£34 
The Great Miami. 
provement so useful, so feasible, and which 
is so sure to repay them a large interest for 
the capital laid out in it, on sandy and dry 
gravelly soil. 
The Great Miami. 
This beautiful valley is so much like the 
Sciota, that one description of its general 
natural features, may answer for both, save 
that the stream of the former pours out a 
larger volume of water into the Ohio than 
the latter, and we should judge that its bot¬ 
toms have a greater average width, being, as 
we were informed, at least three miles broad 
in several places that we passed in winding 
along up the river, though the general width 
is probably not more than the half of this. 
The soil is a light brown color, inclining to 
yellow and of the richest alluvial, from two 
to ten feet deep, sometimes based directly 
upon the limestone ledge or gravel, but more 
generally separated from it by a substratum 
of a greater or less intermixture of sand and 
clay. It is friable and easily worked—but 
not so sandy as to burn or much endanger, 
even in the dryest season, the immense eorn 
cropg that annually wave with such luxuri¬ 
ance over this fertile valley. 
The Miami is not a dull sluggish stream, 
but abounds in rapids with sufficient fall to 
give water power at any time that it may be 
necessary, for an immense manufacturing 
business. The fall near Hamilton alone, 
within the space of four miles, is estimated 
at twenty-eight feet, with sufficient water 
even in the driest times, to turn 160 pairs of 
mill-stones. 
This valley was settled principally by New 
Jersey and other northern people, and is di¬ 
vided into small farms, generally from one 
hundred to two hundred and fifty acres each, 
which are cultivated personally by the own¬ 
ers. They are an intelligent, moral, and in¬ 
dustrious people, all possessing the comforts 
of life, and many, those of its luxuries and 
elegancies in a high degree. Several fine 
towns are found here, the principal of which 
are, Hamilton, Middleton, and Dayton, where 
the Mad river, the largest branch of the Mi¬ 
ami enters, and adds much to its volume of 
water. The bottoms along the river are de¬ 
voted principally to corn, which the farmers 
cultivate with great ease and perfection. It 
yields from fifty to ninety bushels to the 
acre, planted in the usual manner, in hills 
four feet apart. The average product may be 
reckoned at sixty to sixty-five bushels to the 
acre. After a successive cropping of twenty 
or thirty years in corn, the bottoms will pro¬ 
duce wheat at the rate of twenty-five to fort$ 
bushels per acre, according to the season. 
The uplands bordering this valley are also 
excellent for corn, and the smaller grains, as 
well as grass, and the different varieties of 
roots, the particular cultivation of which, and 
course of cropping, we shall describe here¬ 
after. 
A considerable number of superior animals 
of different kinds have been introduced into 
this valley, and the people are spirited in im¬ 
proving their stock. Some of the largest 
sized blood horses have stood herefrom time 
to time, and this produce they are now cross¬ 
ing with powerful trotting stallions, for the 
purpose of breeding good roadsters and car¬ 
riage horses, in which they will undoubtedly 
be very successful. Durham cattle, with now 
and then a Hereford and Devon with their 
crosses abound. The Short Horn, however, 
prevail, as their good size and early maturity 
suit the rich pastures of the country, and 
their cross is found to produce better milk¬ 
ers than any other breed. Not much atten¬ 
tion has yet been paid to sheep in large flocks, 
principally, we believe, on account of the des¬ 
truction by dogs, each family contenting 
itself with a sufficient number to supply its 
own wants for wool and mutton, together 
with small sales occasionally at the market- 
towns of the valley. Saxons and Merinos 
abound ; Leicesters and South Downs, as yet 
are limited. Such as find most favor with 
the ordinary farmers, is a cross of the coarser 
Merino or South Down with the Leicester, 
as this gives them a sheep of good size, of fair 
mutton, and a large fleece, the quality of which 
is sufficiently fine for all domestic purposes. 
But the stock to which the people here 
have paid the greatest attention, and which 
is their largest and most staple production, 
is swine. The immense crops of corn enable 
them to keep vast herds of these animals, and 
one will find from fifty to three hundred head 
of the various sizes, from pigs up to immense 
fatting porkers, on nearly every farm that he 
may happen to pass. Nearly every variety 
of hog has been introduced here, and found 
more or less favor, till the Berkshire ap¬ 
peared, and notwithstanding a good deal of 
prejudice was at first excited towards them, 
it has gradually died away, and thejr may be 
said now to have become established from 
their own intrinsic merits, in general favor. 
This cross on the large white Miami hog, is 
among the most splendid animal that we ever 
saw. They retain nearly all the fine points 
of the Berkshire, with a great increase of 
size; we have seen them repeatedly, that 
