THE MILITARY AND CIVIL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ESSEX, NEW YORK; and a GENERAL SURVEY OF ITS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, ITS MINES AND MINERALS, AND INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS, EMBRACING AN ACCOUNT OF THE NORTHERN WILDERNESS; AND ALSO THE MILITARY ANNALS OF THE FORTRESSES OF CROWN POINT AND TICONDEROGA., continued ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND RESOURCES, concluded ...
Shipyards. The large number of vessels of various descriptions employed in the navigation of Lake Champlain, requires the labors of numerous ship yards, for their construction and repairing.
Of these, Essex county has its proportion.
This business at one time was carried on at Willsboro' to a considerable extent, the estuary of the Boquet presenting a favorable location for the purpose.
In the village of Essex, Hoskins, Ross & Co., have established a commodious yard for boat building and repairing, with which is connected a steam saw mill, and shingle planing mill, with a grinding attachment and carriage factory. 12
Since the first occupation by France, Ticonderoga has been a conspicuous point at which boats and vessels navigating the lake have been built and equipped.
To provide materials for this purpose, was a prominent motive for the erection by the French, of the saw mills at the falls.
The numerous flotillas which traversed the lakes at different periods, bearing hostile armies, were largely constructed at Ticonderoga.
Amherst paused here, while awaiting the building and preparation of a fleet for the invasion of Canada.
The fleet of Arnold, with which he combated Carleton, was chiefly constructed at this point.
Since the opening of the Champlain canal, boat building has been the prominent business occupation of Ticonderoga.
Mr. Henry Cassey owns a ship yard at the Lower falls, where a large number of first class canal boats are built yearly.
Two other yards in the town are carrying on a regular business, in this industry.
During the last ten years an average of ten boats, of one hundred tons burthen each, have been built in these yards annually. 13
Another large ship yard is in operation at Crown Point.
12 Mr. John Ross
13 Alfred Reed. H. G. Burleigh & Bro.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
THE HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
Re: THE HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
THE MILITARY AND CIVIL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ESSEX, NEW YORK; and a GENERAL SURVEY OF ITS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, ITS MINES AND MINERALS, AND INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS, EMBRACING AN ACCOUNT OF THE NORTHERN WILDERNESS; AND ALSO THE MILITARY ANNALS OF THE FORTRESSES OF CROWN POINT AND TICONDEROGA., continued ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE.
In describing the topographical features and arrangement of this county, in the preceding pages, I have sufficiently noticed its agricultural capabilities, and the soil and climate of its various districts.
The same transitions in its agricultural progress have marked every section of this county.
The natural fertility of the soil, when first opened to cultivation, yielded abundant harvests; injudicious tillage gradually exhausted its productive elements; the cause which tended to these results ceased; new interests in the management of the land were excited, and a general improvement in the farms was produced by an ameliorated system of husbandry.
The county still exhibits these various phases of its agriculture.
Some farms are just emerging from the primeval wilderness; some are impoverished and exhausted; others are commencing the process of renovation; while many others have attained a degree of improved culture and fertility, scarcely exceeded by any portion of the state.
The lumber business in this as in every region, appropriate to its pursuit, captivated the mind of the pioneer, and allures him from other occupations.
The winter was devoted to this employment.
Every product of the farm calculated to return fertilizing elements to sustain and promote its productiveness, was borne into the forests and there consumed.
At the approach of spring, the settler returned to his farm, himself and his team, prostrated by the severe labors of the winter, and illy prepared to perform the recurring duties which pressed upon him.
He conducts his farming operations imperfectly and without skill.
He has no deposits of manure to apply to his wasting soil.
The earth, by constant tillage, without renovation, becomes impoverished.
Each succeeding year witnesses a decrease in the harvest.
The land, exhausted by this improvident management, is denounced worthless in its soil, and without fertility, and abandoned to briers and desolation, or is sacrificed to some shrewd purchaser, and its owner emigrates to new scenes, to pass through the same alterations.
In this stage of society, agriculture is the secondary and subordinate occupation.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE.
In describing the topographical features and arrangement of this county, in the preceding pages, I have sufficiently noticed its agricultural capabilities, and the soil and climate of its various districts.
The same transitions in its agricultural progress have marked every section of this county.
The natural fertility of the soil, when first opened to cultivation, yielded abundant harvests; injudicious tillage gradually exhausted its productive elements; the cause which tended to these results ceased; new interests in the management of the land were excited, and a general improvement in the farms was produced by an ameliorated system of husbandry.
