774 Transactions of the American Institute. 



mark there so unmistakably that no future testimony was required ; 

 but reports have been made that it was useless on lands of a different 

 character, and would do no good in the higher lands of Xew Jersey 

 and other States. Several marl companies of New Jersey have 

 invested large sums of money in draining, uncovering, and building 

 machinery, and some of them have made many miles of railroad to 

 connect them with the network of roads. They are now ready to 

 distribute to an immense amount, and as the supply is without limit, 

 of course they are anxious for a market. This gift to us was intended 

 for such general distribution as to test its value on all soils and to 

 correct the impression made by the reports of its being of no value. 

 On some crops, especially clover, marl acts as promptly as even the 

 commercial fertilizers ; but on others it appears to have but little 

 effect at first, but will appear in subsequent crops and last for years. 

 The letters alluded to were from Messrs. Bruen and Mackuet of 

 Newark, and S. II. Young of Boonton ; the first and last named 

 speaking of marl as a preventative of club root in cabbage. 



Mr. H. L. Reade desired to know if this marl could be obtained at 

 such rates as would pay the farmer in eastern Connecticut to use it. 



Mr. J. B. Lyman. — The Squanknni and Freehold Company will 

 deliver their marl or green sand as near any of the railroads in New 

 York as tide-water will allow, and tliat any one could form an estimate 

 of the value of the article. He will state that in one hundred parts 

 of marl there are about seventy-five parts of useless insoluble matter, 

 and twenty-five parts of valuable fertilizer, composed of carbonate of 

 lime, potash and phosphate of lime. I know that it pays well 

 to transport it 200 miles by boat, and that it is now being used witli 

 great success and favor on the Hudson, at Rhinebeck and above. If 

 there was an apparatus invented to concentrate its valuable matter 

 into a smaller space it would bear transportation over the railroads 

 in bags for indefinite spaces. The man who would invent such a 

 machine could make a Ibrtnno from it. 



Prof. J. A. Nash. — I will even go further than Mr. Lyman. If 

 there is even twenty per cent of valuable matter in the marl it will 

 pay transportation, for that is more than is in most of the commer- 

 cial fertilizers. In the marl the buyer was sure of twenty pounds of 

 matter which would be of use to him. 



Prof. J. A. Whitney. — There is a great deal of discussion as to the 

 relative value of manures. If one bought the article potash in its 

 concentrated form it would be cheapest, and would not be able to got 

 twenty pounds as valuable in any other form. 



