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u»':lations

PAMI

GEOLOGY TO AGRICULTURE

NORTH-EASTERN AMKRICA.

By JAMES F. W. JOHNSTON, F.Il.S. L. & E. ;

HONOKAHV MEMUKII OF THK IIOVAL A(;HH ILTl RAT SOCIKTy.

LONDON.

M OCC C I. I I.

• • • .

• • 1 1 • •

p.m

FROM Tin:

JOUUNAI, OF THE HOYAL A(iHlCULT( UAL SOCIKTY OF KNGLAM),

VOL. XIII., PART I.

I 4 • ^ • <

• . • • •

t * • • » f • <

• • «• •• ••••

.<-♦ : «-• ••

• ." . •■>•,•.

HKLATION.^

GEOLOGY TO AGIUCULTURK

mf '-•*

NOllTH-EASTLRN AMERICA.

Therk are two ways in which the relations of j^oolojiy to agri-
culture can be viewed and consi(h«red : either broadly and gene-
rally, in regard to the agricultural character and capabilities of
entire geological formations or groups of rocks ; or locally, in
regard to the connexion of the kind of fertility exhibited by this
or that limited district or single spot with the kind of rock on
which the surface rests. Of these two modes, the first or
broadest is the most attractive, the most interesting in its con-
clusions, and the most satisfactory in the relations it establishes
between agriculture and geology. The second is less simple,
clear, and satisfactory. It is far more laborious to follow out
also, and requires more knowledge of details in the investigator ;
but, at the same time, it leads to results which are directly prac-
tical and of immediate application.

In the present paper I propose to illustrate both, but espe-
cially the first, of these metliods, by illustrations drawn from
IVort!i-Eastern America.

A, General Relations of Agricultural Capability to
Geological Structure.

I. On the Atlantic Sea-hoard. — My first illustration I shall
take from the Atlantic sea-board of the more western States of
the Union.

If from the coast-line in any of the States west of the river
Potomac — from the sea-shore of Virginia, for example, of either
of the Carolinas, of Georgia, or of Alabama — a traveller proceeds
inland till he reaches the first slopes of the Alleghany Moun-
tains, he will pass over four regions which, even to the unprac-

4 Relations (f Gcolnf/i/ to At/riailturc

tisnd ryo, aro most clearly distlrK t in tho cliarartcr of tlicir soils
and ill the natiiic of tiicir vr;^ctal)l(' productions, wlictlur natural
or cultivated.

I''ir!»t. Rich muddy flats line the shore, interse(ted in some
places by creeks and swampy hollows. To these low lands the
ncijroes repair at the proj)er season of tiu' year, and j)ut in, tend,
or reap the sea-island cotton and the rice, which here yield ^^reat
returns. The wiiite masters, or su})erintendents, visit them as
rarely as possible, the climate in t\w hot season beimr rife with
fevers fatal to the constitution of tlu^ white man. When these
swampy flats are still in a state of nature, the swamp willow, the
cy])ress, the swamp hickory, the ^reen j)alniett() — the proud
badfi^e of North Carolina— the tall maj;nolia, tlu; r(>d maple, and
the cotton-wood, form a distinj^uishini; natural vejjetatiijii, rich
and beautiful to the eye, but reminding: the practised observer at
once of a soil full of natural fruitfuln(>ss and of ui atmospliere
j)rolific in siiiverinij a^ue and in depressing- and rapidly wastinu'
fever.

A few miles inland brinjjs him to liifjher pound. The allu-
vial plain sjradually rises a few feet above the sea-level, and dry,
rich soils support a natural «j,Towth of liickory, oak, beech, niaj;-
uolia, walnut and tulip trees, and of Itolly. Tobacco and su<>:ar
are the staple marketable crops, which the culti\at()r raises on
these drier soils, where generations of exhaustinij culture have
not already worn them out. They yield also large crops of
Indian com— the main food of the coU)ured labourers — to which
the warmth of the climate is fis propitious as the soil.

Second. Pursuing his journey towards the hills, after twenty
miles or thereby — a breadth which varies in different parts of the
coast — he reaches the edge of the drier alluvial plain, and ascends
a low escarpment of yellowish sand. He now finds hims(>lf in
the midst of forests of unmixed natural pine, covering a belt of
barren sand g(>nerally unfit for cultivation, and which for hundreds
of miles girdles in the lower jdain of rich land he has already
crossed. The worthlessness of this pine region for the purposes
of the cultivator is illustrated by tiu? history of that ])()rti(m o."
the belt which runs througli the State of Georgia. After the
settleineni of the boundaiy line; between Georgia and Florid;;,
the State Legislature of Georgia passed an Act ordering all the
unsold lands of the State, after being surveyed, to he divided by
lot anu)ng the resident populati(m. The cost of surveying and
other exp(>nses imposed a charge of two cents an acre on these
lands, which fell to be paid by tha allottees. But a great many
of those who drew the pine barren lots refused to take out their
grants, thinking them not worth the two cents an acre they had
to pay for them. The State Legislature, therefore, subsequently

......

■<

in Nortli- Eastern Aniertca.

;)

ordered that all the laud ot this kind which was unclaimed after a
ci'rtain period should i)e sold at four cents an acre to whoever would
buy it. Larjje speculations were in conse(pience made hv indi-
viduals and companies, chiefly with a view to <'ut down and sell
tlie timber. The lumber merchants from the north-eastern States
were conspicuous amonj; these speculators ; and I had the fortune
to travel for some distance with a j^entleman who, amonf; other
information, told me lu* was one of a small party who had boiiijht
no less than 19(),()()() acres of tins Georjjian barren in one localitv,
with the confident expectation of m;>kin<:^ much money by the
sale of the lumber.

The species of pine with which this barren is covered chansxes
as we proceed towards the south and west — ])robably from the
<hani>e of climate and exposure. In North Carolina it bears j)rin-
cipally tlie Pitch pine (/'///?/ .v r/V/ZrA/), which yields lar<re supplies
<d' turpentine. This nnd the timber an> shipjx'd from the p(»rt
of Wilminffton in that State. In Geortjjia, ajrain, the j)revailin^
tree is the Yellow pine (^Pinus initis), which yields a harder and
more valuable timber tlian the Pitch pine. The chief difTerence,
as I was informed, is that the saj) or soft heart-wood in tlie
^ ellow pine is much less in diauu'ter than in the Pitch J)ine, and
thus the j)roportion of hard resinous wood in trees of the same
si/e is much fji'eater in the former than in the latter.

