No. 63.J 191 



Of bread corn, of barley, oats, potatoes and hay, a much larger 

 quantity is produced than the consumption of the county requires, 

 and the surplus is sold in the city of New-York. 



VALUE OF CHOPS. 



From the preceding statements, hay appears to betiie principal and 

 most A^aluable crop, estimating it even at the present depreciated 

 sales of fifty cents the hundred, or ten dollars the ton of 2000 lbs. 

 The crop of 1839, at this price, would be worth $3G,100, but in that 

 and the succeeding year, hay sold higher and wouki probably aver- 

 age 62i cents the hundred, or $43,320 for the entire crop. 



Indian corn is the next in importance and value, and other edible 

 articles in succession of value, would be wheat, potatoes, oats, rye, 

 barley and buckwheat. In estimating these at the market prices of 

 1842, their value would be $64,134. To these must be added the 

 products of poultry, the dairy, the orchard, the market garden and 

 domestic or family goods. 



The stock of poultry is estimated at $8,001, which in chickens and 

 eggs, would probably produce $1,120, or fourteen per cent on the 

 capital, owing to the facility of selling them in New-York. The va- 

 lue of the dairy is stated at $25,506, which would be equivalent to 

 141,700 lbs. of butter per annum, at 18 cents. The butter made on 

 this Island, however, is mostly consumed in the county, is not of the 

 first quality, and is not laid down in firkins, and that which is sold is 

 usually sent in fresh rolls during spring and autumn to New-York, or 

 the villages on the Island. 



The produce of the orchards in 1839, wa= $6,148, which is not a 

 large yield. There was more fruit in 1840 and less in 1841 and 

 1842; as in these two years, the trees w^ere injured while in blossom, 

 by cold and wet north-easterly storms. Fruit trees appear to be de- 

 teriorating, and apples, pears, peaches and plums are diminishing by 

 diseases in the trees, and their consequent gradual decay. It may be 

 observed how^ever, that new orchards and plantations are forming to 

 supply the waste. 



The produce of market gardens was $17,029. The nearness to 

 New-York, and the facility of getting there by steamboats with mar- 

 ket produce, gives employment to a number of persons, who attend 

 the public markets, and there sell their own fruit and vegetables, or 

 act as agents for others. 



Small quantities of hemp, flax, wool, hops, wax and silk cocoons, 

 have also been produced, but to such a limited extent, that their 

 whole value, together with 435 cords of w^ood cut and sold, w^ould 

 not probably exceed the value of $2,800. 



' The following, then, would be the value of the agricultural crop of 

 Richmond county in 1839: 



Crop of hay, $43,-320 00 



Indian corn, 22,716 00 



wheat, 18,000 00 



Carried forward, $84,036 00 



