AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. 197 



Winter rye. This crop is not raised in large quantities for food. 

 Our best farmers prefer sowing it early in September. We have 

 known it to be sowed in January w'itli success. When raised upon 

 the uplands or the sandy hill-side, it yields better flour than that 

 furnished by the crops of the lowlands. Two opinions prevail as to 

 tlie time of cutting this grain. One class say that it should be cut 

 while the joints are green ; the others that it should not be cut until 

 fully ripe and dry. 



Winter toheat, in a large part of this district, has not been much 

 cultivated for many years, on account of the insect (Cecidomya). 

 This year, more wheat has been raised than usual ; sufficient, it is 

 supposed, in many towns of Berkshire in Massachusetts, for the 

 farmer's home supply. This also is the case in many of the towns 

 west of the Taconic range. 



Barley. The country best adapted to the growth of barley, is the 

 range of hills west of the Taconic range : they are considerably 

 less elevated ; the soil is always coarse, and the climate cool. The 

 soil is generally what is termed a yellow loam, with a hardpan about 

 eighteen inches below the surface. The towns celebrated for this 

 crop, are Sandlake, Grafton, Berlin and Stephentown ; and in this 

 range, north and south, the same conditions exist which would en- 

 sure a successful cultivation of this grain. 



Flax. This is cultivated successfully upon what may be termed 

 the hard and coarse soils at the base of the Taconic range, at an 

 elevation of 1000 feet above the tide at Albany. It is sown about 

 the twentieth of April : twenty-eight quarts of seed to the acre is 

 sufficient. Ashes is considered the best manure, and is sown upon 

 the field just as the flax is coming up. Over 380 lbs. of flax have 

 been raised to the acre on this elevated land. When the seed is 

 filled out, or plump, it may be pulled : if not quite ripe, it perfects 

 itself in the swarth. 



Oats, succeed well on all the hills of the Taconic system. It is 

 sown about the fifteenth of April ; the land to be twice ploughed, 

 and well harrowed. It requires a hardpan to succeed well. It will 

 probably grow and ripen in these hills, 3000 feet above tide at 

 Albany. 



Peas. This sure crop, and excellent one for fattening hogs or 

 feeding in the summer, is discontinued by some farmers on account 

 of the bug. Some, however, sow late, say the tenth of June, and 



