No. 151.] 99 



Randall's Island is about nine mile distant from the City Hall, lying 

 between Haerlem and Long Island. It forms on one side a part of 

 the east bank of the Haerlem River, and on the other side a part of 

 the west bank of Long Island Sound, with narrow channels on the 

 north and south, difficult of navigation. It contains 13.8 acres of 

 marsh and upland. Some of the best fields on the Island, however, 

 have been rendered unfit for immediate tillage by the erection and 

 destruction, of the buildings, by fire, intended for the accommoda- 

 tion of the poor of the city. 



Mr. Leonard did not get possession of the Island until the middle 

 of May last, at which time no preparation had been made for pro- 

 ducing a crop. Nevertheless, he has secured from 80 to 100 tons 

 of excellent hay. There are two fields of Indian corn, containing 

 five acres, equal in appearance to any we have seen, averaging full 

 twelve feet in height; one field of six acres bearing potatoes, one of 

 buckwheat, four acres, and one of turnips, one and a half acres; all 

 in excellent order, and of fair promise; also, 2,100 heads of cabbage. 

 From the 15th of June to the present time, 40 cows have been milk- 

 ed, furnishing daily 300 quarts to the nursery on Long Island, where 

 there are 700 pauper children, reserving as much as is required for 

 the farm. There have been two very comfortable buildings erected 

 on Randall's Island for the accommodation of the laborers, and there 

 is a stable now in process of erection intended for the cows in win- 

 ter. All this is entirely the result of pauper labor. 



We sincerely hope that Mr. Leonard may be permitted to go on 

 and cany out the plans he has intimated to us, of furnishing labor to 

 all the inmates of the establishment capable of performing labor, 

 stimulating them by a system of rewards, which will call for no ad- 

 ditional charge upon the city, and if successful, will materially les- 

 sen the cost of maintaining its paupers. The Island is the property 

 of the city, having been purchased from the Messrs. Randalls, in 

 1832, for $60,000. There could not be a better place for the expe- 

 riment than is here afforded. The milk alone which has been 

 already furnished, estimating it at four cents per quart, provided the 

 quantity should be continued, W'ill amount to more than seven per 

 cent, per annum, on the cost of the Island, and so far there have 

 been but seventy paupers employed. There are in the establishment 

 nearly five hundred that may be employed in agricultural labor, be- 

 sides a large proportion of the children, whose labor at particular 

 seasons of the year, ma}- be made extremely valuable. 



