288 Transactions of the American Institute. 



additions made each year, as fast as the vines of choice varieties 

 can be produced, and the necessary labor performed. Mr. Requa, 

 the proprietor of the new grape called the Salem, is one of the 

 leaders in the enterprise. 



MANAGEMENT OF 5IARL. 



Mr. S. Edwards Todd. — It is remarkable, as one rides through 

 the country, to observe what wonderful provision has been made 

 for maintaining the fertility of the various kinds of soil in diflferent 

 localities. In South Jersey, for example, where a portion of the 

 soil consists of light sand, there are unbounded deposits of the 

 choicest marl only a few feet below the surface of the ground, and 

 inexhaustible stores of rich muck, and in some instances beds of clay 

 on the surface. With a suitable quantity of each of these materials, 

 every acre of the poorest land in that State can be made to pro- 

 duce root crops of any kind, fruit trees, or even cereal grain, in 

 such quantities as to amply remunerate the proprietor for the labor 

 expended in improving the fertility of the poor land. At FaiTU- 

 ingdale, on the Rai-itan and Delaware Bay Railroad, on the farm 

 of Mr. Samuel Brower, our little company traveled to the marl 

 bed of the proprietor of this farm. The surface of the bed is only 

 a few feet below the tillable land. The earth is stripped from the 

 surface of the marl, so that teams can be driven directly to the marl 

 bed. At this locality the marl was estimated to be from thirty to 

 fifty feet deep, and extending across the entire country. It is a 

 fertilizer of great excellence for producing any kind of roots, cereal 

 grain, or grass. Mr. Brower showed us w^here he had top-dressed 

 one of his meadows with marl during the past winter. The young 

 grass appeared exceedingly promising. In reply to the interroga- 

 tion, about how much hay per acre will this meadow yield, he said 

 three tons or more. When a farmer opens a bed of marl on his 

 own land, his fertilizing matter costs him notliing but labor of 

 digging it, which can be performed at almost any season of the 

 year. In some instances marl is dug by a kind of dreJging 

 machine, worked by steam, which is capable of loading on ])<)ard 

 of the dirt cars about one ton of marl per minute. Hundreds of 

 tons are transported to small villages and dropped at any con- 

 venient place along the railroad, from whence formers and garden- 

 ers haul it to their fields at any season of the year, although it is 

 far better to apply it in autumn, previous to the season that pro- 

 duces a certain croD which was designed to be benefited by the 



