MR. Oliver's address. 37 



ing, and of managing the growth of crops, or of reaping and 

 harvesting them. 



Now I confess that while I have all the respect for old im- 

 plements and old modes of husbandry, and for ancient farm- 

 ers and ancient writers on farming, many of whom wrote and 

 counselled admirably, I have not any more, and will not give 

 them any more than just what they deserve. I remember 

 that when quite young, I once saw a farm-laborer winnow- 

 ng grain, by the slow and tiresome operation of tossing 

 it up and down in a sieve, the heavy parts dropping in a heap, 

 and the chaff being driven off by the wind. This mode, if de- 

 serving of praise, and of being continued in the ratio of its an- 

 tiquity, would be entitled to very special commendation and 

 perpetuity of use, for it was practised by the Roman laborer 

 before the birth of Christ ; — and I find, in Homer's Iliad, the 

 events of which date back to the remote period of nearly 

 twelve hundred years before the Christian era, the following 

 allusions to the same implement and practice ; 



" As from the peasant's fan the wafted chaif, 



Parted by golden Ceres from the grain, 



Falls in thick showers and whitens all around." — Iliad., V. 499. 

 And again, 



" As vetches, or as swarthy beans, 



Leap from the van and fly athwart the floor, 

 By sharp winds driven und the winnower's force." — Iliad XIII. 588. 



Now this is old enough. But since this sight of my youth, 

 I have seen another, and I certainly think, a better mode, and 

 that is winnowing by a machine, which, "instead of waiting for 

 whatever dispensation of wind, Providence was pleased to send 

 upon the sheeling-hill," as honest and simple old Mause ar- 

 gued in " Old Mortality," raised it by the human means of 

 pulleys and fans, and did the business of separating the chaff 

 from the wheat in a better, quicker, and cheaper way. What 

 more would you have ? Yet the use of a winnowing machine 

 was obstinately opposed by the farmers of Scotland, where it 

 first appeared, and was denounced from the pulpit as a devil- 

 ish and presumptuous invention of the arch enemy of souls. 

 And this same obstinacy of prejudice, and stolid sticking to 

 old habits, are not yet dead, though they must eventually fade 



