“to improve the soil and 
THE MIND.” 
New Series. 
ALBANY, OCTOBER, 
1849. 
Vol. VI.—No. 10. 
practical jjusbairtrrg. 
Farming on Fong Island. 
Local circumstances must always have an influence 
on the course or system of farming adopted in any par¬ 
ticular district. The relative demand and value of pro¬ 
ducts, together with the facilities for production, must 
govern the farmer in the selection of crops for cultiva¬ 
tion. The near proximity of large cities and towns, 
may render it profitable to cultivate articles, which, in 
neighborhoods remote from market, would be compara¬ 
tively valueless. The rapid increase of consumers of 
agricultural products, in some parts of our country, is 
constantly changing or modifying the course of fanning 
in those sections; and this influence is being more and 
more extended with the extension of the means of rapid 
and easy communication with the interior. Perhaps 
there is no part of the country which has been more 
affected by the late great improvements in intercommu¬ 
nication, than a large portion of Long Island. A view 
of the mode of farming now practiced in one of the 
most important counties of that section, is admirably 
given in an address delivered before the Queens County 
Agricultural Society, by Hon. John A. King, Presi¬ 
dent of that Society, and now President of the New- 
York State Agricultural Society. We think our readers 
will be interested with Mr. K. 7 s remarks. Eds. 
General History oe the County. —I propose, in 
the remarks I am about to make, to depart somewhat 
from the course which has been usually adopted by 
those who have addressed this Society, and instead of 
treating of the subject of agriculture generally, I pro¬ 
pose to confine what I have to say, principally to the 
county of Queens, the middle county of the Island upon 
which we live. Before, however, I enter upon the 
character of its soil, the course of tillage, and the ap¬ 
plication of manures to its varied crops, I would for a 
moment digress, and give a brief account of the posi¬ 
tion, settlement and climate of Queens county, stating 
at the same time, that most of the information and facts 
relating to these questions, are derived from the seve¬ 
ral histories of Long Island, and from the recent Geo¬ 
logical Survey of the same, under the authority of the 
State, by Wm. W. Mather. Long Island then, by its 
position, its climate, the character of its soil, and the 
thrift and industry of its inhabitants, is a remarkable 
portion of the State of New-York. It lies on its south¬ 
ern extremity, between the 40th and 41st degrees of 
north latitude, and forms, with the Island of Manhattan, 
Staten Island and the Jersey shore, the noble harbor of 
New-York. It is in length, from Fort Hamilton, at the 
Narrows, to Montauk Point, about one hundred and 
forty miles; and from the Narrows to Peconic Bay, a 
distance of ninety miles, it varies in breadth from 12 
to 20 miles. The first successful attempt by the Eng¬ 
lish to settle Queens county, was made in the town of 
Hempstead, in 1643, by emigrants from New England, 
at whose head was the Rev. Richard Denton. Flush¬ 
ing was settled in 1645, under Thomas Farrington and 
others. Newtown by Englishmen in 1651, where the 
present village now stands; and the first patent or 
ground brief, was granted in 1652, by Governor Stuy- 
vesant. Thomas Stevenson and his associates were 
among its first settlers. The first plantation in Oyster- 
bay, was commenced on the site of the present village 
of that name in 1653, by Englishmen, and the first 
deed from the Indians for land in that town, was made 
in 1653, to Peter Wright and others. Jamaica follow¬ 
ed in 1656, upon the application of Robert Jackson and 
others from Hempstead. Robert Coe ami his associ¬ 
ates signed the first certificate of purchase Nov. 25th, 
1656, for the settlement near the Beaver Pond, under a 
purchase from the Indians, and a grant from the Gov¬ 
ernor and Council of 21st March, 1656. North Hemp¬ 
stead was originally a part of Hempstead, and has no 
distinct records earlier than the year 1784. A settle¬ 
ment was attempted, at what is now Manhassett, in 
1640, by a company of emigrants from Lynn in Massa¬ 
chusetts, but was broken up by the Dutch Governor 
Kieft. It. will be perceived from the above statement, 
that the county of Queens is among the earliest settle¬ 
ments in the State of New-York. Its length from east 
to west is 26 miles, its breadth from north to south 
about 16 miles, making its whole area or surface 396 
square miles, or 250,000 acres. 
The influence of the ocean, which bounds it on the 
south and east, mitigates and tempers, both in winter 
and summer, the cold and the heat; so that the ther¬ 
mometer rarely falls below zero, or rises above 90. Of 
the 250,000 acres, the area of its surface, about 25,- 
000 are salt meadow, and 25,000 plain and common 
lands, leaving 200,000 acres of land for cultivation, 
improvement or in wood. Its present population may 
be estimated at 32,000; and the assessment roll of its 
real and personal property, reaches nearly $12,000,000. 
Considering, then, the agricultural character of its in¬ 
habitants, their numbers, the size of the county, one of 
the smallest in the State, yet, the value of its land, and 
prosperity of its farmers, place it, in point of taxable 
property, the sixth or seventh*in the State. Large as 
is this amount of property, in a county of such limited 
extent, and whose population is almost exclusively ag¬ 
ricultural ; yet I think it can be clearly shown that a 
full remuneration for the capital and labor expended in 
the cultivation of its soil, is annually received, and in 
many instances profitably invested, and that this steady 
return and increase, is as much due to the thrift and in¬ 
dustry of those who till the soil, as to the character of 
that soil, and the variety of its products. A ridge or 
chain of hills commencing in Kings county, and extend¬ 
ing nearly to Oyster Pond Point, on the northern fork 
of the Island, and rising in one or two places, to nearly 
400 feet in height, divides the county into nearly equal 
parts. On the north side of this ridge, the land is often 
rough and broken, except where it stretches in necks 
