The Genesee Country. 203 
particular good. When the road, even on the steep hillside, is 
well worked, a much better remedy for washing may be found by 
opening slight outlets every six or eight rods, by which the water 
will pass ort" quite as well as though huge embankments w^ere 
raised to effect the object. ]\Iuch less injury will arise to wagons 
where this is done, and the passenger will find himself passing 
over comparative smooth surface. 
Another evil we will hint at, is the superabundant quantity 
of plowing which frequently takes place at the time of repairing 
highways. Every one must have seen, not only in his own neigh- 
borhood but abroad, the ill appearance of ground plowed and left 
in the furrow, or ditches badly cleared, to become the fallow for 
every noxious and unpleasant weed that the winds may see fit to 
sow. In repairing roads, no more land should be disturbed than 
is actually necessary to effect the object, and this is the most eco- 
nomical manner, so that, aside from such places and the traveled 
path, they may possess a smooth, green, velvety appearance, al- 
ways grateful to the eye, and pleasant to pass along. 
It is no visionary conjecture to contemplate the time when our 
highways will all be adorned, on either side, with beautiful rows 
of stately shade trees, to ornament and enliven the sceneiy. In 
that day, what a contrast wnll deep ditches, naked fallows, large 
patches of weeds, rough and uneven furrows, afford to their en- 
livening influence? Improvement in these things is necessar}', 
and where improvement commences her work, and the result 
rarely and beautifully develops itself, its ultimate triumph may 
be well anticipated. 
Elmwood, April, 1848. 
HISTORICAL REMARKS ON THE SETTLEMENT OF THE 
GENESEE COUNTRY. 
BY J. TREMPER. 
In the year 1790, the legislature of the state of New York 
formed into a county, by the name of Ontario, all that part of the 
state lying west of a meridian line drawn from the 82d mile stone 
on the Pennsylvania line, to lake Ontario; within this is included 
the tract known by the name of the Genesee Country, bounded 
on the north by lake Ontario, on the west by Niagara river and 
lake Erie, on the south by the state of Pennsylvania, and on the 
cast by the counties of Tioga and Onondaga. 
