454 ' [Assembly 



Above I have answered your queries as correct as" I can; a 

 younger and more active person should have been selected; almost 

 my whole life (near three score and ten,) has been occupied in 

 practical agriculture, and but little of it in writing ; but if you 

 can cull or extract from the above scroll, anything that will be of 

 use in agricultural statistics, I shall be well pleased. 



I am, Dear sir, yours truly, 



JAMES MACINTYRE, 



, NIAGARA. 



In making the annual report of Niagara county Agricultural 

 Society, I have thought proper to preface it with a brief account 

 of the organization of the county, its location and extent, together 

 with some statistics grounded on the census of 1850, but so mod- 

 ified as to give its present probable condition. The county is not 

 wanting in the elements of celebrity. Lying in the extreme 

 north-west corner of the State, its frontier on the Niagara river 

 and Lake Ontario, has made it the scene of many border conflicts 

 of great historic interest. '• The Falls" are, perhaps, unsurpass- 

 ed by any other natural curiosity in this country for grandeur and 

 sublimity, while the foaming river, rushing madly through the 

 deep gorge from the cataract to the village of Lewiston and 

 there gliding on peacefully to the lake, affords every modification 

 of scenery, from the mountain in a chaos of waters to the lawn 

 and the lake. 



Art, too, under the munificent policy of our great State, here 

 presents us with her noblest achievements. The massive chain 

 of locks at Lockport, and the deep cut through the limestone of 

 the " mountain ridge," are triumphs over w^hat seemed insupera- 

 ble difficulties to the completion of the Erie canal. Although 

 there were only a few hamlets on the Niagara river and around 

 the fort more than a hundred years ago, yet the county, as a 

 whole, is one of the most recently settled in the State; indeed, 

 along the lake towns some portions have scarcely been redeemed 



