are not drawn very tight. One of my cows got a little used to them after awhile, and she would put her head through just as carefully as I would, and eat the grass on the other side. It was wonderful to see how carefully she would do it. She would do it just as carefully as you would walk along this floor if there were little pins sticking here and there. I have not had the least difficulty with that fence. It has been a perfect and a cheap fence. It will keep calves and yearlings without the least trouble in the world. They never get through. I put young calves in there that were just weaned, and they never got through.

Mr. Babbitt I think a good thoroughbred Short-horn would know enough not to go near the fence.

Mr. Bryant I got some of this fence not long since. I thought it was pretty good. Instead of having the slats lengthwise, we have a board sixteen or eighteen feet long, with little boards between, put there for the purpose of having something light colored for the cattle to see.

Last summer I built a little of that wire fence, for the purpose of catching just such fellows as Babbitt's. I am in the habit of leaving my front gate open, and every morning I discovered one of my neighbor's cattle in the door yard, so I shut up the gate, and took down a few rods of fence and put up a few rods of wire. The calf never went out but once.

Mr. Babbitt- I would like to know whether you paid for the coffin that inclosed the remains?

Mr. Chipman I have about two miles of wire fence. I do not think any cattle have been injured. Young cattle and old cattle and colts have run against it, and I do not think they have injured themselves once in two years. One colt was injured on my premises, but it was a colt that had injured its neighbors three times its value. It was kept home after that.

Mr. Babbitt This is really a serious subject. I will give you the name of a veterinary surgeon at Beloit, Dr. Kuhns, and he will inform you that seven eighths of his practice in the season last past has been in sewing up and taking care of horses that have been cruelly treated by this barbed wire fence. We have hunters down there, and everything of that kind. They all have dogs.

Every man is in for fun; and we do keep pretty high toned horses; they feel quite well. They never go roving around on other people's farms for the purpose of getting food, but they are occasionally out for the purpose of sowing their wild oats, and we have got to look out for their interest pretty well.

Mr. Peffer-In our neighborhood we have a manufactory of fence, and use slats which are fastened with smail staples on the wires. They use five and seven wires. They are not so big, and hardly half as strong as the barbed wires, because there they use two and twist them together. I cannot tell exactly the size, but they are giving very good satisfaction in our neighborhood. Some have been put up two years, and some a year, and I never heard anything against them. There are no barbs about it; there are pickets up and down about ten inches apart. It is a patent, and I think the wire costs 45 cents a

is manufactured in Waukesha.

rod. It comes rolled up in rolls of 200 yards, I think. They have the posts four rods apart instead of two.

Mr. Field Are the slats near enough together to stop pigs? Mr. Peffer

- No, they are ten inches apart.

Mr. Chipman - If you want to stop pigs, you want to have about six wires.

Mr. Field - You cannot stop pigs with wire.

Mr. Kellogg If we could induce the manufacturers of barbed wire to make the barbs short, I do not see why they would not do the same execution, except in case of killing colts, and still protect stock. I have never seen a barbed wire fence but what looked savage.

Mr. Field here offered the following resolution:

"Resolved, That the thanks of this convention are due and are hereby tendered to the different railways of the state, who have so generously furnished reduced fare to all who attended this convention."

Which was unanimously adopted.

Mr. Field-There is a matter I intended to bring up, but it slipped my mind. I am not here for the purpose of encouraging people to emigrate to Iowa, but I know a good many who are

going. I am in the position that the doctor was when asked whether he was glad to hear that people were sick. "Well, no," he said, “he did not know as he was glad to hear they were sick, but if they were sick he was glad to be sent for." Now if you are going to Iowa or any place beyond, I would be glad to have you examine the lands on the C. & N. W. or Illinois Central roads in Iowa before you buy. I would be glad to have you correspond with me on the subject, and I will give you any information in regard to those lands. I think they are as good as lays out-doors.

