72 
[ Assembly 
New- York, Westchester and Putnam Counties. 
General Remarks. 
In their topographical character, these counties are hilly, with broken 
rocky ridges on the western side, while the aspect of the eastern is that 
of heavy undulating swells of land. The soil is derived from the dis- 
integration of the contiguous rocks, and from the pebbles and boulders 
of materials transported from a greater or less distance from the NNW, 
by some natural cause. The soils resulting from such a variety of 
rocks, contain all the mineral elements of fertility, while the careful 
husbandman supplies artificially those organic elements which are neces- 
sary as food for plants. 
Nature has deposited almost inexhaustible quantities of manure in 
the bog meadows of the interior, in the salt marshes along the coast, 
in the mud flats of the river, and in the limestone hills; while on the 
other hand, great quantities are annually taken from the city of New- 
York, and distributed over the country. This feeding of the soil, if it 
may be so termed, is as necessary to its productiveness as feeding our 
cattle and horses, if we would have them efficient. The mineral ma- 
nures, as lime, gypsum, bone earth, &c. are the seasoning, while the 
animal and vegetable matter supplied to the soil are the proper food for 
the growth of plants.* 
Economical Geology of New-York, Westchester, and Putnam 
Counties. 
Fluviaiile or River Alluvions. 
These alluvions in the district under consideration are not extensive. 
The streams flow through a rocky region, from which there is little wash. 
The waters are limpid and pure, and little sediment is deposited from 
them, even in time of floods or freshets. There are no alluvions of 
this class of considerable extent in those counties that might not be 
classed with salt marshes. The Hudson river to Albany may be con- 
sidered an estuary, in which the tide ebbs and flows, and the water is 
always brackish to the Highlands, and frequently as far as Poughkeep- 
sie and Hudson. The most important of the fluviatile alluvions in the 
* Prof. Hitchcock, in his report of last year to the Legislature of Massachusetts on the geo- 
logical re-survey of that State, has made many valuable and judicious remarks upon agriculture, 
upon soils and manures, and the office that these latter perform in supplying food to plants. 
The investigations of Prof. Hitchcock and Dana are considered the most important that have 
been brought before the public for a long time. They give a new aspect to agriculture as a 
science, and many facts that have been long known to intelligent and observing farmers, are 
there explained on philosophical principles. I would earnestly recommend that every farmer 
should peruse that part of Prof. Hitchcock's report of the geological re-survey of Massaehu- 
settf? in 1838, which refers to agriculture, soils and manures. 
