AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 351 



No one disputes tlie self evident fact, that this marl is valuable as a fer- 

 tilizer, since it has converted " Sandy Monmouth," once resembling the 

 southern portion of Long Island, into a garden ; but its comparative value 

 is an unsettled question, since it is at times maintained in the Farmers' 

 Club, that the value of these substances that resemble those contained in 

 plants, is affected very materially by the fact of their having at one time 

 formed parts of plants ; the geological examination of the subject is not 

 inappropriate to the purposes of the Farmers' Club, if we can thence deduce 

 additional reasons for concluding that the green sand marl is of vegetable 

 origin. 



i These marl beds, in their position, very much resemble coal beds. They 

 are three in number. They are nearly parallel planes, differing S. E,, at 

 the rate of about 30 feet per mile. The " strike," or range along the level, 

 of two of them, is found to be 356 W. from Red Bank, on Shrewsbury 

 river, near Sandy Hook, diagonally and nearly in a straight line across the 

 entire State of New Jersey, and crossing the Delaware river into the State 

 of Delaware. For the lower 60 miles (or from opposite Bordentown to the 

 Delaware river,) it is nearly parallel with the river, passing about 7 miles 

 S. E. of Philadelphia, at the water level of the lowest or most northwesterly 

 of the beds. Hence, the presumption, that the same geological cause gives 

 the pohition of that part of the Delaware, and of the marl beds. 



The southern line of the red sand stone runs from "near Elizabethport, 

 to the Delaware river, a little below Trenton," (page 55 Geol. Ref. 1856). 

 The whole State south of this line " is remarkable for its low and generally 

 level surface, and for its entire lack of rock formation. Its geological 

 structure, however, is very regular and uniform. With some exceptions, 

 it is made up of successive strata, which stretch across the State from 

 northeast towards the southwest, and descend beneath the surface towards 

 the southeast, so that, as we pass from the north, or division line across the 

 State in a southeasterly direction, the strata are crossed in succession ; the 

 lowest first, then the next above, and so on in order to the highest." [The 

 highest, or last deposited, being at the sea coast]. " In this way the light- 

 colored clays, including the fire and potter's clays, are first crossed ; then 

 the black and chocolate-colored, astringent clays ; then the several beds of 

 green sand-marl, with intermediate beds of sand ; and lastly, the more 

 recent beds of shell-marl, sand, clay and gravel, which make up the south- 

 eastern part of the State." (p. 56). 



The first bed of green sand is 25 feet thick. Above this, and between 

 first and second marl bed, is a ferruginous sand bed of 110 feet. The sec- 

 ond bed exceeds 15 feet, but its thickness is not well ascertained. Sand 

 bed above second marl bed 40 feet. Third, or highest, or most southerly 

 marl bed, from 8 to 10 feet. There are other layers of clay and shells, 

 &c. (pp. 61 to 65). 



These marl beds resemble coal beds, not only in their form, but in the 

 materials, as being exclusively those found .in vegetables. But they differ 

 very widely in the character of the materials. The coal contains the 



