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ACADEMIES AND SEMINARIES.

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; Waukesha 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 Of the others, several were superseded by the establishment of public high schools in the same localities.

COMMERCIAL SCHOOLS.

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.

AGRICULTURE.

By W. W. DANIELLS, M.S., PROF. OF CHEMISTRY AND AGRICULTURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN.

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 tled 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 1860; 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 :

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Farming, at the present time, is almost entirely confined to the south half of the 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 portion 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 having 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 extent, 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 1860 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 the 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 farmers 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 permanent 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 1860, an increase of 62 per cent., while the total number of acres in farms increased during the same time from 2,976,658 acres to 7,893,587 acres, or 265 per cent. 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. But 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 pace with 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 pioneer 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 expected. 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 agricultural 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.

The following table shows the bushels of the different grains raised in the state for the years indicated:

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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 1861 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 principally 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

*Estimated in report of commissioner of agriculture.

demands of the market. The value in 1869 of all farm products and betterments of the state was $79,072,967. There were raised of wheat the 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 the 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 1 bushel of winter wheat. The latter is scarcely sown at all on the prairies, 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 exhausting 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 1877. 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 raised to each inhabitant in the state was in 1850 fourteen, in 1860 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

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