1847. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
253 
law.” Mr. H. keeps 350 Merino sheep. They are a 
good flock, of large size for the breed, and of strong con- 
stitution. He showed us. their fleeces, which were 
cleaned to snowy whiteness, and put up in the most 
perfect style, and a room finished expressly for storing 
this article, and which was clean enough for a parlor. 
Of the ewes’ fleeces, 95 averaged lbs. each, and all 
the yearlings in the flock averaged 3| lbs. He has, 
for two or three years past, obtained 40 cents per lb. 
for his whole lot. He had not engaged the clip of the 
present year. The flock is managed with much care. 
Every sheep is numbered and registered in a book— 
every fleece is weighed, carefully examined by Mr. H. 
in person, and its appearance and quality particularly 
noted in the book. 
We spent a few hours most agreeably with David 
Thomas, at Greatfield, near Aurora. He has for 
many years devoted himself to the cultivation of fruit, 
and by the dissemination of the choicest kinds, and by 
his useful example and influence in other respects—es¬ 
pecially by the numerous and valuable productions of 
his pen—he has conferred very important benefits on 
the community, which will cause his name to be re¬ 
spected by coming generations. He has a large or¬ 
chard, comprising the choicest apples, pears, peaches, 
cherries, plums, &c., and a large garden appropriated 
to the more tender fruits, flowers,, and rare plants. 
The location is very favorable to fruit, as is also much 
of the country on the Cayuga and Seneca lakes. The 
immense depth of these waters, which are seldom or 
never frozen over, causes the temperature to be great¬ 
ly modified, and produces along their borders a climate 
corresponding to a latitude several degrees further 
south. This was strikingly observed in the ripeness 
of fruits and the forwardness of vegetation generally, 
as contrasted with the same parallel on the Hudson 
river. 
But besides the advantages of climate, this region 
is favored with a soil remarkably wall suited to the 
growth of frtfit trees and the production of fine fruit, 
and the fact is worthy of remembrance that before the 
country came into the occupancy of the whites, the 
Indians had here introduced, to a considerable extent, 
the apple, and in several instances, the pear, the peach, 
and the plum. In the journals kept by the officers 
who accompanied Gen. Sullivan in his expedition up 
the Susquehannah, for the purpose of destroying the 
Indian settlements on these lakes, in 1779, mention is 
frequently made of fine apple and other fruit trees hav¬ 
ing been cut down by our army in their devastating 
march through the country. Schoolcraft, in his Re¬ 
port on the Iroquois , 1846, observes in relation to the 
fondness of the Indians for the apple —“ From the 
eai'liest introduction of this fruit into New-York and 
New France, from the genial plains of Holland and 
Normandy, these tribes appear to have been captiva¬ 
ted by its taste, and they lost no time in transplanting 
it by sowing the seeds, to the sites of their ancient 
castles.” On these warm and fertile locations, they 
flourished well; and nowhere else in the whole coun¬ 
try, we believe, were found among these people such 
numbers of fine fruit trees, some of which, having es¬ 
caped the general destruction above-named, are still 
standing-—mementos, at once, of the rapid decline of 
the red man, and of our own rapid progress and in¬ 
crease. 
A little below Aurora, we passed the handsome farm 
of Mr. Grinnell, who we learned was absent, so we 
did not stop to make a particular examination of the 
premises': The buildings and fences, as well as the 
farm generally, from what we could see, appear to be 
in complete order, and in connection with the natural 
beauty of the location, the farm unquestionably forms 
one of the most desirable residences in the country. 
On returning to Auburn, we called at Springport, 
where are two remarkable Springs. They make their 
appearance a short distance from Cayuga lake, and by 
excavating cavities and forming embankments, reser¬ 
voirs are made, each of which affords a good water 
power. At one of them is a large flouring mill, and 
at the other a woolen factory. The springs are sup¬ 
posed to be the outlets of subterranean streams from 
Owasco lake, near Auburn. 
Passing up the railroad from Auburn, we stopped at 
Seneca Falls. Here we called on G. Y. Sackett, 
Esq., who, after having shown us his extensive and 
fertile farm, kindly volunteered to convey us to those 
places in the vicinity which were regarded as most, in¬ 
teresting. Mr. S.’s home farm consists of 680 acres, 
the principal portion of which was in forest till within 
seven or eight years. The soil is of great richness, but 
lies, in some instances, a little too flat. The original 
growth was hickory, sugar maple, elm, ash, and pop¬ 
lar, (or tulip tree,) all of which grew to a very great 
size. Some of the forest which has lately been cleared, 
afforded sixty-eight cords of wood per acre. He is de¬ 
voting his farm considerably to wheat. At the time 
of our visit he was cross-plowing his wheat fallows,-of 
which he had sixty acres that had been broken up from 
sward in the spring, to the depth of full seven inches. 
He has lately built a convenient and substantial grain 
barn. It is eighty feet long by forty-six wide. It has 
a basement story seven and a half’feet high—the walls 
of stone, two and a half to three feet thick. It has 
two floors running crosswise of the barn—one of them 
is between two bays, which go to the bottom of the 
basement, and the other is at one end of the barn, over 
the stalls for horses. Under the first-mentioned floor, 
there is a grain bay, made perfectly tight with mortar 
of water-lime, and of sufficient capacity to hold 2,500 
bushels of clean wheat. There are on the farm 400 
sheep, and Mr. S. intends hereafter to keep from 1000 
to 1500. 
Frederick J. Swaby, Seneca Falls, has a farm of 
350 acres, which he has lately purchased—the present 
being the first crops of his own raising. He is from 
the vicinity of Philadelphia, Pa. His farm has not, 
apparently, been well managed previous to coming 
into his possession; but bids fair to become a first-rate 
grain farm. Mr. S. has forty acres of wheat, which 
looks the best of any we saw in the neighborhood. He 
has practised, in Pennsylvania, plowing in clover, as a 
means of improving the soil for wheat. He thinks it 
of the greatest benefit to plow in the clover after it is 
ripe—if turned in while it is green and full of sap, 
he thinks it makes the ground sour . (Our readers 
will remember that we have several times spoken in 
the Cultivator of green clover having produced an ef¬ 
fect similar to what is here mentioned.) Mr. Swaby 
is a young man who has lately commenced operations 
for himself, but appearances indicate that he will make 
a successful farmer. 
Mr. Sackett mentioned to us several examples of 
profitable farming. John Hoster, lately deceased, 
commenced farming with fifty acres of land, which at 
that time was reckoned worth $400 to $500, and this 
was all the property he possessed. He died at the age 
of 48 years, and his property was appraised at $40,000. 
This was free and clear of all encumbrances, and had 
been acquired wholhj by farming. 
George Gamber commenced by renting of Mr. 
Sackett eighty-five acres of cleared land, which cost 
$45 per acre. He took the farm for three years at 
the “ halves.” During that time Mr. S. received equal 
to ten per cent interest on the cost of the land, and the 
tenant l-aid by so' much money that at the expiration 
of the three years he bought a farm, towards the pay¬ 
ment of which he advanced $1,800. He married, 
