12 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



fresh water whicli is reached on an average of about 40 feet, 

 and in the higher sections along the Sound shore at from 100 

 to 200 feet, — an unfailing source of water of absolute purity, 

 for it is protected from surface drainage of any description by 

 a layer of hardpan. 



In 1905 these idle acres, long known as waste lands, were 

 tackled by direction of Mr. Ralph Peters, president of the 

 Long Island Railroad Company. Stumps of the big trees 

 once covering it were blown out with dynamite ; and, although 

 only started on the 7th of September, 10 acres were plowed, 

 harrowed and planted to rye in a little over sixty days. In 

 1906, 380 varieties of plant growth were doing splendidly. 

 Fruit trees, berries, grapes and vegetables of all descriptions 

 known in the LTnited States, and many foreign favorites new 

 to America, were successfully grown. The methods of pro- 

 cedure in bringing this land into the dividend-paying column 

 are shown by the photographs taken as the work progressed, 

 — from the desolate standing timber, destroyed by -fire, 

 through the civilization of dynamite, the modern methods of 

 handling, utilization of Yaid^ee inventions, the growing 

 plants, the crops as they were gathered, common-sense methods 

 of marketing and delivering to the consumer before it becomes 

 stale and unprofitable. No deep knowledge was necessary to 

 turn forbidding desolation into a commercial success ; nor were 

 vast sums of money necessary to accomplish the object. Com- 

 mon-sense methods were the only secret to be credited with this 

 accomplishment. Having made a success with the develop- 

 ment of the so-called " scrub oak waste " on the Sound shore 

 of Long Island, precisely the same method of procedure was 

 followed in the once dubbed " pine barrens," and the success 

 was equally great in the central section of Long Island. The 

 result has been to develop many sections of the island, and all 

 sorts and conditions of men have made a success, because the 

 condition of the soil and the climate are conducive to this 

 success, and to these natural conditions are added the many 

 unsupplied local markets and the tremendously increasing 

 demand of the great cities of 'Now York and Brooklyn, within 

 50 or CO miles of these market gardens. Many of the new- 

 comers are foreigners, from Gernuuiy, France, Belgium, Italy, 



