ATLANTIC DISTRICT. 
319 
centage of lime in combination with an organic acid. The sand, when washed free of 
vegetable matter, furnishes only a trace at most of lime or magnesia. Beneath the drift 
on the northern slope and sides of Long Island, beds of green sand, of unknown extent, 
are found to exist. Members of this formation crop out on the farm of Hon. Mr. Young, 
of Oysterbay. They consist of a yellow clay, and the peculiar ferruginous conglomerate so 
common in Monmouth county, New-Jersey. The green sand so useful as a fertilizer, and 
which is below the ferruginous band, has not been observed. 
A large proportion of the soil of Kings county is of a superior kind. Some of the largest 
crops of maize and wheat have been raised here. It would seem that the land is too 
valuable to be devoted extensively to the raising of maize and wheat. The products of 
the garden and orchard must necessarily, and they probably do, engage the attention of the 
proprietors of the soil. The best parts of the whole island will, ere long, be appropriated 
as country residences of the wealthy. 
It is scarcely necessary to say, that in no instance is the soil of Long Island derived 
z' 
from rocks in place : the entire mass, therefore, is either drift or marine sand. The exa¬ 
mination of the soils, however, has been only imperfectly performed ; but enough has 
been observed, to prove that there is a great deficiency of the alkalies and alkaline earths. 
Lime and magnesia are only sparingly present in the soil of any part of the island, except 
that which lies along the Sound, where these materials are somewhat more abundant. 
The inference which follows from this fact, can not be forgotten. The means for increasing 
the fertility of the land are very scarce ; hence nearly all the manures are brought from a 
distance. The stables and streets of New-York and Brooklyn contribute largely to this 
object. 
The composition of the soils of Long Island depends upon the direction from which 
they came. If derived from the rocks in the valley of the Hudson river, or from the pri¬ 
mary region bordering the Sound in the State of Connecticut, it will not differ essentially 
from the soil of the Taconic district, or that of the Southern Highland district. If it be the 
washed sand, it will belong to the highly porous and open soils, in which quartz sand is 
the principal constituent, and which will give, on analysis, ninety per cent of silex. 
The composition of the drift, which constitutes the soil of the northern face of the island, 
is as follows : 
Water and organic matter_ 6-00 
Silicates. .... 87*87 
Peroxide of iron and alumina. 6*25 
Carbonate of lime. 0*25 
Magnesia. trace. 
99-50 
This soil is "what is called a sandy loam. The mass below is gravel, or fragments of 
gneiss, quartz, and-mica slate. It was taken two and a half miles west of Oysterbay. 
