EXCURSION ON LONG ISLAND.-PAINTING CHEESE WITH SPANISH-BROWN, "ETC. 
271 
EXCURSION ON LONG ISLAND. 
1 It may not be known to many of our read¬ 
ers, that a belt of land running east and west nearly 
through the centre of Long Island, of an average 
width of 6 to 7 miles, and more than 40 miles long, 
and containing upwards of 150,000 acres, with the 
exception of a few scattered farms here and there, 
has been suffered to remain in its original unculti¬ 
vated state ever since the settlement of this country. 
The reason of this is, the inhabitants of Long Island 
have taken it for granted, that it is too poor a quality 
of soil to be cultivated, to advantage ; hence that 
portion of the tract, which, like Hempstead Plains, 
was originally found without trees, has been turned 
out to pasturage in wild common, while the other 
part, which was covered with a moderate growth 
of pine and oak, has been retained in forest, to be 
cut off for timber and fire-wood as the wants of its 
individual owners and the city of New York de¬ 
manded. But since the opening of canals and rail¬ 
roads through the dense forests of the great West, 
and to the rich coal mines of Pennsylvania and 
Ohio, fire-wood has depreciated in price so much, 
that it is no longer an object to the Long-Islanders 
to send it to market. Thus this vast tract of land 
has become almost valueless to its owners. 
For the past three or four years, more particu¬ 
larly, the possessors of this property have been 
making various experiments for the purpose of as¬ 
certaining if it could not be cleared and brought into 
profitable cultivation. With a view of assisting in 
this laudable movement, the Board of Agriculture 
of the American Institute, on the 4th of last month, 
invited nearly 200 persons to make an excursion 
through this tract as far as Greenport and Sag 
Harbor. The company w r as made up principally from 
the enterprising practical farmers of Long Island 
and its neighborhood, together with gentlemen from 
this city. An excellent railroad runs nearly the 
whole length of the Island, almost directly through 
this tract of land. It commences at the South Ferry, 
in Brooklyn, opposite New York, and terminates at 
Greenport, on Peconic Bay, a distance of 95 
miles. This distance is usually run in the short 
space of four to five hours. 
James M. Weeks, Esq., president of the railroad 
company, generously provided an extra train gratis 
for the special accommodation of the party. At 
nine o’clock, A. M., the signal was given to our 
fiery iron-horse to start, when, after a few prelimi¬ 
nary snorts of his hot steam-breath, he cleared the de¬ 
pot at a single bound—dashed through the long, 
dark Brooklyn Tunnel in a twinkling, and then took 
up his swift career over the delightful open coun¬ 
try, stopping at various stations to take up groups 
of gentlemen waiting to join the party. 
At most of these stations the company got out 
with a view of examining the soil, and to take spe¬ 
cimens for future analyses. Instead of being found, 
as 'many supposed, of a pure sandy formation, it 
proved to be more or less loamy and tolerably 
charged with vegetable matter. Patches of clear¬ 
ings have been made within the past five years 
every few miles on the whole of this route; and we 
noticed that wherever judiciously manured and cul¬ 
tivated, the crops were quite an average, and in 
many places very large. We shall hereafter give 
a brief account of these, together with hints at some 
length as to the best methods of cultivating this 
soil. At present, these lands can be purchased in 
their wild state, with the wood taken off, at from 
$3 to $5 per acre—a marvellously low price when 
we consider their contiguity to the great city of 
New York, and the productive farms and gardens 
into which it would be so easy to transform them. 
We arrived at Greenport at about five o’clock P. 
M., where we found excellent accommodations pre¬ 
pared at the various hotels for the whole party. At 
seven o’clock the company assembled at the Pres¬ 
byterian Church, for the purpose of discussing the 
different qualities of the soils of the part of the is¬ 
land through which we had just passed, and the 
best means for their successful culture. The sub¬ 
stance of the remarks made upon the occasion will 
be found on the preceding pages. 
At eight o’clock the next morning the company 
took a steamboat and sailed up the picturesque bay 
of Shelter Island, twenty miles to Sag Harbor. Land¬ 
ing at this port, they divided into parties and stroll¬ 
ed around fora few hours for the purpose of exam¬ 
ining the country in the neighborhood. After this, 
we returned through Gardiner’s Bay to Greenport, 
thus circumnavigating Shelter Island. Here we 
dined and then started for home, where we arrived 
at seven P. M. highly gratified with our excursion. 
PAINTING CHEESE WTThTSPANISH-BROWN. 
Our friend Holmes, of the Maine Farmer, says 
he likes all our directions for making cheese, in the 
August number, except that at the end recommend¬ 
ing the painting of the cheese with Spanish-brown 
and beer. We think upon reflection, he will not con¬ 
sider “ that part as entirely useless,” when he is 
reminded, that, without some kind of covering, 
cheeses, by long keeping, are generally found to 
become unpleasantly dry and to lose a portion of 
the delightful aromatic flavor so much relished by 
all lovers of good cheese. Besides, a thin cover¬ 
ing on cheese is useful in preventing the absorp¬ 
tion of moisture and pernicious gases, as well as 
for keeping off vermin and dirt. This covering 
only saturates the rind and not the body of 
the cheese, at all, and this is cut off when 
eaten and thrown away. We would condemn 
the use of annatto, as a pigment for color¬ 
ing cheese, as it is frequentty adulterated with red- 
lead, a dreadful poison, which has often caused 
great injury to the consumers of cheese, and is capa¬ 
ble of even taking away life itself. 
Public Sale of Merino and South-Down 
Sheep. —W e wish our flock-masters to bear in 
mind, that the great sale of Col. Sherwood’s choice 
flocks will be held at Auburn, September 8th. We 
can speak confidently of the merits of these ani¬ 
mals, as we have personally inspected them, and 
have samples of the entire fleece in our possession, 
which for weight and fineness combined are sel¬ 
dom equalled. Forty Head of Choice Short- 
Horned Cattle and several superior grades are also 
to be sold at the same time and place. 
Season for Selecting Seed-Corn. —The far¬ 
mer is reminded that the season is at hand for select¬ 
ing seed-corn. The ears should be the second ripe 
in the field, with cobs having small butt-ends, well 
filled out, and two or more to each stalk. 
