370 [Senate 



wet and backward springs, it is next to impossible for them to 

 cart out all of their manure. In that event the remnant is piled, 

 mixed with every thing that will increase its quality and quantity. 

 Swamp muck has to a small extent been advantageously put in requi- 

 sition. The increased attention to this subject, the augmented size and 

 number of the piles of compost, shows that what has been written on 

 the subject, has not here been lost, and augurs well for the future. 



In fences, the laying out of the farm into fields, in the construction 

 and convenience of the farm buildings, the farmers of Oneida begin to 

 show some taste. In the kitchen garden also, the shapeless, weedy, 

 and disgusting, is giving way to neatness, usefulness and order. 



The neat little flower gardens of our agriculturists are no longer 

 few and far between ; 



" Oh ! tell me of regions, where flowers abound. 

 Where perfumes and tints spread a paradise round." 



These are very many of them only tended by the fair hands of the 

 " Farmers' Daughters." 



SOILS. 



In this section we have almost every variety, though comparatively 

 very little that is sandy. Much, and a large proportion, is a clayey 

 loam, generally intermixed with gravel. 



The town of Augusta, in the southwest part of the county ,is in gen- 

 eral high ground. The soil of this town and in its vicinity is mostly 

 underlaid with limestone. This is the best section of the county for 

 wheat and barley, is good for corn, oats, &c., but probably, certamly 

 in dry seasons, the poorest for grass. Leaving this high land, and 

 passing to the north, we fall on to the hill generally known as Col- 

 lege hill, from the site of Hamilton college being located on it. This 

 hill leaves the valley of the Mohawk at Utica, or more properly it is 

 a continuation of the second table of the south bank of that river, 

 running across the country a little south of the Seneca turnpike to 

 Chittenango, instead of accompanying the river to Rome. This hill, 

 quite across Oneida and Madison, contains vast bodies of red slate, 

 or shale. This is more prominently the case in the southwest part of 

 Westmoreland, some one or two miles northwest from said college. 

 Here there is a flat of about one hundjed acres, covered with this slate, 

 which has been washed from the neighboring hill out of deep gullies. 

 A well dug near the foot of the hill, showed that eighteen feet in 

 depth was made land. I know of no more productive soil. Gypsum 

 has a very advantageous eff'ect on this kind of land, through its whole 

 course. When first cleared, many of the steepest parts of the hill, and 

 where the slate comes in its rocky state quite to the surface, it was 

 with difficulty seeded to grass, and when seeded, yielded very 

 little feed, but with the aid of gypsum, the steepest parts are now 

 covered with the richest pasturage. 



This red slate, after having been washed from its bed and subjected 

 to the action of the sun, rain and frost, becomes in time so fertile 

 that I have known it drawn a mile or more, to put in gardens. 



This hill, extending about forty miles quite through two rich and 



