History of Onondaga County, New York, Part 14

Author: Clayton, W.W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 840

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two deposits of marl, which separate three deposits of muck, with stumps and roots chiefly of tamarack and balsam."* Southeast of the village of DeWitt, in excavating for the canal feeder, stumps were found some feet below the surface, showing that a forest had been destroyed by some rise in the water, caused perhaps by a dam of driftwood. The trees died and decayed to the surface of the water, the stumps being preserved by the water. In time the pond filled up with alluvium, and again there was a forest of cedars. In the swamp north of the canal, in the town of Van Buren, there is an ex- tensive deposit of marl, and it is found in various other places, in some cases pure enough to make valuable lime, and in others so mixed with earth as to be merely a calcarious clay.

There are many places south of the Helderberg range where the springs deposit calcarious matter in the form of tufa. These masses are constantly increasing as the water flows over them, and casts off leaves and parts of trees around them. Cal- carious tufa is found all along the base of the Helderberg range wherever a spring flows out. Below the gypseous rocks it is seen in large masses. These rocks being permeable to water, this fluid becomes charged with lime, and when it appears on the surface the tufa is deposited. The deposits are numerous in the towns of Manlius, De Witt and Camillus. " Along Nine Mile Creek it has the crystalline character of alabaster, showing suc- cessive layers also, and in quantity suitable for the smaller purposes for which that beautiful substance is used when polished."¡ Ferruginous tufa, stained with hydrate of iron, is found two and a half miles northeast of Syracuse in quite an extensive deposit, on land formerly owned by Mr. Wheeler. There is another and similar one on Nine Mile Creek below the village of Marcellus. These deposits of ferruginous tufa, and a small one of bog ore, on the Oneida River, are due to the decomposition of rocks containing iron, or are derived from the soil by the agency of decomposing vegetable matter. In the town of Fabius, on Limestone Creek, there is. a large quantity of tufa, showing the three varieties,-the earthy, solid or horsebone, as it is called, and the ferruginous.

PEAT, OR MUCK, is found in great abundance in the swamps and low grounds. The conditions nec- essary for its production, are permanent moisture, with a subsoil of either clay or marl, impermeable to water. It is formed of successive growths of vegetation which have died and become brown or black. It is spongy and retentive of water, and by

* Vanuxum.

+ Ibid.

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK

successive growths has raised its bed, so that it appears in mounds and hillocks. In some localities this is aided greatly by deposits of tufa constantly forming, beneath it. Usually the surface is soft, yielding to pressure and trembling when walked upon. In the town of Clay, in this county, are extensive beds of peat, which, judging from experi- ments recently made by Mr. James M Hart, promise to be of great importance as fuel. An analysis of a specimen of compressed peat, from the works of Mr. Hart, made by Francis E Engelhardt, Ph. D., Chemist for the Salt Company, Syracuse, in March, 1877, gave the following result :

Moisture expelled at 212 Fah't. 12 17

Volatile matter 52 84

Fixed carbon 24 62

Ash 10.37

100 00

The specific gravity was found to be, after the es- cape of the moist air, above 1,300.

Of the feat charcoal, also made at the works of Mr. Hart, Dr. Engelhardt gives the following analysis :

Fixed carbon 67.20

Moisture, volatile matter and ash 32.80

100.00

CHAPTER XVL

AGRICULTURE - CLASSIFICATION OF SOULS - CLI- MATE TIMBER-CLEARING LAND -PICTURE OF PIONEER LIFE - PRODUCTIONS OF THE COUNTY.

T HIE soils are the basis of agriculture, and therefore require first to be considered in any treatise on that subject. North of the Erie Canal, in Onondaga county, the sandy and clay soils prevail. The sand predominates in some districts, in others the clay, while in larger areas they are mixed in the proportions best calculated to keep the soil from being too heavy and tenacious, on the one hand, or too loose and triable, on the other. This desirable combination is known as kum, and is the character of a large portion of the drift soil in the northern part of the county.

In a belt lying along the south side of the canal and extending to the Marcellus Shales, there is less of drift and the soil is more directly due to the de- composition of the underlying rocks of the salt group and the llelderberg range. These soils come under the head of clayey loams. The rest of the county to the south is divided by valleys and ranges of hills, whose general course is north and south. The valley's are covered with drift and alluvium,

while the hills have soils formed principally from the decomposition of the shales that underlic them, constituting a soil that would best be classed as loam.

