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Documentary History of the State of New York, Vol. II

O'Callaghan, E.B., ed. The Documentary History of the State of New York, Vol. II. Albany: Weed, Parsons and Co., 1849. 315 words

Tobacco is raised of a good quality, but as yet not in large quantities : a gentleman from Maryland has raised some thousand plants of it, last fall, and it is believed that it might be advantageously raised for market. Maple sugar is manufactured in such quantities that some of the Inhabitants make from five hundred to upwards of a thousand pounds of it in a season. A tree produces, by boiling down the sap, from two to five pounds

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of sugar, and it is made near the end of winter, when but little of any other work is done on a farm. The sap of the maple also affords a supply of vinegar, and excellent molasses.

Of wild animals, the most remarkable are bears, wolves and deer, which abound most in the hilly parts j also, elks, a large species of deer, weighing five or six hundred pounds, and a few panthers. Foxes, martins, minks, otters, and muskrats, are found here. Sheep are sometimes destroyed by wild animals ; but as a liberal reward is allowed for killing these, they become scarce, as population increases. Squirrels are so numerous in some years as considerably to injure corn ; and upwards of 2000 of them have sometimes been killed in a day, which is occasionally appointed for that purpose by the inhabitants j the most common kinds of them are the black, and the red ; the grey coloured being very scarce. Of reptiles, the most remarkable is the rattle-snake, which is seen mostly in the hilly country. Large numbers of pigeons frequent the country in spring and fall, of which a great many are caught by nets and shooting, and beds are sometimes made of their feathers. There are partridges and quails ; and wild fowl and fish are abundant in lake Ontario and the other lakes and in the rivers.