Wyoming County 



TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL CHARACTERISTICS 



The surface is a broad rolling upland, divided into ridges and 

 broken by ravines of the streams. It has a slight inclination 

 toward the north. The highest ridges rise from 1,700 to 2,000 

 feet above tide. Several of the ravines in the north are 1,000 

 feet below the summits of Ihe adjacent ridges. In the interior 

 the ridges are broken, and the county assumes the hilly character 

 which is more fully developed further south. 



Genesee River, which forms a portion of the eastern boundary, 

 is bordered by steep bluffs 200 to 400 feet high. Near Portage- 

 ville the river descends from the plateau in a series of three 

 falls to a depth of more than 30 feet within a distance of 2 1 / /> 

 miles. The water has worn a deep, irregular ravine in the 

 shelving rocks, and the nearly perpendicular banks at the foot 

 of the lower falls are 380 feet high. The other principal 

 streams are Cayuga, Tonawanda, Little Tonawanda, Oatka, Cat- 

 taraugus, and Buffalo creeks. The valley of Oatka Creek, from 

 the southern part of "Warsaw to the northern line of the county, 

 is bordered by steep hills 400 to 1,000 feet high. Silver Lake, 

 in Castile, is the principal body of water. The waters of this 

 lake and of several of the streams deposit lime in the form of 

 marl. 



The drift deposits in the county are very extensive, and the 

 soil in some parts is derived from disintegration. On the hills 

 it is mostly a clayey loam underlaid by hardpan, and in the 

 valleys it is a fertile, gravelly loam and -alluvium. The lowlands 

 contain quantities of marl and muck. As a whole, the county 

 is very productive, and there is but little waste land. 



DESCRIPTION BY TOWNSHIPS 

 Arcade : The surface is a rolling or hilly upland. Cattaraugus 

 Creek flows southwest through the center of the town, and receives 

 several tributaries, the principal of which is Clear Creek. From 

 the valley of these streams the town spreads out into a rolling- 

 region with long, gradual slopes arable to their summits. The 

 highest point is the ridge in the northeast, 1,100 feet above Lake 

 Erie. In the uplands the soil is a clayey loam, and in the 

 valleys a gravelly loam. 



Products: Dairy products, oats, corn and forage crops. 



Average values of farm land range from $40 to $100 an acre. 



