S WESTERN AGRICULTURAL DISTRICT. 



1\ . The \Vimik\ district borders the Mohawk on the south, and may be bounded 

 north bj a terrace extending parallel with the Erie canal, and commencing a few .miles 

 weal of Littlefalls. Instead of following tl»' Krio canal, it diverges to the northwest, and 

 ^11 ik.-^ Lake Ontario oeai Oswego. The south hmmdurj passes Wesl through the southern 

 half of Seneca and Cayuga lakes, and terminates upon Lake Krie. 



The surface of 'Ins districl nevei uses into high or steep hills. It is gently undulating, 

 .11 rises in beavj swells. I' is often traversed by deep cuts, forming deep narrow ravines; 

 ■ peculiarity which arises from the dates and shahs which arc Bcored by the streams and 

 rivulets of the country. Some parts of the country, however, are elevated, rising thirteen 

 or fourteen hundred feel above tide, particularly in the range passing through Cherry-valley 



: Pompey. The surface of the district is undulating and often level ; and we pass over 

 tracts embracing large (arms, where it is difficult to determine by the eye alone in which 

 ction the surface "dopes; besides, it embraces some extensive marshlands, which are 

 probably irreclaimable. 



Plate III. is a view from Mount Hope, throe miles south of Rochester. The city ap- 

 pears in the back part of the middle ground. In the open fields stand the superb elms of 

 the deep and rich clay sod peculiar to this district. They are the only remains of the 

 great and noble forests which have fallen before the axe of civilization in the last half 

 century. They run up in an unbroken shaft near one hundred feet, where they at once 

 form a heavj dense head. They are in strict contrast with the elms of a second growth, 

 in the valleys of the Mohawk and Hudson, whose trunks are thickly covered with slender 

 limb-, and theii heads formed of long pendulous branches. They especially flourish in 

 those deep Mid clayey soils that are rich in potash. Vegetation is an index to the character 

 of the Boil. Elms of the same character abound upon the flats of the Black river, where 

 the • - i ' lav . 



The western district is the great wheat-growing disfrict of New-York. It will be un- 

 derstood thai the lines of demarkation are not fixed. Wheat is produced in all the counties 

 of the State, "i m all the districts: the west differs from the others in being better adapted 

 to this grain. As it regards the southern limits of the wheat district, I take the liberty of 

 introducing a communication from David Thomas, which contains some excellent re- 

 marks.* 



• LETTER FROM D. THOMAS TO E. EMMONS. 



GREATFiEi.n. near Aurora. 11 Mo. IS. 1844. 

 On my return from Philadelphia about a fortnight ago, I round thy favor of the 22d ult. It ought to have been 

 tut I have had in to attract my attention; and even now, I apprehend that my 



remarks must be of very little value. 



I caic thing to object to, in thy arrangement of the State into districts, unless it he that their dis- 



a arc more gi in agricultural ; and I may be better understood by asking if our southern tier of 



■ ntially in agricultural produi '- from thj three lir-t distJ ii 



I think it would he difficult to draw the southern boundary of "iir Wheat District; and at best it must be rather a 



crooked line. Generally, it is good wheat land as far south as the detritus from our limestone formations has been 



