1837] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



551 



be ustvl, as in (act it is, two or three times, before 

 it is finally discharii;eii info the river. A canal, 

 common to all the mills, conducts the water in 

 front of the doors, and is extended on the erec- 

 tion of a new mill. It is a fortunate circumstance 

 that this immense water power should exist in the 

 midst of an extensive wheat growing country, 

 and on the margin of the Erie canal, with every 

 iiicilit}' lor the reception of grain, and the ship- 

 ment of flour to the Atlantic cities. From Ro- 

 chester, there is also a lateralcanal taken up the val- 

 ley of the Genesee river, and a rail road to Batavia. 

 The agricultural enterprise of New York has 

 received a powerful stimulus in the Erie canal, 

 which traverses the state from east to west, a 

 distance of more than three hundred miles; and 

 in the numerous lateral branches which are con- 

 nected with it. . Without this improvement, there 

 would have been no outlet for the produce of that 

 fertile country; and it would have remained, like a 

 giant with his limbs in fetters. With it however, no 

 country has ever made more rapid strides in popu- 

 lation and wealth. Itis already found to be too small 

 to (urnish a prompt and ready transportation lor 

 the increased amount of product and merchandize; 

 and it is accordingly, under a process of enlarge- 

 ment. Internal improvement and agricultural en- 

 terprise, reciprocally acting on each other, have 

 developed resources which even the projectors of 

 this work could not distinctly have foreseen. The 

 products of the state have been many times mult- 

 iplied in value and amount, while the revenues de- 

 rived from the public works have filled the treasury 

 to overflowing. The successful enterprise of New 

 York has naturally stimulated other states to imi- 

 tate her example, and to project systems of inter- 

 nal improvements on a scale of smiilar grandeur. 

 But it is next to impossible that any of them can 

 ever derive the same profits. The existence of 

 an immense back country of inexhaustible fer- 

 tility has been wanting to insure results equally 

 successful to new undertakings. Posterior im- 

 provements, therefore, have been in some instan- 

 ces an actual expense, instead of a profitable in- 

 vestment. The order of things has been revers- 

 ed. The back country was to be enriched, or in 

 other words to be made, while in New York, it 

 had already been perfectly formed by the hand of 

 nature. If this diversity of circumstances has 

 not been properly considered in every new enter- 

 prise, still we are warranted in believing, that ul- 

 timate good will be effected. 



Along the whole line of the Erie canal, nume- 

 rous and flourishing villages have sprung up and 

 every thing bears the impress of industry and pros- 

 perity. Its completesuccess, and the triumph it has 

 achieved over Ibrmer prejudices, and the asperities 

 of party spirit, vindicate the right of its projector 

 to be considered as one of the wisest and most dis- 

 tinguished men of his age. It is no longer termed 

 in derision, as it was formally "Clinton's big ditch;" 

 it is now "Clinton's noble fine, more immortal than 

 any of Homer's." 



Of the state of horticulture, in the western part 

 ■of New York, not much can be said. The im- 

 provements in this department, have by no means 

 been commensurate with the progress that has 

 been made in the more useful branches of in- 

 dustry; and the deficiency is rendered the more 

 obvious by the contrast which exists between these 

 and kindred improvements. JVlens' minds are 



yet too deeply mtent on the acquisition of wealth, 

 (or matters of mere taste and luxury to be at) ob- 

 ject of much attraction. In our new countries 

 the necessaries of lilii must first be sought after 

 and obtained, bef^ire much attention can be de- 

 voted to its condbrls ami elegances; and even in 

 those which are comparatively old, the unsettled 

 slate of the population, the continual changes in 

 •he possession of property, and the consequent 

 removals to distant regions, exercise an unlriendly 

 influence on the progress of horticultural improve- 

 ment. In the United States, there is no abiding 

 place for our citizens ; restlessness and locomo- 

 tion are their chief characteristics. In England, 

 on the contrary, vsdiere local attachments are 

 stronger, and where the same occupants and their 

 descendants remain on the same spot for a length 

 of time, the inducement to rural embellishments is 

 greater. The children inherit from their parents a 

 taste for the elegant and ornamental, and every 

 garden and cottage bears the evidence of neatness 

 and taste. No part of the United States, therefore, 

 can be compared to England for the interesting 

 combination of the beautiliil with the usetul; nor 

 can the more recently settled portions of this coun- 

 try exhibit the same progress that has been made in 

 those of an older date. If these observations are 

 correct, it is not to be expected that the interior of 

 New York, has yet evinced much predilection for 

 horticultural taste. The neatness and elegance and 

 comfort of the dwellings are deserving of all praise. 

 In the innumerable tovvns and villages whicli 

 meet the eye in almost every neighborhood, and! 

 in the splendid churches, equally numerous, are be- 

 held the decorations of architecture, and all the ar- 

 tificial appliances of worldly comibrt, accompan- 

 ied by no general improvements in the science of 

 horticulture. The commodious and handsomely 

 finished farm houses lose half their charms, by 

 their want of contiguity to extensive and fruitful 

 orchards, and by the almost entire absence of orna- 

 mental trees and plants. Ajiple orchards it is 

 true, of greater or less extent, are found on nearly 

 every (arm ; but there is no general cultivation 

 of a variety and succession of fruits. The peach, 

 the apricot, and the pear, the cherry and the plum, 

 the strawberry and raspberry, are strangers, one 

 might suppose, which would not always be re- 

 cognized by a portion of the inhabitants. The 

 contracted dimensions of the yards and gardens, 

 but especially of the yards, are out of all taste; 

 and impart an aspect of nakedness to the buildings, 

 which like some other objects, lose half their at- 

 tractions, by too great exposure to the eye. A 

 yard of sufficient size, set in a verdant truf, and ju- 

 ciously planted, with handsome and well grown 

 trees and shrubbery, is an indispensible auxiliary 

 to the elegance of a rural mansion. It aflbrds 

 the only mode by which the proper degree of 

 light and shade, concealment and exposure, can 

 be happily effected; and oftentimes lends an inde- 

 scribable charm, when other things are wanting. 

 This parsimony in the laying out grounds is in 

 strange contrast with the expenditure which has 

 been lavished on the buildings, and with the libe- 

 ral appropriation of land in the location of roads. 1 

 There is probably no distinct in the United 

 States susceptible of a higher state of horticultu- 

 ral as well as agricultural improvement, than 

 western New York; certainly no soil could be bet- 

 ter adapted to most of the delicious productions 



