356 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



November 12, 1831 



COMMITNICA riONS. 



FOR THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Occasional sketches of the early history and set- 

 tlement of the west are proper subjects for our ag- 

 ricultural journals. The article in your ninth 

 number, upon the Genesee Country, is entertain- 

 ing and instructive. Forty years ago, it could not 

 have been anticipated or believed that six mill- 

 ions of acres then recently purchased for one mil- 

 lion of dollars, would now be worth forty millions. 

 But my immediate object in noticing the subject, 

 is to request from a competent hand a proper cor- 

 rection or supply of some errors and omissions 

 contained in the extracts from the New-York 

 Gazeteer. 



The author informs us that Phelps and Gorham 

 purchased of the state of Massachusetts, five mil- 

 lions of acres, for one million of dollars, payable 

 in consolidated securities, at par. What was the 

 value of these securities ? Were they worth 10, 

 30, 50 or 100 per cent 1 Without this information 

 we learn little useful from the statement We are 

 told that in 1790, Phelps and Gorham sold to Rob- 

 ert Morris, 1,264,000 acres for eight pence an a- 

 cre. This is at a reduction of about one half be- 

 low the nominal cost. 



What is the true state of the Holland Compa- 

 ny's purchase 1 What did they pay t How 

 much have they realized, and how much more 

 have they a right to expect 7 Such different ac- 

 counts are in circulation that a true explanation 

 would interest many of your readers. 



Mr. Spafford goes on to tell us that " in 1789, 

 Oliver Phelps opened a land office at Canandai- 

 gua. This was the first land office in America 

 for the sale of her forest lands to settlers. And 

 the system which he adopted for the survey of 

 his lands, by townships, and ranges, became 

 a model for the survey of all the new lands in the 

 United States." 



Here is much extaordinary information con- 

 densed into a naiTOW compass. During two hun 

 dred years after the first settlement of Virginia, 

 to the purchase of the Genesee country, no wild 

 lands had been for sale to settlers, though a nation 

 of three millions had come into existence. Th 

 authorities are not now before me in the woods of 

 Ohio, but I have read that William Penn and his 

 successors had an office for the sale of land, and 

 Lord Baltimore also. A land office in some fonn 

 or other, probably existed in every colony. 



But what I would more particulaly notice, is the 

 claim here set up in behalf of Mr Phelps, as the 

 father of that beautiful system of land surveys es- 

 tablished by congress, and extended through 

 our whole national domain. A little attention to 

 chronology will serve to expose the fallacy of this 

 assumption. 



Phelps and Gorham made their purchase in the 

 year 1787, and a treaty with the Indians in 1788. 

 Their surveys were afterwards. But the system 

 referred to had been adopted by the United States, 

 and gone into operation some years before it was 

 introduced into the Genesee country. 



On the 20th May, 1785, congress passed an or- 

 dinance to divide the Northwestern Territory, 

 then so called, now the state of Ohio, " into town- 

 ships of six miles square, by lines running North 

 and South, and others crossing them at right an- 

 gles." A beginning was ordered on the Penn- 

 sylvania line on the north bank of the Ohio river. 



The ranges were to be numbered from east to 

 west, and the townships from the river north. Each 

 township, was to be subdivided into lots of one 

 mile square, or 640 acres, in the same direction as 

 the external lines. The lands to be sold at not 

 less than one dollar an acre in specie or certifi- 

 cates of the United States debt. Seven ranges 

 were surveyed and offered for sale. 



On the 23d of July, 1787, congress authorized 

 the sale of a million and a half of acres to the Ohio 

 company to be laid off into townships and lots ac- 

 cording to the ordinance of May 20, 1785, and 

 the first effective white settlement in Ohio, was 

 made under this purchase at Marietta, in April, 

 1788. In October, 1788, the Miama country was 

 sold to John Cleves Symmes, and Cincinnati was 

 laid out into lots the year following. This pur- 

 chase and all the other lands of the United States, 

 to this time, have been surveyed according to the 

 ordinance of May '20, 1788, excepting some tracts 

 chiefly for the army, which have been divided in 

 to townships of five miles square, and a small 

 portion into 100 acre lots 



This system of survey has been attributed to 

 various other persons besides Mr Phelps. Among 

 others, to Mr. Josiah Meigs, late Commissioner 

 of the U. S. Land office, to Jared Mansfield, Mr. 

 Gallatin, and General Harrison. 



All these gentlemen may have rendered some 

 service; but the system was adopted before any 

 of them came into public life. The Journals of I 

 the old congress will probably show who first re- 

 ported the plan to that body But before the rev- 

 olution, a part of Connecticut, of Vermont, of 

 New- York, and probably of other colonies had 

 been surveyed on a system having much of the 

 regularity and beauty of the Genesee country. 



