Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1910-11-04
WISCONSIN EXHIBIT AT FAIR
Report of immigration Commissioners
A. D. Campbell

a. -. CampOelt
The Wisconsin exhibit at the 1910
Illinois state fair took practically the
same position from standpoint of COM
parative excellence as that of 1909,
namely; the best on the grounds of the
greatest state fair in America, the prin-
cipal exhibits of which came from an
area of highest priced farm land in
America AS in 1900, hundreds of far
mers of $500 90 and $500. 90 land told US
that they could not reproduce our ex-
hibit on their high priced lands. AS in
1909 the exhibit was so arranged as to
show what is being produced in the
partially developed regions of the
counties of central and northern Wis
consin.
Demonstrative of the sufficient grow
ing season of the more northern
counties, we had corn that had been
husked over three weeks before being
shown at the Illinois fair, Hubbard
squash and other articles requiring
long or rapid growing season. Our
samples of celery were attractive for
crispness, and our larger potatoes for
the absence of hollow. centers-in fact
the freshness of the whole exhibit was
a source of common remar4.
Our sheaf grains, grasses, and espec-
tally our apples. were commented upon
in words and tones indicating surprise,
especially that the lands producing
them have been passed by for other
lands less productive, less desirably To-
Gated and not blessed with the unex-
celled markets which constitute one of
the most valuable assets of the Wis
consin farmer.
No citizen of any part of Wisconsin
could have compared our exhibit with
others without having higher appre-
citation of his own state.
The frontage of our exhibit was con-
tinuously blockedl with people from
morning until the close of day. The
fact that our exhibit was impressive
cannot be more strongly attested than
by the fact that out of nearly five
thousand pamphlets given to visitors,
less than twenty could be found on the
floors or walks, an average of about
three per day. 1t goes without the
assertion that thousands of people car
ried home with them revised idea of
Wisconsin and that they meant it when
they would advise their friends to seek
homes in Wisconsin instead of distant
and isolated sections.
The comparisons to be seen on this
occasion emphasizes the fact which the
writer has endeavored to impress upon
Wisconsin people, that we are under
estimating the present and future value
of our lands and that those values will
rapidly rise. We were told that lands
in central Illinois range as high as 5000
to 1920 per acre, and are advancing
more rapidly than heretofore. Then,
with equally productive lands, equal
markets, unexcelled transportation, un-
surpassed climate and pure water, what
is to be the future value of our farms?
But the problem is not alone the
bringing of people and capital into the
state; it involves conserving to the
state the hundreds of thousands of dol
lars that are annually leaving the state
for investment in doubtful and uncer-
tain sections that could much better be
invested in our own undeveloped re-
sources to the enrichment of the state
and the betterment of trade conditions.
A. D. CAMPBELL,
Commissioner of immigration.
Madison, Wis, October 1910
T;,+o ~, Th,,x Jox