The county still exhibits these various phases of its agriculture.
Some farms are just emerging from the primeval wilderness; some are impoverished and exhausted; others are commencing the process of renovation; while many others have attained a degree of improved culture and fertility, scarcely exceeded by any portion of the state.
The lumber business in this as in every region, appropriate to its pursuit, captivated the mind of the pioneer, and allures him from other occupations.
The winter was devoted to this employment.
Every product of the farm calculated to return fertilizing elements to sustain and promote its productiveness, was borne into the forests and there consumed.
At the approach of spring, the settler returned to his farm, himself and his team, prostrated by the severe labors of the winter, and illy prepared to perform the recurring duties which pressed upon him.
He conducts his farming operations imperfectly and without skill.
He has no deposits of manure to apply to his wasting soil.
The earth, by constant tillage, without renovation, becomes impoverished.
Each succeeding year witnesses a decrease in the harvest.
The land, exhausted by this improvident management, is denounced worthless in its soil, and without fertility, and abandoned to briers and desolation, or is sacrificed to some shrewd purchaser, and its owner emigrates to new scenes, to pass through the same alterations.
In this stage of society, agriculture is the secondary and subordinate occupation.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: THE HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
THE MILITARY AND CIVIL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ESSEX, NEW YORK; and a GENERAL SURVEY OF ITS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, ITS MINES AND MINERALS, AND INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS, EMBRACING AN ACCOUNT OF THE NORTHERN WILDERNESS; AND ALSO THE MILITARY ANNALS OF THE FORTRESSES OF CROWN POINT AND TICONDEROGA., continued ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE, continued ...
The lumbering business closed, the farmer resumes his first duties, and yields to the land the labor and care required for its successful cultivation.
In a manufacturing district, and such is preeminently Essex county, the teaming upon the road, which abstracts so much of the time of the farmer, and the fertilizing riches of the farm, from this land, exercises a similar, although far less disastrous effect, upon its agricultural prosperity.
Other causes of the slow progress in the agricultural improvement of this county are suggested by an intelligent correspondent, 14 in reference to a single town but applicable to all.
"Conflicting titles have cast a shade over some large tracts," and in others "much of the land has been occupied under contracts, in their terms liable to constant forfeiture."
Tenures of property so frail and contingent in every region, paralyze the efforts of industry and enterprise.
The early settlers relied chiefly for pasturage and winter fodder upon the wild grasses and herbage, bountifully supplied by the beaver meadows, the marshes and glades of the forests.
The indigenous grasses of this region are very numerous, and many of them highly nutritious and valuable.
Several varieties of the ferns, brakes and rushes afford excellent hay, particularly for sheep.
The instincts of the deer indicate to the pioneer the most useful of these resources.
14 C. Fenton, Esq.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE, continued ...
The lumbering business closed, the farmer resumes his first duties, and yields to the land the labor and care required for its successful cultivation.
In a manufacturing district, and such is preeminently Essex county, the teaming upon the road, which abstracts so much of the time of the farmer, and the fertilizing riches of the farm, from this land, exercises a similar, although far less disastrous effect, upon its agricultural prosperity.
Other causes of the slow progress in the agricultural improvement of this county are suggested by an intelligent correspondent, 14 in reference to a single town but applicable to all.
"Conflicting titles have cast a shade over some large tracts," and in others "much of the land has been occupied under contracts, in their terms liable to constant forfeiture."
Tenures of property so frail and contingent in every region, paralyze the efforts of industry and enterprise.
The early settlers relied chiefly for pasturage and winter fodder upon the wild grasses and herbage, bountifully supplied by the beaver meadows, the marshes and glades of the forests.
The indigenous grasses of this region are very numerous, and many of them highly nutritious and valuable.
Several varieties of the ferns, brakes and rushes afford excellent hay, particularly for sheep.
The instincts of the deer indicate to the pioneer the most useful of these resources.
14 C. Fenton, Esq.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: THE HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
THE MILITARY AND CIVIL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ESSEX, NEW YORK; and a GENERAL SURVEY OF ITS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, ITS MINES AND MINERALS, AND INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS, EMBRACING AN ACCOUNT OF THE NORTHERN WILDERNESS; AND ALSO THE MILITARY ANNALS OF THE FORTRESSES OF CROWN POINT AND TICONDEROGA., continued ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE, continued ...
