14
of Agriculture? I will now proceed to present my own conclusions on this subject, in connection with notices of the objections which are urged against the culture of these plains.
Is the soil adapted to cultivation? The production, upon the plain lands, every fifteen or twenty years of a heavy burthen of firewood, and which sustains at the same time a massive growth of coarse herbage and under bushes, so thick as in places to be almost as impenetrable as a Mexican chapparal, would seem to conclusively attest the presence of a strong, as well as quick soil. Every opening on the plains reveals a vigorous growth of clover and other nutritious grasses, which spring spontaneously.
The demonstration afforded by practical results furnish the strongest evidence on the subject, and I will present a few instances in the actual cultivation of these lands, from the mass of facts which I have collected to illustrate the capacity of this soil for tillage. The soil of Flatbush and the range of farms upon the south shore, which have been cultivated for two centuries, and during that period have been esteemed the garden of the State, and which are still distinguished for the exuberance and beauty of their crops, exhibit the same elements of soil as the plains, and have the same appearance, modified by culture and the application of manures. If the land in these districts is susceptible of this high culture, and are made equally productive with the choicest land in the State, we are justified in the conclusion that soil in other sections of the Island, possessing the same inherent qualities, may, by similar culture, be made alike valuable for agricultural purposes. If, as I confidently assume the fact to be, the soil of Hempstead and the Woodland plains has the same normal properties as that of the other localities referred to, there can exist no reason why they cannot receive the same productive improvement.
We are not left, however, to mere conjecture and speculation on this question. Practical results accumulate abundant testimony to the capabilities of these lands for high and remunerative culture. The long succession of farms which have been carved from the plains in North Hempstead at a comparatively recent period reveal a high state of improvement. The lands near Hempstead village, which have been absorbed by the process of encroachment I have mentioned, are now, I am assured, in as great fertility as the portions of the same farms which for generations have been cultivated. Mr. Harold informs me that records exist of harvests of winter wheat on plain lands of thirty-four bushels to the acre, weighing sixty-two pounds to the bushel, and from sixty to eighty bushels of shelled corn to the acre. I saw myself in December, 1859, specimens of spring wheat raised by Mr. Sammis on Hempstead plains, with an interval of only three and a half months between sowing and harvesting, which yielded twenty-three bushels to the acre. Mr. John A. Bedell received a premium from the Queens County Society, and in competition with some of the choicest farms on Long Island, for a crop of oats from one acre, two roods and eighteen rods, measuring seventy-eight and one-fourth bushels and weighing 36 pounds per bushel. This crop was also raised on plain land in the same year. It yielded
