188 [Senate 



bovn's, Freeborn & Hitchcock's, and Wood's, the latter two forming 

 perhaps the majority. Shroud's, made at Skaneateles, is used by a 

 few, and much likedj and recently the "Wiskonsan plow" has been 

 introduced, and by some approved of. 



The square harrow, a few cultivators, and a few rollers are in use. 

 The revolving- horse rake is used but a little as yet. Threshing ma- 

 chines have been used by a few for many years, and within the last 

 three years many have been introduced. The owner threshes the 

 grain at so much a thousand sheaves, removing about from farm to 

 farm as required. They are considered handy, as they enable ad- 

 vantage to be taken of any rise in the market. 



Straw cutters are but little used. 



Scythes are mostly the English, forty-eight inches in- length. 



The farms generally do not consist of more than one hundred cul- 

 tivated acres, and the average value is not far from $80 per acre. 



There are large quantities of timber of the three oaks, chestnut, 

 and hickory. In the east part of the county bordering on Suffolk, 

 there is considerable pine, but it does not grow large. The locust 

 grows generally on the north side and in the middle of the county,. 

 and large amounts are annually shipped to New-York. Our farmers 

 have within a few years paid much attention to its cultivation, and 

 now have large tracts well covered with thrifty young locusts. 



AGRICULTURE OF RICHMOND COUNTY.* 



BY SAMUEL AKERLY, M. D., OAKLAND FARM, SGUTHFIELD. 



BOUNDARIES. 



Richmond county, though small, is of much importance from its 

 position, its beauty and its productions. It is an island in the extreme 

 southwesterly part of the State, adjacent to New-Jersey, from which 

 it is separated on the north by Newark bay, and a narrow estuary 

 called Kill Van Kull, and on the west by Staten-Island sound, which 

 is crooked and narrow, but navigable by steamboats and river craft. 

 The south side is washed by the waters of Raritan bay and the At- 

 lantic Ocean, while the Hudson-river laves its eastern shore, and then 

 mingles wth the waters of the great deep. 



EXTENT. 



Staten-Island is the name most generally in use and applied when 

 speaking of Richmond county. JBeing in the extreme south part 

 of the State, it is in the vicinity of the city ef New-York, a few 

 miles southwest of it, and consequently nearly in the same parallel, 

 lying between forty and forty-one degrees of north latitude. The 



* Accompanying tliis report were received an accurate original map of Richmond cyunty, and 

 some geological specimens, whicli will be disposed of according to tlie directions of Dr. Akerly, 

 and for which he will please accept the thanlis of the Society. — Cor. Sec'y. 



