154 DIGESTIVE POWERS OF THE HORSE AND TIG. the epidermis of the top or side of the seed with slight report, like that of a popgun-and forces back, in fact turns outside in, the swollen and now white and spongy mass into which the horny part is changed. In this state the corn is soft and agreeable to eat, more easy of digestion, and is largely consumed. The increase of bulk by this heating process is so great that one barrel of pop-corn will produce sixteen, and of rice-corn, which is a small seed, thirty-two barrels of popped corn. It will occur to the reader, from what I have said of the internal structure of Indian corn, that the flour which is obtained from the several varieties will be more or less yellow, according as the proportion of the coloured horny part is greater or less. Hence the white Tuscarora corn, which contains scarcely any horny matter, gives a whiter flour than almost any other variety. This is the variety, therefore, which is principally made use of for the manufacture of starch, and for the adulteration of wheaten flour. As the direct fattening property of seeds is believed to be intimately connected with the quantity of oil they contain, I may mention in this place an interesting physiological fact, communicated to me by Dr Charles Jackson of Boston, which is susceptible of an important practical application. The horny part of the corn, he informs me, is not digested by the horse, though it is readily digested by the pig and by fowls. The economical value of a food, therefore, as I have elsewhere explained, cannot be judged of solely from its chemical composition.* On our arrival at Rome, the neighbourhood of the station was crowded with people who were waiting to get a peep of Mr Clay, whom we had picked up at Utica on his way to Syracuse. Our train had now swelled to * See the Author's Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry and Geology, 2d edition, p. 1045.; CHANGE IN THE SURFACE. 155 a line of fifteen large cars, containing each from forty to sixty passengers, so that we proceeded very slowly, and had become somewhat impatient of delay. A few cheers from the assembled crowd, rather faint compared with those which afterwards burst forth at some of the succeeding stations, were the only demonstrations of affection towards Mr Clay which I observed among the western Romans. On leaving Rome, we forsook the valley of the Mohawk, and, in a south-westerly direction, crossed the Clinton group of green, sandy, ferruginous and calcareous shales, which, from their softness, have been much washed away, when the old sea-currents swept over them, and now form a flat, uninteresting, somewhat swampy country, stretching in a narrow zone along the whole of western New York, as far as the Falls of Niagara, and thence into Upper Canada. The largest and deepest depression in this belt of country is occupied by Lake Oneida, which we passed a few miles to our right, and by the marshes of the town (ship) of Cicero, which extend farther towards the south. Nine miles from Rome we passed Verona, another memento of Italy; and a few miles farther, Oneida station, where we rapidly crossed a narrow belt of the Niagara group, the first of the upper Silurian system, and entered upon the Onondaga salt group, the most economically and agriculturally valuable of all the rocks of western New York. The natural softness of these groups of rocks in this locality, and the level character of the whole country, may be judged of from the fact that the Erie canal runs through it for sixty miles without a single lock. A single glance at this country, from the time we left Verona, showed into how different a region we had come since we had left the Mohawk Valley. A flat forest country of mixed wood, with few clearings, resting chiefly 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 |