12 
profits in producing the Goodrich and other new varieties. The most profitable 
in Kings county is said to be potatoes, upon highly manured ground, the pro- 
duct being marketed very early; and a second crop of cabbages, turnips, or 
wheat seeded. The rent of land for gardening is sometimes $25 to $50 per 
acre. In Queens and other counties near New York city, gardening and pota- 
toes are the main specialties. In Dutchess and Westchester hay is valued as a 
profit-giving product. 
In the southern portion of Oneida county the growing of hops is a prominent 
interest, but it was a failure last year on account of the prevalence of the hop 
louse. In Schoharie county 4,000 acres of hops are reported. Otsego gen- 
erally produces $750,000 worth. Madison is also in the hop business, the yield 
averaging 600 pounds, at $150 profit per acre Dairying is extensively followed 
in Cortland and Herkimer, and farmers are generally prosperous. In Wayne 
peppermint culture is very profitable ; upon low-lying lands the yield thirty to 
forty pounds of oil to the acre. ; 
The lake region generally enjoys great variety in agriculture, produces fruit, 
beef, wool, butter, cheese, and finds a profit in so doing. Dairying has much 
increased of late. In Jefferson the manufacture of Limburg cheese, introduced 
by German residents, has benefited the county greatly. Farms of 200 acres, 
besides furnishing bread for the family, will support twenty cows that will 
yield a product of cheese worth $1,000. Grape-growing is successful in Chau- 
tauqua, on Lake Erie, as well as in Niagara and Lake Ontario counties. : 
5. Red Mediterranean is most common. White Mediterranean frequently re- 
ported, with a large number of other varieties, as White Michigan, Tappahannock, 
Soule’s, Amber, Black Sea, Scotch Fife, White Flint, Blue Stem, Gold Drop, 
China Tea, Diehl, Canada Club, Treadwell, &c. By far the greater part of 
the returns indicate the Mediterranean varieties as preferred, on account of 
hardiness and greater exemption from insect attacks. Such preference is ex- 
pressed in Chautauqua, Niagara, Seneca, Oneida, Tioga, Madison, Suffolk, 
Fulton, Onondaga, Wayne, Schoharie, Westchester, Dutchess, Ulster, Queens, 
and many others. In Otsego and Ontario the Soule is most popular, as more 
productive than White Flint, and of better quality than Mediterranean. In 
Kings, the Amber wheat, deemed less liable than others to rust, is preferred. 
In Livingston, White Michigan is the most favored variety, on account of its 
hardiness. In Jefferson, three kinds of wheat are cultivated, chiefly: 1. Black 
Sea, yielding twenty to twenty-five bushels per acre twenty years ago, but giving 
scarcely halt'as much now, yet retained because it is hardy and bears late sowing 
well. 2. China, formerly of high repute, producing excellent flour, but greatly 
diminished in yield and beginning to be neglected. 3. Fife or Scotch, cultivated 
still, though reduced in yield. The Genesee valley, once famed throughout the 
country for its yield and quantity of wheat, has greatly declined in both of these 
particulars. he destructiveness of insects, and the failing reputation of the 
flour produced, attest the deterioration of the soil, and the unskilful culture 
which led to such a result. 
In Genesee, wheat is mostly drilled, on summer fallows, ploughed in June or 
July, and worked fine with harrow and gang-plough. In Ontario, the same prac- 
tice prevails; and clover sod and spring grain stubble are sometimes ploughed 
under for a wheat crop. Hither summer fallowing, or fertilizing with stable 
manure, are practiced in Cortland. In Jefferson, alter a crop of corn, peas, 
or potatoes, and sometimes grain, even wheat, the land is ploughed in the fall, 
and the seed sown on the surface in the spring, and dragged in, and sometimes 
rolled if the soil is dry. Before the midge made its appearance, good crops of 
winter wheat were produced. The reporter says: ‘ About the year 1847 the 
devastation by this destructive insect became so gyeat that we had to quit rais- 
ing this kind of wheat. Its yield dwindled down to nothing. ‘Then we sub- 
stituted spring wheat. Within a year or two some of our enterprising farmers 
