138 



Some account of the green-sand earth in N.J. Vol. VII. 



This locality embraced the several adjoining 

 diggings of Richmond Dickenson, Henry Al- 

 len, and Allen Wallace. It was indeed a 

 busy and spirit-stirring scene ; and the ope- 

 rations were so interesting to those engaged 

 at work, and to me as a spectator, that I 

 should have been glad to have spent some 

 days there for the mere gratification thus 

 derived, and for full opportunity of convers- 

 ing freely with the industrious and zealous 

 operators. 



The proprietor of a bed sometimes digs 

 and sells the green-sand by the load ; but 

 the more usual course is to sell it by the 

 square rod (16^ feet square,) to labourers, 

 who uncover the earth, dig it out, and place 

 it in a single high mound, just far enough 

 from the pit to be safe, and then sell by the 

 heap to the neighbouring farmers. The 

 price by the load from such mounds, is fifty 

 cents, at the Woodstown diggings and other 

 beds of highest reputation ; and forty cents 

 at others, (as Cawley's,) which, even if as 

 good, have yet to be as well established in 

 the estimation of the farmers. However, as 

 the quantity in a heap, yielded from one pit, 

 is estimated with considerable accuracy, the 

 sales are generally made by the entire heap, 

 at a somewhat less price, say forty cents the 

 load, by the estimate of the heap. The co- 

 vering earth is thick, say usually varying 

 from 8 to 12 feet ; and one place seemed to 

 me 16 feet. This the labourers or pur- 

 chasers by the rod have to dig off, and all 

 down to the manure that is not used to fill 

 the adjoining and last made pit, must be re- 

 moved in carts some fifty or more yards 

 The excavation of the green-sand earth is 

 never begun except in the morning, and by 

 a sufficient force to sink it as deep as can be 

 done in the course of the day. When sunk 

 some 10 feet in the best earth, the increase 

 of water, and the liability of the sides to 

 cave in, usually compel the work to be stop- 

 ped, and all below that depth is lost. The 

 proprietor sells the privilege of digging, at 

 $6, $8 or $10 the rod, according to the 

 greater or less difficulty of the work, or the 

 less or greater amount of good earth to be 

 obtained. In some cases (in Gloucester,) 

 where there was very little covering earth 

 to be removed, the price has been as high 

 as 816 the rod. It usually requires sixteen 

 able men to dig out a rod in a day, and heap 

 the earth excavated. A job which I saw in 

 operation had twenty-three hands, three of 

 them being boys; but this was unusually 

 troublesome. Men hired to dig in the pits, 

 are paid 75 cents a day if found in food, or 

 SI, or $1.12£, if finding themselves. It is 

 heavy labour, and the greater part is per- 

 formed in mud and water. 



The heaps of green-sand earth when first 

 thrown up from the pits, appear black, or at 

 least a very deep bluish black. After drying 

 on the surface, the colour is grayish or bluish 

 green, and after long exposure, on the outer 

 surface of some, the earth becomes of a vivid 

 green. This last is not liked, and the earths 

 showing it most, are thought not to be among 

 the best. But I saw it first, and most dis- 

 tinctly, at Heritage's diggings in Glouces- 

 ter, of which the manure is in high repute, 

 and very rich in green-sand, by the geolo- 

 gist's reported analysis. The many large 

 conical heaps, of regular form and nearly 

 equal size, but varying in colour according 

 to age, from deep black to bright green, pre- 

 sent to the eye a novel and striking display 

 at each of the principal diggings. 



There is another general, if not universal 

 accompaniment, which particularly attracted 

 my notice, as I had seen and appreciated the 

 same at home in our green-sand earth. This 

 is gypsum which is left on the surface in a 

 white, tasteless powder, like a dusting with 

 coarse meal, on the outside of the drying 

 heaps of earth. I learned that the workers 

 and users of the earth, though not knowing 

 what this white powder is, had formed the 

 opinion that the appearance was most de- 

 cided in the earths best for manure. It ap- 

 peared to me more abundant on the heaps of 

 Allen Wallace — though his pits have been 

 but recently opened for sale, and the earth 

 has not yet acquired so much credit as that 

 of Woodstown and some other places. On 

 part of Heritage's earth, uncovered, but not 

 dug out, the exuding fluid gypsum had dried 

 and formed a thin crust. I cannot but be- 

 lieve that this gypsum is an ingredient suffi- 

 ciently abundant and general in most, if not 

 all of these earths, to add very considerably 

 to the other and unknown causes of value 

 as manure. 



As all the diggings present the same 

 general appearance, it would have been a 

 waste of my limited time to visit and ex- 

 amine all, even of those near to Woodstown. 

 When about to leave the last one, I asked 

 its proprietor, Allen Wallace, what was the 

 number of farmers taking from his diggings 

 this season. He said about 30 persons; and 

 he supposed that the next proprietor, Henry 

 Allen, was supplying about as many; and the 

 next, Richmond Dickenson, furnished consi- 

 derably more than either of them. I thence 

 computed that the three, which are all close 

 together, and forming what I count as one 

 locality, are supplying this season, about 100 

 different farmers. There are six localities 

 of diggings in this neighbourhood, all within 

 a circle of six miles diameter, of which 

 Woodstown is the centre ; and all these are 



