426 THAXSACTIOXS OF THE AjIEniCAX INSTITUTE. 



sider poiulrctte worth $1.50 or tM'o dollars per barrel. I used bone- 

 meal upon strawberries, and found it the best manure obtainable for 

 that crop. It is particularly good on sandy soils ; on heavier land 

 stable manure must be esteemed as much more valuable, and, in fact, 

 unsurpassed. We usually spread about half a gill aronnd each hill, 

 and hoe it into the soil. I never apprehended any danger arising 

 from the source alluded to by Mr. Bruen. 



The Hempstead Plains. 



The Chairman called attention to the fact that a well-known mer- 

 chant prince, Mr. A. T. Stewart, has just become a sidewalk farmer. 

 He had gone out to Long Island and bought a little patch there 

 which he proposes to improve. The Chairman then asked Dr. E. F. 

 Peck to make some remaks appropriate to the occasion. Dr. E. .F. 

 Peck gave the following account of the past history of the Plains : 



The town of Hempstead is one of the oldest English towns on Long 

 Island, having been settled more than 200 years. The old village is 

 on the southern borders of the " great plains," and about twenty- 

 three miles from 'New York and these lands, purchased by Mr. 

 Stewart are adjoining and north of the village, and are what is or 

 was known as the Hempstead plains, or " barrens," or common 

 lauds, as it was owned by the town, and could not be sold without a 

 vote of the town, which could never be had until very recently, the 

 land being used as a great pasture ground. Everybody in the town 

 had the right to turn their cattle and sheep upon it, and where innu- 

 merable herds have fed and flourished for more than 200 years, 

 and where the grass never tails to grow. Yet in the face of this 

 great fact, this perpetual evidence of the productive power of the 

 land, a strange and singular belief prevailed among the inhabi- 

 tants of the town and the island, and upon their authority, among 

 " all the rest of mankind," that this great tract of land was harreti 

 and wortliless for culture. There never was a greater popular fallacy 

 and error. It is, in fact, a great prairie, a great and most beautiful 

 upland meadow ; nothing more, nothing less. It is really one of the 

 most beautiful and valuable tracts of meadow or garden land in the 

 State of New York, and Mr. Stewart's purchase of this great tract 

 will dispel the strange and stupid delusion and folly, that have so 

 long hung over the "great Hempstead cow-pasture." A very fortu- 

 nate town is Hempstead, to have its common lands or pasture ground 

 turned into nearly half a million of money ; for Mr. Stewart's purchase 



