No. 216.] 697 



tioiis of the Society instituted in the State of New-York, for the pro* 

 motion of Agriculture, Arts and Manufactures, in Feb. 1791, from a 

 paper entitled " Observations on Manners," by Ezra L'hommedieu, 

 Esq., read in March, 1795. In this paper there is a statement given 

 of the use of fish called Mossbonkers, on land, by Mr. Downs, of 

 Riverhead, by which a very large crop of Rye was produced; in- 

 deed, it is probably the largest crop on record of the kind — at the 

 rate of 116 bushels to the acre, and nt a profit of $85 per acre, af- 

 ter paying all expenses. The details of the case may be seen by re- 

 ference to Mr. Prime's History of Long Island, page 75. 



These cases and facts, said the Dr., are of great importance, pnd 

 establish the truth of the positon taken by this gentleman, (Mr. Spoon- 

 er,) the possibility and expediency of high cultivation on Long Is- 

 land, as they were made under similar circumstances, and in distinct 

 and remote portions of the Island, and on soils that fairly represent 

 the average quality of the land, including the plain lands, being one 

 at Jamaica, one in the southern parts of Smithtown, on the borders 

 of Islip, on land of light, hardy soil, and proverbial through the 

 neighbo:hood for its barrenness and sterility; the last at Riverhead, 

 on quite the eastern part of the Island, and distant one from the 

 other 30 and 60 miles. The same results, viz: great yields and pro- 

 fits, by different processes, different modes of culture and manuring. 



Here was made a very interesting statement of the height or alti- 

 tude of these lands, and the influence of cultivation upon climate in 

 this latitude; the influence of light, air and heat that are admitted 

 to the soil when the surface is cleared of the forest; that the middle 

 parts of the Island will be found better adapted to the culture of fruits 

 and tender plants, than the shores, being less exposed to the cold and 

 bleak winds that sometimes blow from the ocean. 



After describing the extent of this wild region, this almost doom 

 ed land, this Idianea by public opinion, the lonely and bewildering 

 roads that perplex and embarrass the stranger or traveller, who even 

 now, at this period, attempts to cross the Island in its wildest pla- 

 ces; the desolate appearance that this region everywhere presented, 

 after the great fires had passed over the Island two or three years 

 ago, every thing being burnt, scathed and blackened by the fires and 

 flames, until every vestige of vegetable life was destroyed; of the ra- 

 pidity with which vegetation reappeared, when the suns and showers 

 of spring and summer returned; thence argued that a soil, a land 



