MANURES. 053 



the barren lanas which comprise almost the whole of New Jersey 

 south of a line drawn from New York to Philadelphia may be 

 profitably brought, by the use of marl, to a state of the highest 

 fertility,-^to a condition in which they will even rival the prairie 

 lands of the West. The soil is light and easily worked, but is of 

 so poor a character that the whole country is covered with a 

 stunted vegetation, and is known as the "Barrens." Much at- 

 tention has been drawn to this region by the profuse advertising 

 of the Vineland tract, and by the efforts which are being made to 

 draw population to other settlements between Vineland and Sandy 

 Hook. 



In the autumn of 1867, I visited the farm of the New Jersey 

 Agricultural College at New Brunswick, and Professor Cook, the 

 State geologist, and President of the Agri-cultural College, showed 

 me a tract of heavy clay land upon which he had experimented 

 with the use of marl. Three pieces of land, in all respects the 

 same, and each measuring one quarter of an acre, were set apart 

 for the experiment. The first received a dressing of 100 pounds 

 of the best flour of bone ; the second received nothing ; and the 

 third an application of green sand marl, costing, delivered on the 

 ground, the same amount as the 100 pounds of bone dust. There 

 were no means for accurately weighing the crop, but by a careful 

 estimate, the result was as follows : The tract manured with 

 bone dust produced at the rate of 54 cocks of hay to the acre j 

 that which received no manure produced at the rate of 36 cocks ; 

 and that which was manured with green sand marl produced at 

 the rate of 85 cocks. The following table of analysis will show 

 the composition of green sand marl : — * 



Protoxide of iron I5'5 



Alumina 69 



Lime 5 "3 



Magnesia 16 



Potash 48 



Soluble silica 324 



Insoluble silica and sand 1 9'S 



* Elements of Agriculture. G. E. Waring, Jr. Page Z40. 



