82 GENESEE COUNTRY. 



same name, which is navigated by a steam-boat. The prin 

 cipal street extends back on rising ground nearly two miles, 

 and consists of separate villas, as white and clean as paint can 

 make them, with green Venetian blinds, situated at some dis 

 tance from the street., and surrounded with umbrageous vege 

 tation, which at this warm season imparted an appearance of 

 coolness and luxury. Besides a garden in front, crowded 

 with rose bushes bearing a profusion of flowers, many villas 

 have a considerable extent of ground behind, capable of main 

 taining animals, and affording every family convenience. The 

 buildings and beauty of Canandaigua surpass any place I have 

 seen out of New England ; and the wealth and comfort of its 

 inhabitants may be owing to its early erection and situation 

 in the Genesee country, the most celebrated wheat district in 

 America. 



The Genesee country was sold by the State of Massachu 

 setts to Messrs Gorham and Phelps, who obtained 6,000,000 

 acres, at about eightpence sterling per acre ; but finding dif 

 ficulty in fulfiling their bargain, the land passed into other 

 hands, and part of the country now belongs to the Pulteney 

 family of England. 



We left Canandaigua by a stage-coach at three o clock in 

 the morning, and suffered considerably from cold. When day 

 dawned, a little after four o clock, my thermometer, exposed 

 on the outside of the stage, indicated 43, and at Allanshill, 

 on the outside of the hotel window, 45. On different occa 

 sions I experienced inconvenience from variations of tem 

 perature in America, which are greater and as frequent as 

 those of Britain. We reached the village of Genesee early 

 in the forenoon, and from the courts being then sitting, could 

 not be received where the stages stopped. The landlord and 

 driver were not accommodating, but we soon found a very 

 attentive hotel-keeper in a different part of the village. 



The surface of the country, from Canandaigua to Genesee, 

 is undulating and picturesque, but ill cultivated. The wheat 

 crops generally good, and a considerable extent of ground 

 preparing for fallow, by breaking up grass land which had 

 been depastured. In some cases, four oxen and a horse were 

 dragging a plough, a boy ridinj the horse in front, and a 



