HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 75 



Tanneries were common everywhere, and grist and 

 saw mills sprang up wherever a little water power 

 could be developed and became relatively numerous 

 soon after settlement in every district. 



As soon as there was any market and a means of 

 transportation, lumbering became the leading indus- 

 try. The opening of the Erie Canal and its tribu- 

 taries was a great stimulus to the business, and in 

 1832 Albany was the largest lumber market on the 

 continent. At that date the lower Hudson Valley 

 was relatively an old settled region in need of that 

 product. The first cash crop was generally wheat, 

 the production of which in western New York was 

 also given a tremendous impetus by the opening of 

 the canal. Eochester and Oswego became great flour 

 and barrel manufacturing centers, the former being 

 known as the Flour City. Genesee Valley wheat was 

 the standard in the market. Later, when the pro- 

 duction of wheat declined and Rochester ceased to be 

 the great flour center of the North, it was happily 

 able consistently to change its popular name to the 

 Flower City. 



CROP DEVELOPMENT 



The relative disadvantage in character of soil and 

 topography in some parts of New York to that in the 

 Middle West was greatly accentuated by the coinci- 

 dent development of modern farm machinery espe- 

 cially adapted to broad level acres and by the rapid 

 transportation facilities afforded by the steam train. 

 After 1875, land values shrank rapidly and only the 