Third. Farther inland the traveller ascends another terrace,
and at once escapes from the forest into the o])en tr. eless prairie,
where, fai* as the eye carries him over the flat, only natural jj^rasses
wave in the wind, unless where settlements have been made, and
the arts of husbandry have introduced a new vejjetation. Tin;
thin soil: of this attractive plain rest upcm a rotten chalk or
chalky marl, and, like the soils of our chalk downs, are absorbent
of moisture and naturally dry. They produce a sweet herbaj^e,
grateful to the cattle, and yield fair crops of wheat while still in
r virgin condition. The variety known in the market by the
name of Georgian wheat is grown on these chalky j)rairies.
They are attractive to the settler because they can be converted
into farms without cost. Tliere is no forest to fell. As much
land as can be skimmed with the plough may be sown with grain
year after year by the first settler, and the aid of a reaping
machine makes him almost independent of labour when the time
of harvesting comes. It is upon jdainj; like these — so easy to
till and so bare of trees — that in published accounts of some of
the States we read of single fields of wheat containing from 400
to 700 acres of waving grain,* and from which a crop of ten or

* I have never myself seen any of these large fields, probably because I was
never upon any of these prairies where they were to be seen. I was told by a

Rclotioiis of GeoliKiu to ^If/ricii/fnir

twi'Uv. huslu'ls an acre leaves a profit upon tli(> lal)(>ur and capital
expended. lUit tin' thin hlaek vir«;in soils wliieli e()ver tliein
soon deteriorate. Deeper plou<;liinj; does not permanently restore
tlieni, and the knowinj; eultivator now sells his inijn'ond lot to a
n<?w corner, and Ix-takes hiujsell" to another virgin tract which the
tide ol eniij;rant population is <:nlv heirinninj; to reach.

Fourth. C'rossin}jj th<' prairie or chalk down, he conies ajrain to
a sudden rise in the country, over which cheerful forests o[ hroiul-
leavcd trees extend — of oaks, hickory, (Sec., .and a scattered ad-
mixture of pines. He is now on tlie older rocky formations, of
which the first slopes of the All(>«;hanies consist. Mica-slate,
gneiss, and j^ranite, liere mingle their dehris to form a character-
istic red, clayey, but iViahle soil, which (rund)les readily, and,
from the nature of the diniati', admits of a husbandry aj)proach-
inir more to that of our I'aiLilish farmers,

'l^he marked features ol soil and ve<;etation which our traveller
thus perceives entirely coincide with as distinctly marked ^eolo-
^ical features. This is seen in the following; sciction of the coast-
line in ((uestion, from the sea to the mountains. The letterpress
below the section indicivtes the <^eolo_sj^ical formations — that placed
above it indicates the natural vegetation and the crops whicli
grow best U])on each.

No. I.

Dry chiilk downs.
Trt'eless prairies.

Hroiul-Ieaveil lorcals.
General hiusliamlrv.

Kice Siijj.ir

anil ami

cotton. lo!)ario.

I'ini! forests.
Sauilv liiirrens.

??s*-,Ji!^

^la. Post tcrliiiry,
anil alluvial.

Tfrti irv saniis.

."^I'Konilary
chalk marls.

l'rim:iry mclamorpliic
lOL'k anil granite.

In this section a dose general relation is seen between the
ihanges in geological and agricultural character which appear
on the several successive terraces ov flats of land across which
the traveller proceeds on his way from the sluu'es of the Atlantic;
to the slo])es of the Alleghany Mountains. Where the most
recent t)r alluvial loams and rich clays end, there the tobacco,
Indian corn, and even wheat culture, for the time, ends also.
The tertiary sands belong to a more ancient epoch, and to them
are limiteil, by a stri( tly defined boundary on each side, the dark
pine forests which are so striking a feature of the country. On
the older clialk, again, the treeless prairie ami flinty wheat country
is as distinctly limited by the formations on either hand; and

Mioliijrun f'aninr who invited uic to visit liiiii, that he liad 400 acres under wheat,
and reapod with a iiiachiiK.. Tlie averapi' produce of the whole of this State of
Miehifian is only lo,' htishels of wheat per acre.

in North- I'Myli'in Anwvica.

beyond tills, ;i<.r!iiii, the c !ian!ro<l forostc smd ciiltiviit'Kiu «)1" tlio
lii;;licr (ountiy aic (Ictcrinincil l)y tlic chaii-ft' \\\ nature and in
a;j:e wlii<li tin; rocks ol tuis rey:ion exliibit.

It is only necessary to ol)s<:rve furtlier tliat the widtii of these
several Ixlts (»t land vr.ries in difrenr.t parts of the lony; Atlantic
coast-line. The ailnvial hcnder is hroadest in the southern
States and alonj; the («ulf of Mexico, the j)ine helt prohahly in
(ieorjfia, and the chalk marl in Alabama and AIississi])j)i. The
latter also — the chalk — is by no ni'ans continuous. It forms
only a narrow belt iii New Jersey and Maryland — almost dis-
a|)|)(!ars in tlu; Carolinas — is known only in patches in Cieorjjfia,
hut becomes ajjain broad and continuo\is in Alabama. Still,
wherever, al on ji^ this jjreat distance, any of these formations (»ccur,
and of whatever extent they may at that place be, they always
exliil)it the same <;cneral charatters of soil, of natural vegetation,
and of ajifricultural capability, in so far as the climate of the
place permits.

It is, indeed, very remarkable how uniform in tliis respect the
same jjeoloji^ical formation is sometimes found to be, not only in
tlie same country, but in difl'erent countries at <;reat distances from
each other. I have already alluded, for examj)le, to the natural
dryness of this chalk belt on the Atlantic border of the United
States. The scarcity of water exj)erlenced by thos'" '^'•' ref^ ^e upon
it is often frreat. Every (me knows tliat the s' e of our

own chalk reifion in Enjjland — that in very ' wells

i.re sunk throuffh it with the view of reaching Mat in

L»mdon jrreat dept'is are fione to, and at a vast 3Uffh

the Lond<m clay and the chalk, before water can bv In

the Paris basin the chalk is equally dry, and there aix. y few
who have not read of the remarkal)ly deep well at Grenell(. in
the nei<i^hbourhood of Paris, which, like the less profound London
Wt^lls, has been sunk to the sands below the chalk, and with
similar success.

