SOLON ROBINSON, 1850 411 



very extensive dairy farm, owned by a Kingstonian, upon 

 which my informant stated, the owner keeps two hundred 

 cows. Whether the number stated is correct, I cannot 

 say. It only seemed large, because it was in Canada. In 

 New York or Ohio, I should not have doubted nor won- 

 dered.* From the yards, spouts are made to conduct the 

 milk to broad tin vats in the milkroom. The land upon 

 these islands is very level and thin upon its limestone 

 foundation, and of but little value for any other crop 

 than grass. The marks of improvement are very primi- 

 tive, so far as seen from the boat in passing. 



Solon Robinson. 



Jefferson-County Dairy Farming. 



[New York American Agriculturist, 9:331-32; Nov., 1850] 



[August 21, 1850] 



It would greatly surprise some of the western and 

 southern stock farmers, who boast of their favored cli- 

 mate and rich pastures, to visit this rock-bound county 

 upon the shores of Ontario and the St. Lawrence, to see 

 how much more money is made by the produce of cows 

 in a climate of six or seven winter months, than in re- 

 gions where it is very mild or frost quite unknown. 



In my late flying trip to Watertown, N. Y., I had the 

 pleasure of a visit to the farm of Mr. Moses Fames, ^ about 

 seven miles from the village, 600 feet elevation above it, 

 and 1,200 feet above tide water, and north of latitude 44°. 

 The surface is quite hilly and stony, with underlying 

 rocks, and would be thought by strangers cold and un- 

 productive. Now, August 21st, is the season of harvest 

 of wheat, oats, barley, and grass. Mr. E. keeps forty- 



* Afterwards I was informed the true number is 130. 



^ Moses Eames, son of Daniel Eames, who settled in Rutland, 

 Jefferson County, in 1800. President of the Jefferson County Agri- 

 cultural Society in 1849. His method of making maple sugar is 

 described in the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents, 

 1844, pp. 297-98. History of Jefferson County . . ., 506 (L. H. 

 Evarts & Co., Philadelphia, 1878); Cultivator, n.s. 6:375 (Decem- 

 ber, 1849). 



