156

GENESEE COUNTRY.

on beds of gravel, accompanied us for some miles from the river; but before we reached Oneida we were upon soft shales, which crumbled into a tenacious soil. Rich red soils and red marly rocks succeeded; the country became cleared, was cultivated to the hill-tops, and appeared in a state of nature only where the flat and swampy surface and the clayey character of the soils rendered previous drainage necessary to successful cultivation.

From Oneida to Syracuse is twenty-four miles. During the latter half of it, and especially in the town (ship) of Manlius, we passed through much low, flat, sandy soil, still under forest. In some of the hollows, thick layers of peat rested on, or alternated with, the white drift sand; but where knolls and gravel hills occurred, Indian corn grew well; while the slopes of red land which skirted the valley on our left were covered with Indian corn, or with rich green herbage, to their very summits. We were now entering upon the wheat region, the old Genesee country, the ancient inheritance of the Six Nations. We reached Syracuse at half-past three, having come from Albany, 178 miles, with a constantly increasing train. Great crowds thronged the station and streets, and the city was a scene of much bustle and excitement.

CHAPTER VI.

The city of Syracuse. Its rapid growth.-Popularity of Mr Clay.-His reputed chance, and that of Mr Webster, of the Presidentship.-Show of the New York State Agricultural Society.-Agricultural implements. -What they teach.-Forks, corn-shellers, and reaping-machines.— Extensive use of the latter in the North-Western States.-Argument against thorough drainage in western New York.-Want of local attachment.-Law against long leases in the state of New York.— Prevalence of the Devon breed of stock in New England, and of the Teeswater in the Western States.-Merino sheep.-Fast-trotting horses. Over-lightness of the horses for heavy farm-labour.-General impression as to the condition of New York agriculture.-Crowds who visited the Show-yard.-Fruit Show.-Fruit region of Western New York. Comparative mildness of its climate.-Rapid extension of apple-orchards.-Profits of apple-growing.-Quantity of fruit exported.-Pomological Convention.—Varieties of apples in the United States and in Normandy.-Mode of causing apples to produce a crop every year.—Influence of crops of rye on the apple-tree.— Influence of geological structure on the flavour of the apple, and of the cider made from it.- Gout de terrain. Mr Geddes's farm.-Rich soils of the Onondaga salt group of rocks.-Soil of the crumbling green shale.-Rotation followed upon it.--Gradual exhausting effects of this rotation.-Average produce of the whole State of New York and of the richest western county.-Competition of the Western States.-Profits of farming in New York.-Property confers no political privilege.-Indian-corn hay-Experiments with plaster or gypsum upon Indian corn and potatoes.-Gypsum acts best on calcareous soils and in droughty seasons.— -Wages of farm-servants.-Escarpment of the Helderberg limestone.—Onondaga salt group.-Rich belt of land formed by it.-Section of the wheat region of western New York. Beautiful relation of the soils to the nature of the rocks of which this undulating plain consists.-Soils of the Medina sandstone, of the Clinton, Niagara, Onondaga, Helderberg, Hamilton, Genesee, and Portage groups. Influence of overlying drift.-Salt springs.

158

CITY OF SYRACUSE.

Connection of gypsum and common salt.-Strength of the Brine Springs at Syracuse.-Quantity of water pumped up and of salt manufactured.-Alleged consumption of salt in the United States.— Individual consumption in Great Britain.-State revenue from the Salt Springs.-Methods of extracting the salt at Syracuse.-Probable presence of bromine in the Syracuse brines.

