ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY. 123 



his satisfaction. Mr. Joshua Swain has also used the mud 

 from the salt-marshes, and finds it to be a valuable and 

 lasting manure. Mr. Joshua Townsend has used it com- 

 posted with lime, with decidedly beneficial effects. Mr. 

 Coombs, at Port Elizabeth, Cumberland County, has used 

 mud from the fresh marshes of Maurice Eiver, with very 

 striking results. His soil is a very poor and light sand — 

 so poor, that with ordinary cultivation, it does not yield 

 more than ten bushels of corn to the acre. By the appli- 

 cation of from sixty to eighty loads of mud, to the acre, 

 it is made a permanently retentive soil, which, with good 

 cultivation, yields fifty bushels of corn, or twenty bushels 

 of wheat to the acre. Mr. Providence Ludlam, of Hopewell 

 Township, Cumberland County, has used the mud from the 

 fresh marshes on the Cohansey, for a number of years past. 

 His compost heap consisted of 300 loads of mud, with 475 

 bushels of lime. With this compost and ordinary barn- 

 yard manure, he raises very fine crops of corn, potatoes, 

 wheat, and grass. Other instances might be mentioned; 

 but these are sufficient to show the practical effect of 

 these muddy deposits, and to confirm the conclusions 

 which could be drawn from their chemical composition. 



In using this deposit from the sali>marshes, it should be 

 dug one, or, if possible, two years before using. The frosts 

 of winter cause the clayey lumps to slack down to a fine 

 mellow consistency ; and the rains leach out any salt that 

 may be retained from the sea-water. It may then be 

 spread directly upon the soil ; but its best effects will be 

 produced by composting with lime or barn-yard manure. 

 Its value upon the light soils of this county will be found 



