200 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Sept. 



highest surfaces and edges, lying one above an- 

 other. The Medina vSand-stone extends from the 

 lake south, from five to eight miles, all the way from 

 Oswego lo the head of the lake in Canada. It is 

 a very soft, and in some places a shaley rock, 

 which is easily worn down into small particles 

 by the action of water and other elements. It 

 appears on the other side of Lake Ontario, and 

 seems to have been scooped out witli a few other 

 rocks, to form its deep basin. It forms a soil of 

 very variable fertility. In some places it re- 

 ceives the wash of water coming from the Clin- 

 ton, Niagara, and Onondaga groups, which lie 

 above and south of it, and is greatly benefited by 

 the minerals which these waters hold in solution. 

 In other sections, the " drift" or fragments of 

 other strata, containing lime, potash, magnesia, 

 6ic., have been mixed up with the sand of the 

 Medina rock, and greatly improved the soil. — 

 These instances of extraordinary productiveness 

 are exceptions to tlie general rule. So soon as 

 we passed ofTthe Niagara and Clinton lime-stones 

 on to the sand-stone, instead of finding a contin- 

 uance of wheat fields, those o[ rye were cultivated. 



The fruit trees, however, exhibited a cleaner, 

 smoother bark, and a more luxuriant growth 

 than we had seen in going from. Wheatland to 

 Greece, a distance of 20 miles, over the Onon- 

 daga and Niagara groups. We attributed this 

 improvement in the appearance of fruit trees 

 mainly to the fact that, the sandy soil is more 

 pervious, friable, and deeper than the calcareous 

 and clayey soils soutli, so that the roots of apple 

 and pear trees can easily penetrate the earth, 

 and spread in all directions — imbibing nourish- 

 ment from vastly greater surface. If this opin- 

 ion be well founded, it suggests the importance 

 of digging out a deep and large cavity where a 

 tree is to be planted, and filling the space vi'ith 

 earth which will not become compact, and abounds 

 in the elements that nature uses in forming both 

 the tree and its fruit. Place a tree in a deep 

 mellow soil, and supply it with all the things 

 necessary to its growth, and the perfection of its 

 fruit, and the climate must be greatly at fault, or 

 it will pay well for the care and labor bestowed. 



We judge from the composition of tiie crops 

 tnat grow best on the Medina Sand-slone, (which 

 we have examined in other counties than that of 

 Monroe,) that the use of bones and ashes will be 

 very serviceable on the soils of that rock, espe- 

 cially in the production of wheat, potatoes, corn, 

 and grasses. The climate along the .southern 

 : ')ore of lake Ontario is admirably adapted to 

 ti '.;^ culture, which is confessedly the most prof- 

 i.tali!o branch of agriculture at tin's time. We 

 dcalrc to £<■- ended in this part of the state. 



Wi found boulders of the Medina Sand-stone 

 catte: )<\ all the way over the surface of the 

 groui d 60 miles south of where the rock appears 

 in plafje, or in its natural bed. If there was no 

 oMicr evidence of the fact — of whicli there is an 



abundance — this transportation of fragments of 

 rocks a great distance south, shows that the cur- 

 rents of the ancient ocean set strongly in that di- 

 rection. The polished and grooved surface of 

 the Niagara and all other limestones, when de- 

 nuded of the earthy matter that covei-s them, 

 forms an object of deep iiiterest to the geological 

 student. The direction of these grooves is south- 

 erly, or a little west of south, having been cut 

 by bodies which were of great weight, and appa- 

 rently moved with prodigious force. It is not 

 improbable that the deep and broad valley of the 

 Genesee was excavated more by oceanic currents 

 than by the waters of the river and its tributaries. 

 All the strata have a uniform elevation on either 

 side of the river, showing that their beds have 

 not been disturbed since their deposit, except 

 what has been abraded and washed out by the 

 elements. A large portion of the rocks above 

 the upper stratum of the Niagara group is soft 

 and shaley, yielding readil}' to the mechanical 

 force of tidal currents. As already remarked, 

 the minerals contained in these strata are quite 

 soluble. A single pint of the water of the mid- 

 dle spring at Avon, contains : 



Carbonate of Lime, 1.00 grain. 



Sulphate of '• 10..50 " 



Sulphate of Magnesia 1.25 ■' 



WulphateofSoda, ' 2.00 " 



Chloride of Sodium,.. 2.30 " 



Sulphuretted hydrogen, .._ 

 Carbonic acid, 



17.05 grains. 

 . . 12.00 cubic inches. 

 .. 5.C0 



Uaseous Contents, . . - 17.60 cubic inches. 



Prof. Beck says that the composition of the 

 lower spring is similar to the above, and that it 

 discharges 54 gallons of water per minute. If 

 its strength is equal to the above, then there flows 

 from it, every 24 hours, 768 lbs. of gypsum; 94 

 lbs. of epsom salts ; 253 pounds of glauber salts ; 

 171 lbs. of common salt, and 623 cubic feet of 

 gas, to say nothing of the carbonate of lime held 

 in solution. All the spring and well water in 

 this rpgion contains more or less of these /ei'tili- 

 zing salts. We encamped one night on the 

 ground where Sullivan drove the Indians at the 

 point of the bayonet, ofi' the high precipice in 

 Fall Creek, two miles south of Caledonia. In 

 its deep gorge below we found some fine speci- 

 mens. The shaley rocks crumble rapidly into 

 an impalpable powder, forming a tenacious clay, 

 higldy charged with lime, and salts of iron, alum, 

 '.:■»' r/'sia, &c. Earth formed by the comminu- 

 tion oi OoO calcareous shales, if taken TOO feet 

 from the f-;:'face, at the bottom of a water-fall, 

 produces g. 1 1 wheat and clover. Between the 

 middle and i •' er fall, at Portage, Ihe rocks pre- 

 sent a perp(' .iicular wall on the north side of 

 the gorge ol 327 feet by actual measurement. 

 Below the be of the river at this level, and at 

 the lower fall, our associate teacher at the Agri- 

 cultural School, (Mr. Sanford,) took from a 

 crevico in the sla • v>ck a root of clover having 