So, in Alabama, on this formation water Is (mly to be obtained
by sinkini^ throujfh the chalk. Three years ajjo there were
already about 500 wells in that State, sunk to a depth of from
400 to 600 f<;et, there bein<;^ one generally upon each plantation.
And t'ms, while the climate there, as elsewhere, determines the
general character of the vegetable produi e, what kind of plants
under the meteorological conditions can arrive at perfection, and
also the race of men by whom that labour can be best performed,*
yet the geological structure determines whether or not any crops
shall be able to grow at all, and, of the kind of plants suitable to
the climate, which can be profitably cultivated upon its actual

* Cotton is the staple market crop of Alabama. The State contains hy the last
census (IS.'i'j; a population of '/7S),()00, i :" whom 344,000 are slaves.

M Rdations of Grolof/i/ to Af/iintltitir

surface. Hut in the present ciise the reader will per(ei\c tli.il
the ^eolojiieal structure (let<Mniiues more. In sucli a climate, and
with a soil so naturally arid, abundant water is indlspensahh- ;
but this can (mly he ohtaine<l by deep borinir pi-rformed at a
jijrreat exp<'nie. The «>;eolofj;ical conditions, therefore, confine the
possibility of culti\ation to men of larj;*' means, Mnd, in present
circumstances at least, necessarily ixdude all petty farniinj? and
the subdivision of the land into small holdintJ;s. They dc'tennine,
in other W(mls, the social ccmdition of the people, 'riiis sinj,de
illustration is enoujjh of itself to satisfy any impr.rtlal persori of
the close fjeneral relation which exists between the fjeolofrkcal
eharacter and the agricultural capability of a country, and of the
broad jreneral deductions in '•ejjard to its possible future pros-

n(>rity in a rural sense — which may be drawn Irom a knowledjje

of its geolojiy. I believe it is partly under the influence of this
conviction "that the Senate and C<m}xress of the^ United Statea
hav<; so often and so cordially voted lar^'e -ins of money f<n' tin'
purpose of investijrating and mappinj; the main jjetjlojiical fea-
tures of the new States and territories which fr*>m time to tinu'
have been admitted into the Union.

II. Reldtiotisof Geohr/mit dmdure to Af/ric7iltural capahilitu in
IVestern New York. — I take my second illustration from Western
New York, partly because this has hm^' been celebrated as a rich
wheat-firowinjj distvi<t ; partly because the relaticms we are stu-
dying are here really very interesting; and paitly because tl<is
locality will give me the opportunity of showing, by a more de-
tailed example, the intimate c(mnexion which subsists between
the ec(momical value of a regicm in the agricultural, and the
compositior of its rocks in a geological, sense.

The section of the country along the Atlantic border, which
formed the subject of the preceding illustration, terminattnl
inland with the primary rocks of which the first slopes of the
Alleghanies consist, and which, by their (rumbling, form red
friable soils, clothed with mixed, chiefly broad-leaved, trees.

The primary stratified rocks are then; g(>nerally tilted up,
squeezed togetlier, as it were, and standing on edge. They thus
occupy but little space, s<r that a mixed soil of a commcm cha-
racter, derived from their intermingled fragments, <jvers])reacis

them all.

But Western New York presents as witii a most favourable
opportunity of studying the special agricultural influence, in
detail, of each individual mendier of whole groups of rocks. That
subdivision (>f the primary rocks, distinguish<>d among l^^urojx'an
geologists by the name of Siluritai, is there flattened and spread
out over a large extent of lountry ; and the several beds of this

in North- Eattcrii Aincricn.

sulHlivision — partiiillv «)V(Mi;»|H)iii.; ami risiiiu' aliovc v\w\\ otiu r
ill a s«ui\'ssi<m of small Imt distiiK t tcnaccs <.i y;r(>at<'r «»r less
lucadtli — plainlv cxhihit to tli'- cNc of the oUscrvcr the cliriiiiial
ihaiactcrs of carli, *\\c kind of soil which in < ruml>liii;j: it na-
ttnailv prodiuvs, and the spcrial <A\rii it has on the aj^iicultural
capahilitv of the sinfai c that rfsts upon it.

The louiitrv t ) which i here refer «'\teii»ls aloiv,' the soiithev'i
shores of Lake Ontario, from beyond IJiitlalct, at the foot of Lake
I'^rie, on the west, to Oswejro, near t!u' fool of Lake Ontario, on
the east. Its len<it!i is ai)out 180 miles, and its mean hreadtli
from Liike Ontario towai'ds the south about ))(* miles. 'I'he
distriit rises as we proceed southward from the Lake, sometimes
bv sudden starts over vocky escarpments, but ^renerallv .n a
o-radual manner, till it attains a lu iirht of ()<M^ or TOO f.rt above
tie Ontario, ]''arther south, towards the Peimsylvanian border,
the hijih land attains an elevation 'ti some places of nearly 2000
fe. •:, The woodcut (p. 8) exhibits an outlme of its geographical
position and geological structun

This outline map shows the relative positicm of the Lakes I'^rie
and Ontario, the discliargo of the waters of the former into th'-
latter by the Niagara river, and the drainage of the high scmther .
fountry towards the borders of Pennsylvania by the Oeiiessee
ri- 'r, which falls into Lake Ontario below Rocht-stev. The
lines which run from east to west indi(at(! the boundaries of the
several rocky formations of which the country consists ; all,
except that marked 8 and D, belonging i,; what is called in
I'Airope the Silurian system of rocks. The area or strip of country
lovered by each formation is represented by the numbers 1, 2,
8, \,e., in the ascending (nder of their suijcrposition. They lorm,
as I have above stated, a succession of strips, belts, or tinraces,
of greater or less breadth, from the lowest (No. 1), on the biuiks
of the Lake, to the highest (No. U), which covers the interior of
the country. The nanu^s given by the New York geologists to
these several rocks arc as follows : —

No. L The Medina sandstone; No. 2. The Clinton group;
No. 3. The Niagara group ; No. 4. 'IMie Onondaga salt-group ;
Nos. 5 and 6. The lieiderberg group ; No. 7. The Hamilton
group ; Nos. 8 and 9. The Portage and Chemung groups.

The broadest belts, as will be seen from the map, rest upon
the Medina sandstone and on the Onondaga salt-groups. Of
course I do not compare any of these belts in area with the
extended surface occupied by Nos. 8 and 9, which bound on the
south the low and fertile region to which my observations will
chiefly apply. The mineralogical character of these several
groups of rocks, viewed hi connexion with the nature of the soils

M 3

Relations of Geoloiju to Agrmdture

in North- Eastern America.

tlioy form, alTord the illustration to which I am desirous of
drawinj? the attention of my readers.

