S9i [ASSEMBL? 



For this purpose the American Institute was desirous to obtain » 

 tract on the Island. He believed that it would be a great gain, if 

 some of the owners of these lands would give the Institute 1,000 

 acres, to be improved in this manner. Their quality would be thus 

 tested, and if the Institute failed to make them realize the ob- 

 ject of their donation, he would engage that they should be return- 

 ed. He urged the making of this donation. 



Prof. Renwick, of Columbia College of this city, next came for- 

 ward, at the request of the president j and in a brief but very excel- 

 lent address, stated, that in his early youth he had been accustomed 

 to hear Long Island honored with the appellation of the " garden of 

 America." He had early visited and taken interest in the peculiar 

 tract of Hempstead Plains, and subsequently had witnessed an analy- 

 sis of its soil, made in his own laboratory, which had proved it to 

 partake of all the constituents of a fertile soil in large proportions, 

 though some proportions existed in insoluble matter, not suited to 

 support vegetation in its present state, but susceptible of being de- 

 composed by quick lime and other substances, and brought into use 

 as the demand was made for it in the process of cultivation. Of 

 the shrub oak lands, he had not the same knowledge; but it was a 

 fact, that in many parts of the country, those lands called oak bar- 

 rens, and neglected for a time, have been found to be the best wheat 

 lands, and these might prove of the same character. It was strong- 

 ly his conviction that these lands were susceptible of profitable cul- 

 tivation. 



Prof. Mapes followed in an address replete with science and factSy 

 of which we can hardly give more than a notice. His views on 

 these lands were favorable to their improvement, and as the scientific 

 theory of the growth of plants, which he detailed with great clear- 

 ness, and accompanied with strong proof of its truth, showing that 

 a ton a year miight, by leaving another ton to the acre to act as ma- 

 nure for it, be taken from an acre for twenty years in succession, 

 and at the end of the time not any diminution be discoverable in the 

 soil, but an actual accession be made to its fertility. It proved 

 that the bulk of vegetation was derived from the atmosphere. From 

 this view it was strongly inferible, that with a suitable portion of 

 manure, which could be obtained with peculiar facilities, these lands 

 were sure to yield good rewards for cultivation. 



Mr. Dewey remarked that, as three particulars of much import- 

 ance in estimating the value of these unimproved lands had bee» 



