MR. hazen's address. 23 



Certainly age and long experience may in some degree sup- 

 ply the place of science. But nothing can show more strongly 

 the value of science, than the fact that those who have the most 

 enlightened experience seek with the greatest avidity its lights 

 and aid. How much would those who have grown wise by 

 experience, have gained by a course of systematic instruction at 

 the outset. If by such means individual success may be increas- 

 ed, the evils of dependance obviated, the Agricultural luxuriance 

 of Britain rivalled in the free fields of New England, and the 

 character of the people, intellectual, moral and social, elevated, 

 then it is among our duties, as members of this Society, to dis- 

 seminate Agricultural Knowledge, and to impress upon the com- 

 munity a sense of its necessity. Favored by Legislative bounty, 

 and honored, as we are on this, the Farmer's F'estival, by the 

 presence of the Chief Executive Magistrate of the Common- 

 wealth, we are bound to show that ours is not a barren soil, but 

 that we will return the bounty a thousand fold in an increased 

 production, and that we will emulate, though we may never 

 hope to rival that intellectual excellence, so illustrious in another 

 sphere. 



By establishing the principle that science is necessary to hus- 

 bandry, and mingling its acquisition with the labors of the field, 

 that instruction of by far the most importance to individuals and 

 to the community, the education of the heart, or virtuous habits, 

 will be secured. With minds enlightened and characters pure, 

 united with the manly independence which always makes a part 

 of the Agricultural character, the farmers of New England need not 

 abandon their own sphere to seek in another happiness or honor. 



The scientific farmer will know when his work is done. He 

 will plainly and distinctly discern the limits of human agency, 

 and the boundaries of human power, and having done all and 

 averted all which these allow, he will naturally look beyond 

 them to discover his next reliance. In this view will be pre- 

 sented to him that Providence, whose Power and Goodness 

 always surround him, and without murmuring and without repin- 

 ing, he will rely with confidence and hope upon the Divine 

 Benignity. 