I hesitate to decide, whether I am authorized in classing the white clover, irifolium repens, with the indigenous plants of this region.
It is certain that it soon appears, by a spontaneous growth in every opening of the forest, and upon soils of sand and gravel formation.
Where gypsum has been applied, or sheep have ranged, it is immediately introduced, forming a massive sward, which constitutes a most important basis for future tillage.
The presence of a white clover turf uniformly secures on sandy soils an excellent corn crop with an application of plaster.
Wheat. For a series of years succeeding the first occupation of the county, wheat was the predominant crop, particularly in that section of it which lies upon Lake Champlain.
The average yield on new land was about twenty-five bushels to the acre.
This culture gradually declined, under the effects of a change of seasons, the exhaustion of the quality of the soil adapted to the production of wheat, and the ultimate infliction of the wevil and rust.
It was virtually abandoned, until the introduction of the Black Sea wheat, which gave it a new and successful impulse.
The tea wheat and various other spring varieties have been the successive favorites, while the general culture of wheat has been largely extended.
Winter wheat is now largely cultivated.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE, continued ...
I hesitate to decide, whether I am authorized in classing the white clover, irifolium repens, with the indigenous plants of this region.
It is certain that it soon appears, by a spontaneous growth in every opening of the forest, and upon soils of sand and gravel formation.
Where gypsum has been applied, or sheep have ranged, it is immediately introduced, forming a massive sward, which constitutes a most important basis for future tillage.
The presence of a white clover turf uniformly secures on sandy soils an excellent corn crop with an application of plaster.
Wheat. For a series of years succeeding the first occupation of the county, wheat was the predominant crop, particularly in that section of it which lies upon Lake Champlain.
The average yield on new land was about twenty-five bushels to the acre.
This culture gradually declined, under the effects of a change of seasons, the exhaustion of the quality of the soil adapted to the production of wheat, and the ultimate infliction of the wevil and rust.
It was virtually abandoned, until the introduction of the Black Sea wheat, which gave it a new and successful impulse.
The tea wheat and various other spring varieties have been the successive favorites, while the general culture of wheat has been largely extended.
Winter wheat is now largely cultivated.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: THE HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
THE MILITARY AND CIVIL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ESSEX, NEW YORK; and a GENERAL SURVEY OF ITS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, ITS MINES AND MINERALS, AND INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS, EMBRACING AN ACCOUNT OF THE NORTHERN WILDERNESS; AND ALSO THE MILITARY ANNALS OF THE FORTRESSES OF CROWN POINT AND TICONDEROGA., continued ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE, continued ...
Rye, in several towns of Essex county, was formerly the predominant crop.
It is now very generally abandoned as a prominent cereal except upon light and gravelly soils.
Rye is seldom used as an article of human aliment, and in the absence of distilleries, is chiefly cultivated for animal food.
The straw is esteemed valuable for that purpose, and when cut is peculiarly esteemed for horse fodder combined with heavy grain.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE, continued ...
Rye, in several towns of Essex county, was formerly the predominant crop.
It is now very generally abandoned as a prominent cereal except upon light and gravelly soils.
Rye is seldom used as an article of human aliment, and in the absence of distilleries, is chiefly cultivated for animal food.
The straw is esteemed valuable for that purpose, and when cut is peculiarly esteemed for horse fodder combined with heavy grain.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: THE HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
THE MILITARY AND CIVIL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ESSEX, NEW YORK; and a GENERAL SURVEY OF ITS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, ITS MINES AND MINERALS, AND INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS, EMBRACING AN ACCOUNT OF THE NORTHERN WILDERNESS; AND ALSO THE MILITARY ANNALS OF THE FORTRESSES OF CROWN POINT AND TICONDEROGA., continued ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE, continued ...
Oats. The aggregate produced in Essex county is very large.
It is cultivated in every description of soil and in every section of the county.
The heaviest crops I have examined were raised in the new openings of the forests, upon the slopes of the Adirondacs.
The cultivation of oats, in the elevated town of Newcomb has been singularly successful.
Peas are cultivated to some extent, and are highly esteemed as a renovating and subduing crop, and are especially efficient and useful, in the extirpation of weeds and bushes upon new lands.
Peas are regarded as a valuable substitute for corn in making pork.
Barley. The culture of this grain has largely increased in the county and with favorable results.
