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[Assembly 
a stimulant manure, while the clay would render the soil more mellow 
and loamy. Two sloop loads of the Jersey green marl have been ta- 
ken to Staten Island the past season, and spread upon the sandy soil 
near Brown's Point. If it has been judiciously applied, benefit will un- 
doubtedly be derived from it; but this marl, if used in large quantities, 
destroys vegetation. It has been used on Long Island without success, 
but this is confidently believed to have been caused by an injudicious 
application of it. I have seen land in the marl district of New- Jersey, 
where the fields on one side of the road were almost drifting sands with 
a few tufts of tall grass, while the opposite one of similar soil, which 
had been properly marled, was covered with a heavy crop. 
Over a large portion of Long Island fish are principally depended on 
for manure. The fish which is used is the Clupea menhaden, of Mitchill, 
called also the Bony-fish, Hard-heads, and Marsbankers.* They fre- 
quent our coasts in vast shoals, in July and August, and great numbers 
of them are taken and carted into the interior to manure the land. 
They weigh from one to two pounds each, and are either spread at the 
rate of two or three per square yard on the ground, or are made 
into heaps with sea weeds or other vegetable substances. It is esti- 
mated that 100,000,000 of these fish are used on Long Island per an- 
num. The sandy land of Suffolk county could scarcely be cultivated 
with profit, without the aid of these fish.f 
III. Economical Geology of Columbia and Dutchess counties ^ JV. F. 
Introduction. 
During the past season the counties of Columbia and Dutchess have 
been examined in detail. Prof. Briggs, Prof. Cassels, and Mr. F. Mer- 
rick, the Principal of the Amenia Seminary, have been with me as act- 
ing assistants on the geological survey of these counties. I may here 
be allowed to express my obhgations to these gentlemen for the care- 
fulness, and it is believed, the accuracy of their observations. 
My thanks are also due to Messrs. Reed, Rowley and Lawrence, of 
Hudson; Drs. Beekman and Pruyn, of Kinderhook; Dr. Stanton, of 
Amenia; Judge Bockee,of North East; Walter Reynolds, Esq. and Dr. 
Davis of Pine Plains; Mr. Van Ness, of Ancram Furnace; Rev. Mr. 
Woodbury, of Austerlitz; Jesse Van Ness, Esq. of Maiden; Messrs. Fos- 
ter, White and Wager, of Hillsdale; Mr. Bowman, of Lafayette Cor • 
ners; Mr. James, of Poughkeepsie; and various other gentlemen, for 
* Transactions of the Literary & Philosophical Society of New- York, p. 453. 
1 1 may here be allowed to express my obligations to Mr. W. R. Guest, who was my acting 
aisistant on the geological examination of Staten Island. 
