120 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



head of the Crooked, at Hammondsport, where several hundred acres are 

 in bearing (and they have extensive wine presses and cellars), and other 

 hundreds set and being set annually; and also along the western border of 

 the Seneca, and at many other localities, give assurances calculated to 

 stimulate increased effort from year to year in that direction. 



The localities which give greatest promise for grape culture are those 

 slopes forming the western margin of the lakes and their outlets, and the 

 elevated hillsides elsewhere along the valleys on a soil formed from the 

 decomposition of the calciferous, or Genesee slate as it is sometimes desig- 

 nated, overlaying a marly or limy clay subsoil, which is usually found 

 upon all the lake borders and ridges, and affords a pliable yet firm and 

 enduring soil, happily influenced by most of the mineral and all vegetable 

 and animal manures, and resisting the destructive effects of both excessive 

 drought or wet in an eminent degree. 



Originally this section of the State was a vast wilderness of heavy tim- 

 ber, unbroken except the spaces occupied by the lakes and streams, from 

 its eastern to its western border, and embracing nearly every indigenous 

 variety of trees. 



The shagbark, maple, basswood, white elm, predominating on the flats, 

 and alluvial deposits, while upon the hilltop and sides were found the oak, 

 chestnut, hickory, beach, poplar, and in many localities the white pine 

 flourished in seldom surpassed luxuriance, and thus, for ages had been fur- 

 nishing the material for the vast accumulations of vegetable material found 

 overspreading the surface everywhere, and accumulated in every ravine 

 and valley in such quantities as to supply, by prudent application, the 

 demands of agriculture and pomology for a long time to come, in addition 

 to the annual product of manure from its other various and extensive 

 sources, for it is unsurpassed if equalled for the production of all the 

 cereals and the grasses of the Northern States. 



It is, therefore, perhaps not unreasonable to anticipate, that with the 

 intelligent effort now being directed to the culture and production of the 

 more valuable fruits, and particularly the grape, this section will be found 

 leading the enterprise, and directing the investigation of both soil and 

 climatic influence, bearing upon the subject, and what may be most suc- 

 cessfully applied in amelioration of the one and the improvement of the 

 other. 



Indeed I even look forward to a day when the planting of the sugar 

 maple, oak, elm, pine, hemlock and other forest trees along the highways 

 and exposed farm margins, with hedges bordering and sheltering the 

 northern and western exposures of the orchard and vineyard, shall pro- 

 dace a most decided climatic improvement, and add both beauty and profit 

 otherwise to the rural districts. And when a more perfect knowledge of 

 the thermal line, or that point shielded from late and early frosts by at- 

 mospheric influences in the ascent of hillsides by diurnal evaporations, 

 slmli be better understood and observed in the selection of locations, I 

 anticipate a vast accession of territory heretofore overlooked, and perhaps 

 the rejection of much that has long been occupied with unsatisfactory 

 results in fruit culture. 



It is, therefore, to these two influences of position, viz: water fronts on 



