231 



actually settled to low-water mark, a common practice is to leave tkc 

 meadow open to tlie tide for a course of years until the deposit of allu- 

 vium attains sufficient thickness to warrant a resumption of cultivation. 

 Pumping by steam or wind po"wer, as practiced in England and Holland, 

 would be of great advantage in draining these low-water levels and 

 maintaining them in productive condition. 



The Salem County embankments are generally four feet high above 

 the level of the meadows, with a width of eight feet at the base, and three 

 feet at the top. The dimensions, however, vary according to the re- 

 quirements of situation. At Finn's Point, Lower Penn's Xeck, where 

 there is great exposure to .the action of the Delaware Eiver, the em- 

 bankment is ten feet high, with a width of thirtj' feet at the base, and 

 twelve feet at the top, and is faced with stone on the river side. An 

 area of 1,200 acres is protected by this embankment. In Cumberland 

 County the embankments are frequently from three to seven feet high, 

 built immediately on the surface of the meadows. Where the mud 

 taken from a ditch twelve feet wide by three feet deep furnishes the ma- 

 terial of the embankment, the cost of construction is about $3 j)er rod. 

 At Lower Penn's IS'eck the first cost of' embankments and ditches for 

 drainage averages about $10 per acre. Steam dredging machines, which 

 have recently been introduced, tend to diminish the cost of construction, 

 and, when circumstances of situation demand, accomplish work too 

 heavy to be performed by hand. 



The expenditure for repairs of embankments and drains varies with 

 the degree of exposure, ranging generally from fifty cents to $1 i)er 

 acre annually. At Finn's Pomt the annual cost of repa*irs averages 

 $2 per acre. A large proportion of this expenditure is in consequence 

 ot the perforations made in the embankments by muskrats and soldier- 

 crabs. 



These banked meadows in Salem and Cumberland, once almost worth- 

 less, now furnish excellent grazing lands, and on the lowest of the mead- 

 ows herd's-gTass is grown for seed, the average yield being (with very little 

 care or expense in cultivation) about thirty bushels per acre, ^salued at 

 75 cents per bushel. The meadows along Maurice Eiver i^roduce, with- 

 out manuring, very large crops of timothy, grain, and roots. The 

 meadows at Finn's Point yield thirty to forty bushels of wheat per acre, 

 and one hundred and fifty to two hundred bushels of potatoes per acre. 



The blue and grey mud soils are suited to all crops. The black mud 

 is better adapted to Indian corn than to wheat. Lime is applied with 

 excellent eifect on all these meadows. The average value of the banked 

 meadows in Salem County is probably about 8100 iier acre; some 

 meadows being worth $100 to $500 per acre. 



Professor Cook states that there are 295,474 acres of fresh and salt 

 water tide meadows in Ivew Jersey, of which 20,000 acres, mostly situ- 

 ated on Delaware River and Bay are inclosed by dikes. 



