No. 112.] ^ 847 



pute this fact to the* use of the seed from the same vicinity for a 

 succession of years. A generiil, althougli I think not uniform 

 exemption from the attacks of the wevil, is chimed for the Black 

 Sea wheat. Spring wheat is usually sown about the 1st of May, 

 but many farmers delay until June, believing by that practice 

 they escape the fly. Tlie cultivation of wht at in several districts 

 of the county, particularly in the towns of Crown Point, Essex 

 and Willsboro', has a second time attained considerable promi- 

 nence. In the former, which embraces, as we have seen, heavy 

 manufacturing works, it is estimated that the production equals 

 the consumption. The sale of wheat from the town of Willsboro', 

 in 1852, w^as computed at three thousand bushels. The culture 

 is now constantly extending. Upon the fertile plains of North 

 Elba, it yields an average crop of forty bushels; on the elevated 

 valley, in the vicinity of the Adirondac Works, the average is 

 about twenty-two bushels. Mr. Ralph obtained, in 1852, a crop, 

 on the company's farm, of thirty-one and a quarter bushels to the 

 acre. 



Rye. — In many towns of E=sex county, Rje was formerly the 

 predominant crop. Wilmington, for a long period, was almost 

 exclusively devoted to its culture * The towns of Schroon and 

 Lewis, until recently, have made it an important element of their 

 husbandry. It is now very generally abandoned as a prominent 

 crop, except upon light and gravelly soils. In some districts, in 

 which tliese earths prevail, it is still profitably cultivated. In 

 the enhanced demand for horse feed, Rye has, within a few years, 

 come murli more into demand, and it is believed in this connec- 

 tion it will become a valuable and remunerative product. Rye 

 is much esteemed for this purpose, as constituijig a heavy and 

 nutritious feed when ground with oats and corn in the ear. Many 

 observing farmers insist that a bushel of Wheat may be produced 

 on the same soil whirli will yield that quantity of Rye. A 

 decided advantage in the cultivation of Rye, results from the fact 

 that the sandy soils favorable to its proiluclion, are not liable to 



• I oiniltt'il to st»tp, in the appropriiite plaec, that numerous diitiUcru-i were early esta- 

 blished in this town, anj in other .•i-ctions of the county. During the wnr of 1812, the 

 whiskey manufacture was an extensive and highly luorativo occupation io thia region. No! 

 % Tciligc of thctio workg, I bcliove, rcmaiua. 



