SECRETARY'S REPORT. 117 



the west of this great mountain range, in Vermont and in New 

 Jersey, and again in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, 

 East Tennesee, and Alabama, we have one grand continuous 

 belt of formations, perhaps one of the most superb agricultural 

 and mineral regions of the habitable globe ; a belt overlooked 

 on either side by mountains, prolonghig itself through a distance 

 of more than a thousand miles, and covered from end to end with 

 limestone rock, and furnishing all the resources of a limestone 

 region in its springs, its metallic ores, its grass-producing soils, 

 and the rounded outlines of its topography. And then, when 

 we pass still further west and north, we encounter ranges of 

 slate and sandstone and calcareous rocks, in a parallel succes- 

 sion of lofty hills and deep valleys, abounding in useful ores, 

 and furnishing a diversity of soils, corresponding to the strata 

 from which they are replenished. Beyond this rugged belt of 

 the Appalachians we reach the margin of the far-extending coal 

 measures, made up of sandy, slaty, marly, and calcareous strata, 

 interleaved throughout with vast sheets of coal and covered 

 with a soil springing directly from these materials. 



Such, on a great scale, are the facts which illustrate the inti- 

 mate association, throughout wide regions, of the soils, with the 

 rocks or other deposits which lie beneath or around them ;. and 

 they clearly show, that in all future migrations in that direc- 

 tion, for the extension of American enterprise and the develop- 

 ment of American industry, under more happy auspices, a 

 knowledge of the geology of the country will furnish the best 

 clue to the fundamental facts connected with its agriculture. 



THIKD DAY. 



Morning Session. — Met at ten o'clock. Paoli Lathrop, of 

 South Hadley, was elected President, pro tern. 

 The first subject assigned for discussion was 



CATTLE HUSBANDRY. 



The Chairman. — I will say that I do not think there is any 

 particular breed of cattle that is best for all places and climates. 

 A man who is selecting cattle should select the best animals for 

 breeding that he can find, without much regard to cost, with 

 reference to his situation, — according to his soils and his means 

 of feed. I would not advise any man who is going to breed 



