178 [Senate 



pulverized, are filled with other materials on the shales of the Mar- 

 cellus and Hamilton groups that overlie the limestones on the south. 

 South of the limestone groups, there is so much similarity in the 

 successive strata, that their removal or mixture exercises but little 

 effect in changing the character of the soils constituted. There is 

 no rock in the series, which, in proportion to its thjckness, exercises 

 a more important and beneficial influence than the Oriskany sand- 

 stone. Thrown back 6n the shales to the south, the silex which 

 forms its base, and the lime by which its particles are mostly cement- 

 ed, are alike useful to soils naturally disposed to too much moisture 

 and denseness. It is evident that the soils formed from the decom- 

 position of the shales that cover the southern half of the county, 

 must, irom the quantity of clay they contain, be inclined to more 

 compactness than those of the northern part of the county, and their 

 character is in a great measure modified and determined by the quali- 

 ty and quantity of drift thrown upon them. Of the soils of the 

 county, those lying on the limestones will be the driest, while those 

 on the shales will be the most heavy and wet. The thickness of the 

 drift deposit, also has a^reat influence on the dryness or the wet- 

 ness of soils; and as this seems in a great measure to have been de- 

 termined by local circumstances, farms in the immediate vicinity, or 

 adjoining each other, have very different qualities in these respects. 

 The experiments of Dr. Madden prove that a soil containing only a 

 proper supply of moisture, or that which is necessary to vegetation, 

 when compared with one in which it exists in excess, is on an ave- 

 J age 5° warmer; a most important difference, where 5 degrees of 

 temperature during the three summer months decide the success or 

 the failure of the corn crop. The sketch here given of the geologi- 

 cal condition and position of the several parts of the county, though 

 necessarily brief, will serve to indicate its agricultural character, and 

 the course of cropping most suitable to be pursued. 



The staple crop of Onondaga county is wheat, and though all sec- 

 tions of it are not equally favorable to its production, there is no 

 part where more or less of this grain is not grown. The annual crop 

 may be stated at half a million of bushels, some years exceeding 

 this amount, and some unfavorable ones falling short. It is proba- 

 bl^e the quantity produced has not varied materially for the last 8 or 

 10 years; nor have we any positive data for determining whether the 

 yield per acre has increased or diminished in that time. On many 

 farms where a more skilful and systematic mode of farming is adopt- 

 ed, the wheat product is increasing; on others, where the skinning 

 system is still practiced, the yield must be decreasing. On some 

 farms, where wheat, at the first clearing away of the timber, grew 

 well, it cannot now be grown with much certainty, a failure that 

 may be attributed to unskilful culture, exhausting the vegetable and 

 animal matter originally in the soil, and while thus depriving the 

 plant of its food, at the same time reducing the friability of the soil, 

 on whicli the success of the wheat crop is in a groat measure depend- 

 ing. Wheat is found to be a much more certain crop in the northern 

 and central parts of the coimty than further south. As a general re- 



