128 
GEOLOGY OF THE FIRST DISTRICT. 
wind, and the particles bound together by the fibrous rootlets of the small pines and scrub oaks.* 
Such lands, on the sand-plains of Albany county, have been redeemed from their natural 
sterility, by the labors and example of Jesse Buel, a man who has done as much to benefit 
the agricultural interests, and to elevate agriculture as an art, a science, and an honorable 
occupation, as any other individual in our country. Capital may be profitably invested in such 
improvements, where the vicinity of good markets will justify the expense. Such lands also, 
in the vicinity of New-York, in Kings and Queens counties, have been brought xmder good 
cultivation, by highly manuring them, aided by a judicious rotation of crops. The soils of 
some of those plains are so much altered by the decomposed vegetable and animal matter 
derived from the crops and manure, and from the large quantities of ashes and street mud 
brought from New-York and spread upon them, that they would scarcely be recognized, did 
not the excavations made for cellars, wells, the railroad, etc. show the sands below the 
depth of the plough. 
The clay soils were originally covered with heavy pine timber {Finns strobus), and with 
some oaks. They are well adapted to grass, and are extensively cropped with oats and other 
grains ; but those lands'composed of loam, derived from the intermixture of the clay and sand 
by natural or artificial means, or of sand with the clay sub-soil so near the surface as to retain 
sufficient moisture for the plants without making it swampy, are the most productive. This 
class constitutes a very large portion of the quaternary deposits of the Hudson and Cham¬ 
plain valley, and much of those of Long and Staten islands. 
Clay forms the sub-soil, or exists at a greater depth below the gravel and sand beds which 
form the extensive plains along the elevated banks of the Hudson river, and in the valleys of 
its tributary streams. There are two kinds, the blue and the grey clay. They are almost 
uniformly associated, the blue lying below the other. Their line of junction is generally very 
distinctly marked. They are horizontally stratified, except where slides or some local distur¬ 
bance has recently taken place. These clays are very fine, and free from grit. The grey is 
striped with numerous thin layers, which vary in color. Mr. Finch notices the occurrences 
of pyrites and fossil wood in these clays, but I have not observed them. 
Both the grey and blue clays are calcareous, effervescing when moistened by an acid, and 
have been mistaken for marl. They are, in fact, a kind of marl, and marly clay would be a 
proper name for them. They may be used with great advantage on sandy or light loamy 
soils. The clay would be a permanent benefit to those soils, while the calcareous ingredient 
would afford lime which is considered as necessary in soils on which wheat is cultivated. 
It is believed that the marly clays and clayey marls of the Hudson valley would be a valua¬ 
ble fertilizer of the soils of Long island ; but experience must determine whether most benefit 
can be derived, at the same expense, by using clay and lime, or these marls, to dress the soil. 
Most of the large villages of the Hudson valley are situated on the quaternary formation, 
where the early settlements were made, and where the agricultural productiveness has been 
greater with a given amount of labor, and will continue to be greater than on the more hilly and 
♦ This wood is mostly pine, and used for steamboats and locomotive engines. 
