TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND. 
New Series. ALBANY, OCTOBER, 1852. Vol. IX.—No. 10. 
Obituary of Prof. Norton. 
Misfortunes never come singly. We had scarcely 
laid down our saddened pen, and cast an earnest look 
into the already darkened future, when another, in the 
bloom of his maturity, was called hence. Calmly, peace¬ 
fully, trustingly, he has passed to the land of his faith, 
to the home of the blest, leaving regret to border the 
pathway he had trod, and tears to water in vain the hopes 
which his usefulness had awakened. Prof. Norton is 
dead, aged only thirty. 
“ Those the Gods love, die young, 
But they whose hearts are dry 
As summers’ dust, burn to the socket.” 
The lives of the truly great are always instructive, and 
could we read them rightly, would teach us useful les¬ 
sons, both in the sublime results which attend their labors 
and in the mode by which their greatness has been at¬ 
tained. While one whose talents and accomplishments 
have distinguished him among the wise men and scholars 
of his day lives, we admire only the proofs of his genius 
and ability; but when such an one is removed from our 
midst, we naturally inquire into the elements of his 
power. It is in this way that, when one is dead, he yet 
speaketh—speaks, not only in word and in deed, but in 
the more silent operations of the mind, which are mark¬ 
ed in the successive grades of culture by which one rises 
to eminence. 
Deeply as we deplore the loss of the most practical 
agricultural writer and thinker of the preseot time-one 
from whence the farming community expected much, and 
whose efforts promised more permanently beneficial re¬ 
sults than those of any other man, we shall find that his 
life, though short, is full of instruction and replete with 
interest. 
From his youth, Mr. Norton had been more or less 
conversant with the practice of agriculture, and as is 
naturally the case with an inquiring mind, the apparent 
lack of system, and ruinous waste often seen, led to 
thought and investigation. After having pursued the 
study of chemistry with the ablest professors in this 
country, he visited Europe, in the summer of 1844, for 
the purpose of pursuing his studies farther than could 
be done here, and also to extend his observations. Mr. 
Norton accompanied Prof. Johnston on a tour through 
Scotland, the results of which appeared in his letters 
published in this journal. These letters, which were con¬ 
tinued regularly during his absence, were his first intro¬ 
duction to the public as a writer, and established his re¬ 
putation as a careful observer, a close reasoner, and a 
sound thinker. During his stay in Scotland he enjoyed 
the closet intimacy with Prof. Johnston, and pursued 
his studies under his direction at the Laboratory of the 
Ag. Chemical Association. The analyses furnished by 
him from time to time, show the accuracy of his mind 
and his superior industry, and his notes on Prof. John¬ 
ston’s lectures are valuable abstracts, forming almost a 
complete text book of Agricultural Science. All his 
communications to The Cultivator are of permanent 
value, and show the condition of Ag. Science in Scot¬ 
land at that time. 
In the fall of 1845, ho made a tour on the Continent, 
for the purpose of visiting some of the most celebrated 
laboratories, and his letters were for a time discontinued. 
Shortly after, he returned to this country, when he re¬ 
ceived an appointment to a professorship of chemistry, 
as applied to agriculture, which had been created at Yale 
College. Mr. Norton wished to perfect himself in chem¬ 
istry before entering upon his duties as Professor, and 
with this in view he sailed again for Europe in the fall of 
1846. Here we notice a prominent characteristic of 
Prof. Norton. There was nothing of pretension in his 
nature—he was unwilling to assume a responsibility till 
he felt himself fully equal to it. Instead of being vain 
of the honor thus early bestowed on him, he goes man¬ 
fully and earnestly to work to lay, deep and strong, the 
foundations of a science, of which the first rudiments 
were scarcely known. 
In the year 1846, a premium of fifty sovereigns ($250) 
was offered by the Highland and Agricultural Society 
of Scotland, for the best analysis of the oat. The chemi- 
cal constituents and the physiology of the growth of this 
plant, were little known, and a scientific analysis had 
never been attempted. Mr. Norton, still a student in 
the laboratory, and in competition with several learned 
chemists, obtained this premium. This is more remarka¬ 
ble from the fact that he was an American, and unknown 
to the scientific world. The article contains thirty-nine 
tables, showing the composition of the different parts of 
the oat, and at several stages of its growth, and displays 
a vast amount of research and an untiring industry. In 
the conclusion of the article, Mr. Norton remarks—‘ ‘ I 
may be permitted to say, that the extent of this investi¬ 
gation, and the many points which I have been compelled 
to leave undetermined or doubtful, after eighteen months 
of constant labor, must convince those who entertain 
false ideas of the time and patience necessary for chemi- 
cal researches of this kind, that they have erred in sup¬ 
posing the chemist able to do in a few days or weeks^ 
