WESTERN AGRICULTURAL DISTRICT. 
IV. The Western district borders the Mohawk on the south, and may he bounded 
north by a terrace extending parallel with the Erie canal, and commencing a few miles 
west of Littlefalls. Instead of following the Erie canal, it diverges to the northwest, and 
strikes Lake Ontario near Oswego. The south boundary passes west through the southern 
half of Seneca and Cayuga lakes, and terminates upon Lake Erie. 
The surface of this district never rises into high or steep hills. It is gently undulating, 
or rises in heavy swells. It is often traversed by deep cuts, forming deep narrow ravines ; 
a peculiarity which arises from the slates and shales which are scored by the streams and 
rivulets of the country. Some parts of the country, however, are elevated, rising thirteen 
or fourteen hundred feet above tide, particularly in the range passing through Cherry-valley 
and Pompey. The surface of the district is undulating and often level; and we pass over 
tracts embracing large farms, where it is difficult to determine by the eye alone in which 
direction the surface slopes ; besides, it embraces some extensive marsh lands, which are 
probably irreclaimable. 
Plate III. is a view from Mount Hope, three miles south of Rochester. The city ap¬ 
pears in the back part of the middle ground. In the open fields stand the superb elms of 
the deep and rich clay soil peculiar to this district. They are the only remains of the 
great and noble forests which have fallen before the axe of civilization in the last half 
century. They run up in an unbroken shaft near one hundred feet, where they at once 
form a heavy dense head. They are in strict contrast with the elms of a second growth 
in the valleys of the Mohawk and Hudson, whose trunks are thickly covered with slender 
limbs, and their heads formed of long pendulous branches. They especially flourish in 
those deep stiffi clayey soils that are rich in potash. Vegetation is an index to the character 
of the soil. Elms of the same character abound upon the flats of the Black river, where 
the subsoil is a clay. 
The western district is the great wheat-growing district of New-York. It will be un¬ 
derstood that (lie lines of demarkation are not fixed. Wheat is produced in all the counties 
of the State, or in all the districts : the west differs from the others in being better adapted 
to this grain. As it regards the southern limits of the wheat district, I take the liberty of 
introducing a communication from David Thomas, which contains some excellent re¬ 
marks.* 
* LETTER FROM D. THOMAS TO E. EMMONS. 
Greatfield, near Aurora. 11 Mo. 18. 1844. 
On my return from Philadelphia about a fortnight ago, I found thy favor of the 22d ult. It ought to have been 
answered immediately, but I have had many things to distract my attention ; and even now, I apprehend that my 
remarks must be of very little value. 
I cannot observe any thing to object to, in thy arrangement of the State into districts, unless it be that their dis¬ 
tinctive traits are more geological than agricultural; and I may be better understood by asking if our southern tier of 
counties differ essentially in agricultural products from thy three first districts ? 
I think it would be difficult to draw the southern boundary of our Wheat District; and at best it must be rather a 
crooked line. Generally, it is good wheat land as far south as the detritus from our limestone formations has been 