No. I, the Medina Sandstone, consists of layers of brownish
or red sandstone, intermixed with layers of reddish shaly or
sliivery clay. These yield the red soils of the low flat belt which
skirts the southern shore of Lake Ontario. At its eastern ex-
tremity this rock contains few pavtin}i;s of clay, and i)r()d:ues
tiierefore poor sandy soils of comparatively little value. Over
much of these poor sands natural pine forests still extend, as the
traveller sees when he steams along the Lake from Rochester ti>
Oswejro. But, as is occasionally the case with other sandstones,
the partinj^s of clay increase in number and thickness towards
the west, producing first sandy loams, and finally rich clay loams
well adapted to the growth of wheat. Hence this same forma-
tion, which at the east end of the Lake affords only poor himgry
soils, yields between the mouths of theGenessee and the Niagara
rivers some of the richest wheat-lands in the State.

No. '2, the Clinton Group, forms a very narrow zcme, which is
nearly cimccaled by the debris of the rocks svhich lie immedi-
ately ai)ove and below it. This group amsists of green and blue
sliaies with limest<me intermingled, altogether from (50 to 80 feet
in thickness. They are soft and thin, and have therefore been
washed away by the ancient sea nearly to the edge of the hard
thick limestone^ of No. 3 which lies above it. The admixture ol
the fragments of this Clinton formation has produced a surface ot
excellent wheat-soil. It forms a very narrow terrace of caUare()us
clay, sloping with a gentle indinaticm towards the lake. The
dotted line NS in the map represents the line of the cross-section
(No. HI.) given in page 18. A glance at t!ie map will show
that along the line of this sedion tlie zone of theClintcm group is
broader Than it is anywhere towards the west, readies a breadth
in fact about equal to that of the .Medina sandstone l)elow, or oi
the Niagara limestone above it. It is necessary to notice this
fact, otherwise this cross settion would appear to be inconsistent
with tlie general indications of the map, in whicli the (liiitoii
group forms usually a very narrow strip indecMl.

\o. :>, the Nia;iara Group, consists of an enormous thickness
of limestone above, resting upon a great thickness of dark blue
irund)ling shales below. At Niagara, where the rivei' h.lls, the
limestone^ has a tiiickness of 130, and the shale of about 80 feet.
The shale alone, where it comes to day, produces stiff bhu; clays,
which, from the sloping nature of the surfac>e, are gcnu-raily dry
and susceptible of culture. Like many of our own still un-
tom-hed clays at home, however, they are to l)e lierealter rcn-
dercnl greatly nunc valuable by the introducticui ()f our liritish
system'^of thorough drainage. This mode of improvement is

Rvhttiuna of Geologi/ to A(iriniltnro

Ijejjiiinin^- now to nttnict a cons'ulcraljlc dciivoe of attention amonii
iiitvlli-icnt and wcU-cducatcMl I'aimers in the older States ol' the
Uni(«C !>n<l nowhere more, 1 believe, than anumj): those wlio cul-
tivate this naturally favoured rej^ion of Western New \ork.
VVIiere the debris of this Niajjara shale is mixed up with tliose
of t'.ie Medina sandstone and Clinton groups— which is frequently
tlie case aloni^ the lines of junttion— the admixtures are said to
produce soils of " unequalled fertility." This fact illustrates the
observation of all a-jricultural jr(.ol()<rists in ever> country, that
the economical value of the land almost invariably increases
aloni? the line of junction of two ffeolojjical formaticms ; provided
that'^coverinss of far-transported drift do not prevent the sub-
jacent rocks from exercising their legitimate influence upon the
nature of the soils that cover them. The overlying Niagara
limestone, where it is uncovered with drift, has crumbled down
into thin open soils which produce wheat, but are better adapted
for Indian corn, or for the turnip husbandry, should this region
ever become familiarized to it. The surface of the limestone,
however, is generally overspread with fragments of the underlying
more crumbling shale which have been drifted over it, and thus
the belt No. 3 is, for the most part, overspread with deeper and
richer soils than would have resulted from the decay oi the
lime-ro( k akme.

It will be seen in the cross-section { No. 111.) given in poge
i^, that the rise from No. 2 to No. 3 is by a sudden step or
cliff. Ihis cliff is comparatively low towards the east, where the
section is taken, but increases in height towards the west. This
is owing to the circumstance that the bed of limestone increases
in thickness in proceeding from the east tt)wards the west. In
Wayne county, where ttie section is taken, it is only SO <)r 40 feet
thick; while' on the Niagara river, above the rapids, it is 164
feet, and it still increases in thickness as we proceed farther
towards the west, along the northern shores of Lake Erie. This
is owing, most probably, to the increasing d(>ptli in that direction
of tlie ancient sea in which this limestone was deposited.

This increasing thickness exercises an influence upon the
agricultural chariuter of the country occupied by the Niagara
group in its western range, but its most sensible and striking
effect in Western New ^'ork is on the physical features of the
district. The; outcrop of the limestone forms a long cliff or es-
carpment, which skirts the whole southern edge of the lake, and
presents to the traveller most beautiful and extensive views of
the flat (ountiv bdow and far over the waters of the lak(?
Iieyond. iMfMii'the Cicmessee to the Niagara rivers this cliff is a
charac teristic featine of the fouiitrv. and is iamiliarlv known by
the name of the -^ mountain-ridge." Over this escarpment of

in Noith- Eastern Amorica.

tlip limestone the Genessee and the Niaijarn, amons otlier rivers,
preiipitate themselves, producing those magnificent tails which
have given celebrity to Niagara, and an unlimited water-power
and most rapid rise to the city of Rochester.

The following section will give an idea of the appearance ol
the mountain-ridge in the steepest and boldest parts of its course,
and will sliow how it overlooks the flat plain of the Medina sand-
stone and the waters of Lake Ontario.

No. II.

In this section the dotted mass above and below No. I is liie
Medina sandstone, No. 2 is the Niagara shale, and No. 3 the
overlying thick-bedded limestone. It is taken behind the town
of Lewiston, at the mouth of the Niagara river, on what is called
the American side. The view which the spectator enjoys from
the top of the escarpment at this spot is worth going a long way
to see. Sheer down .>ne looks over the scattered town of Lewis-
ton, upon the broad flat forest-lands stretching many miles back
from the lake, and eastward along its shores farther than tlie
eye can reach. Here and there only, at the time of my visit, in
all this distance a clearing appeared"^ upon this often marshy flat.
Right in front lay the endless lake and its occasicmally bolder
shores beyond, Avith now and then a straggling sail or a distant
steamer's smoke, all mellowed and blended by a four o'tlock sun.
I was much struck both with the extent and with the unsubdued
wildness of tlie prospect, when I unexpectedly reached the cliff
on my way from the falls ; and I could not help thinking how
some two centuries hence, when all this low plain before me
shall have been cleared, drained, and cultivated— when smiling
villages and cheerful homesteads, and scattered flocks and herds
overspread its surface, and the blue smoke may be seen dying
away from many chimneys as the Saljbath bell draws the gather-
ing people towards the frequent house of worship— how many in
those days for broad pictures of natural beauty, intense with
countless little episodes of still life, will yet frequent this moun-
tain ridge when the noise of the neighljouring cataract has
wearied them, and softer scenes are wished for to calm and com-
pose their fevered spirits.