Beans were formerly raised only in connection with corn, but recently the great demand for the article, at enhanced prices, has largely stimulated its more extended cultivation.
Buckwheat and Indian wheat, especially the former, are largely cultivated in the county, although many farmers deprecate the husbandry as injudicious and improvident.
Both are used extensively for hog feeding, ground or boiled.
Buckwheat, floured at the local mills, is exported in a large amount, to the eastern and southern markets.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE, continued ...
Oats. The aggregate produced in Essex county is very large.
It is cultivated in every description of soil and in every section of the county.
The heaviest crops I have examined were raised in the new openings of the forests, upon the slopes of the Adirondacs.
The cultivation of oats, in the elevated town of Newcomb has been singularly successful.
Peas are cultivated to some extent, and are highly esteemed as a renovating and subduing crop, and are especially efficient and useful, in the extirpation of weeds and bushes upon new lands.
Peas are regarded as a valuable substitute for corn in making pork.
Barley. The culture of this grain has largely increased in the county and with favorable results.
Beans were formerly raised only in connection with corn, but recently the great demand for the article, at enhanced prices, has largely stimulated its more extended cultivation.
Buckwheat and Indian wheat, especially the former, are largely cultivated in the county, although many farmers deprecate the husbandry as injudicious and improvident.
Both are used extensively for hog feeding, ground or boiled.
Buckwheat, floured at the local mills, is exported in a large amount, to the eastern and southern markets.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: THE HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
THE MILITARY AND CIVIL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ESSEX, NEW YORK; and a GENERAL SURVEY OF ITS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, ITS MINES AND MINERALS, AND INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS, EMBRACING AN ACCOUNT OF THE NORTHERN WILDERNESS; AND ALSO THE MILITARY ANNALS OF THE FORTRESSES OF CROWN POINT AND TICONDEROGA., continued ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE, continued ...
Potato. This crop has attained great prominence in the agriculture of the county.
The prevalence of the disease, which impaired and often nearly suspended the cultivation of the potato, produced an entire change in the tillage connected with it.
Heavy, damp and highly manured lands, which once were deemed indispensable to the successful cultivation of the potato, have been abandoned, and light gravelly sandy soils have been substituted.
Green unfermented manures are considered unsafe, and charcoal, lime, ashes, plaster and special fertilizers, are now generally in use.
The potatoes produced in this district are of the choicest quality.
Of late they have been less exported than some years ago, when from a single wharf ten thousand bushels were shipped in a season.
In the interior of the county, the numerous starch factories create a certain and generally remunerative market for all this crop the industry of the farmer can produce.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE, continued ...
Potato. This crop has attained great prominence in the agriculture of the county.
The prevalence of the disease, which impaired and often nearly suspended the cultivation of the potato, produced an entire change in the tillage connected with it.
Heavy, damp and highly manured lands, which once were deemed indispensable to the successful cultivation of the potato, have been abandoned, and light gravelly sandy soils have been substituted.
Green unfermented manures are considered unsafe, and charcoal, lime, ashes, plaster and special fertilizers, are now generally in use.
The potatoes produced in this district are of the choicest quality.
Of late they have been less exported than some years ago, when from a single wharf ten thousand bushels were shipped in a season.
In the interior of the county, the numerous starch factories create a certain and generally remunerative market for all this crop the industry of the farmer can produce.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: THE HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
THE MILITARY AND CIVIL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ESSEX, NEW YORK; and a GENERAL SURVEY OF ITS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, ITS MINES AND MINERALS, AND INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS, EMBRACING AN ACCOUNT OF THE NORTHERN WILDERNESS; AND ALSO THE MILITARY ANNALS OF THE FORTRESSES OF CROWN POINT AND TICONDEROGA., continued ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE, continued ...
Corn. This crop may be pronounced the agricultural staple of Essex county and the basis of the rotation and renovating system of its husbandry.
The stalks of corn are highly valued as a fodder for neat cattle, and when fed to milch cows, from their succulent qualities if carefully preserved, are considered by most farmers superior to hay.
Carrots, Beets and Turnips are largely cultivated and extensively used in feeding horses, neat cattle and swine.
Flax is seldom cultivated in the county.
Only four acres are returned in the census of 1865, as appropriated to the crop, and not a single acre of hemp.
Hay. This crop is of the first importance, and always commands the highest prices.
