farmer's miscellany. 291 



limestones, and which also form a lower and parallel belt. These 

 shales are remarkable for having at one lime contained crystals of 

 salt ; and even now, in consequence of the rapid decomposition, 

 they form various saline bodies, and it is interesting to sec how the 

 springs are charged with saline matter according to the level from 

 which they issue. Thus the lowest layers, including the hopper- 

 formed cavilies and the gypsum beds, furnish springs highly charged 

 with saline matter, sulphate of soda, magnesia and lime. Above, 

 and in the next tier of strata, they are highly charged wiih carbonate 

 of lime, and from these inunense deposits of tufa are formed. Even 

 the springs are petrifying, and wood immersed in them becomes 

 stone, or stony matter takes ihe place of the wood. The higher 

 shales, though ihey do not furnish soft water, yet it answers well 

 for drinking and cooking. I omitted to mention ihe fact, that the 

 lower lavers of this limestone shale furnish, in a few instances, a 

 water which chars vegetable matier ; and I find, on examination, 

 that it is a weak sulphuric acid. 



The limestone shale is the rock, or formation, which is specially 

 adapted to the production of wheat and corn. It has been stated by 

 most writers, and repeated by most farmers, that it is the limestone 

 above which gives character to the soil of this and some other coun- 

 ties, and especially renders them wheat-growing ; but this is not true. 

 Even the late esteemed Mr. Gaylord seemed to have selected a 

 farm because it was based on limestone ; but it is the shaly mass 

 below, which imparts so much excellence to the whole belt of 

 country, and this runs through the middle of Onondaga, or a little 

 to the norih of the middle. A black shale succeeds the Onondaga 

 limestone in the ascending order ; and this gradually passes into 

 gray or greenish siliceous shales and sandstones, still higher up. 

 Very little limestone is found south of the first belt of limestone 

 which J have mentioned above. 



We have, then, in Onondaga county, two shaly formations, with 

 a thick mass of nearly pure limestone between ; and they form 

 terraces which rise one above the other, commencing on the level 

 with Oneida lake, and ascending step by step up to the hills of 

 Pompey. These several terraces differ much in their agricultural re- 

 lations. The new uncleared land on the lowest terrace, just above the 

 Cicero swamp, is worth 10- 12 dollars per acre ; the next terrace, 

 if dry and rolling, is worth 50 - 60 dollars per acre ; and the high 



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