202 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
extent. As we approach within twelve 
miles of the head of the Lake, the land rises 
much higher and with great precipitancy 
from either shore. Being too steep for prof¬ 
itable tillage, it is generally left covered with 
beautiful, ever-varying, deciduous trees, bro¬ 
ken occasionally by the deep gully which is 
studded by that rich evergreen, the Pinus 
Canadensis. But from the arable fields 
above this steep wooded acclivity, are the 
most extended views of the grand and pic¬ 
turesque known to this all fertile region. 
One of the best views, in extent, beauty, and 
variety, is from the terrace above Crobar 
Point, a hundred yards or more from the 
Lake on the west shore. Here you have 
before you the great and busy village of 
Ithaca six miles south, the extended high¬ 
lands beyond, with the Railroad winding for 
miles along its slopes before it overcomes 
the great ascent. On the opposite shore is 
the mouth of Salmon creek, with the spires 
of Ludlowville in the distance ; while down 
the Lake, to the north, is a long ex¬ 
tended view of Lake and landscape, both 
wild and cultivated, on either side. 
Two steamers for passengers, and two or 
three tug propellers, make daily trips from 
Ithaca through the Lake, making all the 
landings on their way. Anthracite coal re¬ 
ceived at Ithaca by Railroad from Scranton, 
and plaster from the quarries north of Spring- 
port, add increasingly to the commerce of 
this Lake. The only two villages directly 
on the shore of the Lake are, Union Springs, 
six miles south of Cayuga Bridge, in Spring- 
port, and Aurora, on the bay of that name, 
six miles farther south, where the Lake at¬ 
tains its greatest breadth. The picturesque 
little limestone island, which defends the 
harbor of Springport from the west wind, 
has been long since denuded of its tall elms 
and sycamore by the ruthless fisher and 
quarryman; the gentle rise of the land from 
the shore, shows off this neat village to ad¬ 
vantage. Aurora is smaller and less of a 
business village, with many fine gardens ; 
some elegant cottages and mansions, with 
surroundings of ornamental trees and flow¬ 
ering shrubs which so often take the eye 
from the factitious architectural structures 
they adorn. The elevation of the rising 
ground at this place is four hundred feet, four 
miles east, at Poplar Ridge ; yet with all this 
ascent, no country is more benefitted by tile 
draining. After each short rise as you as¬ 
cend from the Lake, is an extended terrace 
of flat, tenacious clay loam, which needs 
draining. The best of wheat is now grown 
on those drained terraces, where no wheat 
or other cereal has been successfully grown 
before, since the primitive soil was exhaust¬ 
ed of its enlivening carbonaceous matter. 
But the true interests of this fine country 
are marred in its social aspect, by a sort of 
feudal consolidation of farms which obtains 
here, where a few wealthy proprietors have 
bought “ all the land that joined them.” 
Here is the splendid mansion, with its exten¬ 
sive fruit orchards, ornamental shrubbery, 
long graveled walks, ambitious front-gate, 
high picketed deer park, preserves, &c., &c., 
while still nearer the village is the Irish 
hamlet with its little, unpretending chapel, 
ornamented only by the significant emblem 
of Christ crucified ; the houses, good speci¬ 
mens of the genus shanty; yet these poor 
Hibernians look to the village for employ¬ 
ment, rather than to the great proprietor 
whose extensive domain is little more than 
a sheep walk, as if to save the annoyance of 
farm laborers. But there is one redeeming 
feature to be noticed in the largest of these 
consolidated estates—the road-side for miles 
is lined with locust trees, (Reienea pseud 
acacia ,) and when their sprouts come up in 
the fields adjoining the road, they are trim¬ 
med and improved into groves of that imper¬ 
ishable wood, so necessary for fence-posts. 
Methinks every prairie farmer might well 
copy the example here set by this magnate 
of the land. 
It would have done me good to have 
called at the farm of David Thomas, at Great- 
field, three miles north-east of Aurora; but 
alas, the philosopher who, above all others, 
(Dewitt Clinton said,) “ loved Flora and 
Pomona better than any other man,” has 
now abandoned his large and beautiful gar¬ 
den, where every indigenous and many ex¬ 
otic flowers once bloomed. His rural do¬ 
main, with its exquisite fruits and flowers 
and fertile fields, has been sold “ at a price,” 
—because, perhaps, in his “ sere and yellow 
leaf,” he could not see them suffer for the 
want of his own physical labors. He has 
now retired to a little cottage, at the village 
of Union Springs, where may he long live to 
enjoy a happy retrospect of the past, and to 
enjoy the pregressive discoveries of the 
future. 
Here at Aurora, owing to the influence of 
the never-freezing Lake, vegetation is two 
weeks earlier in the spring than on the move 
elevated country only three miles east. 
Owing to the predominance of clay in the 
soil, each garden has to be trenched in the 
fall, so that the frosts of winter, aided by 
carbonaceous manures, may ameliorate its 
too compact stratum ; yet even here, on this 
descending surface, where no water is seen, 
tile-draining is found to be necessary to 
large and early vegetables. Here the indig¬ 
enous fruits of every kind are in perfection ; 
on this day (5th of November) the vines of 
both the Isabella and Catawba grapes have 
not yet been stripped of all their (even now) 
luscious fruit. Strange as it may seem, such 
is the paucity of that class of th e genus homo 
who delight to live in and near rural villages, 
that die best arable lands here may be bought 
by the acre almost within the precincts of 
the village, at prices hardly exceeding those 
of farming lands in the isolated back towns 
of the county. N’Importe. 
