14 MR. HAZEN S ADDRESS. 



landlord, of which it is lo be feared he is sometimes deficient. In 

 tliis mode only can it be practically elevated to the rank of a 

 science ; and by this mode the example of England teaches us 

 'that labor may be facilitated, products increased in amount and 

 value, and new worth given to lands. 



It is admitted, indeed it is enforced as a truth necessary to be 

 'understood, that all our other institutions call for the exercise of 

 mind, and in most others a part of the fruits of success will be 

 some degree of intellectual distinction. Agriculture has often 

 been supposed to be a trade which a man might follow without 

 much, if any previous training, in which success depended on the 

 'bones and sinews alone, and in its pursuit knowledge, beyond a 

 very limited extent, would be useless. That however widely or 

 brightly the rays of science might shine, into this broad depart- 

 ment of human life they need not, and could not penetrate. 

 Perhaps it has been owing, in no small degree to opinions like 

 these, that this avocation has lost some of the favor which it en- 

 joyed. If it were once well established that it affords a field for 

 mental effort, the mind would here seek for distinction. It 

 would then be a part of the business of the farmer to cultivate 

 precisely the same faculties, and to exercise the same powers of 

 mind that in other lines of life lead to elevation. The effects of 

 such a conviction would be alike favorable to the general inter- 

 ests of husbandry, and beneficial to the character of the cultiva- 

 lors. 



There are some indications that the old and indiscriminating 

 hostility to the use of books is passing away, and that a more fa- 

 vorable disposition to listen lo them is taking its place. The 

 general principles of agriculture may certainly be learned from 

 books, and indeed many of them are to be learned only from 

 books or from instruction. Hardly any individual observation 

 could be sufficient to establish them. Still there are farmers, 

 who even at this day do not supply themselves with a large 

 amount of reading upon these subjects. It will never be fancied 

 that the mere reading of books can make a farmer ; although 

 one who reads books without any practice, may be as well enti- 

 tled to be called a farmer in any sense of merit or praise, as one 



