428 Traksactioxs of the American lysTiTurs. 



slieep and other cattle; where you shall find neither stick nor stone, 

 to hinder the horse heels, or endanger them in their races, and once 

 a year the best horses in the island are brought hither to try their 

 swiftness, and the swiftest rewarded with a silver cup, two being 

 annually procured for that purpose. There are two or three other 

 small plains of about a mile square, which are no small benefit to 

 tliose towns which enjoy them." 



Such is the description given 200 years ago of the " great Hemp- 

 stead plains." It was not then considered barren and worth- 

 less, for no barren land will produce " very fine grass, that makes 

 exceeding good hay, and is very good pasture for sheep and other 

 cattle." 



This tract was then described as being sixteen miles long and four 

 miles broad, which would make sixty-four square miles, over 40,000 

 acres of this great upland meadow. Other old writers described it 

 as being much larger ; it has all disappeared by the encroachments 

 of settlement and cultivation into and around its borders, till only 

 some 8,000 or 10,000 acres of it remained, which Mr. Stewart has 

 purchased, and the whole of the dreaded and despised plains will 

 soon disappear, and be only known by history and tradition ; indeed, 

 the extent and limits of the original plains have long been subject of 

 dispute and uncertainty; there is probabl}^ no man living who knows 

 the lines and extent of this great prairie of Long Island, as it existed 

 at the time of the settlement of the town of Hempstead, in the year 

 1G41, nor any records in existence, by Avliich tlie exact extent or 

 limits of the " plains," can be defined. The township of Hempstead 

 was very large ; it extended across the island from north to south. It 

 was divided in 1784, North Hempstead having then been set oif, as a 

 town, leaving to Hempstead about 100 square miles or 64,000 acres. 

 The town of Hempstead is reported in Mr. Primes History of Long 

 Island, published in 1845, as containing 29,501 acres of improved 

 land, and 42,499 acres of unimproved land. 



The town of North Hempstead, by the same authority, is reported 

 in 1845, to contain 29,708 acres of improved land, and 4,782 acres of 

 unimproved land. 



This statement presents the remarkable fact, that Hempstead in 

 1845, contained 42,499 acres of unimproved land within twenty or 

 twenty-five miles of the city of Ncav York. A portion of this unim- 

 proved land is undoubtedly marsh land, but what portion is not 

 stated, a large part of it is upland and capable of the easiest and 



