192 HOW TO GET A FARM, 



evils inseparable from a land monopoly. These 

 owners became an aristocracy. They not only fail 

 ed to improve their possessions, but, by refusing to 

 sell, prevented others from doing so. When the 

 monopoly was broken up by their descendants di 

 viding and selling, population flowed in and farms 

 were established. Emancipation in Russia is pro 

 ducing like results, and such will follow the enact 

 ment of the Homestead Law. % 



The great bulk of these lands were comparatively 

 inaccessible to the public. There were roads, it is 

 true, but they were few in number. The island was 

 not a thoroughfare, having crowds of travellers 

 from other States passing over its soil. Few, there 

 fore, saw these tracts, and these few, seeing that 

 they were uncultivated, adopted and propagated 

 still further the popular idea that they were barren. 

 The opening of the Long Island railroad served to 

 dissipate this delusion. It opened up a tract of 

 country ninety-five miles in length. 



In September, 1860, the Farmers Club made ex 

 cursions over the railroad for the purpose of exam 

 ining the Barrens. They say that &quot; a stranger un 

 acquainted with the country would readily remark 

 the immense quantity of uncultivated land traversed 

 by the railroad, with only here and there a spot ex 

 hibiting tillage, and hence the inquiry would nat 

 urally arise, why is it that this extensive tract, so 

 near the great city of New York and its sister city, 

 Brooklyn, remains unsubdued and untilled, and 

 what means can be economically used to make this 

 apparent wilderness productive and remunerative 