No. 4, ^^e Onondaga Salt Group, derives its name from the
brine-springs which issue from it in >arIoiic parts of this western

R('/iili(»is of Gvohxiji fi> Aijricnltiirc

iof2:i()n

Salt Is larji^cly manutacturcd tVom the \vat<M ot these
sprinifs, ospociallv at Syracuse, where the annual produce amounts
to 12f),()()() tons,' al)out a fourth of the whole annual (<ni-
sumption of the United States.

Tiiis fijroup of rocks consists in desccndino; order of, —

a. Green calcareous shales and shaly limestone, ridi in

magnesia.

b. Calcareous shales and impure limestones, containing de-

posits of gypsum

c. Green marls and shales, and s!,aly limestones.

d. Green marls, with Ijands of red marls.

The formation as a whole is crumbling, friable, and rich in
calcareous matter. The soils it produces are consequently rich,
free, and easily worked. It has an average thickness of about
1200 feet, and forms a l)elt of generally level but undulating
land, with a gentle inclination towards tlie lake. It runs east for
upwards of 100 miles beyond the line of section N S in the ma}),
and westward across the Niagara riv(>r, round Lake Ontario, nnd
far into Western Canada. An inspection of the map will sl;ow
tliat this belt occupies a large proportion of the whole area of the
district. Its average breadth is 10 or 12 miles, the latter being
its breadth on the Niagara river. In the line of section N S, its
breadth suddenly expands to between 20 and 30 miles. Towards
the east it narrows off, and disappears as we approach Sclmectady
and the Hudson river, while in Western Canada it expands to a
maximum breadth of about 80 miles.* In this western region,
therefore, the Onondaga salt group forms a large area of rich
land, profitable in Indian corn, but especially in av heat.

During a stay of a few days at Syracuse, I visited the farm of
the Hon.'^Mr. Geddes, a member of the State senate, and, under
his guidance, had the satisfaction of surveying a considerable
extent of this formation, so very interesting in its geological,
agricultural, and economical relations. This gentleman is the
owner of 300 acres of the best quality of land which occurs on this
formation, and, like nearly all the owners in this country, lives
upon and farms his land himself. The soil I found to be a light-
coloured calcareous clay, which crumbles readily and never bakes.
It is generally shallow, and rests on one of the green shaly
rocks above mentioned. This shale crumbles readily in the air,
and, by exposure, becomes paler in colour, forming the light-
coloured soil of which the farm consists.

This neighbourhood, in its general aspect, appeared to me
1 '

ike a part of Old England than of a newly cleared or
country. Of Mr. Geddes's 300 acres, 270 were in arable

more
settled

* See some additional remarks on this point in tiio concluding paragraphs of the
present paper.

^<ilk

ill North- Eastern America.

^^%

culture, and comfortable houses and jjood buildings of otlier kinds
w.re seen on most of tiie farms 1 passed. The size of farms is
here generally from 100 to 300 acres, and these, with the build-
ings upon them, usually sell at 50 to 60 dollars an acre. At this
price Mr. Geddes expressed to nie his opinion that it was the
cheapest land in the States ^or tliose icho have capital to buy it.
By those, of course, whose whole wealth consists in their bodily
strength and industrious habits, the wilderness land of the more
western regions is alone attamable,

1 give, as an illustration of the capability of this very best
land, the following statement of the produce per acre, as fur-
nished to me by Mr. Geddes. This soil is of a very useful kind,
producing all sorts of grain crops, though not of equal (juality.
The yield per acre is> —

Wheat . . ]8to 35 bushels, of 60 lbs.

Ikrley . . "20 to 55 „ 48 lbs.

Oats . . . 40 to 100 „ 32 lbs.

Indian corn . . 50 to 80 „ 56 to (JO lbs.

Potatoes . . 100 to 300 bushels.

It is least adapted, he said, to the growth of potatoes— which
is more probably owing to the climate and the great summer
heats than to any defect in the soi'. Turnips are as yet but
little grown, and the feeding of sto>k is not much attended to.*
An average weight of 32 lbs. a busli '1 does not indicate a climate
well suited to the oat crop. As a general rule indeed the climate
which ripens Indian corn well rarely producer a crop of heavy

oats.

The fact that this land has been ploughed for fifty successive
years without receiving any manure will give the reader an idea
"of its innate richness. I walked with Mr. Geddes over two
fields which have never been manured during the fifty years
which have elapsed since his father first cleared them, and he
thinks the land as good as ever it was. It yields from 50 to 60
bushels of Indian corn, and in 1848 it gave 30 bushels an acre
of wheat. The soil consists, for the most part, of crumbling
fragments of the green shale. When the older land appears to
become exhausted the plough is put in a little deeper, so as to
bring up a little of the crumbling rock (green shale). It is then
said to produce wheat as abundantly as before.

The most sceptical as to the influence of geological structure
upon agricultural capability can scarcely doubt after such an
illustration as this.

The rotation on this farm was— 1. Indian corn after lea, with

* When the necessity for manure becomes more urgent to the land, the feeding
of stock will no doubt take in American the same place it occupies m English
agriculture.

11)

Relations of Geoloyij to Ayrkulture

manure, il" any is applied; 2. Oats; 3. Parley or Pease;
4. Winter Wheat with seeds in sprinjr ; 5. Grass, cut twice for
liay ; (>. (irass pastured with sheep and milch cows.

li" the land be foul, it is now summer fallowed and sown with
wheat, followed by seeds as before, after which Indian (orn comes
in auain. If it is not foul, the rotati(m commences with Indian
corn innnediately after the two years' fjrass.