The production of hay, however, in the country, falls immensely below the consumption.
Large quantities of pressed hay is annually imported from Washington county, Vermont and Canada.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE, continued ...
Corn. This crop may be pronounced the agricultural staple of Essex county and the basis of the rotation and renovating system of its husbandry.
The stalks of corn are highly valued as a fodder for neat cattle, and when fed to milch cows, from their succulent qualities if carefully preserved, are considered by most farmers superior to hay.
Carrots, Beets and Turnips are largely cultivated and extensively used in feeding horses, neat cattle and swine.
Flax is seldom cultivated in the county.
Only four acres are returned in the census of 1865, as appropriated to the crop, and not a single acre of hemp.
Hay. This crop is of the first importance, and always commands the highest prices.
The production of hay, however, in the country, falls immensely below the consumption.
Large quantities of pressed hay is annually imported from Washington county, Vermont and Canada.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: THE HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
THE MILITARY AND CIVIL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ESSEX, NEW YORK; and a GENERAL SURVEY OF ITS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, ITS MINES AND MINERALS, AND INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS, EMBRACING AN ACCOUNT OF THE NORTHERN WILDERNESS; AND ALSO THE MILITARY ANNALS OF THE FORTRESSES OF CROWN POINT AND TICONDEROGA., continued ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE, continued ...
STOCK.
Numerous dairies exist in the county, and some of them of a superior character, and embracing excellent cows; most of these possess an infusion of pure blood; but few animals are found in the district exclusively of thoroughbred stock.
It is apparent, from the table of census returns, that the wool growing interest of Essex county has attained very considerable importance.
The climate, the physical formation, the soil and position of this region will combine to render this territory one of the most eligible and prosperous wool growing districts of the state.
In no department of its husbandry has this county exhibited more decided progress, than in the quality and character of its stock.
I cannot ascertain that a thorough bred animal was owned in the country, until about the year 1847.
Grades of Teeswater and Durham had been introduced probably before that period.
It now contains individuals of nearly every breed, that may almost maintain an equal competition with the stock of any section of the state.
A race of horses, almost indigenous to its soil, is disseminated through the county, which combine properties of rare excellence.
The high reputation of the Black Hawk horses has become widely diffused, and each year adds to their consideration.
In no district have they been more extensively bred, or attained greater perfection than in this region.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE, continued ...
STOCK.
Numerous dairies exist in the county, and some of them of a superior character, and embracing excellent cows; most of these possess an infusion of pure blood; but few animals are found in the district exclusively of thoroughbred stock.
It is apparent, from the table of census returns, that the wool growing interest of Essex county has attained very considerable importance.
The climate, the physical formation, the soil and position of this region will combine to render this territory one of the most eligible and prosperous wool growing districts of the state.
In no department of its husbandry has this county exhibited more decided progress, than in the quality and character of its stock.
I cannot ascertain that a thorough bred animal was owned in the country, until about the year 1847.
Grades of Teeswater and Durham had been introduced probably before that period.
It now contains individuals of nearly every breed, that may almost maintain an equal competition with the stock of any section of the state.
A race of horses, almost indigenous to its soil, is disseminated through the county, which combine properties of rare excellence.
The high reputation of the Black Hawk horses has become widely diffused, and each year adds to their consideration.
In no district have they been more extensively bred, or attained greater perfection than in this region.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: THE HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
THE MILITARY AND CIVIL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ESSEX, NEW YORK; and a GENERAL SURVEY OF ITS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, ITS MINES AND MINERALS, AND INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS, EMBRACING AN ACCOUNT OF THE NORTHERN WILDERNESS; AND ALSO THE MILITARY ANNALS OF THE FORTRESSES OF CROWN POINT AND TICONDEROGA., continued ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE, continued ...
Fruit.
The Champlain valley is preeminently adapted, in soil and climate, to the production of most varieties of the apple.
The list of apples cultivated in this district is very numerous, and the quality generally of the highest excellence.
Many old orchards still exist, which were planted at the first settlement of the country.
The pioneer, usually, brought with his household goods, the bag of apple seeds from his New England home, and the young orchard was among the earliest evidences of improvement and civilization.
The perversion of this rich bounty of providence, for a period, created a prejudice, which led to the neglect of its culture.
A few years ago, five thousand engrafted apple trees were planted in a single season in the town of Crown Point.
Other towns have been equally conspicuous in this enterprise.
