འ wear the scars of battles fought and won - all wear in their hearts the love of that country you have honored in war and in peace! Fifteen years 'after the battles are over and war drums have ceased to beat,' we meet you, our best-loved commander, here upon old Camp Randall, the gathering place, where a hundred thousand of the youth and manhood of loyal Wisconsin fitted for the fray! Here the wife gave up her husband, the mother her son; the maiden her lover; that the stars in our flag should not be lessened that the nation might live! Here from 1861 to 1864 was gathered an army larger in numbers than was the proud army that marched with Sherman from Atlanta to the From this spot, Wisconsin soldiers bore aloft the eagle of the free. 'Old Abe,' the War Eagle of Wisconsin belongs to our club. He draws no pension though he is battle scarred, but the state he served will give him rations so long as cattle feed on our prairies, fish swim in our waters and birds fly in the air. Was it not a happy deed that the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society should purchase these beautiful grounds, so oft remembered as the place where we donned the blue, upon which to hold our annual fairs. sea. Here where naught was thought but of grim visaged war, Works of art - lessons of our schools. Acres of machinery - whose busy hum Reminds us old soldiers of the morning drum Flowers and fruits one building fill; In another, turkeys gobble, chickens cackle and won't be still; They know there's no real soldiers here. Fish swim in waters clear, And dream of bugs and flies, and have no fear Of seine or spear. "Agriculture feeds us as is attested by a hundred, by forty feet of solid food. The manufacturer and the artisan have brought to this show, things handy to have and pretty to look at, made from the woods that grow and the iron imbedded in our northern frontier. Up where the white tents rose and the young soldier slept and dreamed of glory, the noble horse eats his oats Along and longs for the blue ribbon or the race to-morrow. where the non-commissioned officers used to go to practice 'eyes right' and study Hardee's tactics, five hundred head of cattle and sheep chew their cuds as they repeat, 'agriculture feeds and clothes us,' while down where the sentinel first learned to walk and grumble on his lone watch, King Porker who pays our taxes grunts his satisfaction of the doings of the day. "General, to these grounds, crowded with the samples of Wisconsin's wealth, we welcome you, and from the heart of every veteran soldier, aye, from the heart of every loyal man and woman of Wisconsin, swells up the wish that your days may be long and happy." In reply the Hero of Appomattox said: "GENERAL BRYANT, OLD COMRADES AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN In 1850, I visited Wisconsin, and have not been within. your beautiful state since. And when I was here before, I did not come to Madison, so that this is my first visit to your Capital which is so far-famed for its beauty and many attractions; and I assure you that it meets all my expectations; I only wish I could stay longer and see more of this fair city. The people of Wisconsin are to be sincerely congratulated upon their wealth and prosperity, as evidenced in this magnificent display of industrial and agricultural products. As General Bryant has remarked, it is indeed a most fitting thing that the beautiful grounds now occupied by this assemblage should have been transformed from a soldiers' camp to the uses of an agricultural association it is a symbol of beating the spears of war into the plowshares of peace. I hope that these grounds may never again be the scene of warlike preparations, never again be used for military purposes; and may the young men and boys before me, and these fine-appearing militia-men, never be called upon to witness the scenes of strife which these old veterans have gone through. "Mr. Secretary, I again thank you for this cordial reception, and shall be happy to grasp my brother veterans and you all by the band." The Veteran Club then formed, and filing past the general, shook hands with their old commander, who occasionally ex changed words with some old-time friends. The veterans then formed a hollow square outside of the Wisconsin National Guard, who in turn shook hands with the general. After this, the people generally passed by and grasped his sturdy right hand. The reception being over, the visitors were driven through the live-stock department, and then driven back to the city. In the evening a dinner was tendered to General Grant and son at the Vilas residence, a number of distinguished citizens being present by invitation of Col. and Mrs. Vilas. After the tables were cleared, an informal general conversation ensued. The hero of Vicksburg and Appomattox being in his best mood made all happy, by his kindly words and interesting speeches. On the morning of the 8th, a special car containing General and Colonel Grant, Col. Vilas, Mayor Spooner, representatives of the city press and others left the Chicago and Northwestern depot, at 8:15 o'clock, for Devil's Lake, where a few hours were agreeably spent in viewing the delightful scenery of that region. The excursion returned at noon, and General Grant being taken to the fair grounds, partook of a farmers' dinner, after which the distinguished party made the grand rounds of the various departments, the General enlivening the time by his apt comparisons of the exhibits with the like (though unlike) exhibits seen in his recent visit around the world. STATE AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL CONVENTION, Heid at Madison, January 1st to February 4th, 1881, under the auspices of the State Agricultural and State Horticultural Societies. TUESDAY, 7:30 P. M. The convention met in the agricultural rooms in the capitol, and was called to order by Hon. N. D. Fratt, president of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, who addressed the convention as follows: Gentlemen, and Fellow Members of the State Agricultural, and Horticultural Societies:- It gives me very great pleasure to extend to you, one and all, the annual greeting of these associa tions, and to assure you of a most cordial welcome to our council board, with the new lights, afforded by another year of experience and experiment, and the new ideas developed at home and abroad. I think that we may safely count upon many valuable plans and suggestions to mark our deliberations; and here permit me to remark, once for all, that in these meetings, and during these discussions, it is quite essential to full freedom of thought and debate, that all propositions made, all plans proposed, all ideas started and all suggestions presented, should only be regarded as tentative, thrown out for our discussion and investigation, for our consideration and approval or rejection, as the good judgment of this assembly may finally dictate, and that no man shall be held responsible for the full scope and ultimate effect of such ideas and suggestions. Naturally, the mind turns to the most perplex 7-W. S. A. S. ing questions, which daily present themselves, in the practical management of the farm and the farmer's household, and among the foremost of these, is the problem of good farm help and its care and subsistence, and a supply of efficient household help, or its equivalent, in relieving the pressure of labors and duties on the farmer's household. These questions have assumed their present importance largely from the decadence of our rural population, and the remedy has not yet been effectively provided. Intimately connected with this subject, in the relation of cause and effect, arises the question of extended landed estates, as contrasted with ordinary and legit. imate farms, or rich and powerful landed proprietors, who only manage their estates as a business enterprise, and smaller land owners, actual farmers; of the speculator in farming, who makes his gains from the muscle of his steam plow, and the sweat of his hired man's brow, and of him who plows and sows, who reaps and mows, and wipes the sweat from his own brow. Of course, this is no time or place to enter into an extended discussion of these great questions, but only to throw out such hints, where they incidentally affect the subject-matters of this paper, as may lead the minds of our thinking and working men to study the subject further. The standpoint should ever be to us the highest and best interests of the real practical laboring farmer and his family; for clearly, to my mind, there are centered the highest interests of humanity and the best good of the nation. All over the land we find, to a greater or less degree, a tendency to extend the larger farms, and to swallow up the smaller ones. To make farming proper, no longer the life occupation and profession of the proprietor of the soil, but to place it on the footing of extended business enterprises, with the owner of the soil or his agent as general manager, and farm machinery and cheap unskilled labor for the motive power, men stretch out the limits of already large farms, by shrewd management and sharp bargains, until they count their broad acres by the thousands; and the smaller snug homesteads that once dotted the prairie on almost every quarter section or crowned the hills or filled the valleys, with the happy homes of a numerous and prosperous rural population, almost disappear |