EARLY SPRING WILDFLOWERS

Donald A. Windsor

Here is a list of the 21 wildflowers that I saw blooming on Friday afternoon 20 April 2012 in the Town of Oxford.  I was walking in a kettle-kame area east of the Chenango River south of the Village.  The landowner did not want to be identified.  The habitat was mainly upland forest, but also included bushy and grassy areas, ponds, and the river.  

 
Blue Phlox (photo),  Spring Beauty,  Bloodroot,  Crowfoot,  Common Chickweed,  Toothwort,  Blue Cohosh,  Trout Lily,  White Trilium,  Squirel Corn,  Dutchmans Breeches,  Foamflower,  Wood Anemone,  Dwarf Ginseng,  Dandelion,  Gill-Over-The-Ground,  Common Blue Violet,  Round-leaved Yellow Violet,  Sweet White Violet,  Long Spur Violet,  Canada Violet.

The names are the ones used in the Peterson & McKenny Field Guide.

Birds seen included:  Wood Duck,  Common Merganser,  Turkey Vulture,  Red-bellied Woodpecker,  Yellow-bellied Sapsucker,  Downy Woodpecker,  Tree Swallow,  Song Sparrow,  Tufted Titmouse,  Red-winged blackbird,  Common Grackle. 

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CHENANGO CANAL BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE

Donald A. Windsor

The Chenango Canal extended for 97 miles between Utica and Binghamton.  It operated from 1837 through 1878.  Its summit was at Bouckville, 706 feet higher than Utica and 300 feet higher than Binghamton.  The Canal had 116 locks; its summit was between locks 76 and 77.  Chenango County contains locks 84 through 105.

I made the following three drawings for my presentation to the Bullthistle Hikers on Tuesday 3 January 2012.  Data for them were taken from:

McFee, Michele A.  Limestone Locks and Overgrowth.  The Rise and Descent of the Chenango Canal.  Fleischmanns, NY: Purple Mountain Press.  1993.  240 pages.

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2011 WAS A WET YEAR

Donald A. Windsor

2011 was a wet year, very wet I thought.  But how wet?  On January 1, 2011, I started logging whether or not any precipitation fell during the 24-hour day.  I continued every day throughout the year and am still faithfully keeping track.

For 2011, we had 190 dry days (52.1%) and 175 wet days (47.9%).  So, in general, we had a wet day for almost every dry day.  Here is a breakdown by month.  Note that 7 months had more dry days and only 4 months had more wet days.

              Dry Days    Wet Days    Most Days
January      13              18             Wet
February    15              13             Dry
March        17              14             Dry
April           12              19            Wet
May            11              20            Wet
June           20               10           Dry
July            21               10           Dry
August       17               14           Dry
September 15               15            -
October      16              15           Dry
November  19              11           Dry
December   14             17            Wet

But, I have no baseline for comparison, so I intend to continue doing this.  My data reflect conditions where I live, in the City of Norwich.

Precipitation is usually reported as inches of rain or snow.  For my purposes, this is inadequate.  I want to know whether the ground or the foliage is wet, or if I leave something outside, will it get wet?  Or more importantly, if I schedule an event, is it liable to be a wet day?  Besides, some plants thrive on being constantly wet; others do not.

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DUGOUT CANOE IN OTSEGO LAKE 1894

Donald A. Windsor

A dugout canoe 16 feet long was pulled out of Otsego Lake during the summer of 1894 by George Rathbun of Cooperstown, according to an article in The Norwich Sun of 4 October 1894.  Thanks to Tom Knapp for finding this article.

The canoe was down 50 feet underwater and was pulled up in a seine.  It bore the marks of the blunt instrument used to dig out the hull.  The location was between Hutters Island and Mount Wellington, directly in front of Hyde Hall.  Hyde Hall is on the northern shore of Otsego Lake, just northwest of Glimmerglass State Park.

Note that the length approximates the 17 feet of our Dave Walker canoe, posting of 16 August 2011 on this blog.

