The soil of the semicircular plateau from the Highlands of the Hudson to the Dans Kamer is mostly a mixture of gravel, sand and clay, which form a warm and fertile loam. That of the wide Wallkill valley is alluvium mixed with clay, sand and gravel and is easily worked and richly productive. So is the soil brought down from the hills in the town of Deer Park. The lands on the islands of the Drowned Lands are among the richest in the county. The alluvium of the Otterkill is a sandy and gravelly loam. In other sections of the county there is an alternating variety of soils, rich, medium and poor. [Illustration: Thos. W. Bradley] CHAPTER V. EARLY GOVERNMENT Until after the conquest of New York by the English in 1664 Holland methods of government, with a local government for each town, prevailed. The next year the English introduced courts and sheriffs. In 1682 Thomas Dongan was appointed governor, with directions to organize a council of not more than ten "eminent inhabitants," and issue writs for the election by freeholders of a general assembly, the members of which should consult with the governor and his council as to what laws were necessary for the good government of the province. The first meeting of the first general assembly was in New York in 1683, and it passed fourteen acts, which were assented to by the governor and his council. One of them established twelve counties, as follows: New York, Kings, Queens, Suffolk, Richmond, Westchester, Albany, Ulster, Dutchess, Orange, Duke's and Cornwall. Except Orange, to be in the care of New York, and Ulster, to be in the care of Dutchess, the counties were to be entitled to representation in future general assemblies. Another act established town courts to be held for the trial of minor cases each month; county courts and courts of sessions, to be held quarterly or half-yearly; a general court of oyer and terminer, with original and appellate power, to be held twice a year in each county; and a court of chancery, or supreme court, composed of the governor and his council, for which the governor was empowered to deputize a chancellor to act in his place. This was the system of administering justice eight years. Then, in 1691, Courts of Justices of Peace were organized in each town, and Courts of Common Pleas for each county. In 1701 an act was passed requiring justices of the peace in each county to meet once a year at a Court of Sessions, to examine and allow necessary charges against the county and its towns. There were supervisors, assessors and collectors in each town from the first, and in 1691 the freeholders of each town were empowered to choose three surveyors to lay out and look after highways and fences, and also to ordain laws and rules for the improvement of village, pasturage and other lands. Such were the laws which directed the early administration of government in Orange County.