334 Traxsactioxs of the American Instttute. 



of trees indicate the strength of the soil, we give the measurement 

 of one tree (a white oak) we saw in the midst of a field: Twenty- 

 six feet in circumference, one hundred feet high, and estimated to 

 produce twentj^-five cords of wood — the tree not yet one hundred 

 and eighty years old. 



Fertilizers. — Two of the three beds of marl that underlie so 

 much of South Jersey are found in parts of this county, and marl 

 has been used here for more than forty years. We saw where acres 

 had been dug away. At one of the pits a steam dredge, similar to 

 that of Squankum, Monmouth county, has just been put in opera- 

 tion, and is doing well, being capable of taking out from under 

 water a ton a minute. The West Jersey Marl Works are in the 

 same neighborhood, from which immense quantities are transported 

 annual 1}^ both by water and railroad. A stratum of limestone is 

 also found here, lying between two layers of marl. This is burnt 

 in large quantities, and used on the land. 



Large parts of the count}', more immediately bordering the 

 Delaware river, are alluvial. They are deposits of mud, and origi- 

 nally covered with water at high tide. Thousands of acres of this 

 land have been reclaimed by dikes and sluice-gates. We were 

 shown a place where, in a radius of one mile, seventeen hundred 

 acres of these lands were now valuable meadows. Hay is the chief 

 crop of these meadows, and as they are inexhaustibly fertile, this hay 

 goes to the enriching of the upland portion of the owner's farm. 



In several of the counties of South Jersey much attention is paid 

 to the making of pork. A spirited rivalry has been kept up for 

 years. A Salem county farmer has been the victor, slaughtering in 

 a single season forty hogs, fed on his own farm, whose average 

 weight was five hundred pounds. 



Machinery. — It has been supposed that agricultural machinery 

 could not be available on small farms — that men must have largfe 

 tracts of land to justif}- the expense. This is not the case in Salem. 

 Here we saw every modern invention to save labor. The mower, 

 the reaper, the gang-plow and the horse-rake, each managed by the 

 farmer himself, comfortably seated behind a pair of well-fed horses. 



Labor. — The farmers of Salem all work, and so do their families, 

 sons and daughters. 



Fencing. — ^The fencing material is chiefly white cedar. Cedar 

 rails are light, straight and veiy durable. The fences are nearly 

 all worm, or Virginia, and the post and rail. The former is kept 

 in position by iron bolts at the corners, instead of stakes and riders. 



