Report on a Deposit of Marl and Peat in the 

 Town of New Baltimore. 



By Wm. B. Marshall. 



About four miles west of the Hudson river, in the town of 

 New Baltimore, Greene county, is a deposit of marl and peat, 

 which occupies a small valley at an elevation of about 340 feet 

 above tide water, as determined by an aneroid barometer. The 

 deposit, approaching seven acres in extent, is divided into two 

 nearly equal parts, a northern and a southern, by a bed of rock 

 which extends east and west across the valley about the middle. 

 On tne east and west sides the valley is inclosed by hills which 

 are from 40 to 50 feet high. The drainage of the valley is from 

 south to north, the south end being naturally open and admitting 

 a small rivulet. Formerly there was no outlet for water through 

 the bed of rock at the upper end of the southern section, but, 

 some years ago, the owner, Mr. E. T. Van Slyke, by blasting out a 

 passage, succeeded in draining the surface of this portion into 

 the northern portion. The northern portion has no surface drain- 

 age as it is inclosed by low hills on the north as well as by the 

 higher hills on the sides. The water in this half of the deposit 

 drains into several openings in the underlying limestone and finds 

 an outlet (probably into Hauncraus creek to the north) through 

 subterranean passages. The entire surface of the deposit is now 

 under cultivation. During the last summer the northern half was 

 planted in rye and oats and the southern half was in meadow. 



The peat and muck upon the surface of the marl in the southern 

 portion is the result of an accumulation of successive growths 

 of mosses and other plants during the period when the valley was 

 a marsh and of leaves and twigs which have washed in from the 

 neighboring hillsides. The peat and muck of the remainder of 

 the deposit do not differ in character from the above, but a large 

 portion of the material in the northern half has been washed in 

 from the southern half. The small rivulet which now drains the 

 southern lot is constantly carrying particles of marl and peat 

 along with it and depositing them in the northern lot. 



