300 SOILS IN NEW JERSEY. 



and came on to Philadelphia this forenoon. The dis 

 tance by railroad from New York to Philadelphia is 

 about ninety miles, and four hours is the usual time 

 occupied in the journey. 



After crossing the North Eiver from New York to 

 Jersey city, a flat of two miles in width extends from 

 the river to a ridge of igneous rocks, through which the 

 railroad is carried by a deep cutting. At Newark, 

 (thirteen miles,) the prevailing geological and agricul 

 tural character of the State of New Jersey becomes 

 apparent. New red sandstones, soft and crumbling, 

 form light red sandy and marly soils, easy to till, and 

 bearing much Indian corn, and a gently undulating but 

 generally flat country, from which the water in many 

 localities escapes too slowly. The snow, which two 

 months before I had encountered in New Brunswick, 

 and which covered the ground deeply when I left Albany 

 yesterday morning, had gradually lessened as I ap 

 proached the Atlantic, and on the shores of Long Island 

 Sound had entirely disappeared. 1 was enabled, there 

 fore, to see the naked surface of the country as if winter 

 had not yet come on. 



As we approached the Sclmylkill at Trenton, the soils 

 became less red, and thence along this river by Bristol 

 to Philadelphia, grey gravels prevailed, and light grey 

 sandy soils, very poor in many places, and covered with 

 frequent unpromising orchards. The red land north of 

 the Schuylkill is naturally a broad-leaved or hardwood 

 region ; but on these grey sands the gloomy pines usurp 

 almost the entire surface. 



New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland are famed for 

 their orchards, and New Jersey especially for its immense 

 produce of peaches. Orchards of ten to twenty thousand 

 peach-trees are not uncommon in this State. Each 

 tree yields, when in bearing, an average produce of a 

 bushel of perfect fruit. This is sent in vast quantities 



