238 



THE GE]!<1!;»£E FARMER. 



But 



to separate the two as perfectly as desirable 

 we want i)o\vcr cluirns in this case. 



" The Oonstniction of Barn- Yards'''' on the plan 

 of "J. A.," would not prove the best practically, 

 in my opinion. Unless the hollow was very large, 

 it would at some seasons till to running over, and 

 at all would be "a slough of despond "to those 

 who were compelled to cross it. We will not at- 

 tempt, at present, to otter a better plan. 



" Stacking and feeding out Straw'" in a proper 

 manner is too often neglected, though labor ex- 

 pended in this direction would be as profitable as 

 any which can be done by the farmer. AVe prefer 

 building the straw stack in the barn-yard, and 

 using it freely for littering yard, sheds, and stables, 

 giving the stock a fair chance to consume all they 

 will, as it is taken from the stack for these purposes. 



" 17ie New Half- Volume" commencing in July, 

 ought to have several thousand new subscribers. 

 " Only three cents" for a paper like the one before 

 us is unparalleled, cheapness, taking real value into 

 consideration. b. 



Niagara Co., N. Y., July, 185S. 



NOTES FOR THE MONTH, -BY S. W. 



Long Island Wild Lands. — Having recently 

 visited those lands »vhich were advertised in the 

 June No. of the Farmer^ I can now bear testimony 

 with Professor ISTash, (who spent several days in 

 examining this large tract of the great central pla- 

 teau of Long Island,) that every word set forth in 

 Dr. Peck's minute, description of those lauds, as 

 advertised by him, is strictly true. 



At Deer Park station, on the Long Island rail- 

 road, thirty-seven miles from Xew York, is the 

 farm of the late Mr. Wilson, carved out of these 

 wild wood lands within the last four years. Here 

 was the best field of wheat I had seen, and fifty 

 acres of the handsomest timothy and clover; liere 

 also were the finest fruit trees, gardens, and Indian 

 eorn, growing on the very spot where a late histo- 

 rian of Long Island set down the soil as a " barren 

 sand, approaching fluidity." As Professor Nasq 

 truly said before the Farmers' Club, these plains are 

 not, as has been asserted, " barren sand and gravel," 

 but a "generous loam, finely adapted to garden cul- 

 ture, and capable of producing various crops most 

 profitable to the farmer." If it is asked why these 

 lands have been so long uncultivated, it may in the 

 first place be said, that until lately there was no 

 road through them, and common report had set 

 them down as barren; and when the railroad 

 reached them, the Rip Van Winkles, instead of 

 availing themselves of its advantages, made war 

 upon it as an intruder on their hereditary, time- 

 honored right to transpoi't their truck to New York 

 by the sail craft of the bay, or Long Island Sound. 

 Again, the question may be answered, Yankee 

 fiishion, by asking another: why is it that these 

 fogy farmers have never yet, in a single instance, 

 submitted to the modern improvement in manuring 

 tJheir farms, by plowing in blooming clover for a 

 manuring crop ? I now venture to assert that if 

 the same exhausting process of tillage practiced 

 here, had been applied to a soil less grateful, and in 

 a climate more arid than that of this sea-girt island, 

 such soil would ere this have been reduced to a 

 barren waste, that no verdure quickened, and in 

 which no piani could tiike root. 



I also noticed at all the other recent clearings on 

 this bushy plain, the same beautiful fields of clover, 

 gardens, and corn-fields. At North Islip station, 

 forty-three miles from New York, the soil in the 

 bushes, after removing the vegetable mould, was 

 three and a half feet deep, — a "yellow sandy loam, 

 apparently rich in plant food ; this was underlaid 

 by that light colored sand and gravel that charac- 

 terizes the subsoil of the Island, forming that uni- 

 versal underdrain which saves the enormous ex- 

 pense of tile draining, so indispensable in western 

 New Y^ork. Yet no region of the State is better 

 watered by springs and lasting streams, and the 

 well water never fails. A short distance from this 

 station is a young peach orchard of eight acres,^ en- 

 circled by the scrub plain ; such healthy trees, filled 

 with perfect fruit, would be called a phenomenon, 

 at this time of stung and diseased peach trees, in 

 western New York. 



We now went by stage from this station to Islip 

 village, at the bay four miles distant, by a good 

 smooth road through the bushes, descendmg twenty 

 feet to the mile ; here we found a spacious, costly 

 hotel, and many boarding-houses, and genteel tav- 

 erns, without a bar ; fine houses, elegant gardens, 

 and the appearance of both wealth and good taste. 

 Here, for the first time since this hot term, I slept 

 comfortably, under the influence of that cooling sea 

 breeze which is not felt .at New Y''ork and the west- 

 ern part of this Island. Here I feasted on quahaug 

 clams, roasted in the shell as of old, and on the sa- 

 vory horse mackerel, fresh from the bay. The soil 

 here is coarser than that in the interior, but the 

 humid sea air gives a peculiar fulness and brilliancy 

 to the white clover blossoms, unseen on the dry 

 calcareous soils at the west. Land here cannot be 

 bought for much less than $200 the acre, while a 

 better soil, on the uncleared plains four miles dis- 

 tant, is now oftered at $20 the acre. It needs not 

 therefore the spirit of prophecy, to see that this 

 whole bushy region, of many thousand acres, can 

 not much longer remain unsettled, if it only escapes 

 the forestalling land speculator ; one of the genus, 

 I was told, already holds several hundred acres, 

 which he keeps out of the market, declining to sell 

 it for the present at any price. 



All the way from Brooklyn to Islip, I did not see 

 either a barren, worn out field, or one that needed 

 the expense of draining ; even the time-slandered 

 Hempsted plains were covered with white clover, 

 and bovine herds far and near in the distance. At 

 Hickville station a car was loaded with cans of milk 

 for New York market, — an entire new enterprise, 

 which threatens to extend and rival the Orange 

 county article, which of late is said to taste of 

 naughty slops. 



There is a homogenousness in the soils of Long 

 Island, that must be interesting to the Hugh Mill- 

 ers of the land. At Green Point, opposite New 

 York, there are some large quartz and granite 

 boulders, apparently strangers, but the same yellow- 

 loam predominates; and in proof of its organic 

 wealth, I saw white clover growing where the sur- 

 face soil had been excavated and taken off to the 

 depth of several feet. 



On returning west, I could not resist the convic- 

 tion tliat a kind superintending providence had in 

 the beginning made Long Island what it is, with it8 

 moist, grass favoring atmosphere, almost without a 



