AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 519 



Here may be secured quiet and comfort, under the influences 

 of a most salubrious air and delightful climate, and in the enjoy- 

 ment of the most exquisite beauties of nature. Wave your magic 

 wand, my dear General, over the scene, and you may live to see 

 this lovely, but most unappreciated region, teeming with fruit, 

 glowing beneath abundant harvests, rich in the embellishments 

 of art, and adorned by the villa, the cottage, and alluring pleas- 

 ure grounds. 



A fatuity has taken possession of the popular mind, as to the 

 capabilities and resources of this island, and if you can exorcise 

 it, you will have paid a large installment on that debt which every 

 man owes to his day and generation. x. 



Mr. Meigs referred to our Transactions of 1847, containing the 

 report of a committee of highl}^ respectable citizens, (170 in num- 

 ber,) who in a body examined the Long Island lands — barrens 

 and all, and who, at Greenport, met and resolved, " That these 

 lands so long left in a state of nature, are of immense value for 

 tillage for the vine, mulberry, orchards, garden and field produc- 

 tions, and fitted to reward the appropriate investment of money 

 and labor in their good cultivation, to the full extent that can be 

 reasonably desired." Many of the committee were aged gentle- 

 men, well acquainted with Long Island, and many native citi- 

 zens, who took none of the strange false prejudices of a certain 

 class of people who not only maintain the cry of Barrens, but who 

 contended long and with alarming hostility against the first railroad 

 through those lands, by which other people might see it all in a 

 few hours. 



Prof. Nash — His opinion was that Long Island would not pay 

 for cultivation, except upon the old skinning process of surface 

 tillage — that deep plowing would knock the bottom out. 



Mr. Peck combated the opinion of the Professor, and showed 

 that these lands called barren are not so. 



Prof. Nash — There are more than 100,000 acres of land upon this 

 island that would be worth $200 an acre more than it is now, after 

 expending $100 an acre upon it; yet it is impossible for any poor 

 man to occupy such land, because he could not improve it, and to 

 buy it and attempt it would condemn him to irretrievable poverty. 