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LOCAL THISTLES

Donald A. Windsor

Four thistle species live in Chenango County.  Ranked in order of the most common to the least, they are:  Canada, Bull, Pasture, and Welted.  Note that, of the four, only the Pasture Thistle is listed as native by this authoritative reference.

Mitchell, Richard S. ; Tucker, Gordon C.  Revised Checklist of New York State Plants.  Albany, NY: New York State Museum.  1997.  400 pages.  The exact page numbers appear in [] below.

 Canada Thistle  Cirsium arvense  Alien  [242]

Bull Thistle  Cirsium vulgare  Alien  [242]

 

Pasture Thistle  Cirsium pumilum  Native  [242]

Welted Thistle  Carduus crispus  Alien  [240]

We also have Sow Thistles, which are not true thistles. 
Here is the Spiny-leaved Sowthistle  Sonchus asper  Alien  [264]

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Stone Pile Site Discovered in Smithville

Donald A. Windsor

A most amazing stone pile site was discovered by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) foresters, Andrew Goeller and Christopher Sprague, in August 2011.  The site is on state land, west of the Ludlow Creek, in the Town of Smithville in Chenango County, New York.

This site is about a mile from two other sites and about three miles from another.
Here are three photos taken by me on Sunday 6 November 2011.





 

On our hike Sunday 6 November 2011, we counted 17 stone piles in a zigzag line.  On our hike Sunday 13 November 2011, we counted an additional 6 piles about a quarter mile from the 17, for a total of 23 stone piles.  There may be more.  Some smaller and disheveled piles may be buried under leaves and may have been missed.   This high number ranks up with the site in Afton, which has about three dozen piles and the site in Masonville which has about two dozen.

More investigation is intended for this winter, after the hunting gun season.

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Earliest Documentation of Tomatoes Grown in Chenango County

Donald A. Windsor

Tomatoes are native to South America, in the Andes of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.  They were introduced to Europe in the 1500s and to North America via Europe, probably in the 1700s (1, 2).  Although Hedrick claims that the Indians had been growing tomatoes (3). 

After reading Diame Hamblin's book on historical recipes from Chenango County, Made Nine Pies, I noticed that no recipes included tomatoes prior to the Civil War (1861-65) (4).  In my article, "Tomato Time", I sent out a plea for anyone with earlier documentation to notify me (5).

Dale C. Storms, former County Historian, found such a reference in the diary of Henry Van Der Lyn.  On July 11, 1839, he wrote:

"Garry put supports by the tomato's." (6).

This single sentence documents that tomatoes were growing here in Oxford in 1839.  Moreover, its matter-of-fact simplicity indicates that they may have been growing here much earlier.  Thomas Jefferson grew tomatoes in Virginia in 1781 (1).

My request still stands.  If anyone can document a date earlier than 1839, please let me know.


1.  Kline, Roger A. ; Becker, Robert F. ; Belluscio, Lynne.  Tomato.  In: The Heirloom Vegetable Garden.  Gardening in the 19th Century.  Ithaca, NY: Cornell Cooperative Extension Information Bulletin 177.  Page 24.  

2.  Mann, Charles C.  Prologue.  In:  1493. Uncovering the New World Columbus Created.  New York, NY:  Alfred A. Knopf. 2011. Pages xiii-xiv.

3.  Hedrick, Ulysses Prentiss.  [Tomatoes]  In: A History of Horticulture in America to 1860.  New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 1950.  Page 22.

4.  Hamblin, Diane, Editor.  "Made Nine Pies".  A Compilation of Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Recipes from the Collection of the Chenango County Historical Society and Private Collections.  Norwich, NY: Chenango County Historical Society.  2004.  52 pages.   

5.  Windsor, Donald A.  Tomato time.  In:  Souvenirs of Yesteryear.  Exploring Chenango County, New York. Norwich, NY: Self published. 2010. Volume 3, pages 45-46. 

6.  Van Der Lyn, Henry.  11 July, 1839.  Diary.  Oxford, NY.  Volume 4, page 240.

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