182 lAssEMDL-y 



two others, to cultivate or improve them. The ralh'cad hr.d done 

 compp.ratlvely nothing raorc than to plough its own great furrow 

 through tliese great forests, where the wihl deer yet roamed as in the 

 days of the " Red man," the native lord of the isle ; the station 

 houses along the line of the road, being at that time surrounded by 

 bushes and wild grass to their very doors. 



The publicity given to those excursions, and to the opinions ex- 

 pressed by the members of the Institute, and by those gentlemen 

 who were present as invited guests, attracted very great attention ; 

 they were everywhere read and freely commented upon throughout 

 the island. The whole subject of these plain lands, as they were 

 commonly called by the island people, was presented in a new light, 

 and many men who had considered it iir.pnssiblc for any thing to 

 grow there but the trees, shrubs and t;ras?cs, through which they had 

 been accustomed to pursue the deer and the wild b;rd,'began to think 

 there might be some mistake ; as they had never made any trial of 

 the qualities of the soil, they knew of no one who had ever tried to 

 cultivate any portion of that great tract of island land, it was all a 

 matter of opinion, and these lands may yet be capable of producing 

 something, or so said many. The consequence of this was, that at- 

 tempts were made in several places along the line of the railroad to 

 cultivate what had been always before considered as " barfens," and 

 the results have been in every case, highly successful and satisfactory. 



Last season two and a halt tons of English hay per acre, were 

 taken, by ordinary cultivation, from land that had been reclaimed 

 from these wilds at Thomson Station, about forty miles from Brook- 

 lyn, and where a recent historian of Long Island (see Prince's Hist, 

 pages 17 and 19) described the soil and surface of the country as 

 being entirely barren, and the sand approaching to fluidity. Here, 

 as fine crops of wheat, rye, corn, potatoes, and garden vegetables, were 

 raised last season, as on any other part of the island. 



At Yaphank, sixty miles from the west end of the island, where a 

 halt was made at the lime of the excursions in 1847, and where there 

 vas no land cleared at that time, last summer there were crops of 

 wheat, rye, corn, clover, and timothy, with garden and fruit trees ns 