The drift of the northern part of this county is derived from the rocks which outcrop here and from those which are seen farther to the north. The Medina sandstone contributes largely to the soil, in which we find also considerable portions of granitic rocks. The decomposing feldspar and mica of the granite give alkalies to the soil, which are so combined with silica that they are comparatively unaffected by the water, and are retained in the soil for the use of plants The lime of the Helderberg range constitutes the principal part of the drift of the southern valleys, and therefore wheat is pro- duced in them with profit. The late David Thomas, in a letter to Dr. Emmons, says :

" Generally it is good wheat land as far south as the detritus from our limestone formations has been abundantly spread. The current that swept over this country took a southerly direction, and wherever the slate rocks were exposed to its action, a portion of them became mixed with the soil ; thus, near such localities, the soil is less calcarious and less favorable to wheat. The drift from our rocks grows less and less as we go south, and as it grows scarcer, the fragments have become more worn and rounded in their progress, giving a less and less proportion of the diluvial formation. About twenty miles south of the Pennsylvania line every trace of our rocks disappears. The people residing on the Susque- hanna used to supply themselves with lime by gath- ering and burning small fragments of rounded stones from the shores, much of them not larger than gravel, and which doubtless were swept from this district."

Of the formation of soils Dr. Emmons says :

" The composition, liability to solution, the struct- ure and position of rocks, have an important bearing on the discussion of the formation of soils. Each of the groups respectively impart to the overlying soils some of their distinguishing characteristics, and in a good measure make them what they are Transporting agencies modify them by interming- ling soils that have originated from rocks that are to be found at a distance. U'uless the bed's of drift are deep, it will be found that the underlying rocks give a stronger character to the soft materials than is usually supposed. Limestones are liable to a con- stant loss of materials by the solvent properties of rain water, which holds carbonic acid in solution. This is favored by rough and uneven surfaces on which water will stand. Polished surfaces are acted on but little. The shales and slates disintegrate rapidly water and frost are the agents."

Of the wearing down of silicious limestone, or calcarious sandstones, he says :

" The lime dissolves out, leaving the sand on the surface, which falls off and leaves a new surface, from

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

which the lime is dissolved and the sand falls. The dissolved lime, however, does not all pass into and re- main in the soil, but is carried down and forms, very frequently, with other materials, a hard pan, or pud- dling stone, or concretions, the lime acting as a cement. In other instances it percolates into and through the rocks and forms stalactites, veins or other deposits. Lime is removed from the soil in the same manner that it is from the rocks Thus this element is removed by vegetation and the ordinary action of rain water."

These extracts, with what else has been said as to the formation of soils, it is judged will be suffi- cient for a general description of the soils of Onon- daga county. The composition of the rocks from which they are formed being given in the Geology, it is thought that a careful study of their constitu- ents, with some practical discrimination on the part of farmers, with reference to drift and alluvial forma- tions, will enable them to know, with sufficient certainty, what their lands are composed of, with- out special analysis.

THE CLIMATE of the county is favorable to the growth and perfection of the fruits, vegetables and cereals usually cultivated, although considerable difference of temperature is shown in the same sea- son within the limits of the county, on account of different degrees of elevation. The differences, for example, between the average temperature of Pom- pey Hill and that of Onondaga Valley, has been shown by observations taken at the academies of the respective places, during a period of sixteen years, to be 4.34 deg. Fah't. The difference in alti- tude between the two places being 1,343 feet, the effect of elevation on temperature would be equal to one degree of the thermometer to each 3093 feet, which agrees substantially with what has been claimed by Coffin and others.

The effect of this elevation was practically illus- trated on the 15th day of September, 1859, the coldest day for the season ever known here. Every- thing throughout the high portions of the county was destroyed by frost, while it was observed by those descending into the valleys that tobacco and corn were comparatively uninjured. The frost is not always as severe on Pompey Hill as the tem- perature would indicate, on account of the free cir- culation of air, which sometimes prevents damage to crops when those in the valleys are touched and injured. The year referred to above was an excep- tional year, and yet little damage was done to crops except in the highest portions of the county.

