THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



403 



portanl fact is uniform — namely, ihe principal root 

 oCihe sorrel being fixed in Ihe soil below ihe heap 

 of marl. 



BUFFALO Ci^OVER. 



The following was a postscript to an already 

 published communicaiion Irom Col. E. T. Tay- 

 loe, of King George, and which was laid aside 

 until the inlbrmaiion asked (or could be obtained. 

 The plant was the indigenous kind called Bufialo 

 clover, which we have seen growing rarely and 

 sparsely on the sandy low-grounds of Appo- 

 mattox, a little above the (alls, and elsewhere on 

 soils o( but moderaie llertility. The specimen 

 sent was shown to Mr. M. Tuomey, and pro- 

 nounced to be the Trifolium reflexum. — Ed. F. K. 



" i send a specimen of clover, of which a 

 luxuriant growth spruns up after a dressing of 

 plaster last spring. What kind is it? If you 

 can do so, describe it in Ihe Register, and give lite 

 name. I have seen it in some portions of my 

 farm where red clover has not been sown, but 

 not before in the part where this specimen grew — 

 it dries up much earlier than the red clover, ami 

 though the loliage is less, it must be an im- 

 prover. E. T. T. 



THE GENESEli; VALLEY. 



From the New Genesee Farmer. 



The river Gf*nesee rises among the hijxh lands 

 of Pennsylvania, in the neighborhood ol the Sue 

 quehanna. VVindinii its way among the moun- 

 tains it enters New York by the southern side ol 

 Allecany county, passes into Livingston county, 

 which it divides longitudinally ne^irly in the cen- 

 tre, and after traversing the whole breadth of 

 JVlonroe county pours its rich tritiuie into Like 

 Ontario. At its ordinary level it presents an ave- 

 rage breadth of only a lew rods, lis course is re- 

 markable for its windings and doublings. It has 

 some rapids ; and it has at least six considerable 

 falls, all within New York, of remarkable pic- 

 turesquenese; and at high water of singular beauty 

 and grandeur. Its rapid torrents, its brilliant cas- 

 cades, its sweeping and in some cases its terrific 

 floods, and iis loliy and precipitous walls rising lor 

 a considerable length of line to a height of 400 

 leet, and presenting, in some instances, perpendicu- 

 lar cliffs of 600 feel, are objects of attraciion to 

 men of taste, the geologist, and the curious tra- 

 veller. In these respects they are surpassed in the 

 northern United States only by the world's won- 

 der, the giant ol the waters, Niagara. 



The river, after successive leaps and rapids, soon 

 after leaving Allegany county, at Mount Morris, be- 

 comes a quiet and in low water a sluggish stream, 

 bordering on each side meadows and alluvions el 

 large exient and eminent fertility. At the village 

 of Mount Morris the river may be said lo enter 

 the Genesee valley. Here the flats begin, form- 

 ing an extensive region of alluvial meadow, eur- 

 louuded by hiilis of medium elevation and of easy 



and gradual ascent, presenting an expanse of an 

 average width of more than two miles, as nearly 

 as the eye would enable me to judtie. A large 

 portion of this land is cleared and under cultiva- 

 tion. It was lo a degree cleared when the whiles 

 first came into the country ; and was a favorite 

 resort of the Indians, whose judgment directed 

 them to select the most fertile as an instinctive taste 

 led them to spots the most picturesque and beauti- 

 ful. A considerable portion is still occupied by a 

 deep and dense forest of extraordinary magnifi- 

 cence. The parts which are cleared are adorned, 

 or perhaps it might be properly said left with ex- 

 cellent taste, as they were adorned in their origi- 

 nal condition, with here and there a single tree of 

 beautilLiI proportions, sometimes a belt of conside- 

 rable length, and at other times a clump equally 

 as grateful in their shades as they are exquisite in 

 their form and loliage. The largest tree that has 

 ever come under my observation, is an oak on the 

 meadow ol Mr. VVadsworth in Geneseo, being full 

 eight leet in diameter, standing out in its majesty 

 as the contemporary of other generations and the 

 mute historian of departed centuries. Under its 

 shade the imaizinaiion naturally reverted to days 

 gone by and to the changes which have transpired 

 during ils long reii;n. The wild children of the 

 lorest, who were accustomed lo ga'her under its 

 spreading branches to celebrate their rude festivi- 

 ties or hold their councils of war, have all depart- 

 ed ; and the quiet and rejoicing herds, marking the 

 progress of civiliz.itidn and humanity, repose se- 

 curely around it. The council fires are extin- 

 guished ; the deadly arrow no longer rustles 

 among its boughs ; and the wa -whoop and shrieks 

 of vengeance, which once filled these valleys 

 with terror, have given place to the songs of har- 

 vest-home and the gentle and peaceful undulations 

 of the village bell. Every where among these 

 meadows, clad in a verdure of surpassing depth 

 and richnes?, and waving wilh their golden har- 

 vests, cultivation has triumphed over the rudeness 

 of naiure, and art and skill and laste display their 

 brilliant trophies. 



It was onceaski'd, whal was the use of rivers, 

 and the reply was, lo feed canals with. Acting 

 upon this assumption, the state has penetrated the 

 whole ol the Genesee valley, from Rochester to 

 Daiisville, with a canal, and availed themselves 

 of the waters ol the Genesee river lo fill its banks. 

 The line of passenger boats on this avenue are of 

 the best description. The canal from Rochester 

 passes for some distance tfirough an uncleared 

 lorest ol" extraordinary growth, until presently it 

 emerges into a highly fertile and cultivated country, 

 and for its whole distance lo Mount Morris, ai-;,lar 

 as we pursued it, intersected an agricultural coun- 

 try as rich as the eye could rest upon, and dotted 

 all over with flourishing villages and the abodes 

 of rural wealth and independence. Nothing 

 seems wanting lo render the picture perfectly en- 

 chanting but an expanse ol water; and if nature 

 had seen fit Vj spread out in this valley a lake like 

 that of Canandaigua or Seneca, the imaginaiion 

 would have had no difficulty in recalling all Ihe 

 beauties and splendors of ihe primeval state. 



2'he soil. — The soil of the country varies some- 

 what in difl'erent places, but is throughout strongly 

 aluminous and calcaicous. On the meadows or 

 flats it is alluvial and full of ^egctabie mould, ihe 

 washings and gradual deposiies of the bills, and «o 



