No. 199.] ]S3 



thrifty as could be foun;! in any part of the county of SuSblk. The 

 sura of one hundred dollars per acre has been offered for land at this 

 place, that was purchased four or five years since for §4.75 per acre ; 

 and 825 per acre for that which is yet uncultivated. 



These facts are mentioned to show the changes that have taken 

 place, in the estimation and value of these lands, as there is no longer 

 any doubt as to their productive qualities. 



Samuel Carman, Esq., of Fire Place, a gentleman well known on 

 the island, and to great numbers of those who resort to the famous 

 trout stream at Fire Place, says that he is fully satisfied that the land 

 in the middle parts of the island, along the borders of the railroad, 

 will produce more, acre for acre, with the same cultivation, than the 

 land on the south shores of the island where he resides, and which in 

 the opinion of the island people was so much better than that inland. 



At Lake Road, or Irvington, cultivation has been equally success- 

 ful. This is a new settlement in the midst of the great wilds, and 

 near the celebrated Ronkonkama pond or lake, one of the most beau- 

 tiful sheets of water on the island, or in the State of New- York. It 

 is situated about a mile to the north of the railroad, an'd surrounded 

 by high and undulating ground, its waters are remarkable for purity 

 end ^ric^t .^vp'L, b.lng about elguly feet deep in the middle. The 

 lake is about three miles in circuit, and is the admiration of all who 

 visit it. At Irvington, large and commodious buildings have been 

 erected, and the land here has been broken up with the plow. One 

 of the great diflSculties of bringing these lands under cultivation, in 

 the estimation of the island people, was the work of clearing the 

 ground of roots, it being regarded as impracticable to plow up the 

 land until it had been grubbed out by hand, at a cost of $16 per 

 acre ! this being the long established price paid for grubbingy when- 

 ever it was necessary to clear up a little of this kind of land for 

 roads, or any other, purpose. This great tax, or first outlay, formed 

 an almost insuperable objection or barrier, to any and every attempt 

 to break this great wilderness, and particularly when added to the 

 notions of worthless and barren land, that nothing would grow on irt 

 after it was cleared. I plowed the ground without the orevious grub' 



