MR. Oliver's address. 35 



your Society by the Rev. Mr. Braman of Danvers, at your last 

 anniversary. The argument in favor of what is here recom- 

 mended, (and this recommendation is but the reiteration of 

 what has been recommended a hundred times before,) is there 

 most fully and admirably set forth and needs no addition from me. 

 Into these schools, I would be glad to see thronging the sons of 

 our farmers, who intend to follow the pursuits of their fathers , 

 and our young graduates of College, adopting the agricultural 

 life, in preference to taking their chances in professions already 

 over-stocked, and all selecting the country for a residence, 

 rather than risking the life of their bodies and souls amid the 

 multitudinous temptations of the city. 



The chief obstacle which the present farmer will encounter 

 in his effort at self-education, will be his own prejudices and 

 those of his class, — and these prejudices barricade the way of 

 his progress. I remember that when a boy, and not obeying 

 the counsel of my mother, on a certain occasion, — and I found 

 out, after taking my own course, that I had made a great mis- 

 take, — I remember that she looked at me reproachfully, and 

 said, "Harry you stand in your own light." A gentleman who 

 was near and heard the remark, suddenly turning upon me, 

 cried in my ear, with so loud a voice, that its echo has not left 

 me in the forty years that have since elapsed, "Harry, get out 

 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 relat- 

 ing 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 sua 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 



