No. 199.] ISl 



scope corresponding with solar, lunar, and siJereal time, by which 

 the object is kept accurately williin the field of view. 



Such are the facts connected with the manufacture of telescopes 

 in the United States, and they leave very little room (o doubt their 

 equality in all respects with the best productions of Europe. It 

 may not be amiss to state that Mr. Fitz is entirely self-taught in this 

 art, having learned the business of a locksmith, which he pursued for 

 ten years. His first telescope was made for his own use and amuse- 

 ment. He now devotes himself exclusively to this business, and 

 offers to construct telescopes of any size, imder a guarantee that they 

 shall be equal to any that can be produced. 



mm ISLAND, 



To Gen. A. Chandler. 



Dear Sir — It may not be uninteresting to you and to the members 

 of the Farmers' C^b, and of the American Institute, to know what 

 has been done, if any thing, in the way of cultivating and improving 

 the wild lands through the middle parts of the island, along the borders 

 of the railroad, since the agricultural excursions made by the mem- 

 bers of the Institute in 1847. A reference to the account of these 

 visits to the wild regions of Long Island, and of the Agricultural 

 Convention held at Greenport, as given in the Trans, of the Ameri- 

 can Institute for 1847, will show the opinions then expressed by the 

 Convention, of the practicability of rendering those lands productive ; 

 and now a brief statement of facts or results will enable those gen- 

 tlemen, as well as others, to see how far they are sustained in the, 

 judgment formed at that time, and the favorable opinions given, of 

 cultivating that large portion (theretofore considered as barren) of the 

 island, between Farmingdale and Riverhead, a distance of more than 

 forty miles. 



A popular befief long entertained by the inhabitants of the island, 

 that those lands were unsusceptible of cultivation, had prevented any 

 attempt, except what little had been done by myself and one or 