SYRACUSE, 12th Sept.-The village of Syracuse, erected into a city in 1848, occupies an important local position, and is a remarkable place in many respects. It is situated at the junction of the Oswego canal (of thirty-eight miles in length) with the main trunk of the Erie canal, and is thus on the great lines of communication between Canada and western New York on the one hand, and between the Atlantic and the Western lakes and States on the other. It is also close to the site of the salt springs, and is the seat of the extensive salt manufacture by which western New York, the Canadas, and the Western States are principally supplied with this necessary article of consumption. It stands also in a fertile district, and in a comparatively genial climate, where grapes ripen in the open air, and can even be left uncovered all the year through. Thirty years ago, Syracuse was the name of a few houses in the wilderness, now it is a city of 16,000 inhabitants, taxing themselves for local purposes during the present year (1849) to the extent of 35,000 dollars. It has the large hotels common to towns in this country, numerous churches, the spires of several of which are now in process of erection, and many skeleton streets, which, if its prosperity continue, will soon be built up. The last ten years have added greatly to its size; and, so late as six years ago, the wilderness still surrounded the residence of the mayor-to whose hospitality I was indebted during my stay at Syracuse-where his garden now extends, and plum and peach trees and vines are in full and luxuriant bearing.

All was excitement in the town, in consequence of the

POPULARITY OF MR CLAY.

159

arrival of Mr Clay; and complaints were not unjustly made by those engaged in preparing for the Agricultural Show that his presence, as a politician, seriously interfered with the objects for which so many thousands had assembled at Syracuse. To me, as a stranger, it was interesting to observe how very popular Mr Clay appeared to be, and how, in their liking for the individual, so many seemed willing to forget the shade of politics he represented. One of his political opponents observed to me, that, since the days of Washington, probably no man had so generally carried with him the hearts of the whole people of the United States. He is also a man of great ability, and has played a large part in the public affairs of his day; and it therefore appears remarkable to those who are unaware of the small matters by which great questions are decided, that he has never attained the dignity of President of the United States. He is now advancing in years, but is still fresh in intellect and full of energy, as is shown by his recent action upon the slavery question; and his friends are not without hope of seeing him still attain to that distinguished office before his intellectual strength is gone.

Of the able and ambitious men who now aspire to the office of President, there are many who think Mr Clay's chance all the better that the State of Kentucky has not hitherto had the honour of giving a President to the United States. It is a striking circumstance, that, of the twelve Presidents whom the Union has had, no less than five have been Virginia men; while Massachusetts and Tennessee have each sent two, and New York, Ohio, and Louisiana each one, to the Presidential chair. The principle of an equal division of office, or turn and turn about, is a very popular one in some of the States; and it has been gravely urged to me, by a person of much intelligence, in reference to Mr Daniel Webster, that the circumstance of his being from Massachusetts-a State

160

TALENT AND THE PRESIDENCY.

which has already given two Presidents to the Union—* is certain for ever to exclude him from that high position. But it is one of the benefits and boasts of a large federal republic, that a wider field exists from which to select great men to manage great affairs, and that it opens a wider field of ambition to the noble minds which may spring up in every part of the Union. Even in republics, however, the most excellent theory cannot be made to coexist with perfectibility in practice; and the alleged wider field for great talents becomes null, if the great offices are to be equally divided among the several States as their turn comes round.

13th Sept.-This morning I visited the show-yard, along with my friend Professor Norton of Yale College, who had thus far accompanied me in my tour through his native country. The show was held in a large inclosed area, quite as spacious as those usually devoted to this purpose by the Royal Agricultural Society of England. The two main divisions of implements and stock occupied the chief place, as with us; farm and dairy produce, however, and fruits, receive much attention from the New York State Society, and had an appropriate place assigned to them under the tents and sheds which were scattered over the grounds.

The general character of the implements was economy in construction and in price, and the exhibition was large and interesting. I know of no more instructive lesson, in regard to the practical condition of the husbandry of a country, than that which a man gets in surveying a collection of implements-actually in use, or coming into use such as these exhibitions supply. Our English chaff-cutters and food-crushers, and drill and thrashing and tile machines, and cultivators and subsoil-ploughs and clod-crushers, tell more of what is going on in the country than months of travelling would make known to the most active agricultural inquirer. It is not so much