162 
FARMING AND GARDENING ON LONG ISLAND* 
ces connected with them, a curious chapter in 
American history, and well would any author be 
paid for writing it out. 
FARMING AND GARDENING ON LONG ISLAND. 
We have made several excursions on Long 
Island during the past summer, in Westchester 
county, up the Hudson, on Staten Island, and in 
New Jersey. There is much that is common in 
all these places, but we shall first speak of what 
we saw on Long Island, and then add such par¬ 
ticulars as we found elsewhere less usual in its 
system of agriculture. 
Soil. —With the exception of the low alluvial 
necks which jut into the sound, bays, and rivers, 
some wide-spread meadows, and a few narrow 
valleys, Long Island has not much to boast of in 
regard to soil; it being composed of a hungry 
sand, or thin gravel, encumbered by large quanti¬ 
ties of stone and rock. Yet notwithstanding these 
natural disadvantages, it has been long celebrated 
for its productive farms, and especially its gardens 
and considering the contiguity of these to market, 
and the high price of produce in its neighborhood, 
the judicious cultivation of its soil, ever since its 
settlement, has been a reasonably profitable busi¬ 
ness. 
Fences.— These are usually of stone wall, posts 
and rail, or hedges. Where stones abound, and 
it is desirable to get rid of them, they should un¬ 
doubtedly be used in preference to anything else 
for enclosures. The best method of making these, 
is to dig a trench one foot to 18 inches deep, and 
3 feet wide, so that the base of the wall may be 
placed beyond the reach of frost. The largest 
stones are placed first, then those more easily 
handled follow, maintaining a good thickness, till 
it is of sufficient height. Thus built, the wall is 
never disturbed by the heaving of the ground; 
and it may last a century with very little repair, 
and be a good fence then. Posts and rails are 
quite perishable, and laid up crooked they dis¬ 
figure the landscape sadly, and ought ever to be 
considered as merely temporary. The hedges are 
much more to our fancy. These are usually of 
cedar, and with their evergreen foliage, and fan¬ 
tastic interlocked limbs, they give a cheerful as¬ 
pect to the country, especially during those sea¬ 
sons when the deciduous shrubs and trees have 
lost their leaves, that is quite agreeable. The ce¬ 
dars, however, x are planted only in single rows, 
and too far apart entirely, and consequently form 
but a poor fence against small animals. If the 
method of planting, as given by a correspondent 
page 177 of this No. were adopted, there would 
be no trouble on this score ; for the trunks of the 
trees soon grow so close together, that the smallest 
pig, rabbit, or dog, could scarcely squeeze in be¬ 
tween them. The tops also beautifully interlace, 
and make walls of verdure which are delightful to 
look at. The native thorn, especially the maple 
variety, planted in the same way, makes an ex¬ 
cellent hedge; the willow, beech, and other trees 
the same; still, we prefer evergreens, they so en¬ 
liven the landscape, when everything else is naked 
and dead. 
Manures. —If nature has been rather niggardly 
in her gifts to the soil of Long Island, she has 
nearly made it* up by placing within its reach 
various inexhaustible supplies for its fertilization 
by art. Swamps and marshes abound, filled with 
rich peat and muck, which strange to say, till 
quite recently, have been singularly neglected, and 
the farmers have annually been purchasing thou¬ 
sands of tons of manure from this city, at an aver¬ 
age cost of probably 75 cents a cart-load, when by 
draining these swamps, they might dig out their 
contents, add lime to them in the proportion of 
one to three or four, and thus make a compost 
equal to the best of city manure, at one tenth of its 
cost. Then by draining these lands, they add greatly 
to the health of their localities; and finally, after 
obtaining large heaps of the richest vegetable sub¬ 
stance, they could turn them into cultivated fields, 
as fertile as any of the boasted lands of the west. 
The finest water meadows could also be made of 
most of these, at the trifling cost of merely stop¬ 
ping the water by flood-gates in the ditches at 
proper seasons, and thus overflow and fertilize 
them. Meadows like these would be worth $500 
an acre in England, and pay ten per cent, interest 
on the money at that. 
Sea-weed abounds on the coast, and is either 
carted into the barn-yards for litter, and made 
into compost with other materials, or spread broad 
cast on the land. In this way | to f of a ton of 
hay can be added to the growth per acre, at a cost 
not to exceed $2, on meadows which are sufficient¬ 
ly near; and as the hay is worth on an average 
$8 to $10 per ton standing, it is labor well bestowed. 
Fish of the small bony kinds are caught here 
by millions expressly for manure, and great num¬ 
bers were formerly spread broad cast and plowed 
in; but applied in this way, they become an in¬ 
tolerable nuisance from the fetid odor they send 
out when undergoing decomposition. By making 
them into compost, composed of six parts of peat 
