farmers' miscellany. 83 



us shales below the water lines ; the red slate which reposes upon 

 le Niagara limestone furnishes the coloring matter to this import- 

 it deposit. These shales give the wheat growing character to 

 lis region, and this particular soil diminishes as you go up the 

 l.ke. There is one great advantage in this soil, it will produce 

 : [heat as long as the world stands. I will at any rate stake my 

 Imputation on this -assertion, that this particular soil will endure 

 fr this particular culture longer than any other wheat soil in the 

 Inited States. You need not ask me now of the grounds upon 

 ihich my opinion is founded ; this I will state at some future 

 'iportunity. I believe that I have already stated that farmers 

 pposethat wheat is a peculiar favorite of the limestone re- 

 on ; limestone however, is not, in this case, the element, the im- 

 >rtant element of the soil of the wheat region ; or the element 

 liich is mainly instrumental in giving this character so much 

 ominence in wheat growing ; but the peculiar slates and shale 

 mg between the Onondaga limestone (in this part of the State) 

 ■ d the Niagara limestone. They seem to have the proper ele- 

 lients for this crop. What I have called the calcareous loam, 

 lloduces, it is true, very good wheat. Nevertheless it is mecha- 

 J^ally at fault, it cannot hold the root of the wheat ; hence it 

 ipers often from frost or freezing, and is raised out of the 

 ^bund. 



iThis is the case, for example, as far from the lake as Poplar 

 Idge, where the soil has a large proportion of foreign drift, and 

 tiere it is not less than one hundred feet deep. It is here that 

 t- influence of the drab clay is mostly lost. Poplar ridge is 670 

 t-t above Cayuga lake, which runs parallel with it. From this 

 rige the country slopes very uniformly to the lake, though several 

 tep ravines are formed into the Hamilton slate and shales, by the 

 sieams which flow across them. Though it is rather a common 

 enervation that large bodies of water protect from the frost, still, 

 tUgh common, I will state that this year has furnished a very 

 rbarkable instance in confirmation of this common opinion. The 

 fjsts of May and June for instance, have done little or no damage 

 ci the borders of the lake, while 300 feet above, at the distance of 

 anile and a half, grapes were cut off. 



^Setting out trees, trmisplanting herbaceous plants, whether 

 Mrs, fruit, roots, ^-c— Every person is interested in trans- 



