40 DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Suffolk was the third county in the colony in the Quotas. In i6y8, 

 1703 and 1723, the population is thus given: 



1698. 1703. 1723. 



Total, 17,848 20,749 40,564 



These results show that SuJolk County in population wis the third in 

 the State in 1693 and 1703. and the fourth county in 1723. A similar com- 

 parison will show that by the census in 1731 and 1737 this county held the 

 same rank. In 1746 and 1749 it was the third; in 1756 the fifth, and in 

 1771 the sixth county of the State in numbers. In these periods reaching 

 over almost one hundred and forty years, when the State was largel}- agri- 

 cultural, the population of this county, chiefly so sustained, was nearly 

 one-sixth of thit in the entire State. In 1790 it was the eighth county, and 

 containetl 16,440 out of 340, 120 in the State — a little under one-twentieth 

 of the whole amount. On the 17th day of May, 1683, the tax of the 

 province of New York vvas ti cjd at ^2556 4s. od. , ahtl was apportioned 

 thus: 



The city and county of New \ ork to pay 434 



County of Westchester, " 185 



City and county of Albany, " 240 



County of Richmond, " 185 



County of Ulster, ' " 408 



Kings County, " 308 



Queens County, " 308 



County of Suffolk, " 434 



* Dukes County, • " 40 



Countv of Orange " 10 



Thus at the organization of the county its farmers were taxed to piy 

 over one-sixth part of all the taxes paid in the then ten counties oi" the 

 prov'nce ol New York, and as much as the city and county of New York, 

 an I more than any other county that alone excepted. Unless the county 

 of Suff"olk was then a producdve territory, agriculturally, the tax was un- 

 equal, oppressive and unjust. Assuming its equality, it is given as an evi- 

 dence that even then ag'iculture had so far progressed that in wedth, in 

 substantial comfort, in ministry to the necessities of mankind, this county 

 as an agricultural county stood even with the then commercial metropolis 

 of the province, and second to none in the province. In 1693 Queens 



*NOTE. — The County of Dukes comprised Nantucket, Martlia's" Vineyara and tlie Eliza- 

 bath Islands. 



