JOHN P. NORTON'S ADDRESS. 379 



and overseers. Ours is not merely a life of drudgery, though 

 it sometimes drags a weary foot, and wipes the dripping sweat 

 with a brown, hot hand. It is enlivened by oft-recurring sea- 

 sons of most delightful repose, and rare opportunities for self- 

 improvement. It consorts us, in employment, with the greatest 

 and best of our race. And it is a pleasing consideration, that while 

 we are enjoying the sweets of agricultural and domestic life, 

 thousands from all the dusty avenues of business, are looking 

 forward to a participation in the same enjoyment. Men who 

 have won the prize in the race of literary fame, — men who 

 have tasted the sweets of commercial enterprise and success, — 

 men who have worn the dust, and won the crown, in the arena 

 of political life, — anticipate a period of retirement, and the 

 possession of a farm, as the harbor of repose and bliss, after the 

 more tempestuous voyage of life. 



The statesman, lawyer, merchant, man of trade, ' 

 Pants for the retreat of some cooling shade ; 

 Wliere, his long anxieties forgot, 

 Amid the charms of some sequestered spot, 

 He may possess the joys he thinks he sees, 

 Lay his old head upon a lap of ease ; 

 Improve the remnant of his wasted span, 

 And having lived a trifler, die a man. 



The Necessity for the Improvement of the Soil, and the 



Means of Effecting it. 



[An Address delivered before the Hampshire, Franklin, and Hampden Agricidtural 

 Society, at its Annual Fair, 1849, by John P. Norton, Professor of Agri- 

 cultural Chemistry, Yale College.] 



When I addressed you last year, on the occasion of your 

 annual show, I did not anticipate the pleasure of so soon com- 

 ing hither again. Apart from the danger, that a speaker who 

 has already appeared before you, may not be able to arrest your 

 attention in the same degree as one whose matter and whose 

 manner possess the charm of novelty, there is an advantage in 

 thus twice addressing the same audience. 



