300 
THE CULTIVATOR 
the annual productions of the country, is now to be di¬ 
minished by the cost of labor and manure, and the wear 
and tear, as follows: 
To the value of the real estate,..$7,500,000 
Deducting for villages and their buildings, 1,000,000 
$6,500,000 
Add to the personal estate, for stock, farm¬ 
ing implements, wagons, carts, &c., .... 1,500,000 
$8,000,000 
The balance of personal estate, $3,000,000, being at 
interest, or variously invested. 
Deduct, for labor on 50,000 acres 
arable land, at $6 per acre,.. $300,000 
And on 30,000 acres meadow or 
mowing land, at $3 per acre, 90,000 
For manures made and purchas¬ 
ed, the one being equal to the 
other, as will be shown,. 454,000 
For wear and tear,. 80,000 
—-- 924,000 
Nett receipt,. $840,605 
Or more than 10 per cent, on $8,000,000 of agricul¬ 
tural capital; or $7 nett per acre on 125,000 acres 
improved lands, and $17 nett per acre on the 50,000 
acres of arable land. 
The average size of the farms will scarcely reach 
eighty acres, and the average value of all the lands in 
the county, 250.000 acres, is agreeably to the assess¬ 
ment roll, $30; of the improved land, 125,000 acres, 
$60 per acre; of the number of acres returned for taxa¬ 
tion, 170,000, $47 per acre. The number of acres of 
improved land in the state is 12,000,000. Its hay 
crop is 3,000,000 tons, or rather more than one-quar¬ 
ter of the whole hay crop of the United States. In 
the year 1825, the Erie canal was completed. At 
that time the population of the city of New-York was 
166,000, and the value of her real and personal pro¬ 
perty, $100,000,000. Then the county of Queens had 
20,000 inhabitants, and an assessment roll of less than 
$6,000,000. In 1848, the city of New-York had a 
population of more than 400,000, and an assessment 
roll of $250,000,000; and the county of Queens, a po¬ 
pulation of 32.000, and an assessment roll of nearly 
$12,000,000. It is thus, I think, clearly shown, that 
the growth and influence of great cities, and the con¬ 
gregation of great numbers who are not producers, but 
must be fed, ever has been, and ever will be the source 
of increased value to the lands within a reasonable dis¬ 
tance, and of profit and emolument to those who are 
owners or tillers of the same. 
Annual Expenditure for Manure. —It remains 
now to be shown what sums are annually spent inde¬ 
pendently of labor, for the manures, ashes, lime, &c. 
An attempt has been made to form an estimate which 
should be safe, upon this subject, and some pains have 
been taken to get at the details, in which I have been 
aided by several intelligent friends; and the result is 
as will be seen below, that an annual sum of $227,000 
is expended for the purchase of manures.* 
* At the landings of the town of North Hempstead, there was 
received from the 1st of July, 1847, to the 1st of August, 1848— 
59,200 cartmen's loads of manure, 
147 tons of guano, 
3.800 loads of ashes, 
1.800 loads of lime, 
1,500 bushels of bone, 
30,000 bony fish. 
The value of which was,. $47,878 
The Long Island Railroad transported, during the same 
period, and principally for this county, 
14.000 loads of ashes, 
25,000 loads of manure, 
16,009 bushels of lime, 
Value, independently of guano, bone and bony fish,. 42,371 
$90,249 
Oct. 
This calculation is supposed by many to be below the 
actual outlay for manure, taking one year with another; 
and I have heard it suggested as a curious fact, or ra¬ 
ther conjecture, that large as is this amount, an equal 
amount in value is annually received from the sale of 
the fish, clams, oysters and wild fowl of our Bays and 
Sound. 
This estimate, while it is to be considered only as an 
attempt to fix the amount of outlay annually incurred 
by the farmers of Queens county for the materials to 
enrich their soil, furnishes at the same time the best 
evidence, that the profits of agriculture must be large 
and remunerating, in order to induce the farmers, who 
always look closely to their own interest, to expend 
annually so large a share of their receipts for such a 
purpose. 
If, then, to the above sum of $227,000 expended for 
manure, be added the amount of that made on the 
land, estimated according to the English calculation at 
so much per head of the animals of the county, viz., 
cattle and horses at 13 cart loads, cows at 10, and 
sheep and swine at l\, it will be found that about 
460,000 cart loads of manure at 4s., are annually 
made, equal in value to that procured from all other 
sources; 75,638, being the number of animals by the 
census of 1845, which calculation gives 6 loads per 
head all round. 
It will be perceived that I have not entered into the 
field of chemical analysis as respects the soil or the 
manures to be applied to it; this has been done by 
others, on former occasions; and is a subject now with¬ 
in the reach and understanding of all, from the cheap 
and numerous treatises upon the subject. I have con¬ 
fined my remarks to the practical view of our agricul¬ 
tural condition and capabilities, and have endeavored 
by a plain statement of facts as they are believed to 
exist, to give to those most interested in the prosperity 
and welfare of the county, such details respecting its 
soil, its husbandry, its products, and its prospects, as 
may encourage them and others to pursue, with dili¬ 
gence and profit, the most independent and healthful 
occupation that man can exercise. The state of New- 
York, ever mindful of her own commanding position, 
was the first to commence the great work of internal 
improvements, and well has sho been repaid for her 
wise forecast. Having provided the channels of com¬ 
munication. upon which might be borne the products 
of her own, and those of other states, she then expended 
a large sum of money, during a series of years, in the 
Geological Survey of the State; copies of which great 
work were distributed among the counties, at the cost 
price. She went one step further; for, remembering 
that agriculture was the occupation and support of the 
great mass of her people, she appropriated an annual 
sum of $8,000 for the improvement and encouragement 
of agricultural and domestic manufactures, a portion of 
which is paid to the several counties of the state, upon 
their raising an equal amount. 
Having now concluded the remarks which I proposed 
to address to the society, and which I feel have but 
poorly rapaid your patient attention, it remains for me 
If the 10.000 acres of arable land in North Hempstead require, 
in addition to that supplied by their own barn-yards, an outlay of 
nearly $50,000 a year for manure, Oysterbay. whose cultivation 
is about equal in amount, and, if as perfect, would also require an 
equal outlay,... *1M 1 1878 
Flushing, with about one-half the number of acres,... 23.939 
Newtown, with rather more than half,. 30,000 
Hempstead, with 12,700 acres, would require a lar¬ 
ger outlay than the towns already named; but, as she has 
other sources of supply, near at hand, from sea-weed and 
fish, I would not place her outlay beyond,.• • • • 20,000 
Jamaica, with about 4,000 acres requiring the aid of 
manure, a part of which is supplied by the L. I. Railroad, 
as is also that part of its line of road through the several 
towns of the county, may still be put down at an outlay of 1 5,000 
Making together the sum of...• .$227,063 
