We have no desire to minimize the factor contributed to Wisconsin’s agriculture by the Yankees. They were the prophets and the organizers of the farmers’ movement. Their inherent optimism, their speculative bent, their genius for organization were indispensable to its success. “Anything is possible to the American people,” shouted the mid-century American orator from a thousand Fourth of July rostrums, therein merely reflecting what the mass of his hearers religiously believed. When agriculture had to be remade in Wisconsin, the Yankee’s intelligence told him in what ways it must be improved, and his tact, courage, and address enabled him to enlist and organize the means for remaking it. When the Yankee was convinced, by his farm paper or by the exhibitions, that a purebred animal was a good investment, his speculative spirit sent him to his banker to borrow a thousand dollars, and to a distant breeder to make what his more timid German neighbor would call a “mighty risky investment”--for the animal might die! Finally, when local organization was required to secure a cheese factory, a creamery, or a dairy board of trade, the Yankee by virtue of his community leadership was usually able to effect the desired result. Wisconsin’s almost unique success in agriculture is due to no single or even dual factor. But among the human elements which have been most potent in producing the result, none is of more significance than the fortunate blend in her population of the Yankee and the Teuton. THE YANKEE AND THE TEUTON IN WISCONSIN JOSEPH SCHAFER III. SOME SOCIAL TRAITS OF YANKEES Harriet Martineau, the English traveler who in 1837 published a book entitled _Society in America_, was deeply impressed with New England’s concern for education. “All young people in these villages,” she says, “are more or less instructed. _Schooling is considered a necessary of life._[23] I happened to be looking over an old almanac one day, when I found, among the directions relating to the preparations for winter on a farm, the following: ‘Secure your cellars from frost. Fasten loose clapboards and shingles. Secure a good schoolmaster.’” We do not know what almanac Miss Martineau consulted. But a glance at a file of the _Farmer’s Almanack_, begun in 1793 by Robert B. Thomas and circulated by him for more than half a century all over New England, shows her quotation to be fully justified in spirit if not in letter. As early at least as the year 1804, Mr. Thomas included in his directions for the month of November, the indispensable item of education in connection with other activities: “Now let the noise of your flail awake your drowsy neighbors. Bank up your cellars. Now hire a good schoolmaster and send your children to school as much as possible.”