196 



GENESEE FARMER 



Aug. 



Lorn 



Island Farming, Soil, 



&c. 



Messrs. Editors :— Perhaps the following 

 imperfect sketch of a short ramble on Long 

 Island may not be wholly without interest to 

 some of your readers in Western New York, 

 had got the impression from some source, but I 

 cannot tell where, that when I came to Long 

 Island I should find the country covered with 

 luxuriant green crops and waving fields of grain 

 but as yet I have been disappointed in that ex- 

 pectation. I also supposed that the soil and 

 climate here were adapted to the cultivation of 

 fruit but in this respect my aBticipations have 

 not been fully realized. 



Coming east from Brooklyn, not long since, 

 I took the railway and came to Riverhead — a 

 distance of seventy-four miles. Leaving Brook- 

 lyn we passed occasional pieces of rye, but few 

 pieces of wheat : corn and potatoes appeared 

 well, especially the former,, which I think ex- 

 ceeds the corn in Monroe county. But few of 

 the meadows would be considered fair, and the 

 pastures would have been almost bare if they 

 had not been covered with the daisy ; this daisy 

 was also thick in the meadows. Coming on 

 further east the country assumed a poorer and 

 still poorer appearance as we proceeded — there 

 were fewev inhabitants, fewer cultivated fields, 

 and less cleared land, until there was scarcely a 

 fence to be seen, and the railway stations in 

 several instances consisted of a solitary house, 

 with roads leading from it through the woods, 

 to the north and south sides of the island. But 

 the timber even bears witness against the un- 

 cleared land, for it consists of scrubs of oaks and 

 pines, ranging from ten to twenty feet in height. 



I had an excellent opportunity of observing 

 the soil where the excavations had been made 

 in grading the road, and so far as I could dis- 

 cover, it appeared to be nothing but a deposit of 

 sand and gravel, of a yellowish white color, and 

 containing very little vegetable earth. I should 

 in justice state, however, that the railrord is said 

 to pass through the poorest part of the Island — 

 the most fertile portions being confined to the 

 northern and southern coasts. 



Leaving Riverhead, I crossed what might be 

 called a pine desert or plain. It is a sandy plain 

 five or six miles in width, and covered with 

 scrags of pines, from two to eight feet in height. 

 As we came within two or three miles of the 

 coast the country appeared much better, and I 

 found it quite thickly settled near the coast. 



The principal crops cultivated at this place, 

 on the south side of the Island, are rye, corn, 

 oats, buckwheat and potatoes. Sometimes wheat 

 is sown, but it is not always sure. There are 

 no apples, pears, peaches, plums or cherries cul- 

 tivated here ; but I understand that fruit does 

 well on the north side, and also farther east of 



this, at Easthampton. Wheat is also cultivated 

 successfully in some parts of the Island, I believe. 



Tlie most valuable manures, aside from the 

 product of the barn yard, are ashes, fish and 

 lime. Ashes have a very good effect, and fish 

 are used extensively in manuring rye and corn. 

 Leached ashes cost here fourteen cents a bushel. 

 The fish generally put on the land are bunkers 

 or shad, and they will average perhaps a pound 

 a piece. From ten to fifteen hundred of these 

 are put on an acre. They are sometimes put 

 on a day or two before plowing, and when the 

 process of decay has commenced, they are 

 plowed under. For corn and potatoes they are 

 generally strewed upon the top of the groundV 

 and covered with the hoe at the time of hoeing. 

 These fish, at a time of fishing, can be bought 

 for ten shillings per load, and a load contains 

 about two thousand fish. Plaster is not used 

 at all. 



The people here are now engaged in harvest- 

 ing, and the crops appear well, but their surplus 

 produce is comparatively small to that of the 

 farmers in Monroe county. W. G . 



Quogue, L. /., iV. Y.,'July, 1848. 



Ths Hessian Fly. 



John N. Wheeler, an extensive farmer of 

 Flowerfield, St. Josephs Co., Mich., sends the fol- 

 lowing description of the formation of the wheat 

 insect to the Genesee Farmer : — 



"The fly lays an egg, generally on the first 

 leaf of wheat that appears after sowing, but sel- 

 dom as late as the appearance of the third leaf. 

 The egg is deposited near the top of the leaf; 

 it is of the color and shape of the red-top grass 

 seed, and about half the size. It slides down 

 the creases of the leaves to the root, or near it, 

 leaving a glazing in its descent by which its 

 presence in the stalk below can be known. It 

 then turns into a red insect, looking like a small 

 spider ; from this to a white egg, which turns to> 

 a flax seed colour, which produces the worm." 



The writer of the above may be mistaken in 

 the details of the different transformations, but 

 he gave me, verbally, a very philosophical rea- 

 son why late sown wheat was less liable to be 

 injured by the fly than the earlv sown ; to wit : 

 The fly lays its egg only in warm favorable 

 weather ; that wheat which has attained its third 

 leaf during a previous cool state of weather is 

 out of danger. Farmers, have your ground in 

 first rate order, with a sprinkling of warm, quick- 

 ening manure, and sow late, if you wish to 

 avoid the fly. The same mode of culture will 

 give a strong root to resist the action of the 



!t. Agricola. 



fp you wish to avoid being dunned, follow 

 this prescription — Never run in debt. 



