The daily gazette., 1880-11-11
LONG ISLANDS GREAT FARM

LON6 lOLAND . 0hEh L tARM.
2, 400 ACRES WITHOUT FENCES, YET
ALL UNDER CULTIVATION.
New York Sun.
That part of the Stewart property
ON Long Island called the Stewart
farm contains $500 acres. 1t forms
the broad suburbs of Garden City. 1t
is a part of tract of 1000 acres that
A. r. Stewart bought on September
13, 1869. He had no idea of making
the purchase two hours before the bar
gain was consummated. Henry Hill
ton had been in negotiation for it, for
himself, and expected to buy it, but
an association which had been formed
Unexpectedly put in bid of $40 an
acre and agreed to pay 500, 900 of the
purchase money in cash. Those were
higher figures than Mr.. Hilton at that
time felt able to bid against. He talk
the matter over with Mr.. Stewart, and
the latter surprised him with the re-
mark, Suppose take the land ?"
Mr.. Hilton described the advantages
of the purchase and advised Mr.. Stew
art to make it. The result was that
Mr.. Stewart got the land, although he
had to pay $55.an acre torit. He drew
his check for $494, $50.
The soil, which is of the same gen.
eral character as that of the rest of
Hampstead Plains, was long regarded
as worthless. 1t is n true prairie, and
before the prairies of the West were
discovered it used to be visited as a
curiosity. The entire area of the
plain is 10000 acres. The farm is
about 100 feet above the sea level. 1t
is a table land with southern aspect.
The surface is gently undulating from
west to east. Some of the depressions
have the appearance of dried up
streams. In fact, on the southern bor-
ders of the plains streams of pure
water are found in the depressions.
The surface soil is dark loan from
fifteen inches to two feet deep. The
turf ON this soil is so thick and strong
that it is necessary to use a team OF
three horses to turn furrow through
it. Beneath the dark loan is a layer
of yellow loan of equal thickness
Sometimes clay replaces it. Beneath
the yellow loan and clay, at a deptt
of from two and half to three feet, il
a compact sand and gravel. AT Gar
den City dense crust of hardpan wa:
found by boring through the gravel sew
enty feet below the surface. The
gravel and sand above the hardpaE
form an inexhaustible reservoir OF
water. Garden City is now supplied
with water by the Holly system oi
pumps and pipes out of one well, and
the water in this well stands only
twenty-five feet below the general
level of The plains. The we'll is a caver.
nous cylinder of brick work fifty feet
in diameter.
Mrs. Stewart shows great interest in
Garden City and the farm, and Mr.. Hill
ton, as executor of her husbands estate,
frequently visits them. The farmer is
w. X. Hinsdale, general manager of the
Stewart property OF Long Island. He
has forty horses and fourteen steam ell
gines TO help him, although all of these
steam engines are not used for farm
work. Four OF them pump water FIRM
the we'll described above. Two of them
are used in a brickyard, and three are
used in the cathedral to supply wind to
the four organs that have just been put
up in different parts of the building. and
to procure the mechanical electricity
which will enable one organ st TO play
all of them at the same time, as well as
to strike the chimes in the steeple.
When Farmer Hinsdale wants to turn
up his land he can hitch twelve-horse-
power traction engine to gang Of
ploughs. When his crops are ripe he
unloads his wagons with the aid of
steam power. Ears of corn are shot
from an aperature In the bottom of a
wagon by means of broad, endless
band, crossed with bucket boards, up
into the top of the long cribs. Grain is
threshed and the straw is stored away
In the barns by steam. A load of hay
Is bauled to a stack, a barbed harpoon
is thrust down through the middle of
the load, and il is lifted bodily from the
wagon and swung up to the stack.
There is a grain warehouse, in which
grain may be sent up TO any part of the
by 100-horse power engine.
The building is, in fact, grain elevator.
1t has appliances to load and unload
wagons. II also contains grlst mill.
A small steam engine drives machine
used for grading grain. There are two
portable engines to do miscellaneous
work on the farm. Except for the two
last mentioned engines and the traction
engine, they are all driven by steam
from the bank of boilers in the pump
house beside The big well. The steam
is distributed OH the Holly system all
over Garden City for heating purposes,
aud wherever pipe has been laid it
may be tapped for power as well as for
heat. The 100 horsepower engine In
The grain warehouse, although it is near
IL a mile from the boilers in the pump
house, starts instantly when the engi-
neer opens the valve.
To a man who rides casually over this
great farm, several things will seem re-
uarkable, He may trot his horse any
where, in or out of the splendid roads,
except where the land had been broken
up for crops. The meadow and pasture
land offers no serious unevenness to the
wheels, and there are no fences to trouble
him. He will see sheep but no COWS
With the flock of sheep he will notice
shepherd boy summing himself on the
grass and attended by an alert dog. The
,heep are herded all day, and at night
are shut up in dog-proof corral. Far
ner Hinsdale has strong notions in re-
gar to fences. He believes that the cost
1f their construction and repair consun es
80 bo 70