accomplished by selecting the hardiest of the old varieties, and by raising seedlings, having besides hardiness, qualities sufficiently valuable to make them worthy of cultivation. The second requisite to success is in the selection of a situation having suitable soil and exposure, and thirdly, proper care after planting. Among the hardy varieties of apples regarded with greatest favor are Tetofski, Red Astrachan, and Duchess of Oldenberg, all Russian varieties, and Fameiise from Canada. Besides these there are a few American varieties so hardy as to prove reliable in the south half of the state. Among these are a few seedlings that have originated in Wisconsin. Apple trees are less apt to be injured by the winter upon a site sloping to the northeast or north, where they are less directly exposed to the rays of the winter's sun. Higli ground is much better than low, and a good, strong, not too rich soil is best. Apples do better upon soils where timber originally grew than on the prairies, and they are grown more easily along the border of Lake Michigan than in the interior of the state. Pears are raised to but a slight extent, as only a few of the hardiest varieties will succeed at all, and these only in favorable situations. Grapes are grown in great abundance, and in great perfection, although not of the more tender varieties. The Concord, on account of its hardiness and excellent bearing qualities, is cultivated most generally. Next to this comes the Delaware, while many other varieties, both excellent and prolific, are raised with great ease. The season is seldom too short to ripen the fruit well, and the only precaution necessary to protect the vines during the winter is a covering of earth or litter. Cranberries grow spontaneously upon many marshes in the interior of the state. Within a few years considerable attention has been given to improving these marshes, and to the cultivation of this most excellent fruit. Doubtless within a few years the cranberry crop will be an important one among the fruit productions of the state. .\ll of the small fruits adapted to this latitude are cultivated in abundance, and very successfully, the yield being oftea times exceedingly large. .A.ltogether, the horticultural interests of the state are improving, and there is a bright prospect that in the near future fruit growing will not be looked upon witli the disfavor with which it has been regarded heretofore.

Of the associations for advancing the agricultural interests of tlie state, the first organized was the " State Agricultural Society." Tlie earlie-it efforts to establish such an organization were made at Madison in December, 1846, during the session of the first constitutional convention of the territory. A constitution was adopted, but nothing further was done. In February, 1849, another meeting was held in Madison, at which it was " Resolved, That in view of the great importance of agriculture in the west, it is expedient to form a state agricultural society in Wisconsin." Another constitution was adopted, and officers were elected, but no effectual organization resulted from this second attempt. The " Wisconsin State Agricultural Society" - the present organization - had its inception in a meeting held at Madison, March 8, 1851, at which a committee was appointed to report a constitution and by-laws, and to nominate persons to fill the various offices of said society. --Vt its organization, the society was composed of annual members, who paid one dollar dues each year, and of life members, who, upon the payment of ten dollars, were exempt from the annual contribution. The annual membership was afterward abolished, and in 1S69 tlie fee constituting one a life member was raised to twenty dollars. The first annual fair of the society was held in Janesville, in October, 1851 Fairs have been held annually since, except during the years 1861, 1862 and 1863. In 1851 premiums were paid to the amount of only $140, while at the present time they amount to nearly $10,000. In 1851 there were five life members. At the present time there are over seven hundred, representing all the various industries of the state. Tlie fairs held under the auspices of this society have been of e.\cellent character, and have been fruitful of good to all the industries of the state, but more especially to tlie farmers. Tlie state has been generous in aid of this society, having furnished commodious rooms for its use in the capitol building, printed the annual report of the secretary, a volume of about 500 pages, and donated annually, for many years, $2,000 toward its support. Besides its annual fairs, for the past five years there has been held an annual convention, under the auspices of this society, for the reading and discussing of papers upon topics of interest to farmers, and for a general interchange of ideas relating to fanning. These conventions are held in high esteem by the better class of farmers, and have added greatly to the usefulness of the society. The '" \Visconsin State Horticultural Society" was originally the "Wisconsin State Fruit Growers' .Association," which was organized in December, 1853, at Whitewater. Its avowed object was "the collecting, arranging, and disseminatingfacts interesting to those engaged in the culture of fruits, and to embody for their use the results ot" the practice and e.xperiments of fruit growers in all parts of the state." Exhibitions and conventions of the association were held annually up to i860, after which the society was disorganized, owing to the breaking out of the war of the rebellion .\ volume of " Transactions " was published by the association in 1855. In 1S59 its transactions were published with those of the state agricultural society. From i860 to 1865 no state horticultural association was in existence. In September of the latter year the " Wisconsin Fruit Growers' Association " was reorganized as the " Wisconsin State Horticultural Society.'' The legislature had previously provided for the publication of the proceedings of sucli a society, in connection with those of the State Agricultural Society. The new society has held annual exhibitions, usually in connection with those of the State Agricultural Society, and annual conventions for the reading of papers upon, and the discussion of, horticultural subjects. In 1871 an act was passed by the legislature incorporating the society, and providing for the separate printing of 2,000 copies annually of its transactions, of which there are now seven volumes. The most active, intelligent, and persevering of the horticulturists of the state are members of this association, and to their careful observation, to their enthusiasm and determined persistence in seeking means to overcome great natural difficulties, the state is largely indebted for the success already attained in horticulture. Besides these state associations, there are manv local agricultural and l\,orticultural societies, all of which have been useful in aiding the cause for whieh they were organized. Farmers' clubs and granges of the "Patrons of Husbandry" have also done much, both directly and indirectly, to promote the industrial interests of the state. By thei' frequent meetings, at which discussions are held, views compared, and experience.^ related, much valuable intelligence is gained, thought is stimulated, and the profession of farming advanced. An agriculture, like all kindred professions, depends upon intelligence to direct its advancement, all means intended to stimulate thought among farmers will, if wisely directed, aid in advancing this most complex of all industries. To those above named, and to other like associations, is in a large degree to be attributed the present favorable condition of the agriculture of the state.

Wisconsin is yet, comparatively, a new State. It was mainly settled by men who had little moneyed capital. Markets were distant, and means of transportation poor. The early settlers had consequently to struggle for a livelihood in the face of the greatest difficulties. When these opposing circumstances are taken into account, and the improvement in methods of culture, and changes from grain to stock and dairy-farming that are now being made, are given their due weight, it must be acknowledged that the present condition of the agriculture of the state is excellen% and that the future of this most important industry is rich in promise of a steady, healthful growth, toward a completer development of all the agricultural resources of the state.

Mineral Resources

The useful mineral materials that occur within the limits of the state of Wisconsin, come under both of the two grand classes of such substances : the metallic ores, from which the metals ordinarily used in the arts are extracted ; and the non-metallic substances, which are used in the arts for the most part without any preliminary treatment, or at least undergo only a very ])artial alteration before being utilized. Of the first class are found in Wisconsin the ores of lead, zinc, iron and copper, besides minute traces of the precious metals; of the second class, the principal substances found are brick-clay, kaolin, cement-rock, limestone for burning into quick-lime, limestone for flux, glass sand, peat and building stone.