POETAGE AND CHEMUNG SOILS. 183 



matter than the Onondaga soils, and therefore less free 

 and more difficult and expensive to work, but capable of 

 producing excellent wheat. A large portion of the 

 celebrated Genesee Valley rests upon this formation ; 

 but its natural soil is there covered or modified by the 

 drifted fragments of the Niagara and other more north- 

 erly limestones. This group is of great thickness, and 

 forms an extensive belt of country, the soils of which in 

 some places are rich in lime, and are submitted to 

 arable culture. They are everywhere difficult to keep 

 clean, however, and are especially infected with the 

 pigeon-weed [Lithospermwn.) They are, for the most 

 part, therefore — like our own stiff clays of the lias and 

 other formations — left to perpetual grass, which they 

 produce of excellent quality. Here, therefore, the graz- 

 ing and dairy country of western New York commences. 



No. 8. The black Gene.see slate is too thin to form 

 an important agricultural feature in the country. It 

 crumbles more slowly than the Hamilton shale, but 

 where it mixes with the thin limestones and calcareous 

 shales beneath it, good soils are produced. 



No. 9. The Portage and Chemung groups consist of 

 alternations of shales, poor in lime below, with flag- 

 stones and massive sandstones. They extend to the 

 borders of Pennsylvania, where they reach the height of 

 1000 feet above Lake Ontario. The district occupied 

 by these groups presents a complete contrast to the 

 wheat-region. When first cleared, it produces crops of 

 wheat 5 but after the first crops — as is the case in many 

 parts of New Brunswick, which rest upon similar rocks 

 — wheat-becomes uncertain, and spring grain only can 

 be sown. It is therefore poorer, less cleared and culti- 

 vated, and possesses a poorer race of cultivators. The 

 farmers devote their attention chiefly to the rearing of 

 stock, and to the dairy husbandry. 



To teach a man the close relation of natural agricul- 



