MR. hazen's address. 15 



who is commencing cultivation, but never reads upon the subject 

 of his labors. If it be true that agriculture is the most important 

 of all interests, how does it happen that it can derive no aid from 

 the recorded lessons of wisdom and the testimonies of experience ? 

 It is easy to account for the prejudice which often shuts it from 

 such aid. The practice of the particular neighborhood is early 

 learned by imitation, and as much observation, as would serve for 

 this purpose, has been the whole agricultural education of youth. 

 The prevalent practices just serve for the purposes of life, and it 

 seems irrational to be called to the study of the theory, when one 

 has advanced beyond that, to a thorough acquaintance with all 

 the practices, in the narrow circle of his information, known to 

 exist. But the practice thus learned may be neither the easiest,, 

 cheapest, or most productive. A few hours reading might sug- 

 gest some improvement, that would greatly abridge the labor and 

 increase its profits. Reading should not supplant labor, and la- 

 bor need not supplant reading ; they should mutually relieve and 

 enlighten each other. Agricultural books should make a part of 

 the property, and agricultural reading a part of the business of 

 the farmer. It would be easy for him to give his children and 

 apprentices a taste for the knowledge thus to be obtained, and a 

 sense of its importance, by pointing them occasionally to the va- 

 rious modes of cultivation described in the books, or contrasting 

 them with those practised by himself. By such a union of prac- 

 tice and reading, this pursuit is brought into a close resemblance 

 with those deemed the exclusively intellectual. The farmer in 

 such enquiries does precisely what is done by the professional 

 man. He ascertains facts, weighs testimony, analyses the op- 

 posing statements and reasons, and finally applies in practice the 

 truth elicited to the state of facts presented by his own farm.* 



The practicability of combining theoretical knowledge with a 

 practical, vigorous and successful cultivation is not an experi- 

 ment of doubtful results, nor one which remains to be tested in 

 this Society. Its records furnish examples derived from every 



* In some of the States, especially the VVeBtern, agricultural books 

 and papers compose a part of the preniiuiiis offered. 



