Development of Agriculture 



IN 



^ON. ^ENRY 1^. ®EDGES. 



IN these centennial exercises the subject assigned to me was "The Devel- 

 opment of Agriculture." Agriculture, new and old, what it was two 

 hundred years gone by, and what it is now in Suffolk county. 

 From 1639, when Lyon Gardiner made the first English settlement in 

 the county of Suffolk, and within the present bounds of the State of New 

 York, other colonies were founded at Southampton and Southold in 1640; 

 in East-Hampton in 1649, and extending to Shelter Island, Setauket, 

 Smithtown and Huntington, soon thereafter covered by charter the terri- 

 tory of the county of Suffolk. At the organization of the countv in 1683, 

 forty-four years had passed since Gardiner came to his island. This coun- 

 ty comprised about two-thirds of the territory of Long Island. The census 

 of 1875 gives the area thus: 



hnproved, woodland, other, total. 



Kings county, acres, 9, no 600 1,174 11,090 



Queens cpunty, " 117,686 29,736 24,561 171,983 



Suffolk county, " 156,760 102,550 129,135 388,445 



Total area, 571,518 



One-third is 190,506 



Area of Kings and Queens is 183,073 



Area of Suffolk over one-third is — acres 7,4 33 



The precise population of the State or county in 1683, I have not as- 

 certained. There was a partial statement in 1693, and the apportionment 

 of militia to each county, thus: 



City and county of New York, 477 



Queens county, rgo 



Suffolk " . 52 5 



Kinffs " 219 



Albany 



359 



LHster county and Dutchess, . 277 



Westchester county, 283 



Richmond " 104 



Total, 2,932 



