H. K. OLIVER'S ADDRESS. 573 



of your own light." Now I say to every farmer who pertina- 

 ciously clings to old maxims, old modes, old tools and old tra- 

 ditions, simply because he thinks, — if he think at all in the 

 matter, — that they must be the best for their odor of age, and 

 obstinately shuts his eyes, that he may not see anything new, 

 and plugs up his ears, that he may not hear anything new re- 

 lating to his craft, that he stands in his own light, and I should 

 like to scream into his ear, with the intense shriek of a steam- 

 whistle, and have the sound tickle his tympanum, as it will 

 mine to my dying day — " Get out of your own light !" Let 

 the sun of science, which is pouring and diffusing its life-giving 

 and gladdening beams all over the manipulatory processes of 

 every art and craft, shine in upon, and illumine and benefit 

 yours, — yes, yours, which, in fact, " is no longer a mere art or 

 craft, but," as Marshall, an English writer of the last century, 

 well observes, " is a science, which, when viewed in all its 

 branches, and to their fullest extent, is not only the most im- 

 portant and the most difficult in rural economies, but in the 

 circle of sciences." 



Nay it is both a difficult science and a difficult art, for it 

 comprises as a science, a knowledge of the animal, vegetable 

 and mineral kingdoms; a knowledge of the chemical constitu- 

 ents, of soils, and of atmospheric phenomena, of every sort ; 

 and a knowledge of the mechanical agents necessary in agri- 

 cultural manipulations, — and as an art, it implies a knowledge 

 of the proper method of selecting and laying out of lands, and 

 of their management and improvement; a knowledge of the 

 best modes of culture; a knowledge of the economy of live 

 stock ; of the best method of raising vegetables, and of man- 

 aging a dairy, and of entering the market with his merchan- 

 dise, whether as a wholesale or retail product. 



If then science reveal to you new implements of hus- 

 bandry, professing to save labor and to increase product, try 

 them, so far as they may be applicable to your exigencies, and 

 see if they be true to their profession. You are not called 

 upon to believe in everything new, any more than you should 

 believe in everything because it is old. Try what you think 

 may be useful to you, and let your neighbors do the same. 

 Let the good be put to good use, and reject the bad. In the 

 course of my experience as a manufacturer for a few years 



