The Port Jefferson
Times carried the following story of agricultural products raised
and shipped from Long Island in their issue of Feb. 27, 1904.
“During the past
year there was shipped by Long Island Railroad from eastern Long
Island over 250,000 tons of fresh fish, including cod, blue fish,
weakfish, sturgeon, bass and flounders. There was also shipped by
railroad some 30,000 barrels of crabs from Center and East Moriches,
Eastport and Brookhaven. Also thousands of boxes of scallops, which
have lately been bringing $4.00 a gallon. (Quite different from the
current price of about $12.00 a gallon) About fifty steamers of the
American Fisheries Co. catch menhaden by the millions and process
them at Promised Land, Easthampton, and Barren Island, Jamaica.
Important as the
fishing industry is to Long Island, its agricultural interests are
far greater. During the past season about 285,000 barrels of
cauliflower were shipped from eastern Long Island by railroad. From
the north fork of the Island were shipped 300 carloads of 500
bushels each of the finest potatoes ever raised and shipped to the
New York market. Also raised and shipped were thousands of packages
of onions, cucumbers, asparagus, cabbage and other vegetables. The
steamers of the Montauk Line took last fall from Orient Point,
34,000 barrels of potatoes, 6,000 barrels of cucumbers, and large
quantities of other vegetables. In addition they took from Shelter
Island 15,000 barrels of potatoes and 5,000 barrels from Greenport.
George W. Hallock
of Orient, took across the sound to the Boston market in his own
steamer over 300,000 barrels of produce, a large part of it grown on
his own farm.
The cranberry crop
of Riverhead and vicinity, amounting to thousands of boxes annually,
raised on the otherwise worthless bog meadows, is one of the most
important crops of the town.
It is estimated
that 750,000 bushels of potatoes are shipped by railroad from the
fertile farms of Southampton and Westhampton, and thousands of
bushels of lima beans were shipped last fall from points on the main
line from Deer Park to Riverhead. Thousands of barrels of all kinds
of pickles are shipped every year from the pickle houses at
Farmingdale, Central Park, Huntington, and Northport.
From the fertile
farms of western Suffolk, Nassau and Queens Counties immense
quantities of vegetables are carried every year between August and
Christmas to the New York and Brooklyn markets. An average of over
250 market wagons wind their way to the Wallabout market, carrying
40 to 50 barrels each, of cabbage, potatoes, sweet corn, tomatoes,
beets, turnips, carrots, onions and other fall crops. Also, 30 to
40 wagon loads go over the College Point Ferry daily to the Harlem
market, and 50 to 60 wagon loads over the Astoria ferry to the same
market.
The poultry
products of the Island are very important, and over 10,000 barrels
of ducks are shipped annually from the farms at Eastport, Speonk,
East Moriches and other points along the south side.
Long Island
cordwood is an important article in the city kindling wood yards,
and its chestnut ties are sought after by the railroads. (This was
before the blight killed all the chestnut trees on the Island.)
The products of
Long Island flower and seed farms will run into millions of dollars
each year, and shipments find their way into all parts of the
world.”
Today about 50,000
acres of potatoes produce over fifteen million bushels annually, in
addition to over four thousand acres of cauliflower and other
vegetables, but the Long Island Railroad gets but little of this
business these days. Most of the land on the western end of the
Island that used to produce such quantities of vegetables has been
taken over for housing developments. Trucks during the winter bring
up oranges and grapefruit from Florida and take back potatoes.