Page:The plains of Long Island.djvu/13

 Hempstead plains with lime made from oyster shells. Sands possess none of these adhesive qualities, and no intelligent person, after the slightest inspection would mistake the soil of the plains for sand, or would hesitate, even without the light of science, to pronounce it a clayey loam. It is nothing else, and the many square miles of plains which I explored possess this special quality, and exhibited, uniformly, a great preponderance of clay.

The soil of the Bush plains is yellow, tinged a little with red. That of Hempstead plains is darker, owing in some degree to the humus it contains, but essentially, I think, to the influence of air and heat, by which, on account of the absence of trees and bushes, it is more affected than the bush plains. I do not, of course, mean to assert, that there exists through the entire extent of this vast area, a perfect uniformity in the depth and qualities of the soil. No greater diversity, however, occurs than prevails in every equal extent of territory. There is exhibited on the plains, an occasional cropping out of the gravel stratum, and in places the loam has been washed off. Upon other level tracts, ravines contain the richest earth, but here, in conformity to the uniform dissimilitude to other districts, which prevails, the greatest thinness and barrenness of soil occurs in the depressions, while the best and heaviest land is found on the elevated parts of the plain. The loam presents a thicker stratum near the ridge, and it gradually loses this aspect as the plains approach the ocean. Ravines running north and south traverse, at intervals, the plains, and these, uniformly, have the lightest and thinnest soil.

In the fall of 1859, a long tract of land had been turned up in the construction of a road near North Islip station. I examined it with care and interest, and I never, any where, have seen a more beautiful development of soil. Mr. Bridger assured me, that from ample experiments, he considered the second stratum, or the mixture of loam and gravel I have described, quite as productive as the superficial loam, and Mr. Harold informed me that they considered it at Hempstead, preferable for corn in a cold season. Dr. Peck and Mr. Johnson both stated that they esteemed this soil the most congenial to the peach tree. Wherever this stratum had been thrown up and exposed to the air and sun, I saw white clover growing upon it in perfect luxuriance. The fertility of this substratum may be imputed, I conjecture, to the fertilizing soils and other ingredients which it receives from the superficial soil.

I cannot be mistaken, I think, in these views of the qualities and ingredients of this soil. I have not been able to subject it to analysis, but I am informed that specimens of it were submitted to the late distinguished Prof. Norton, who pronounced the soil deficient in no element of fertility, except a sufficient presence of lime and alkali. I learn, also, that Prof. Renwick, before the Institute, concurred in these views. Such is the judgment and voice of science on the subject. If the soil, by its elements, is adapted to cultivation, what possible other great and tangible impediments exist to exclude this immense territory from the labors and interests