Ohio. Y. Z. 



ually changing its position, anefby sweeping the 

 surface imparts a portion of its heat. Now a 

 calm may prevail in a deep valley, when alight 

 breeze is playing on the hill side ; and the con- 

 sequence may be, frost in the valley but none on 

 the hill, notwithstanding its greater elevation. 



13" P. S. 10 mo. 28, 1831. This morning 

 we had our first white frost. 



E Y. ought to distinguish between a com- 

 plaint and the simple enunciation of a fact. I 

 only said, " He has omitted the black maple." — 

 E. Y asserts, " This is not strictly correct ;" but 

 Michael Floy, whom I consider the better exposi- 

 tor of his own language, courteously remarked, 

 " You notice t/ie omission of Acer nigrum. This 

 species is not common h>re" — M. Floy had no 

 wish to strain an improper meaning from his 

 words. He made no attempt to prove that all 

 maples which produce sugar,* are sugar maples ; 

 neither did he found an argument against me on 

 the ignorance of others; but frankly admitted 

 that my expression was strictly correct. 



The eel winters in the Cayuga lake. Many 

 barrels are annually caught near Union Springs, 

 by cutting holes in the ice, and striking at ran- 

 dom on the muddy bottom with the spear. 



D. T. 



FOR THE GENESEE FARMER. 



In the account of the Horticultural Exhibition 

 contained in this Journal of the 8th instant, refer- 

 ence is made to a time " before our section of the 

 country had been visited by autumnal frosts." It 

 therefore appears that the frost has already oc- 

 curred in the valley of the Genesee river; and in 

 years past I have seen it near Avon, several weeks 

 earlier than on the elevated lands of that district. 

 With us, at this place, the most tender exotics re- 

 main uninjured in the open ground. 



The occurrence of frost in low valleys, later in 

 spring and earlier in autumn, than on the adjoin- 

 ing hills and open plains, is so remarkable that it 

 can scarcely have escaped the attention of any 

 person of observation who travels. In Jefferson's 

 Notes on Virginia this phenomenon is noticed. — 

 The ingenious author suggested that the loss of 

 heat might be owing to some chemical combina- 

 tion; and this view hassince been rendered plau- 

 sible by comparing the frigorific mixtures with 

 the production of carburetted hydrogen in marshy 

 soils. I'm in deep valleys, many small tracts may 

 be found very subject to frost, but not more inju- 

 red by moisture than tin: adjoining lands which 

 arc free from such untimely visitations. I there- 

 fore conclude that we have not yet obtaiued tin- 

 true explanation. 



It has been hown (Gen. Far. No. 17.) that tin 

 surface of the ground in clear calm nights, by ra- 

 diating its heat, becomes much colder than the air 

 only a few feet above ; but that windy nights rarely 

 (if ever) produce white frost, as die air is contin- 



FOR THE GENESEE FARMER. 



MILITARY TRAININGS. 

 No. II. 



The object of our undertaking is to prove that the 

 military tax is unequal, unjust, and useless. We 

 attempted in our first number to show that it was 

 an unequal tax. — and if we were successful upon 

 that point we might perhaps argue thence with 

 much obvious propriety, that a tax which was 

 unequal must necessarily be unjust. But this 

 conclusion will not universally hold true ; milita- 

 ry service can never be performed by eveiy citi- 

 zen, and of course cannot be required of every- 

 one; and it may not always be possible-for those 

 who cannot perform military duty to render an 

 equivalent. The character of mankind is such 

 that every government is more or less compelled 

 to engage in war, — ami «v deem it absurd to ,1, 

 ny that a government engaged in a just war, lias 

 a right to require the services of its citizens, capa- 

 ble of bearing arms; and especially of that por- 

 tion best adapt d for efFi cth military duty. The 

 tax thus imposed upon tin? young men of a 

 country who arc naturally better qualified for sol- 

 diers than the old or the infirm, may be, at 

 most cases must be much greater than that borm 

 by other citizens; but it cannot be pronoi 

 wnjust merely becauseit is t Th 



us to the true and only question : — Is our B - 

 ry System of any use"! Docs the public go 

 quire it to becontinued ? How burdensome soevt r 

 the tax may be, if the true and permanent intei 

 ests of the country requires that it be imposed, our 

 citizens should submit to it without a murmur 



rhe whole policy of sociel i thatprivatt 



interest should be subordinate to the public wel- 

 fare. If the sacrifice of a day or two of his time 

 in every year were calculated to confer any real 

 benefit upon his country, no individual would be 

 at liberty to exercise his discretion upon the sub- 



Murshttll says, "All our inuplcs yield a sup nhich af 

 lords proity good sugar. ' 