" In the town of De Witt," says Mr. Geddes, " it was found that the leaves of unharvested tobacco showed slight injury, which grew less and less as the eleva- tion diminished. Below the Helderberg range the

effect of the frost was trifling. The outer ends of the corn leaves were touched as by a breath of fire, but the husks of the ears were safe, and the crop went on to maturity. On the great level north of the Erie Canal, except in a few localities, the crops were scarcely affected, and the ameliorating influ- ence of Oneida Lake, combined with diminished elevation, was a perfect protection to vegetation on its borders. Every other large body of water did good service to the farmers that morning. In the vicinity of Skaneateles Lake, lima beans were the only vegetables touched. A month elapsed before we had another such a cold night.

" The length of the summer season in the State generally, reckoning from the first blooming of the apple trees to the first killing frost, is 174 days. In Onondaga it is 174 to 180, thus giving us three more summer days than the average.of the State, while Long Island has twelve and a half more, and St. Lawrence twenty-two days less than the average of the State."

Unlike the pioneer settlers of the broad and already cleared prairies of the great West, the first farmers of Onondaga county encountered a forest of giant growth, from whose dominion a portion of the soil had to be redeemed by hard and persistent labor, with many accompanying privations, as pre- liminary and necessary steps to making it yield them and their families a subsistence. At least one gene- ration was worn out in this sturdy battle with the giant forest, in felling the trees, burning them as cumberers of the ground, splitting them into rails, and in making clearings and improvements suffi- cient for comfortable homes for the next generation. The men who encountered the forest were the heroes of that age-the pioneers of civilization, the founders of new States. It required a hardihood and a perseverance which we of this generation can hardly appreciate. In some portions of this county the timber never would have been cleared away-never could have been-but for the fish in the waters and the game with which the woods abounded. These aided the pioneers and afforded them subsistence till they could raise a living from the soil.

Let us follow the pioneer as he selects his home in the wilderness and erects his rude log cabin. The opening made in the woods at first is such only as is necessary to supply the logs for his cabin and the browse for his cattle. He has come a long journey with an ox team, and brought with him a cow, a couple of pigs and a few sheep. These, with a bed, two or three chairs, a pot and a kettle, and a few other indispensable articles for house-keeping, few and scanty, constitute his outfit and the bulk of his worldly wealth. The roof of his house is of peeled elm bark ; his scanty window is oiled paper,

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK

for glass is a luxury which has not yet found its way to the new settlement. The floor of his cabin is of halves of split logs, the door is made of three hewed plank ; no boards are to be had, for no saw mill is within accessible distance. There are yet no roads, no bridges across the streams. Miles and miles away through the dense forest is his nearest neighbor. This is the spot which the pioneer has chosen in which to carve out his future fortune. Against what fearful odds is he battling? The trees which cover his estate with the growth of centuries are to be attacked and cleared away, and the land is to be paid for. The task surely is a herculean one, but he has a stout heart and a strong arm.

A year or two pass away and we see the im- provements which have been made. Our pioneer has chopped down and cleared a few acres. The front is fenced with a new rail fence, and a brush fence protects the ends and the rear. Near the house is a small patch cleared for a garden. Here he has raised some vegetables during the season, which have supplied the first delicacies to his cabin table. A crop of corn, pumpkins and potatoes has been raised among the charred and blackened logs, but the distance is so great to a mill, the quantity of corn so small that he can carry on horseback, or the the time consumed in going with his oxen and sled so great, that he has extemporized a contrivance for converting his corn into coarse meal. A mortar has been dug out in a hard wood log, and a pestle suspended to a spring-pole, and in this the corn is being pounded to supply the needs of the family, except on extraordinary occasions when wheaten bread, from the small amount of flour procured at great cost, is used as a luxury.

But look again at our pioneer. Ten years are supposed to have passed away. The premises, late so rude, begin to have the appearance of careful management, thrift, and even comfort. Various crops are growing on many acres of cleared land. A payment has been made on the property. Hlc has a neat framed barn built, a well, provided with curb and sweep, and a garden enclosed by a picket fence A look into his fields shows a large increase in his stock. The improvements of his neighbors have reached his, so that he can now look out with- out looking up. A school district has been organ- ized, and a comfortable log school house appears in the distance. A framed bridge spans the stream in place of the primitive one built of logs. Our pioncer, we may venture to assume, is either Colonel or Captain of militia, Supervisor of the town or Justice of the Peace.

