30 G 5 . REPORT OF PROGRESS. I. C. WHITE. 



cept in the vicinity of swamps, where a great thickness of 

 decayed vegetable material has accumulated, and along some 

 of the larger streams like the Susquehanna, where the Drift 

 deposits are extensive, there is not much land within the 

 district that will produce abundant crops until it has been 

 fertilized artificially. The hill slopes are moreover steep 

 and the surface generally rugged. Excellent crops of grass 

 grow on almost any of the soils, and grazing is the chief em- 

 ployment with the more intelligent. 



Lime bowlders ; nigc/erlieads. — The great need of the soils 

 is lime, and the more sandy soils are furnishing it. There 

 are no pure limestone strata in the Catslcill series, but there 

 are a great many layers of impure calcareous conglomer- 

 ate or breccia interstratified with the shales and sandstone 

 of this series. Huge fragments of this kind of rock lie scat- 

 tered about over a large portion of the district, blackened 

 by exposure to the air. 



These " Mgger-heads " contain from 10 to 65 per cent of 

 lime, and might often be burned to great advantage for lime 

 manure. Many of the farmers have noticed the fact that 

 the grass grows greener and richer near them, their lime be- 

 ing dissolved out by every shower to enrich the surround- 

 ing soil. But very few farmers have the least idea that 

 these rocks contain enough lime to be of any service for 

 burning. Mr. Schenk of Cherry Ridge is perhaps the only 

 resident of the district who has tried a kiln, and he reports 

 that the good effect upon his crops has been more marked 

 than when he used the best stable manure. 



These bowlders are so thickly strewn over some portions 

 of Wayne county as to be a serious nuisance. Two birds 

 could be killed with one stone — the land cleaned and the 

 soil manured — by breaking up and burning them into lime. 

 Even those of them least rich in lime might be turned to 

 account, if farmers in clearing their lands would only 

 build and burn their log-heaps over and around these rocks. 

 By this means they would get such a roasting that the 

 smaller ones would slack down, while a large coating of lime 

 would fall away from the larger ones after every such opera- 

 tion. 



