WESTERN DISTRICT. 291 



A lighter and more siliceous soil is sometimes met with in the Wheat district : thus, in 

 Lockport, Niagara county, I found a specimen composed as follows : 



Water 3-00 



Organic matter 5-00 



Silicates 85-72 



Carbonate of lime 1 -00 



Phosphate of alumina 0-04 



Magnesia trace. 



Alumina and iron 5-00 



99-76 



Another specimen of soil, from Niagara county, gave, on analysis, 



Water 3-00 



Organic matter 7-75 



Silicates 76-93 



Peroxide of iron and alumina 8-82 



Carbonate of lime 2-82 



Phosphate of alumina 0-15 



Magnesia 0-25 



99-72 



The following is an analysis of the most common wheat' soil of Niagara county, and 

 was taken from the farm of Mr. Devereaux, of Niagara falls : 



Water of absorption 3-61 



Organic matter 9-24 



Silicates 70-88 



Peroxide of iron and alumina 13 -50 



Carbonate of lime 0-34 



Magnesia 0-04 



97-61 



This soil is a clay loam, but deficient in carbonate of lime and magnesia. It lias been 

 cultivated many years, and principally for wheat : its produce is eighteen to twenty 

 bushels to the acre. 



The soils of Livingston county possess in general the same characters as those of Monroe, 

 Genesee and Onondaga. They are strictly soils well adapted to wheat, which crop they 

 have borne for many years in succession without a sensible deterioration. The soil is 

 generally very deep, and seems, from its physical properties, to have been derived mainly 

 from the limestone shales of the Salt group, which is well developed at the North. The 

 rock beneath is a slate or shale, belonging to the Hamilton group. The Moscow shale, 

 which is a rock ready to pass into disintegration, is quickly subdivided by the action of 



37* 



