No. 216.] 695 



adverted to, he would ask the favor of drawing the attention of the 

 convention to them. These were ease of tillage, safety of the crop, 

 and healthfulness of the climate. 



Far less labor was required to cultivate them; less strength of 

 team to plough them, and less effort to keep them free from weeds 

 than was required by the strong clay and marly wheat lands of this 

 State and the west. If more manure w^as required for a good crop, 

 the ease of tillage would fully compensate for this. The safety of 

 crops in these lands, or lands of this character from loss, either by 

 drought or wet seasons, was far greater than in the wheat lands of 

 Gen&see Flats, and most of the reputed rich lands. On these lands, 

 very seldom indeed, was a crop lost from these causes. The climate 

 was also without a rival in the northern and western States for 

 pleasantness and health These three considerations might well make 

 these lands most attractive to those seeking for good farms. For the 

 vine, the mulberry, as well as all garden productions, these advanta- 

 ges, with the others already proved to belong to these lands, gave the 

 assurance of their superior excellence, and with the facilities now 

 existing of this grand artery of transportation, furnished so com- 

 pletely by the Long Island railroad, it was most certain that but a 

 few years could transpire before the whole region would be made to 

 flourish with the highest glories of agricultural productions. 



Geo. Miller, Esq., of River Head, expressed his thanks for this 

 visit of the Institute to this part of the Island, on this object; and 

 testified to the capacity of the Island to pay for cultivation. The 

 improvements in that vicinity had been great within the last fifty 

 years. 



Dr. Underbill, of Croton Point, was then called for, who gave the 

 Convention one of his most instructive, eloquent, and interesting ad- 

 dresses. We can do no justice to it, but simply assure the public,, 

 that it was to the point, and must confer upon it a lasting benefit. 

 It most effectually put down the prejudice against the Island, by the 

 common charges against it, that its soil was leachy, the manure 

 greatly lost by being carried down into the earth. He showed this 

 to be a great error; that for the most part of the ingredients of good 

 manure, the general law of nature was, to leach upward and not 

 downward. More was lost by this law, made to bring the parts to the 

 surface, where they were wanted for vegetation, that threw them in 

 contact with the air, which carried them away. He and Prof. Ren- 

 wick both concurred in the sentiment, that where an effluvia was in 