Take another view of him. Forty-five years are supposed to have elapsed since we saw him first commencing his wilderness home. Not only is his home, but the homes of his neighbors around him, are in a well cultivated and rich section of farming country. His lands and tenements are free from debt. He has added to his primitive possessions, and secured lands for his sons, if not at home, in some one of the Western States, where they are also to become pioneers of new settlements. He has flocks and herds. The surplus produce in his granaries he is able to sell or keep, as he chooses. He is a forehanded, independent farmer, having founded and worked out his own fortune by long years of patient and persevering industry. As things have changed on his premises and in his home, so have they improved in the whole neighbor- hood around him. There are fine cultivated fields, thrifty orchards, tasty and substantial farm build- ings and neat cottages. The farms are well fenced and neatly kept. The steel plow, the cultivator, the mower and reaper, have taken the place of the old implements with which the pioneers began farm life. A prosperous hamlet has sprung up near by, where there are schools, churches, telegraph, express and post offices. This hamlet, moreover, is a rail- road station, affording a market, and through which trains pass daily to and from the great cities and centres of commerce and intelligence.

Such has been pioncer life and progress in the State of New York generally, nor is the sketch we have drawn less truly a picture of early settlement in Onondaga county.

The forests which the farmers in a few genera- tions have thus subdued, were originally dense, and the timber generally heavy. Large forests of white pine grew in the north part of the county, the stumps of which, on account of their resinous properties, last for ages in the soil. This disadvan- tage, however, to clearing the land, is compensated for in another direction. The soil of the pine lands is usually so light and porous on the surface that the stumps may be lifted out of their beds in a perfectly sound condition by means of a stumping machine. This valuable invention enabled the peo- ple of Cicero and the northern portion of the coun- ty to clear their otherwise valuable and beautiful farms of the persistent incumbrance of pine stumps which for years had rendered them unsightly and seriously interfered with their cultivation. For many years the road between Syracuse and Brewer- ton was lined on both sides with these stumps set up on edge for fences. Since they have been dis- posed of, the people of that section have as fine and

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

beautiful farms as are to be found in any portion of the county.

The area of the pines in Onondaga county was chiefly in the northern portion, although they were found along the base of the Helderberg range, and a few scattering trees grew even above the cornifer- ous limestone. White cedar abounded in the swamps north of the Helderberg range, and in small quantities among the pines in the southern swamps. Hemlock was very plenty in almost every part of the county, but most abundant in the north- ern half. This valuable timber has been extensive- ly used for building, fencing, for making salt barrels and the construction of plank roads. Tamarack, two varieties of spruce, hickory, white-wood, bass- wood, maple, beech, and white and black oak, have been prevailing timber in this county.

Along the south side of the Gypseous shales were some pine trees of uncommon dimensions. Near the northeast corner of the town of Camillus, one was cut down that measured 230 feet as it lay on the ground ; another near it gave 154 feet of saw logs. They grew on land owned by Wheeler Truesdell.

Some very large white oaks were found in the low lands north of the canal, and scattered among the scrub oaks of the Gypseous shales. One of them at Fairmount was saved when the other timber was cut away, but deprived of its surround- ings, it soon died, and of consequence was cut down. The stump was five feet in diameter, and forty feet above, where the trunk was somewhat eliptical, the respective diameters measured four feet six inches, and three feet ten inches.

The progress of improvement has swept away nearly all the original forests, so that not enough now remains to meet the demands for fuel. The coal mines of Pennsylvania are now largely drawn upon, not only by the manufacturers of salt, and inhabitants of the city of Syracuse and adjoining villages, but also by the farmers.

From the first settlement of the county the " oak lands," as they have been called by the farmers, have been proverbial for their ability to produce wheat. All that tract of land once covered with oak and hickory, is the true wheat land ; the beech and maple lands are best adapted to pasturage, and the pine lands are generally well suited both to grain and grass.

We have not space to introduce here the interest- ing discussion of the clover plant as related to the agriculture of the county, the analyses of clover and clover ash furnished by Prof. Emmons and others ; but refer the reader to Transactions of the

New York State Agricultural Society for 1859, in which the subject is elaborately treated by Hon. George Geddes.

