10 
A TRIP ON LONG ISLAND. 
tained, that there has appeared to be no necessity for 
me to contribute a line to its pages.” Another from 
the North says: “ I am greatly indebted to your paper 
for the many practical details found therein. Its 
highly valuable and useful articles have directly bene¬ 
fited me many a dollar, and I monthly con its pages 
with as much eagerness and pleasure, as a young 
lady does the last new romance fresh from the pen 
of the most popular novelist.” 
We have recommenced the Ladies’ and Boys’ De¬ 
partments, which are rather novel features in an agri¬ 
cultural journal. To the former we have promises of 
assistance from some of the most distinguished female 
writers of the day—those who are no less celebrated 
for their excellent knowledge of housewifery, practi¬ 
cal good sense, shrewdness of remark, than happy 
manner of conveying instruction. We solicit contri¬ 
butions from others, and let them come from the 
South as well as the North. We shall consider our¬ 
selves quite unfortunate if the ladies do not ably sus¬ 
tain the department which we have exclusively 
accorded them as their own. 
The engravings of the present volume will be con¬ 
tinued as now begun, and will embrace more utility, 
originality, variety, and elegance, than has yet been 
presented to the public in any similar journal; and 
the matter, we humbly think, will be found equal to 
the embellishments. We begin the year with a very 
promising subscription list, which it shall not be our 
fault if it do not prove the largest in the Union—we 
at least mean to deserve such. Travelling agents 
will do well to give this work a preference ; it is very 
popular where known, and in addition to it they can 
be furnished with other agricultural publications with 
which they cannot fail to be successful. 
A TRIP ON LONG ISLAND.—NO. ]. 
It was a warm bright morning, early in the delight- 
ul month of October, that we took a seat with our 
mend Mr. Cadmus, in the rail-road car at Brooklyn, 
bound on a little excursion up Long Island—a singu¬ 
lar tract of country, embracing considerable variety of 
soil and scenery, and making a ramble over its sea-girt 
hills and plains one of no little’interest and variety. 
We started at a rapid pace, and within 30 minutes, 
or so, were in the pleasant village of Jamaica, and 
then shortly whirling over the wide naked plains of 
Hempstead; which remind us more than any other 
spot we know of in the United States, of Hounslow 
Heath, in England, the celebrated scene of many a 
highwayman’s exploits "in the last century. From 
thence we passed quickly into the pine woods and 
shrub-oaks of Huntington—a surprisingly wild place, 
when we consider its contiguity to this great city—and 
at the end of an hour and a half from Brooklyn, we 
brought up at Deer Park station, about 40 miles from 
New York. Here a grey nag, harnessed to a light 
wagon, was in waiting to take us to Mr. Cadmus’s 
residence, six miles beyond; and then the way he 
commenced spinning its wheels through the shrubby 
forest, over the delightful, dry, hard, gravelly roads, 
was scarcely infeiior to that of the never-tiring iron 
horse with his long rumbling train, which we had 
just left, to pursue his onward, fiery way, at nearly a 
right angle to our own. And why should he not, 
seeing he was of the famous Engineer breed ? Of 
the same blood as the renowned Lady Suffolk, who 
has trotted her mile in 2 minutes and 26 seconds—a 
pace which it would puzzle many a clever horse to 
run in the same space of time. 
Mr. Cadmus’s farm is pleasantly situated almost in 
the village of Comae. It contains 150 acres, nearly 
equally divided between arable and woodland. The 
surface is prettily undulating; the soil of a light loam, 
alternated with some clay and white gravel. Mr. Cad¬ 
mus has done much for this spot in the way of fer 
tilizing the soil, draining his meadows, and setting out 
upward of 4,000 of the best varieties of fruit trees, 
which we found growing remarkably well. He 
raised a fine crop of corn here, this season, with a 
slight manuring; the hay also and other things turned 
out quite well. He thinks he has discovered a marl 
bed on this farm, as the specimen he has taken from 
it effervesces in vinegar. If it proves such on analysis, 
it will be the first we have heard of as having been 
found on the Island. 
Farm of Mr. Caleb Smith .—This is a short dis¬ 
tance from that of Mr. Cadmus, and is delightfully 
situated on the middle turnpike road, running through 
the whole length and near the .centre of the Island. 
It contains 1,500 acres, 300 of which is under culti¬ 
vation, and 1200 in woodland. That so large a por¬ 
tion of a farm should be left in wood, or what is 
termed “ sprouts,” may seem singular to many of our 
readers; but they must recollect that such land is of 
so light a soil, that there is no particular advantage at 
present, in cultivating it, they therefore leave it to 
grow up in wood, which, before coal became so cheap, 
was an excellent crop. It is cut clean over every 15 or 
20 years, and yields 10 to 15 cords of fine hard wood 
per acre, worth formerly $2.00 to $2.50 per cord, 
standing. At the ordinary value of land this was a 
fair interest upon it; but since wood has fallen of 
late years, it has somewhat reduced the price of these 
lands, or rather, perhaps, they have not rise^ in the 
same ratio as those of a richer soil, and more suscep¬ 
tible of a profitable rotation of the ordinary farm 
crops. 
The 300 acres which Mr. Smith has under culti¬ 
vation, is of a good quality of land—some of it very 
superior. It is divided into convenient fields, well- 
fenced, and kept in the very nicest order. His crops 
are heavy; com generally 40 to 50 bushels per acre, 
and other things in proportion, which is a good 
yield for Long Island. The stock consists of a flock 
of fine sheep; the polled breed of cattle; and large, 
thrifty white pigs. The buildings are all excellent 
and commodious, and there is an air of thrift, neat¬ 
ness, and good order pervading the whole premises 
which cannot be too highly commended. Indeed, we 
think Mr. Smith one of the best farmers of our ac¬ 
quaintance. He has been making some experiments 
with manures the past season, which he intends fol¬ 
lowing up more particularly hereafter, the effects of 
which we hope to be able to record in our journal 
Sheepareunquestionably his best stock, and were the 
farm ours, we should stock it heavily with Merinos, 
plow only when the fields were well enriched by 
them, and then merely sufficient land to raise the 
roots and grain necessary for the actual consumption 
of the people and stock on the farm. The products 
to be sold with this system would be wool princi¬ 
pally, with now and then a mutton and a beef. 
Under this system, the labor bills would be compa¬ 
ratively small, and there would be no manure to pur- 
