AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
1 85 
1800.] 
rapidly, and adding four-fold to the fruit. By the 
use of this Tafeu, the produce of a farm may be 
doubled the first year, and quadrupled the second. 
Every man who purchases the article is sure to 
get rich.” 
“ You’re jest the man I’ve been wanting to see 
this many a year. You see I’ve been farming 
on’t, this well nigh thirty year, and I han’t got all 
my land paid for yit. I am all the time cramp’d 
to git along, and if you’ve got a resate for mak¬ 
ing folks rich, ye see I shall go in.” 
“ But I have not got the Tafeu along with me, 
to sell this morning, I am securing agents to dis¬ 
pose of it. I sell rights to towns, and to coun¬ 
ties, and the man who gets the right to sell the 
article, makes his fortune, the first season, while 
the man who buys will have to wait a little. For 
instance, if Esq. Frink, buys the right for Hook- 
ertown, and sells a thousand tuns he makes five 
thousand dollars, for we allow our agents five 
dollars a tun on the sales. You have in town at 
least two hundred farmers, and they will want on 
a safe calculation five tuns of Tafeu, each.” 
“Yes we’ve got more'n four hundred farmers 
in town, and I’m the chap that can sell the stuff 
tu ’em, if there is any vartu in talk.” 
“ You see,” continued the fluent Mr. Smith, “ I 
sold the right to Col. Babcock, of Spruce Hill, 
last year, and he told me he made over ten thou¬ 
sand dollars, and there are hundreds more I could 
mention in other States, that have made hand¬ 
some fortunes out of our fertilizer, the first sea¬ 
son.” 
“ And how much are you going to ax for the 
right to sell in Hookertown!” 
“ Well we generally sell county rights, for fifty 
dollars, and town rights for about ten, a little 
more or less according to size. But seeing it is 
you, Esq. Frink, we will let you have the Hook- 
ertown right for nine dollars.” 
Jake Frink is not a monied man, but he hap¬ 
pened to have just that amount in bills in his wal¬ 
let, and he handed it over to the oily tongued 
Mr. Smith, who delivered him his right to sell 
Tafeu in Hookertown, duly signed and dated. 
He told Jake as he drove off, that a cargo would 
be in from Philadelphia, and delivered at the land¬ 
ing next Saturday. 
Saturday came, and Jake went down with his 
old bob tailed mare, bright and early, expecting 
to see a schooner discharging Tafeu. But he 
found nothing but a coal vessel at the dock, and 
the captain had never heard of “Smith, Stubbs, 
Darby & Co.,” and doubted very much whether 
there was any such firm in Philadelphia. The 
next Saturday came, and Jake, thinking he might 
have misunderstood the day, went down again, 
but no Tafeu vessel had arrived. Jake now be¬ 
gan to suspect he was sold, and scolded some, if 
not more. His golden visions became dim, as 
the weeks wore away, and no news came from 
Mr. Smith and the cargo of patent fertilizers. 
He has not heard from him since. Jake is par¬ 
ticularly sore about Ibis Tafeu business, and his 
neighbors, especially Jones and Tucker, when 
they wish to touch him on the raw, inquire for 
the price of the Philadelphia fertilizer. 
Now, T suppose there are thousands of dollars 
taken out of the pockets of farmers in just this 
way every year. Some of these concentrated 
fertilizers I suppose are worth the money paid 
for them, hut the chances are, that a man gets 
cheated when he buys them. This is pretty cer¬ 
tain to be the case when they are bought of trav¬ 
eling agents like Mr. Smith. It is worse than 
highway robbery, for you do not know that you 
are robbed until the thief is out of your reach. 
However, “ there is no great loss but what 
there is some small gain,” and Jake Frink claims | 
that he has got his money’s worth in experience. 
He says he “ should jest like to see a man come 
along and undertake to sell him patent manure 
agin. Wouldn’t he catch it 1” Jake put into his 
yard last Fall double the quantity of muck I 
ever knew him to cart before, and, judging from 
the quantity of manure he has spread this Spring 
and plowed in, he will be a gainer by his experi¬ 
ence. Beware of Patent Manures. 
Yours to command, 
Hookertown , Ct., April, 18C0 ] Timothy Bunker, Esq. 
-< 7 4 i p c - 
A Talk about “Long’ Island Lands.” 
“Bogus Land Advertisements ”—Discussion of de¬ 
fects in the subsoils of Long Island and elsewhere. 
For some time papt, there have been extensive 
efforts to bring into favorable notice certain 
tracts of land situated on Long Island. These 
efforts have consisted of advertisements in dis¬ 
tant agricultural and other newspapers, cor¬ 
respondence referring to them, etc. More espec¬ 
ial attention has been directed to advertising in 
the New-England States, and from that direction 
we are in the constant receipt of letters of in¬ 
quiry. In our March number, page 91, we re¬ 
sponded to one of these queries, intending that 
answer for a great number of others. Since 
then , six different persons have called upon us, 
each one of whom considered himself specially 
aimed at in our March paragraph, and each one 
protesting against it. The gun proved to be 
more heavily loaded, and to have “scattered” 
more than we anticipated. 
