228 HOW TO GET A FARM, 



CHAPTER X. 



Wild Lands of New Jersey Opening of the first Railroad 

 Rapid Improvements New Towns Hammonton, Egg Harbor 

 City, Vineland, its history, condition, and future The Neigh 

 boring Lands. 



OF all the Middle States, none contain so wide an 

 area of uncultivated land, in proportion to the whole, 

 as New Jersey. By the report of the Geological 

 Survey, made in 1856, it appears that of 4,960,595 

 acres in the State, 3,192,604 acres were, at that 

 time, entirely uncultivated. In 1855, when a bill 

 was before the Legislature for incorporating a com 

 pany to construct an air-line railroad leading from 

 ISTew York across the lower section of the State, the 

 condition and extent of that uncultivated region 

 were often referred to. The Hon. William Parry, 

 Speaker of the House, made the following state 

 ments : 



&quot; The amount of land in West Jersey, including the 

 counties of Ocean and Monmouth, which would be ben 

 efited by this road, embraces an area of 2,632,000 acres, 

 and in the same section, according to the census of 1850, 

 there are 600,681 acres of improved land, leaving unim 

 proved, mainly for want of railroad facilities, over 2,000,000 

 of acres. This large extent of country, up to July, 1854, 

 when the Camden and Atlantic Railroad was opened, had 



