The surface of the county is, as a rule, sufficiently level to permit of easy cultivation, and fertile enough to have attracted farmers since the very early days. The Seneca River is the principal stream, receiving, as it does, the waters that drain into the several lakes. With its tributaries, Owasco, Cold Spring, Cayuga, Crane and Bread creeks, it forms many water powers, many of which have been utilized. Geologically, there are few minerals of value, the only ones being mined, or quarried today are limestones and gypsum. Building stone and clays are the only other mineral products used to any extent.
Agriculture is the main vocation of Cayuga, it still being what is called a rural county.
But the increase in the number of factories, and the growing populations of the villages at the expense of the farms must not be overlooked. Cayuga County was formed from Onondaga March 8, 1799. The first general division of the State into townships took place in 1789, and the towns of Aurelius and Milton were set up on January 27 of this year, being taken from Batavia. The first settlement in the present county was made in 1878 by Roswell Franklin at Aurora, but the subsequent influx of emigrants was rapid and great, for in 1800 there were more than 15,000 people in the new county. New York had provided bounty lands for 88 battalions of' its Colonial soldiery, but these tracts lay in a part of the State which did not appeal to the owners, so they were for the greater part sold, the soldiers in question moving to the lake country, of which the returning army of Sullivan gave such glowing reports.