In some quarters our motives have been im¬ 
pugned, and intimations of “ prejudice,” etc., 
have been thrown out. As we shall probably 
have more to say on this subject, let us premise 
here, that our home is on Long Island ; that we 
expect it always will he there, as we hope never 
to “move” again; that we cherish a peculiar 
regard for the credit of our “adopted country” 
as a whole ; that our only political aspiration 
is to be governor of Long Island, when it sets up 
for an independent State ; that we desire to see the 
largest possible number of intelligent cultivators 
on our Island ; that we will do anything and 
everything consistent with truth and honesty, 
both in our public and private capacity, to set 
forth the good qualities of every part of Long 
Island, and to defend it against the aspersions of 
all and sundry persons, whomsoever and where¬ 
soever. We can not even think of a single mo¬ 
tive, personal or otherwise, that would lead us 
to be “ prejudiced ” against a single foot of land 
on Long Island—if we have any prejudice, it is all 
the other way. After this general disclaimer, 
we shall hold in proper contempt all intimations 
of “ prejudice ” against our own chosen Island. 
Here is the offending paragraph in our March 
number, which has been the cause of the 
dissatisfaction, expressed not only in a batch of 
communications now before us,but by those who 
have called to “ set us right ” : 
“ Bogus Land Advertisements. —W. F. B , 
“ Franklin Co., Mass. We know little of the lands 
“ you inquire about. There are doubtless some 
“ chance plots which might be selected by a com- 
“ petent judge on the ground, but the good quali- 
“ ties of a majority of the magnificent farming 
“ lands advertised there, and at other points at 
“the East, are on paper. It’s all nonsense to talk 
“ of large tracts of good land near New-York, 
“ Philadelphia, etc., as having remained over- 
“ looked to this day.” 
We wrote the above in good faith, and we still 
stand up to it—it expresses exactly what we 
wanted to say, and what we still say. As we 
shall show further on, “ there are chance plots of 
land ” on Long Island which arc now unoccu¬ 
pied, and which can be bought at a moderate 
price — a price below their real worth, consider¬ 
ing their location and climate ; and a “ competent 
judge’’going upon the ground, could make a 
selection that would be a capital investment. 
There are many such plots, but the proportion of 
good land to poor, is so small comparatively, that 
incompetent judges would be quite likely to be 
deceived in purchasing. We are of course 
speaking only of those portions of the Island now 
uncultivated. A considerable part of the Island 
is occupied by thrifty cultivators, especially on 
the north and south shores. 
We have studied the geology of Long Island 
somewhat, and have personally examined the soil 
in some places—with the design of purchasing 
some of the “cheap land” for cultivation, if 
found worthy. The location is desirable, and the 
climate good, except for those predisposed to 
diseases of the lungs. Some persons of this class 
find the sea breezes not conducive to their 
health. But taken as a whole, the climate is 
genial and every way a desirable one. 
There are many thousands of acres of land, 
particularly through the middle of the Island, 
which are as yet uncultivated wastes. Most of 
these are owned by individuals, in tracts of con¬ 
siderable extent, and the effort is being made to 
show that their good qualities have been over¬ 
looked, and that they are really valuable for cul¬ 
tivation. We wrote that “ it is nonsense to talk 
of large tracts of land near New-York, Philadel¬ 
phia, etc., as having remained overlooked to this 
day,” referring to certain largely adveriiscd 
sections east of Philadelphia, in New-Jersey, 
and also these Long Island lands now under 
consideration. This statement is a reason¬ 
able one. Long Island has been settled 200 years, 
and is it possible that the tens of thousands of 
intelligent, acute farmers, who have passed their 
lives upon the Island, living all around these un¬ 
inhabited tracts, should not have discovered their 
good qualities in 200 years! The truth is, they 
have tried them again and again, and then passed 
them by. 
Those who have written upon the Long Island 
lands, and talked of them at the so-called “ N. Y. 
Farmer's Club,” have too often formed their opin¬ 
ions from superficial observation. A stranger, go¬ 
ing over these uncultivated lands, and looking at 
the surface only, would very naturally wonder 
why such soils should lie idle near the greatest 
market on the continent. But the trouble is be¬ 
low the immediate surface. Let us look into it. 
During the past month we dug a cess-pool 
for draining. (This was cheaper and more con¬ 
venient than to cut a deep drain across ad¬ 
joining lands.) The first foot of surface was a 
good loam, mixed with organic matter. Below 
this we came to what is termed a hard-pan—a 
close, compact, gravely, clay loam, moist, but 
too compact to allow the water to pass readily 
through it. This layer extended for about 12 feet. 
Below this were 5 to 6 feet of more gravely soil; 
and at the depth of 17 feet we reached coarse 
rounded gravel, running into well washed coarse 
sand, as sharp and clean as the best sea-shore 
sand. It contained bits of woods and other re¬ 
mains, just such as we find upon the sea-shore. 
A pail of water poured upon it, sunk out of 
sight in less than half a minute. We dug into 
this 6 feet, and found it perfectly uniform. We 
stoned up the excavation, and have no doubt but 
all the water from underdrains in the adjoining 
lands will be carried off. A well, near by, was 
sunk through this same uniform sand for a dis¬ 
tance of 40 feet, when reaching the tide level, 
