WESTERN DISTRICT. 
291 
A lighter and more siliceous soil is sometimes met with in the Wheat district: thus, in 
Lockport, Niagara county, I found a specimen composed as follows : 
Water________ 3*00 
Organic matter___________ 5 "00 
Silicates __._______. 85-72 
Carbonate of lime ____________________ __ 1 "00 
Phosphate of alumina..— 0*04 
Magnesia___.______ trace. 
Alumina and iron___... -- 5-00 
99-76 
Another specimen of soil, from Niagara county, gave, on analysis, 
Water.._ _ 3-00 
Organic matter__ —-- 7*75 
Silicates __...___ 76*93 
Peroxide of iron and alumina. 8 • 82 
Carbonate of lime___ 2 • 82 
Phosphate of alumina_ 0*15 
Magnesia. 0*25 
99-72 
The following is an analysis of the most common wheat soil of Niagara county, and 
was taken from the farm of Mr. Devereaux, of Niagara falls : 
Water of absorption. 3-61 
Organic matter_ ________ 9-24 
Silicates____—...—...- 70-88 
Peroxide of iron and alumina. ____ 13-50 
Carbonate of lime-----, _ _.- 0-34 
Magnesia______— - 0*04 
97-61 
This soil is a clay loam, but deficient in carbonate of lime and magnesia. It has been 
cultivated many years, and principally for wheat: its produce is eighteen to twenty 
bushels to the acre. 
The soils of Livingston county possess in general the same characters as those of Monroe, 
Genesee and Onondaga. They are strictly soils well adapted to wheat, which crop they 
have borne for many years in succession without a sensible deterioration. The soil is 
generally very deep, and seems, from its physical properties, to have been derived mainly 
from the limestone shales of the Salt group, which is well developed at the North. The 
rock beneath is a slate or shale, belonging to the Hamilton group. The Moscow shale, 
which is a rock ready to pass into disintegration, is quickly subdivided by the action of 
37* 
