THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



419 



general inquires as lo the best mode of directing 

 more particular inquiries, I heard repealed, by in- 

 telligent and highly respectable genilenien, and 

 who were residents of New Jersey, but who 

 were not farmers, such accounts of great improve- 

 ments made, as very short subsequent observa- 

 tions showed to be very erroneous or at least 

 requiring lo be taken with much limitation. Still 

 I knew "that even alter arriving on the ground, 

 and seeing the deposites of earlhy manure, and 

 the land and the crops lor which it had been used, 

 I must rely much less on what 1 could see myseli; 

 than on the explanations and comments ol other 

 persons. Therelbre, it was the most important 

 means lor my object to find persons whose ex- 

 perience, judgment, and perlect respectability and 

 veracity could leave nothing (except unavoidable 

 mistakes and errors of judgment,) to impair the 

 value of their testimony. In my search lor the 

 aid of such testimony I deem myself very for- 

 tunate, and altogether succesalul. 



As soon as I arrived in Philadelphia, I called 

 to make the personal acquaintance of Josiah 

 Tatum, the proprietor and one of the conductors 

 of the Farmers' Cabinet. I found him, even 

 more than was previously expecied, well qualified, 

 by his personal and intimate acquaintance, to direct 

 my course, and also ready to aid me by his kind 

 and very useful atien'ions. He had been long, 

 and until very recently, a resident of Gloucester 

 county, and a part of the region in quesiion, had 

 been there a practical larmer, and had a general 

 knowledge of the land of the neighborhood, and 

 of its residents and culiivaiors. He ottered to 

 accompany me fonhwi'h, and to make nie wel- 

 come among his friends; and the same evening 

 we were among then, in the neighborhood cl 

 the village of Woodbury, in Gloucester. The 

 persons souijht, and who most kindly aided my 

 examination by their company and inlormaiion, 

 as well as by their kind hospitalities, were like my 

 brother agricultural editor, Josiah Tatum, all i 

 members of the plain and estimable society ol 

 Friends, or Quakers ; which connexion, to me al- ; 

 ways serves, in the absence of other testimony, as 

 indicating solid worth of habiis and character. 

 Wdliam R. Tatum is the proprietor, and Ben- 

 jamin Wliitall the manager lor his lather, of their 

 respective well cultivated, and highly improved 

 larms, which are large for that part of the coun- 

 try, being each from 160 to 175 acres of arable 

 and meadow land ; and they are good and suc- 

 cessful farmers in general, as well as extensive 

 and regular buyers and users of the green-sand 

 earth as manure. Both have made great im- 

 provements by the use. Joseph Whitall, the aged 

 lather of Benjamin, and long the proprietor of the 

 farm, was so infirm and so unwell at the time of 

 visit, that I leared lo laiigue him by too many 

 questions ; but still, what he stated was especially 

 interesting and valuable, because of his very long 

 experience and general acquaintance with the 

 subject. 1 may be permitted to add that all these 

 four were intelligent men, apparently well in- 

 structed by education and reading, and of good 

 general inlormaiion. Tlie experience and good 

 judgment of the three who were yet larmeis, as 

 10 the particular mode of improvement coneein- 

 ing \fhich I was seeking inlormation, were suffi- 

 ciently evidenced in the success visible on their 

 well improved farms. 



The farm belonging to William R. Tatum is 

 on the small tide-water creek, which extends from 

 the Delaware to Woodbury ; and of course his 

 land is below the head of tide, and also is off 

 from the true green-sand lormaiion or deposiie, 

 which stretches nearly through the state just 

 above the head of the tide in the creeks running' 

 into the Delaware. The position is therelbre 

 precisely the reverse of the green-sand deposiie 

 of Virginia, which is wholly in the tide-water 

 region, and terminates precisely with it on the 

 western side. The larm of Whitall, and all ihe 

 others visited in this neighborhood, except Ta- 

 tum's, were above the head of the tide-waters 

 of the creeks, and all within the distances of from 

 one to six miles south-east of Woodburry. 



The first of the diggings reached and examined 

 was on the farm ol Joseph Whitall. Tliis is 

 very different li'om and deemed much inferior to 

 the usual and most highly prized green-sand 

 earths, though called by the same improperly- 

 applied name of " marl." It is a clay of smooth 

 fracture and nearly uniform texture, almost black, 

 or of dark plumbago color when newly dug 

 and moist, but approaching to pale blue or lead- 

 co'or, when dry. When cut by a knile, a smooth 

 surface is left, as in fine clay or clay marl. It has 

 many shining particles of mica diffused through- 

 out. Some small fi-agments of shells are visible 

 — but not enough to make two per cent, of the 

 mass, and more likely not one per cent. ; and there- 

 lbre this ingredient can have no appreciable ef^ie.ct 

 as manure. This earih I presume is what Prof. 

 H. D. Rogers, in his Geological Report of New 

 Jerse)', terms the " black micaceous sand." 



The next digging visited was near the road to 

 Blackwoodiovvn. The eanh lies about three 

 leet, or less, under the level surface of a wet mea- 

 dow, and above the green-sand earth is bog iron 

 ore. No benefit to the soil has been observed 

 liom the close neighborhood of this manuring 

 eanh below. This deposite is something like 

 that of Whitall's, but lias more of green-sand, 

 the granules of which are plainly visible lo the 

 eye in part of the earth, without being separated 

 lor examinaiion. 



The third body seen was Cooper's, at Good In- 

 lent. This was formerly used by neighboring 

 farmers as manure, and lo benefit, but has been 

 abandoned since better and as accessible beds 

 have been opened. This kind approaches some- 

 what in appearance lo the upper and poorer 

 parts of the bed of gypseous or green earlh 

 on James river. But this is much harder (almost 

 stony) and more difficult lo dig — is partly of a 

 dull green changing into and intermixed with 

 brown — and showing small spots of the same sul- 

 phur colored clay, here indurat'd to stone, which 

 is 60 common, and usually soft and plastic, in the 

 green earth of James river. 



The next three are of the true and most valued 

 green-sand earlh, here called " gunpowder marl." 

 This earth (that is the lowest and best stratum of 

 it) seems lo be composed almost entirely of the 

 superficially black granules, which give name to 

 the earth — and which, though appearing to the 

 eye like coarse black sand, are easily mashed on 

 the finger nail, or on white paper, and ttiup shown 

 lo be in texture a fine soapy clay, making a bright 

 green smear. There seem to be barely enough 

 of other ingredients in the mass to hold these 