Waterloo, November, 1854. 
SCENERY IN THE CRIMEA. 
The Salgir valley now began to contract, 
until it formed a mountain-pass, which 
somewhat reminded me of Killie-crankie, 
in Perthshire, but was even more charming 
than that. Mountain upon mountain arose 
on either hand, while on the right the noble 
Tchatir Dagh displayed its giddy heights, 
its frightful precipices, and topping crags, 
seperated and embraced by groups or long 
lines of trees in which the venerable oak 
and stately beech mingled their foliage with a 
hundred kinds of arboret, producing a rich¬ 
ness of coloring, a diversity of tints, and a 
play of light and shade, which the bluff pro¬ 
jecting naked rocks only made more lovely, 
and in their combination created an admir¬ 
able “ melange” of the sublime and beauti¬ 
ful. On every hand were to be seen Tartar 
houses embosomed amid mulberry and wal¬ 
nut trees, with the green tobacco leaf hang¬ 
ing to dry on an awning of trellis-work pro¬ 
jecting in front; or villages picturesquely sus¬ 
pended to the side of a hill, the roof of one 
row of houses forming a terraced street for 
that above, and the whole looking like a 
giant flight of steps. Far on in the valley 
shoot up the tall poplar, here covered with 
thick foliage, and grown into a noble tree. 
Bright mountain streamlets flashing into 
light, were again concealed beneath the 
fringe of the myrtle and lime ; while wild 
tracts were planted with the vine, on which 
hung the clustering grape, for the vintage 
had not yet commenced. [Scott’s Crimea. 
The thought of eternity consoles for the 
shortness of life. 
HOW TO SLEEP. 
For the enjoyment of a sound and healthy 
sleep, Hufeiand gives the following direc¬ 
tions : 
1st. The place where one sleeps must be 
quiet and obscure. The less our senses are 
acted upon by external impressions, the more 
perfectly can the soul rest. One may see 
from this how improper the custom is of 
having a candle burning in one’s bed-cham¬ 
ber during the night. 
2d. People ought always to reflect that 
their aged-chamber is a place in which they 
pass a great part of their lives; at least, they 
do not remain in any place so long in the 
same situation. It is of the utmost import¬ 
ance, therefore, that this place should con¬ 
tain pure, sound air. A sleeping apartment 
must consequently, be roomy and high, nei¬ 
ther inhabited nor heated during the day ; and 
the windows ought always to be kept open 
except in the night time. 
3d. One should eat little, and only cold 
food for supper, and always some hours be¬ 
fore going to bed. 
4th. When a-bed, one should lie, not in a 
forced or constrained posture, but almost 
horizontally; the head excepted, which ought 
to be a little raised. Nothing is more pre- 
judical to health than to lie in bed half sit¬ 
ting. The body then forms an angle; cir¬ 
culation in the stomach is checked, and the 
spine is always very much compressed. By 
this custom, one of the principal ends of 
sleep, a free and uninterrupted circulation of 
the blood, is defeated; and in infancy and 
youth, deformity and crookedness are often 
the consequences. 
5th. All the cares and burdens of the day 
must be laid aside with one’s clothes ; none 
of them must be carried to bed with us ; and 
in this respect, one by custom may obtain 
very great power over their thoughts. I 
am acquainted with no practice more de¬ 
structive than that of studying in bed and of 
reading till one falls asleep. By these means 
the soul is put into great activity, at a period 
when everything conspires to allow it per¬ 
fect rest; and it is natural that the ideas thus 
excited should wander and float through the 
brain during the whole night. It is not 
enough to sleep physically; man must sleep 
also spiritually. Such a disturbed sleep is 
as insufficient as its opposite—that is, when 
your spiritual part sleeps, but not your cor¬ 
poreal ; such, for example, as sleep in a jolt¬ 
ing carriage on a journey. 
6th. One circumstance, in particular, I 
must not here omit to mention. Many be¬ 
lieve that it is entirely the same if one sleeps 
these seven hours either in the day or night 
time. People give themselves up, therefore, 
at night, as long as they think proper, either 
to study or pleasure, and imagine that they 
make everything even when they sleep in 
the forenoon, those hours which they sat up 
after midnight. But I must request every 
one, who regards his health, to beware of so 
deceiving an error. It is certainly not the 
same, whether one sleeps seven hours by 
day or by night; and two hours sound sleep 
before midnight are of more benefit to the 
body than four hours in the day. 
Second Crop Peaches. —We had the pleas¬ 
ure (says the Loudon Va., Washingtonian,) 
of eating a peach, presented to us by Mr. 
John Iseet, of Leesburg, which was of the 
second growth for the present year. The 
tree bore early in the summer, and then 
blossomed and again produced the peach 
presented to us. It was small, but possessed 
all the flavor and taste of the genuine article. 
Strike love from the soul, and life is in¬ 
sipid. 
