170 GOUT-DE-TERKAIN. 



How interesting it would be to follow out the practical 

 physiological experiments which this observation of Mr 

 Pell suggests ! 



It is a curious illustration of the connection of geology 

 even with this branch of rural industry, that the nature 

 of the rock over which the apples grow affects the 

 flavour of the cider which is made from the fruit. The 

 cider of the chalk soils in Normandy differs in flavour 

 from that of sandy, and both from that of clay soils — the 

 variety of fruit and the management being the same. 

 Hence the gout-de-terrain spoken of by French con- 

 noisseurs is a correct expression for this recognisable 

 difference. Among the varied geological deposits of 

 western New York, similar differences must likewise be 

 observed both in the fruit and in the cider made from 

 it, which will give peculiar characters and recommenda- 

 tions to the productions of the several districts. 



lAth Sept. — This morning early, the Honourable Mr 

 Geddes, one of the State senators for Onondaga County, 

 drove me out to breakfast at his farm of Fairmount, a 

 few miles from Syracuse. He is the owner of 300 acres 

 of the best land on the rocks of the Onondaga salt- 

 group, and, like nearly all the owners in this country, 

 lives upon and farms it himself. The soil is a light- 

 coloured calcareous clay, which crumbles readily, and 

 never bakes. It is generally shallow, and rests on a 

 green shaly rock, which readily crumbles in the air, 

 and by exposure becomes paler in colour, forming the 

 light-coloured soil of which the farm consists. 



This district is more like a part of Old England than of 

 a newly cleared country. Of Mr Geddes's 300 acres 270 

 are in arable culture, and comfortable houses and other 

 buildings are seen upon most of the farms. The land is 

 generally divided- into farms of one or three hundred 

 acres ; and these, with the buildings upon them, usually 

 sell at from fifty to sixty dollars an acre. At this price 



