JOHN P. NORTON'S ADDRESS. 221 



Plant ill the mind a desire to know, awaken a spirit of inquiry, 

 and occasion will not be wanting. The observing mind turns 

 all things to advantage. The greatest discoveries are frequently 

 made by accident. Were the mind intent, the hints which na- 

 ture throws out would be seized on and turned to a practical 

 result much oftener than they are. 



Physical toil loses much of its asperity, when united with 

 mental activity. The malefactor on the tread wheel, the galley- 

 slave at the oar, find labor hard and irksome, because their la- 

 bor requires no exercise of the intellect. On the contrary, Hum- 

 boldt, or Mungo Park, with their minds intent on scientific dis- 

 covery, could travel the earth over, cross seas, ascend rivers, 

 climb the highest peaks, or dive into the depths of the earth, 

 and scarcely feel conscious of fatigue. When the farmer thus 

 throws his intellect into his labors, it gives them new life and 

 activity, and removes much of their drudgery. If, instead of 

 adoping an annual routine of labor, pursuing the same course 

 of tillage that his fathers have done, the agriculturalist would 

 hght up, in his mind, a zeal for the attainment of science, and a 

 desire to advance the art of husbandry, directing his labors not 

 merely to the raising of a given crop, but to the improvement 

 of his own fields, the advancement of the principles and meth- 

 ods of culture, he would strip his occupation of half its toil, and 

 feel that he was laboring for the attainment of a higher end. 



The Structure, the Physical Properties, and the Chemical 

 Composition of the Soil. 



[An Address delivered before (he Agricultural Societies of Berkshire and Hamp- 

 shire Counties, at their Anniversary Fairs, in Pittsfield and Northampton, in 

 October, 1848, by John P. Norton, Professor of Agricultural Chemistry, 

 Yale College.] 



Mr. President and Gentlemen : The meetings of a Society 

 like this, differ from those other public occasions which call great 

 masses of men together, in one leading feature. 



We see celebrations commemorating some particular day or 



