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one and another of those valuable labor-saving implements;, 

 which are doing so much to facilitate the operations of the 

 farm, yet there is still room for progress. In this matter the 

 young farmer should begin with the right ideas. "While he 

 listens to the advice of his elders, and pays due respect to their 

 example as well as precept, he should guard against becoming 

 the slave of old prejudices, and should observe, and judge, and 

 act for himself To say that because his father before him 

 managed to cut and cure and get in his hay with a scythe and 

 fork and hand-rake, therefore there is no need of his using a 

 mowing-machine, a tedder, or a horse-rake, is just as absurd as 

 it would be for him never to ride in a rail-car, wear a cloth 

 coat, or eat flour bread, because his grandfather jogged along 

 on horseback, was comfortable in linsey-woolsey, and didn't 

 starve on rye and Indian. Of course he must exercise pru- 

 dence and caution, and neither go beyond his means nor lightly 

 adopt every new contrivance, simply because it is new. But 

 on the other hand, let him studiously avoid that spirit of dis- 

 trust which looks with suspicion upon every departure from 

 old usage. Let him, with eyes wide open to see, and mind 

 open to conviction, carefully observe and narrowly watch, and 

 then adopt whatever full experiment by individuals or associa- 

 tions has proved to be advantageous and profitable. 



I spoke of scientific research. I have no disposition at this 

 late stage to exhaust your kind patience with a disquisition on 

 scientific fanning. But let me say, that we lookers-on cannot 

 understand this prejudice which exists among farmers against 

 the application of science to agriculture. Why, what is agri- 

 culture but a science, both a science and an art, whose birth was 

 coeval with the birth of man, whose growth has been measured 

 by the progress of civilization, and whose perfection will not 

 be attained till the race shall have reached its millenial state. 

 Every manufactory has its chemist, every art and trade modi-, 

 fies and adapts its operations to come within the sphere of new 

 discoveries and fresh developments. If a shipwright builds a 

 vessel, if a carpenter frames a house, if a miner embowels the 



