A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE UNCULTIVATED LANDS ON LONG ISLAND IN 1850. 
3 
most any extent, and there are no facts that can 
be brought against it, and all the opinions to 
the contrary are founded upon ignorance and 
prejudice. 
Samuel A. Smith, Esq., of Smithtown, in an 
address before the Suffoik-County Agricultural 
Society, at Commac, in the fall of 1846, said of 
these lands, “ that they had always considered 
them only fit for deer to roam over, and foxes to 
dig holes in, and they knew no other reason for 
such opinions than that their fathers had told 
them so’ —that they never had made any 
attempts to cultivate these lands, and therefore 
did not know from any fact that they were unfit 
for cultivation. 
The situation of these lands is extremely fa¬ 
vorable, and even desirable. The Long-Island 
Railroad passes directly through the unculti¬ 
vated parts of the Island—thereby affording easy 
and certain access during the whole year, hav¬ 
ing, in this respect, a great advantage over even 
those places on the coast or bays that are es¬ 
teemed the most valuable—for, by the railroad, 
the market can be reached at all seasons and at 
all times, without reference to wind and tide, 
and unobstructed by ice, as the bays and har¬ 
bors are for three months in a year. 
The surface of this part of the Island is varied, 
or gently undulating, with a southern aspect, 
having a descent of from twelve to twenty feet 
to the mile, from the ridge of hills about one 
mile north of the railroad to the shores of the 
great South Bay, a distance of five or six miles. 
The summit level of the railroad, at Hicksville, 
is 142 feel above tide water, and at Lake-Road 
Station, 48 miles from the South Perry of New 
York, it is 90 feet—it will therefore be seen that 
the surface is not a “ dead level—a great dreary 
plain,” but sufficiently varied. 
In passing through on the railroad, the ap¬ 
pearance from the cars is altogether unfavora¬ 
ble, and the impression left on the mind, to an 
ordinary observer, is erroneous. The excava¬ 
tions for the road are, in most cases, so deep as 
to go below the upper stratum of the earth, or 
the proper covering of the Island, and into the 
sand and gravel, of which it is every where com¬ 
posed below the surface. Hence the appear¬ 
ance of sand and coarse gravel, that is seen on 
the borders of the railroad. 
This fact can be easily ascertained by any 
one who doubts it, by digging through the sur¬ 
face stratum anywhere in the vicinity of the vil¬ 
lage of Jamaica, or in those finely cultivated 
fields along the railroad, either east or west of 
that place, a very few feet, say from one and a 
half to two and a half feet deep, will turn up 
the same kind of sand and gravel as seen along 
the road to the east of Hicksville and Farming- 
dale. 
The whole prospect from the road after leav¬ 
ing the last above-mentioned place, is barren 
and desolate, and without a careful examination 
and knowledge of the facts herein stated, the 
conclusion would be that the land was in itself 
necessarily sterile and barren; for, in addition 
to the sandy and gravelly apppearance, the ab¬ 
sence of trees, and in much of the distance, a 
stinted vegetation, or in some places none at 
all, on the immediate borders of the railroad, 
seem to confirm the opinion that it is as san¬ 
dy and barren as it has ever been represented. 
The explanation of this may be found, first in 
the fact that the uneven and irregular growth of 
wood or trees being of different heights or sizes, 
some very small and scattered, whilst others are 
larger, and which is in consequence of the time 
or period that has elapsed since the land was 
cut over. On some places the growth is one 
year old, on others two, five, seven, ten, &c. 
Besides having been cut over, it often happens 
that it is burnt over, which always has a ten¬ 
dency to kill the timber and wood, and destroy 
vegetation. Nearly all the great region of wood 
and wild land through which the railroad passes 
has been burnt over two or three times in five 
years. The first fire after the opening of the 
road was tremendous—terrific. At one time it 
lasted nearly two weeks, and seemed as though 
it would consume the whole Island, There was 
a great amount of combustible matter on the 
ground and in the woods, and the earth was ex¬ 
ceedingly dry, and the effect of the fire was in 
the highest degree scathing—consuming almost 
every particle of vegetable matter on the sur¬ 
face of the earth. For miles in extent, nothing 
could be seen but the smooth and blackened 
surface, and the charred bodies of such trees as 
had escaped destruction. The fire happened in 
the month of April, and the land over which it 
had passed looked like a furnace that had sud¬ 
denly been extinguished, as black and desolate 
as fire could make it. 
Yet, as soon as the sun and showers of spring 
and summer came, the whole was again clothed 
with verdure—vegetation could be seen there, 
literally “ bursting into life.” It was truly as¬ 
tonishing to see with what vigor, power, and 
rapidity the leaves and plants, and flowers 
sprung forth to deck the earth again in green. 
The writer of this well remembers with what 
interest he watched the returning signs of life 
in the vegetable kingdom there, and the great 
impression that its return so speedily, so luxu¬ 
riantly and so powerfully made on his mind— 
how soon the restoring energies of nature were 
brought into action to repair the injury that had 
been done to the earth’s surface. 
There is on each side of the railroad, distant 
about twenty rods, and running parallel with it, 
what is termed a fire road. It is a cleared path, 
about twenty feet wide, which has been cleared 
of all the bushes and roots, by grubbing. The 
object of this “ fire road,” or path, is to prevent the 
fire from crossing over it, and passing into the 
woods, in case of the combustible materials 
along the road taking fire from the sparks from 
the engine. The space between the railroad 
and these fire roads is burnt over every spring 
and fall, with a view to kill and destroy all veg¬ 
etation, and all vegetable matter on it, in order 
to prevent the recurrence of fires; and this fully 
accounts for the extreme barren appearance 
along the borders of the road. 
The forest productions of this part of the 
Island are such as to convince the most skep- 
