184 [ASSOIBLY 



bingf with one of Ruggle's Nourse and Mason's large Eagle plows, 

 anil with two yoke ci oxen ; the work was complete, even better tlian 

 I expected or clairaedjand has triumphantly established the important 

 fact that these lands can be plowed up at a cost of three or four dol- 

 lars per acre, instead of sixteen dollars per acre ! 



Stranf^e as it may appear to northern and eastern farmers, to men 

 accustomed to clear new lands, it was here regarded as impossible to 

 plow these lands until the roots of the small oaks and whortleberry 

 bushes had been taken out with a hoe ! And when I advanced the 

 opinion that it was an easy matter to plow them out, such opinion 

 was received by the inhabitants of the Island, with nothing but de- 

 nslon, as a fallacy undeserving any serious notice ; it was even more 

 absurd than the idea that the land might possibly be good for some- 

 thing after it was cleared. 



These scnib oaks that have obtained such a hard name, and have 

 giyen to the land on which they grow such " bad eminence," are, as 

 ycu know, a distinct species of the oak, a dwarf tree. Querent hanis- 

 tcri, or bear-oak, and never grow any larger, whatever be the quali- 

 ties of the soil ; no matter how rich, no more than a currant bush or 

 a lilac ; it is a sort of miniature tree ; small oaks " from little acorns 

 grow," as well as large ones. 



These little oaks are vigorous, tenacious of life, and rery prolific, 

 yielding an abundance of acorns. Whether these are the oaks pro- 

 ducing the "great store of mast for swine," found on the island, as 

 mentioned by Denton in his history of the New Netherland in 1670, 

 I will not pretend to say. I have never seen any estimate of the 

 quantity per acre of these acorns produced by this little oak ; it must 

 be very large, a great many bushels. It is called bear-oak, from the 

 fact of the bear feeding on its acorns. Quail, partridge, and many 

 other birds feed on these, and also deer ; so it is not after all, so des- 

 picable and useless a little fellow. 



This brief notice of the parts above ground, being commonly from 

 four to seven feet high, will aid in forming some idea of the roots, 

 that haye held dominion of so great a portion of Long Island. The 