On soils derived from this extraordinary green shale, such
severe— what we should call scourging treatmeiit — may be con-
tinued a great many years with apparent impunity ; although it
is seen even here to tell very soon on land of inferior quality.
But in this naturally rich land also its effects become visible
at last. Hence it is that this celebrated wheat region of eastern
New Yi)rk AS a whole is gradually approaching the exhausted
condition to which the more easternly wheat growing, naturally
pDorer districts, had earlier arrived. Of course where the subsoil
or subjacent rock is so full of natural fertility as this green shale
is sai(i to be, the exhaustion can only be superficial, and fertility
may again be restored to tlie surface soil. But to do this will
require both a more skilful and a more expensive system of
husbandry — conditions which manifestly imply that crops can
never again be raised so easily or so cheaply as during the early
and virgin freshness of this deservedly lauded district.

Monroe county is in the centre of this district. Tiie Genessee
river runs through it, the city of Rochester stands in it, it embraces
a large portion of the richest land in the Genessee valley and on
the Onimdaga salt group, and the corn averages of this county,
as published by the New York State Society, are higher than
those of any other county in the State. It may be supposed
therefore at the present moment to be the most fertile. Now the
averages per acre of Monroe '^ounty are as follows : —

Wheat
Barley
Oats

19^ bushels

19
32

Indian corn
Potatoes

30 bushels.
110 „

For a highly and deservedly lauded, fertile, wl'.eat-growing
district, the pride of the State of New York, the happy home to
which the longing eyes of British and Irish agriculturists have
long been directed, these are but low averages. Either the land
is net so good as it has been called, or it is, and has been, badly
treated. The general treatment has certainly been bad, but as
surely large portions of the land are naturally very good, and may
still be made very productive. But if they can, it must be, as
with us at home, by the application of more skill and by a more
prudent husbanding of the natural riches which the soil contains.
The trouble of preparing, collecting, and applying manures must
not henceforth ))e thought too great for a free and independent

in Nurth-Eastern America.

^.•i

North American farmer. This is well understood now by tiic
leading? promoters of ajfrieultural improvement both in the United
States and in the British Colonies. But in this district of
Western New York they feel the influence upon local prices of
the jijreat importations of wheat and flour from the new States
west of Lake Erie. The tide of this commerce in grain has n()W
turned in direction. Instead of sending? westward from Buffalo its
thousands of barrels of flour, as it did in former years, New York
now yearly receives from the west, throuf^h the same port, its
hundreds of thousands of casks of flour and of ])ushels of wheat.
So that, besides the imi)rovements which the advance of know-
ledfje suggests, self-interest is now urging tlie farmer of New
York to the adoption of wiser and better modes of culture.
" VViiat," said the President of the Oswego Agricultural Society,
in his address at the close of 1850—" What, I ask, is to meet
this competition of the west, but greater skill and care in the
mode of agriculture?" This is precisely the language which
speakers and writers in our own country have of late years been
almost daily addressing to British farmers.*

Nos. 5 and G. The Ilelderherg Limestones and Sandstones (5), rise
immediately behind the Onondaga salt grouj). Where 1 drove
along the edge of this limestone with Mr. Gcddes it formed a
high escarpment, from which tiie view of the flat lands below,
and of the country towards the lake, was beautiful and extensive.
Though far from what it was half a century ago, this great stretch
of undulating i)lain still seemed strange and savage to an eye
accustomed to the finislied and artificially picturesque appearance
of an English landscape. Swamps and lakes, and rude natural
forests, with intervening tracts of land under waving corn, remind
the spectator how much nature yet rules, how long human in-
dustry must patiently labour still before the asperities of a new
country can be rubbed off, how many generations of the enter-
prising men who now possess it must still toil and adorn this
fine land before it will smile at their feet like that which their fore-
fathers left.

At this limestone the natural richness of the country as a
wheat region begins to fall off. The soil upon the limestone
itself, and upon its subordinate sandstone, is often thin, resting on
a hard rock, but, where it happens to be deep, it is full of frag-
ments of limestone, and is of excellent wheat-growing quality.

The Marcelbis Shale (6), which overlies the Helderberg lime-
stone, is thin, varying from a few feet in thickness to a maximum

* Those -who are interested in the wheat-producing capabilities of the United
States generally, and in their future relations to our own wheat markets, will find
the subject discussed at some length in the 13th aud 25th chapters of the author's
' Notes oil North America.'

Relations of Geolo<nj to Atjrkulture

of (K) or 80 foot. Its offocts on the surface of the distriot thore-
fore are chieily to improve the soils of tlio limestone at the points
of junction, and to form occasional narrow sirij)os and patches oi
stiff clay, richly calcareous, and productive in wheat. When the
escarpment of the Helderber|? limestone is less bold than where
I visited it, near Syracuse, its surface is jjenerally (nerspread
with the delnis of the softer rocks which adjoin it on eithc^r side.
It is so in the line of the cross section NS (Section, No. 111.),
and there the soil-, which cover it form a prolonpition of the rich
land, fertile in wheat, which covers the plains below.

In the accompanying outline map it will be seen that the belt
formed by these rocks (5 and 6) is very narrow in Western New
York, Farther to the west however it expands, and alonp the
north shore of Lake Erie it forms a wide and valuable tract ot land
in the fast fdling-up and fertile region of Western Canada.

No. 7, tlie Hamilton Group, consists of olive and dark-blue shale,
which, when alone, forms stiff dark-coloured clays far less ric^i
in calcareous matter than the Onondaga soils. Ihey are there-
fore less open and friable, and in consequence more difficult and
expensive to work. Still they are capable of producing excellent
wheat under favourable circumstances, or when properly prepared.
The celebrated Genessee valley rests on this formation, but the
natural soil of the Hamilton shales is there modified, or altogether
covered by drifted fragments of the Niagara limestone and other
more northern formations, which have been washed up the valley.
Hence the quality of the Genessee soils is not that ''.hich is
natural to those of the Hamilton group.

This group is of great thickness, and, as is shown in the map,
forms a belt of land 10 or 12 miles in breadth. Where the
shales are rich in lime they are submitted to arable culture.
They are everywhere however difficult to keep clean, and are
especially infested with corn gromwell (Lithospermum arvense),
called here pigeon-weed. They are for the most part, there-
fore, like our own stiff clays of the lias and other formations,
loft to perpetual grass, which they produce of excellent quality.
Here, therefore, the grazing and dairy country of Western New
York commences.

Nos. 8 and 9. The Genessee Slate (No. 8), which is separately
distinguished in the cross section (No. III.), is too tliin to form an
important agricultural feature of the country. It crumbles more
slowly than tlie Hamilton shales ; 1 ut where its fragments mix
with those of tlie Tully and other thin limestones and calcareous
shales beneath it — also represented in tlie section— it forms good

soils.