Large fields are devoted to the apple culture, and in all the eastern towns, young trees not yet in bearing occupy extensive areas and impart to the territory a pleasant aspect of thrift and improvement.
In Willsboro' and Essex, it seems as if the whole region would soon be converted into one vast orchard.
The former town alone, it is estimated, exported in the autumn of '68, between four and five thousand barrels of apples, of which fourteen or fifteen hundred barrels were selected grafts. 15
Engrafted trees are now chiefly cultivated.
The inferior apples not adapted to market, are dried, or used for the feed of animals, and a very small portion is manufactured into cider.
A large quantity of this kind of fruit are purchased and transported by bateau loads into Canada.
Plums are cultivated in numerous varieties and of great excellence, and are largely exported.
The crop is frequently impaired and often destroyed by the ravages of the circulio.
This pestilent insect infests, also, the cherry.
Many varieties of the pear are now cultivated successfully and exported to considerable extent.
Much attention is given to the grape culture, and embracing the more hardy variety, with favorable results.
The original vine of the Adirondac grape was discovered beneath a cliff of the mountain, at Port Henry upon the grounds of Mr. J. G. Weatherbee.
Whether a native growth or a seedling of the Isabella, is, I think, undetermined, but propagated by the skill and enterprise of Mr. J. W. Bailey of Plattsburg, it has attained celebrity as a fruit and proved a source of large income to the proprietors.
Other varieties of the native grape might by care and skill be successfully cultivated.
The blue or huckleberry appears in great profusion upon new clearings on light soils, and particularly those which have been burnt over.
The product of fruit is often immense, and its picking, boxing and transportation, furnish employment to crowds of laborers of every age and sex, through a long term in the summer and autumn.
This humble occupation diffuses through the interior of the county, no inconsiderable sums of money.
15 Rev. A. D. Barber.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
By WINSLOW C. WATSON.
PART IV.
AGRICULTURE, continued ...
Fruit.
The Champlain valley is preeminently adapted, in soil and climate, to the production of most varieties of the apple.
The list of apples cultivated in this district is very numerous, and the quality generally of the highest excellence.
Many old orchards still exist, which were planted at the first settlement of the country.
The pioneer, usually, brought with his household goods, the bag of apple seeds from his New England home, and the young orchard was among the earliest evidences of improvement and civilization.
The perversion of this rich bounty of providence, for a period, created a prejudice, which led to the neglect of its culture.
A few years ago, five thousand engrafted apple trees were planted in a single season in the town of Crown Point.
Other towns have been equally conspicuous in this enterprise.
Large fields are devoted to the apple culture, and in all the eastern towns, young trees not yet in bearing occupy extensive areas and impart to the territory a pleasant aspect of thrift and improvement.
In Willsboro' and Essex, it seems as if the whole region would soon be converted into one vast orchard.
The former town alone, it is estimated, exported in the autumn of '68, between four and five thousand barrels of apples, of which fourteen or fifteen hundred barrels were selected grafts. 15
Engrafted trees are now chiefly cultivated.
The inferior apples not adapted to market, are dried, or used for the feed of animals, and a very small portion is manufactured into cider.
A large quantity of this kind of fruit are purchased and transported by bateau loads into Canada.
Plums are cultivated in numerous varieties and of great excellence, and are largely exported.
The crop is frequently impaired and often destroyed by the ravages of the circulio.
This pestilent insect infests, also, the cherry.
Many varieties of the pear are now cultivated successfully and exported to considerable extent.
Much attention is given to the grape culture, and embracing the more hardy variety, with favorable results.
The original vine of the Adirondac grape was discovered beneath a cliff of the mountain, at Port Henry upon the grounds of Mr. J. G. Weatherbee.
Whether a native growth or a seedling of the Isabella, is, I think, undetermined, but propagated by the skill and enterprise of Mr. J. W. Bailey of Plattsburg, it has attained celebrity as a fruit and proved a source of large income to the proprietors.
Other varieties of the native grape might by care and skill be successfully cultivated.
The blue or huckleberry appears in great profusion upon new clearings on light soils, and particularly those which have been burnt over.
The product of fruit is often immense, and its picking, boxing and transportation, furnish employment to crowds of laborers of every age and sex, through a long term in the summer and autumn.
This humble occupation diffuses through the interior of the county, no inconsiderable sums of money.
15 Rev. A. D. Barber.
TO BE CONTINUED ...