No. 63.] 151 



AGRICULTURE OF CORTLAND COUNTY. 



BY HENRY S. RANDALL. 



Cortland county occupies a central position in the State of New- 

 York. It is in the form of a parellogram, 20 by 25 miles in extent, 

 and is divided into eleven towns. It has a population of 24,605 in- 

 habitants, 6,028 of whom are engaged in agriculture, 1,248 in manu- 

 factures and trades, 51 in commerce, and 106 in the learned profes- 

 sions. 



Aspect of the County. — Tw^o small rivers traverse the county; one 

 of them, the Tioughnioga, through its entire extent from north to 

 south; the other, the Otselic, passing through two townships in the 

 southeastern portion of it. These streams and their numerous tribu- 

 taries run through valleys of considerable extent. That of the west 

 branch of the Tioughnioga, extending from Onondaga county, to the 

 junction of that stream with the east branch, a distance of twelve 

 miles, is from two to five miles in width, and from this point it 

 sweeps off to the southwest to the line of Tompkins. From the 

 point of junction of these two streams, radiate other valleys in va- 

 rious directions, making access to this central point, which is occu- 

 pied by the shire town, easy of access to all portions of the county. 

 Between these valleys the land rises into gently sloping hills, usually 

 of no great elevation, and arable in almost every instance to their 

 very summits. The water of the streams is clear and pure, and in 

 the wells essentially purer and more palatable than that of contigu- 

 ous counties lying north and west. There is no stagnant water and 

 no swamps, or other " waste lands" of any considerable extent in the 

 county. 



Soil^ Geological Appearances, ^x. — Cortland occupies the slaty 

 region, which is superincumbent on the limestone of Onondaga, and 

 which with a dip to the south-west, passes under the coal beds of 

 Pennsylvania. The soil is formed by the disintegration of silicious 

 or quartzose and aluminous slate; the aluminous forming the higher, 

 and the silicious the lower lands. The only primary rocks are boul- 

 ders of granite, which are found in some abundance on our hills. 

 Cortland is not rich in minerals. No metallic ores are found in it. 

 Thin and detached veins, or rather pieces of coal or lygnite (sup- 

 posed by their discoverers to be the former,) have been found in some 

 of the hills in the northern portion of the county. 



The most singular geological feature in the county is the " marl 

 ponds," in Cortlandville. There are several of them which are from 

 25 to 60 acres in extent. The " marl lime" obtained from them, on 

 burning the marl, is white, and sufficiently pure to form durable plas- 

 ter. It has been analyzed and found to contain 65 per cent of pure 

 lime, the residue earthy and vegetable matter. There is little doubt 

 that this marl would form a valuable fertilizer, particularly on a soil 

 which, like ours, is deficient in lime. The marl in these pits seems to 

 be inexhaustible in quantity, and that which mingles with the soil 