The rortatje and Chemnnf/ Groups (No. 9) consist of alterna-
tions of shales, poor in lime below, with flagstones ami massive
sandstones. They arc of enormous thickness, and extend south-

in Nurtli- Eastern America.

wanls hcyoml the borders of Pennsylvania, whore in the lim; ol
section they reach a heijjht of 1000 feet above Lake Ontario.*
These rocks beUmg to the Devonian series of Enjilish geoU)^r,sts,
and lie immediately under the old red sandstone, which begins
to cover them beyond the Pennsylvanian border— further towards
the south than tlie map or section extends.

The district occupied by these groups of rocks presents a
complete contrast to the wheat-re<;ion— a contrast rich in evidence
of the close relation between jjeological structure and aj>:ricuitural
capabilities. When first cleared th^. virjrin surface produces
croi)s of wheat, but after the first crops— as is the case m many
parts of New Brunswick, which rest upon similar rocks— winter
wheat becomes uncertain, and spring? grain only can be sown.
PxMug thus found naturally poorer, it is less cleared and culti-
vated than the more favoured land in the plains which border the
lakes. Like poor land among ourselves also— 1 may say like
poor land in all countries — it is occupied for the viost part by a
poorer race of cultivators, wlio direct their chief attention to the
rearing of stock and to dairy husbandry. ,

The cross section, taken along the line N S in the map (p. 4^, •
exhibits at a glance tlie relations— pay sical, geological, and
agricultural— of this interesting district. It commences from
Lake Ontario on the north, and is continued nearly to the Penn-
sylvanian border on the south.

The above section sufficiently explains itself. It exhibits m
brief what in the preceding pages it has been necessary to state
verbally a little more in detail. The points it is intended chiefly
to illustrate are — .

a. The physical and geographical position of this celebrated
wheat-region in reference to Lake Ontario.

b. The special agricultural relations of the several groups of
rocks which in this district form the Silurian system of English

geologists. .

c. The sudden and striking change of produce and capability
which manifests itself when we ascend fr;Mn the calcareous soils
of the lower region, to the stiff clays of the more elevated
Hamilton group of ro(ks. The wheat region, par excellence,
is then entirely left behind, and a dairy country commences. ^ And

d. The still further contrast presented by what in our island
would be the heathy hills and moors of the Portage and
Chemung groups— destined, like our own poorer hills and high-
lands, to rear the hardier breeds of stock. ^

On all these points I have already dwelt probably in sufficient
detail.

* Ontario itself is :>31 feet above tide-level.

Relations of GcolorfU fo A(/riailfnrr

'/, =■

W/y

■£ «

/«/,

» 3

mil:

y'/'y

CO to

in Norf/i-Ftistcrn Amorint.

TIktc arc two additionnl oljscrvations liowovcr which I will
venture to introduce! as likely to interest the general reader.
Thev are l»otli in substance somewhat scientific, yet both cntuely
practical in their hearinj;.

First. In speaking of the soils which rest upon the Marcellus

shales ri'presented in the above section, I have allude«l to the

ilitliculty experienced in keeping them clean, and to their bemg

especially infested with the corn gromwell (Lithospermum

arvense), known in North America by tlie various names (d

pigeon-weed, red-root, steen-crout, st<my-seed, and wheat-thiet.

hr\'ates County, in Westen. New A'ork, a little to the west of

the line «.f section N S, the pigeon-weed is described to be so

abundant in some places as almost to have become the lord ol

the soil. It was unknown there -as it is said to have been ni

ail this lake country, and on the river flats of the St. Lawrence —

thirty years ago. It is supposed to have been an importation

from l':urope, probabl) in samples of unclean seed-corn from

i:ngl!uid, France, or Ger. umy. Now " hundreds of bushels of the

seed are purchased at the Vates County oil-mill, and,,, if it were

worth 8a-. instead of Is. Qd. a bushel, these hundreds would be

thousands." * , r i •

My readers will observe in the concluding words ot this quo-
tation how (me evil leads to another. The purchase of this seed
at the oil-mills must be mainly for tlie purpose of adulteration.t
I have examined samples of American linseed cake, in which
seed^ were to be recognised that I could not name. They
might, 1 then thought, be those of the dodder— a parasite which
in this country infests the flax-plant in some localities— but they
might also be other cheap seeds purposely mixed with the lin-
seed. To persons who are in the habit of buying the cheaper
varieties of American cake this point may not be unworthy of
att(>nti(m ; and as oil-cakes are chiefly bought by farmers, some
may rcimrd it as a kind of poetical justice, that the idle farmers
in (me country should be the means of punishing the less dis-
cerniii"- of their own class in another.

* Transiictious of the New York Stite Agricultural Society, 1846, p. 436.

t In the Tiaiisuctions of the New York State Agricultural &()ciety for I So!)
p -,10 I find it stated that this seed yields two or three quarts of oil from a bushel
of seed As a gallon of such oil weighs about 7^ lbs., we may take/our pounds us
the average yield of this seed per bushel. But linseed of 52 lbs. a bushel yiHds
17 lbs of oil • and the best rape of 5(i lbs. yields 16 lbs. a bushel. Supposing the
.rronuvell seed to be about 50 lbs. weight per bushel, 4 lbs of oil would barely
pay the cost of expressing, were it not for the value of the cake Kngl.sh crushers
redion that, for an additional shilling in the price of linseed per quarter, about
.•5 lbs more of oil should be yielded, so that in their reckoning, Is. 6(/., tiie price of
the gVomwell seed, would require 4^ lbs. of oil to pay the cost of the seed alone.
Thi- value of the cak.' therefore, as I have said in the text, must be waat the
Yates County crushers mainly look to.

•n

Hefations of Gi'olof/i/ to Ajiriiultine.

Tlir pliysi<»Uni(!il history ol this Lithos|)<'rmuiii t<'a< hcs \is
lM)th how ncrcsstiry ii certain Jiniount of |)hysioh>i2;i« al kiiowh'djjc,
in reference especially to the plants of his own hniil llora, is to
the practical farine.- ; and also how unexpectedly the careless
farmer may be punished for a nef>;lect of what may he called the
very first rule of stronp;-land farminp;— that is, of keepin<r his
land clean. On the flat clay lands of I.ower Canada, opposite to
Montreal, formerly celebrated for their wheat, I found the same
weed spoken of as a universal pest, thouf^h as in New York State
it was said to have been wholly unknown thirty years before. A
constant repetition of wheat crops f'>r a lon^ series of \ ears with-
out cleaninjj; had led to this result.