Mr. Bryant-The gentleman expects to make that his home, and may run for congress, and he would like to have a good class of people to come from Wisconsin and vote for him.

Mr. Field-I will say further, as long as the gentleman puts the words in my mouth, that we shall have a fine class of people; as fine a class as you can find anywhere in Wisconsin, and I know that is as good as any in the world.

A member-How are you off for grasshoppers?

Mr. Field We have never had any in that vicinity but one year, and I had rather take my chances among the grasshoppers in Iowa than among your chinch bugs.

Mr. Chipman - I would like to ask you whether you would advise a man that is well situated, and has a comfortable farm, to sell out and go to Iowa.

Mr. Field-Certainly not. I would not advise a man who is comfortably situated anywhere, to move out there, but to stay where he is. I would not advise a man in New England, where the soil is so bad and the stones so numerous that it is almost im possible for sheep to live unless their noses are as sharp as a spear to move to the west; but a young man like Millett I would advise to sell out, and go west and grow up with the country.

Mr. Millett- -I claim to have a better farm than ever was in Iowa.

The convention then adjourned.

NORTHWESTERN

DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION,

Held by appointment of the Regents of the State University of Wisconsin, at Kneeland's Hall, Galesville, January 6-7, 1880.

OFFICERS OF THE CONVENTION:

PRESIDENT,

HON. ISAAC CLARK.

SECRETARIES,

GEO. W. WEBB, CHARLES N. HERREID.

At one of the last meetings of the Board of Regents of the State University it was wisely decided that, by way of experi ment, four conventions, for the purpose of discussing topics particularly pertaining to agriculture, should be held during the winter in different parts of the state. It was further agreed that each of these meetings should be attended by a representative of the State University Board of Regents, State Agricultural Society, State Horticultural Society, and the Nothwestern Dairymen's Association, and the traveling expenses paid from the funds of the agricultural department, provided they did not exceed $500.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1880.

At ten o'clock Kneeland's Hall was crowded to its utmost capacity by citizens and by farmers from the surrounding country. The hall had been artistically ornamented with evergreens. Back of the speaker's stand was seen the appropriate motto in large letters: "Agriculture feeds the nation."

The convention was promptly called to order by the president, Hon. I. Clark, who briefly stated the object of the meeting, and then introduced G. Y. Freeman, Esq, who delivered the address of welcome. Mr. Freeman spoke for a few minutes in an exceedingly happy, witty and humorous strain, the speaker's voice being frequently drowned by the laughter and applause of the large audience.

This was responded to by Hon. Hiram Smith, of Sheboygan Falls, who was then introduced.

By some inscrutable method, he said, he found himself the mouthpiece of the cause he was chosen to represent. After having very gracefully accepted and replied to the hearty welcome, complimented the arrangement of the hall, and the large, intelligent looking audience before him, he referred to the good old days of our forefathers, when the young ladies had to weave and spin, and their work was taken as a criterion as to the marriageableness (a word as hard as the ordeal!) of such a party. He also spoke of the absolute necessity of having persons in their proper places, and this applied particularly to agriculture. If a person in early life has had aroused in him a special desire for some particular calling, or even for raising particular crops, then that person ought to bend all his energies in that direction. By way of illustration he referred to certain localities where only certain kinds of products could ever be successfully raised. Wheat, beef and wool have practically been driven from our state by the discovery and cultivation of the vast plains of the west. The tendency of raising wheat is to exhaust the soil. This is the result here and it will be the case in Dakota, unless the merciful chinch bug will drive them to mixed husbandry.

The speaker referred to the great advancement in agriculture, the hardships of the early pioneers in this branch of industry. They then knew of no other method than the slow process of hard labor. Many who now gracefully preside in costly mansions, once probably built fires in log cabins.

Music, "Greeting," by M. Carhart and assistants.

Senator Arnold felt called upon to explain. In the morning he had introduced the two Smiths (Hon. H. Smith, of Sheboygan