40 



violence of God, will make me to be of much use in my 

 own country. The field opens wider and wider as I ad- 

 vance, and I often feel discouraged at the mountain of 

 labors which rises before me." These were not idle 

 words. They meant all that they express. We have 

 never known the man whose conduct was more governed 

 by a sense of duty. 



These unremitted labors were not without their results. 

 Mr. Norton soon attained to great accuracy in his expe- 

 riments, and his analyses could be entirely relied on as 

 faithfully made. He shunned no toil, he concealed no 

 mistakes. If any analysis did not come out as it should 

 have done, he kneu not the art of conjecturing what the 

 figures should have been, but went over with the work 

 again. His progress was such, that Professor Johnston 

 advised him to prepare papers for the British Association, 

 which he did. Two papers of his were read at the meeting 

 of that body in Cambridge, and were well received. 

 By the advice of the same judicious instructor and friend, 

 he entered into a very minute analysis of the oat. 

 These investigations cost him the labor of almost eighteen 

 months, and when they were completed, the memoir 

 was presented to the Highland Agricultural Society, and 

 received the prize of fifty sovereigns, which it had offered 

 for the best essay on the subject. We can not give to the 

 uninitiated anything like an adequate conception of the 

 labor expended upon these researches. We may say in 