The peculiarities in the character and habit of this weed consist,
first, in the hard shell with which its seed or nut is covered ;
Second, in the time at which it comes up and ripens its seed ;
third, 'n tiie superficial way in which its roots spread. Tiie
hardness of its coverinj; is s'jsch that " neither the gizzard of a
fowl nor tlic stomach of an ox can destroy 't." Thus it will be
for years in the ground without perishing— r ady to sprout when
an opportunity of germinating occurs. It grows very little in
spring, but it shoots up and ripens in autumn, and its roots
spread through the surface soil only, and exhaust the food by
which the young wheat should be nourished. A knowledge of
these facts teaches us, first, that unless care be taken to exclude
the seed from the farm, it will remain a troublesome weed for
many years, even to the industrious, careful, and intelligent culti-
vator. It is said to be so pi< lific as to increase " more than 200 lold
annually !" In the seco7id place, that spring ploughing will do
lirtle good in the way of extirpating it, as at that season it has
scarcely l)egun to grow. United spring and autumn ploughing is
" the only reliable remedy." Thirdly— i\i^i raising whea; year
after year allows it to grow and ripen wi*^ the wheat, and ♦o seed
the ground more thickly every surcessive crop. It is said that
when it has once got into the .. ii i Iv/oor three successive crops
of wheat will give it entire possession ' >f the soil. It is noi there-
fore the immediately exhausting effects of successive corn crops
which have alone almost banished the wheat culture from large
tracts of land in North America, especially on the river St. Law-
rence. The indirect or attendant consequences of this mode of
culture— the weeds it fosters, &c.— have had an important in-
fluence also.

These observations are not without their value at home. For
although with us a continued succession of corn crops is rarely
now seen upon any land, yet foul and weedy farms are unhappily
still too frequent. And tlie more one studies the history and
habits of the weeds, which almost every district can boast of as

OnflMl

/'// North- F.astirit America, 2)

pr( uliarly !itt;ulu'«l to itscll, the more one iH-corncs satisficMl of
I lie viiliu' of a lainiliar accjiiaintancc with tlirin, t(j the improvt'-
incnt of thr art of ciilturo, of the coiKlition of those who prac tise
it, and of the a^ricultuial pro(lu( tivem-ss of a country. No one
will readily acctise ine of a desire to undervalue the usefulness of
chemistry to ay:rieulture, and yet I have often hod occasion to
ve\iyvX tlu! evil inlluence of opinions hastily expressed by 'M-
inf«»rined persons — as if this branch of knowledfre alone were able
to brin-j this most important and diOicult of arts to speedy per-
fection. The longer a cautious and truth-seckinj; man lives, the
wilier will appear the van;;e «jf knowledjje, theoretical and prac-
tical — the more numerous the circumstances to be taken into
consideration — before he can arrive at an accurate solution even
of what some look upon as simi)l<? and superficial questions.

Second. The second observation I wish to ad<l refers to tiie exten-
sion of the richest wheat-bearinj^ formations of Western New
\'ork into the; upper part of Canada West. The consequence of
this extension is the reproduction in this m^w region o{ the great
natural capabilities of tlie country 1 have been describing.

Bounded on the east by Lake Ontario, on the west by Lake
Huron, on the south by Lake Erie, and on the north by Mana-
toulin Hay, stretches a wide peninsula, occupying an area three
or four times as large as the wheat region of Western New York,
and covered entirely by those rocky formations on which the fer-
tility of the latter region mainly depends. Proceeding westward
from the head of Lake (Ontario, we pass in succession over the
surface of the Mtulina sandstone, the Niagara limestone, the
Onondaga salt group, and the Helderberg limestcme and shales.
On these, as the map and sections ccmtained in this paper show,
the principal wheat region in Western New York is situated. It
will also l)e recollected that among these the Onondaga salt group
is ("specially conspicuous for the natural fertility and friableness
of its soils, and for the ease with which they can be worked and
cultivated.

Now in this peninsular portion of Canada West, the Medina
sandstone and Niagara limestone expand .i little after they turn
round tlie western end of Lake Ontario, and then run towards the
north in belts somev hat broader than those wliich they form In
W^estern New York. But the Onondaga salt group widens to
such a degree as in a line due west from Toronto to be upwards
of sixty miles across, and to occupy almost the v.diole breadth of
the j)eninsula between the two lakes, Ontario and Huron. The
natural capabilities of tliis new region, as a whole, may be In-
ferred from wliat I have already said of the results of experience
in the state of New York. So far as depends upon soil, it ought
to be one of the richest agricultural regions in North America.

24 Relations of Geoloc/i/ to Ar/rirulfurf.

Towards the southern ernl of the peninsula ajjain, and alonof tl

entire northern mar

__^ _^iu of Lake Krie, of the Lake ami River St.

Clair, and of Gratiot's Bay, in the southern part of Li.ke Huron,
the Helderberj? formation extends. It will be recollected that 1
have above described this rock, as it occurs in Western New York,
to be in some places covered with thin soils productive of wheat ;
but that over it lie certain calcareous shales (Marcellus shales),
which, when not entirely removed from the surface by the action
of ancient waters, form a sr)il equal to almost any other in pro-
ductive capability. The larjj^e portion of this Western Canauian
peninsula, over which this Helderl)erg formation extends, must,
therefore, like that occupied by the Onondaga group, contain many
tracts of fertile land, and this, as well as its neighbourhood to the
lake, is no doubt a cause of the rapidity with which it is in the
process of settlement. Indeed, whjn we consider that nearly the
whole of this peninsular region consists either of the Helderberg
rocks or of those of the Onondaga group, we cannot help pre-
dicting both a rapid filling up and a great future, in many re-
spects, to this most interesting portion of Canada.

Thus from the humbler task of explaining why certain regions
have exhii^ited and still manifest a singular natural fertility,
geology advances to the higher gift of prediction. United theory
and observation enable it to point out where rich and desirable
lands are sure to be found— to inform the statesman as to the
true value cf regions still wild and neglected— to direct the agri-
cultural emigrant in the choice of new homes--and, looking f;ir
into the future, to specify the kind of population and the pro-
cesses of industry which will hereafter prevail upon it — the
comparative comfort, wealth, numbers, and even morality, of its

future people.

A third illustration, not less interestmg than the two jUready
introduced, I had intended to draw from our own province of
\cw Brunswick, hut this 1 must reserve, with the remainder of
my subject, for another article.

UlM>ON : PHINTEI) »Y WILLIAM CUIWKS ASi) ?ON«, STAHIFOIin STRFFT.