WHEAT .- Previous to the year 1846, Onondaga county produced wheat of the best quality, and in such quantities that it was the great staple and the crop from which the farmers expected to realize their profits. In that year the midge destroyed the crop, and opened the eyes of the farmers to a dan- ger they had not anticipated. The first remedy was the substitution of a variety of wheat then lit- tle esteemed, the Mediterranean, which, on trial, es- caped the ravages of the insect. At once this wheat was in demand for seed, and has since come into general use. It has gradually improved on the natural wheat soil of the county, till the flour made from it is perhaps equal in quality to that of the red chaff wheat formerly raised. Since the ravages of the midge began, more spring wheat has been raised than formerly. A portion of the lands of the coun- ty, the upper measures of the Hamilton group and the Genesee slates, represented in the town of Spafford, are best adapted to spring wheat, while Camillus and the lands situated on the shales of the Salt group, are best adapted to the production of winter wheat.

MEADOWS AND PASTURES .- Over thirty per cent. of the improved lands of this county are devoted to pasture, and over eighteen per cent. to meadow. Red clover, timothy, and red-top are sown and cul- tivated for pasture and hay. It is very rare that any other grass seeds are sown, but in most of the meadows and pastures which have stood a few years, white clover, spear grass, Kentucky blue grass, orchard grass, &c., make their appearance. In ordinary seasons, good farming will secure not less than two tons of hay to the acre, and this can be cut and properly taken care of for about $2.00 per ton.

TOBACCO .- The cultivation of tobacco as a crop was commenced in this county by Chester Moses and Nahum Grimes, both of the town of Marcellus, in 1845. They joined in hiring a man from Con- necticut who was skilled in the culture. In 1846, Col. Mars Nearing, then of the town of Salina, raised ten acres, and soon others were engaged in a small way in raising this crop. The census of 1855 shows that in the preceeding year 471 I-8 acres were raised in the county, yielding 554,987 pounds, or an average yield of 1,178 pounds to the acre. It is thought that this crop pays a better profit, on suitable ground, and when skillfully handled, than any other raised here. The produc- tion in 1859 was estimated by Mr. Benjamin Clark

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

of Marcellus, as amounting in value to $150,000, of which $25,000 worth was produced in Marcellus, $10,000 worth in Skaneateles, $20,000 worth in Van Buren, $10,000 worth in Lysander, $8,000 worth in Manlius, $5,000 worth in Camillus, $4,000 worth in Geddes, $8,000 worth in Salina, $6,000 worth in Elbridge, $8,000 worth in Onondaga, and the remainder divided among the other towns.

In 1870, the census gave 1,255,400 pounds of tobacco raised in the county, distributed among the towns as follows : Camillus, 51,770 : Cicero, 7,638 ; Clay, 123,039 ; De Witt, 38,016; Elbridge, 2,808 : Geddes, 3,900 ; LaFayette, 475 ; Lysander, 465,585 ; Manlius, 122,151 ; Marcellus, 45,293 ; Onondaga, 10,500 ; Pompey, 37,295 ; Salina, 31,550; Skane- ateles, 33,150 ; Van Buren, 266,640.

CHAPTER XVII.

COMPARATIVE STATISTICS - INFLUENTIAL, AGRI- CULTURIST'S COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIE- TIES-THE PRESENT JOINT STOCK COMPANY- GENERAL AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF THE COUNTY.

O NONDAGA is one of the five counties of the State having farms of the highest cash valuation, the aggregate value of her farms being $37,251,5441. This is exceeded only by Monroe, Oneida, Westchester, and St. Lawrence counties, whose farms are valued respectively at $42,047.759, $40,211,650, $39.305,535, and $38,399.743.

The county of Onondaga has the largest' amount of money invested in farm buildings other than dwellings, the aggregate being $4,798,545. The counties which come nearest this amount are re- spectively, Dutchess, $4,718,928 : Orange, $4,631,- 345 ; Oneida, $4,571,453 ; and St. Lawrence, $4,- 222,000.

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History of Onondaga County, New York, Part 14

Author: Clayton, W.W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co. Number of Pages: 840

Author: Clayton, W.W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 840