440 Transactions of the American Institute. 



found apricots ripe, and peaches and pears nearly so, indicating a 

 difference of three or four weeks between south and north Jersey. 

 As a rule, those who see the country from railroads are not able to 

 form a very correct judgment of the agricultural wealth of a country, 

 and this is especially the case in south Jersey. Poor justice would 

 be done to the county of Burlington, if it was judged by what is seen 

 from the railroad between Bordentown and Camden. The same 

 may be said of the counties of Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland and 

 Cape May, as seen from the west Jersey roads. In most of the coun- 

 ties of south Jersey spots may be seen called sand barrens, which are 

 useless. There are other tracks so light and sandy as to be of little 

 value except to be left in timber. These, however, bear but a small 

 proportion of the whole in any of the counties ; and what was to us 

 remarkable, we saw no such lands in any part of Cape May ; on the 

 contrary, the entire area of uplands could be made into profitable 

 farms, and large portions, if not the whole, of the marsh meadows, 

 both on the coast and bay sides of this peninsula, could be. redeemed 

 to great advantage. The business of farming all along the coast of 

 New Jersey has been, until recently, a subordinate pursuit, the inhabi- 

 tants depending chiefly upon coasting, fishing, lumbering, or some 

 other business. Mother earth resents ill usage and neglect, as farm- 

 ers sooner or later find out to their cost. While most of the lands 

 of Cape May are naturally as good as the best portions of Salem, the 

 farms of to-day, under this long-continued different treatment, show 

 a marked contrast. But the farmers we saw assured us that old 

 things were now passing away. A most spirited agricultural society 

 had been formed, funds had been liberally contributed, a tract of 

 land bought and buildings erected, and we have learned that their 

 recent fair has been very successful. During the three days of our 

 visit we had the opportunity of seeing their soils, timber and grow- 

 ing crops. 



We feel it our duty to express our opinion of the country 

 and its capabilities of improvement. The county, as a whole, is 

 admirably adapted to the growth of corn, sweet and round potatoes, 

 and truck generally. We saw no upland too poor, too sandy or too 

 stiff to be made to produce good crops. The corn and potatoes then 

 growing looked remarkably well. Oats was well grown. The wheat 

 and grass crops had been gathered. The greatest difficulty the farmers 

 here seemed to encounter was a good stand of grass, for to this crop, 

 in a great measure, depends success in farming. The three past sum- 

 mers had been unusually dry, and in such seasons the young grass 



