New York State Museum. 49 



imbedded in the peat in the southern lot. Dr. Charles E. Beecher, 

 of Yale University, has identified them with Equus fraternti*, 

 Leidy. As the muck and marl are in a soft, plastic condition it 

 is not improbable that other mammals have been imbedded and 

 that their remains may be found. Before the swamp was drained 

 the material was of a still more yielding nature. 



So far as I am aware the only animals inhabiting the marl are 

 earth-worms and one species of insect, of which there are 

 immense numbers of the corneous pupa?, each measuring less 

 than a millimetre in length. Their burrows traverse the marl in 

 all directions. Dr. Lintner, State Entomologist, to whom speci- 

 mens have been submitted, says that there is nothing to enable 

 him to identify the species. 



Koughly the amount of soluble carbonates contained in the 

 marl is about 82 per cent. The insoluble material, of which 

 about 40 per cent is organic, consists of sand and clay, leaf-mold 

 and corneous insects. 



Concerning the use of marl and muck for agricultural purposes 

 there is not much to be said. Farmers with Avhom I have con- 

 versed seem to be of the opinion that these substances ought to 

 make good fertilizers but apparently no extensive use has been 

 made of them for this purpose. Such is certainly the case in 

 Greene county. Experiments, conducted rather irregularly, have 

 been made, and while it is generally conceded that the material 

 did the land no harm, there is difference of opinion as to whether 

 it did enough good to warrant the trouble taken to dig and 

 spread it. The place is in close proximity to the limestone of 

 the Helderbergs and the rocks underneath the soil are mostly 

 limestone. It is possible that the soil in that neighborhood 

 already contains a sufficient amount of carbonate of lime to 

 meet all the needs of the crops. 



There seems to be no doubt that lime in some form is beneficial 

 to certain crops. The large amounts of land plaster, sulphate of 

 lime, which are annually consumed bear testimony to this fact ; 

 and farmers, so far as I have been able to obtain their opinion, 

 agree that lime has a beneficial effect upon soil which is to grow 

 wheat. 



On the subject of calcareous soils Dr. Beck (Mineralogy of New 

 York, p. 90) remarks that " the most extensive are those which 

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