PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 153 



settlers. He is building a great hotel, and handsome private 

 houses are rising rapidly in all directions. 



At Ell wood the settlement has not advanced as rapidly as at 

 Hanunonton, though it has got a healthy start, and under the 

 agency of Gen. Wright, is now likely to go ahead rapidly. Two 

 paper mills add to the industry of this place, and such men as 

 Messrs. Kich & Irving, proprietors of one of them, are well cal- 

 culated to infuse a go-ahead spirit into their neighbors. 



There are about 50,000 acres in the EUwood tract owned by 

 Mr. Colwell, Philadelphia, the most of which is now open for 

 settlement upon both sides, and adjoining the railroad from Cam- 

 den to Atlantic City — a great sea-side place of resort, sixty miles 

 south-east of Philadelphia. Ellwood Station is seven miles south- 

 ward of Hammonton, and Egg Hai-bor City is four and a half 

 miles further, and six miles from Little Egg Harbor landing-place, 

 to which a side track is buildino-. 



About 30,000 acres of land were purchased here, and a settle- 

 ment commenced in 1858 by a German company, and the settle- 

 ment now numbers 5,000 people, who exhibit no symptoms of 

 suffering in consequence of having chosen a barren soil. Indeed, 

 everything shows prosperity, thrift, comfort, happiness. 



We were assured by Frederick Clever, a very intelligent Ger- 

 man gentleman, who is one of the leading members of the original 

 company, that there are now growing upon this tract not less than 

 ten millions of grape vines; and that the grapes produced, will 

 make wine equal to the first-class Rhine wines, we were fully satis- 

 fied by the most practical evidence. 



We were also assured that some of the German farmers are 

 making tobacco culture quite profitable; and that hops grow of 

 such excellence that they sold for ten cents a pound above the 

 market price. They are also devoting attention to cranberry 

 culture. 



Absecom, still farther on, is a very old settlement, long occupied 

 by a class of men devoted to the sea and its products, and firm 

 believers that all the land in their rear was an irredeemable wil- 

 derness, only fit to produce a crop of wood for the coal burners 

 once in 20 years. The best argument in the world to prove that 

 it was barren was, that it had never produed any food crop. It 

 was useless to reply that no seed had ever been planted — no 

 attempts at cultivation ever made, except upon the true Jersey 

 plan of skinning a piece of new land until the body was dead and 



