in North- Eastern America. 



21 



peculiarly attached to itself, the more one l)ecomes satisfied of 

 the value of a familiar acquaintance with them, to the improve- 

 ment of the art of culture, of the condition of those who practise 

 it, and of the agricultural productiveness of a country. No one 

 will readily accuse me of a desire to undervalue the usefulness of 

 chemistry to agriculture, and yet I have often had occasion to 

 regret the evil influence of opinions hastily expressed by ill- 

 informed persons — as if this branch of knowledge alone were able 

 to bring this most important and difficult of arts to speedy per- 

 fection. The longer a cautious and truth-seeking man lives, the 

 wider will appear the range of knowledge, theoretical and prac- 

 tical — the more numerous the circumstances to be taken into 

 consideration — before he can arrive at an accurate solution even 

 of what some look upon as simple and superficial questions. 



Second. The second observation I wish to add refers to the exten- 

 sion of the richest wheat-bearing formations of Western New 

 York into the upper part of Canada West. The consequence of 

 this extension is the reproduction in this new region of the great 

 natural capabilities of the country I have been describing. 



Bounded on the east by Lake Ontario, on the west by Lake 

 Huron, on the south by Lake Erie, and on the north by Mana- 

 toulin Bay, stretches a wide peninsula, occupying an area three 

 or four times as large as the wheat region of Western New York, 

 and covered entirely by those rocky formations on which the fer- 

 tility of the latter region mainly depends. Proceeding westward 

 from the head of Lake Ontario, we pass in succession over the 

 surface of the Medina sandstone, the Niagara limestone, the 

 Onondaga salt group, and the Helderberg limestone and shales. 

 On these, as the map and sections contained in this paper show, 

 the principal wheat region in Western New York is situated. It 

 will also be recollected that among these the Onondaga salt group 

 is especially conspicuous for the natural fertility and friableness 

 ■of its soils, and for the ease with which they can be worked and 

 cultivated. 



Now in this peninsular portion of Canada West, the Medina 

 sandstone and Niagara limestone expand a little after they turn 

 round the western end of Lake Ontario, and then run towards the 

 north in belts somewhat broader than those which they form in 

 Western New York. But the Onondaga salt group widens to 

 such a degree as in a line due west from Toronto to be upwards 

 of sixty miles across, and to occupy almost the whole breadth of 

 the peninsula between the two lakes, Ontario and Huron. The 

 natural capabilities of this new region, as a whole, may be in- 

 ferred from what I have already said of the results of experience 

 in the state of New York. So far as depends upon soil, it ought 

 to be one of the richest agricultural regions in North America. 



