LONG ISLAND, a fragment of the North American conti nent extending 118 m. east-north-east from the mouth of the Hudson river, U.S.A. It roughly parallels the south shore of Con necticut from which it is separated by Long Island sound (115 m. long) and lies south-east of the mainland of New York State of which it is a part. The island is from 12 to 23 m. wide and has an area of I,682.sq.m. The east end is divided into two narrow peninsulas (the northern culminating in Orient point about 25 m. long, the southern ending in Montauk point, the eastern extremity of the island, about 4o m. long) by three bays, Great Peconic, Little Peconic (in which lies Shelter island) and Gardiners (in which lies Gardiners island). The north shore is broken in its western half by Flushing bay, Little Neck bay, Manhasset bay, Cold Spring Harbor, Huntington bay, Smithtown bay and Port Jefferson. The south shore has Jamaica bay with many low islands and nearly cut off from the ocean by the narrow spit of Rocka way beach; the ill-defined Great South bay, which is separated from the Atlantic by the narrow Long beach, Jones beach and Oak Island beach, and by the long peninsula called Fire island or Great South beach. Still farther east is Shinnecock bay, about 20 m. long and cut off from the ocean by a narrow beach.
Physiography, climate and location have combined to make Long Island one of the richest and most important garden spots in the United States. The hills of glacial moraine and much of the outwash plains of the southern half of the island, covered for cen turies with forest mould, offer a rich soil to the husbandman. A mild, maritime climate brings the spring earlier and holds the autumn later than in the continental interior at the same latitude.
New York city offers a market without equal in America. Long Island agriculture of the 17th and i8th centuries was characterized by the self-sufficient farm. Toward the end of the i8th century some farmers began selling their surplus crops in New York. Con nection with this market was by wagons from the farms at the western end of the island and by small coasting boats from the homesteads of the north shore. Two events in the first half of the i9th century established Long Island agriculture on its modern basis. In 1825 the completion of the Erie canal gave New York city a connection with the continental interior and allowed a swift development which made it the metropolis of North America. In
1844 the Long Island railroad was completed to Greenport.
The growth of New York and the completion of the railroad caused the general farms to be turned into market gardens, cul tivated intensively. The change did not come at once. For a time, of ter the Civil War, Queens and western Suffolk counties com prised an important milk-producing region. As the urban market increased, however, the land became too valuable for grazing, and truck farming became the dominant industry. In 1926 the farm land of Long Island was roughly valued at and the value of the annual crop was estimated at $17,000,000. Kings county, across the East river from Manhattan, had 3o farms under cultivation, and Queens county had 450 enclosures, 9,00o ac. in all, where market gardening was conducted with profit. Nassau county, the next political division to the east, had some 45,000 ac. in about 90o farms. Every year fresh vegetables worth more than $8,000,000 are sold from that county in New York. Suf folk is the largest gardening county. Cauliflower, asparagus, cu cumbers, Brussels sprouts and potatoes are some of the principal crops. Duck farming is an important industry.