1864 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
63 
Ft cm .V. V. Tribune , Dec., 1863. 
ISosnes Isa Mew Jersey. 
Bv Solon Robinson. 
Agricultural Editor of the New York Tribune. 
How to Settle a New Country—Vineland— 
Tlse System upon which Large Tracts 
of New' Land in West Jersey In live been 
brought into Use-Hammondton and 
Vineland-Condition of the Settlements 
— Character of the Soil and its Pro¬ 
ducts—Combined Efforts and tlie iSe- 
sult. 
in llie Autumn of 1S61, I think about the 1st of Septem¬ 
ber, 1 left New-York upon an exploring tour. I was 
going to a new country. You need not imagine that I 
was bound to Nebraska, nor Utah. There are wilder¬ 
nesses nearer to this great city. You may plunge into a 
very deep one in' twelve hours’ travel north-west, or in 
half the time south-west. Upon the present occasion I 
went southward. I was bound to the wilderness of West 
Jersey. Perhaps you are not aware, as you fly through 
the rich agricultural county of Burlington, that you are 
skirting the wilderness ; that only a few miles further to 
your left, you could purchase 20,000 acres of wood land 
in one unbroken tract. It was such a tract that I was 
going to look at. I had heard of the successful settlement 
of 5,000 acres of new land at a place called Hammondton 
(derived from Hammond’s mill, which was about the only 
sign of life on the tract; and that in its dilapidated con¬ 
dition had a decaying, deathlike look). 
Now', everything around there looks life-like and pros¬ 
perous. All around are neat, comfortable farm-houses, 
gardens, orchards, vineyards, flowers, fields of grain— 
plenty, comfort and happiness. It is no longer a wilder¬ 
ness. Seven years ago the wood-chopper and coal- 
burner held undisputed possession, and if any one in¬ 
quired why the land was not cultivated, he was told that 
it was barren. Look at it now and tell me if you think it 
barren. 
The leading spirit in working out that change, from 
scrub oaks to orchards ; from pilch pines to fruitful vines, 
was Charles K. Landis, a native of Lancaster, Pa., who 
having accomplished his mission at Hammondton, looked 
about for a wider field. In correspondence with him, I 
learned his intentions, and went to see what he proposed 
to do at his new location. I found that lie had purchased 
twenty thousand acres in Cumberland County, a few 
miles north of Millville, and some thirty or thirty-five 
miles southerly from Philadelphia. This tract has been 
held since the first settlement of the State by the proprie¬ 
tors of iron and glass manufactories, to furnish them wood 
and coal, and only here and there a little opening had 
been made for cultivation, until, two or three years pre¬ 
vious to my visit, some very successful efforts had been 
made at farming. Although, at first sight, the soil appear¬ 
ed to be too largely composed of sand and gravel to be 
productive, a closer examination showed a fair percen¬ 
tage of clay, and that the land had been an ocean bed, 
anil was filled with calcareous matter, which made it very 
productive of profitable crops, notwithstanding its forbid¬ 
ding appearance to one who had cultivated the prairie 
soil of Indiana, and was familiar with the bottom lands of 
the Mississippi. I was convinced by the fact that the 
land had born successive crops of wood, that it was not 
barren, and I stated my convictions in an article publish¬ 
ed in The Tribune, that this was a good new country 
for those desirous of emigrating from an old one, or seek¬ 
ing a new home in a milder climate than that of north¬ 
ern New-York and New-England. My motive then, as 
now, was to give trustworthy information about an inter¬ 
est which The Tribune tries to promote—the interest of 
those who desire to own land, and for want of abundant 
means, may have to make “ new homes in the .wood.” I 
wished to tell them how and where. 1 did not know Mr. 
Landis, nor did I care for his success, only as it promoted 
the interests of the people w ho might wish information 
about his land. I w'ill say that I was pleased with the 
man, for I found him, not wrapped up in sordid money¬ 
making plans. He had bought the land as a man buys 
merchandise, to sell, and it was an object with him, of 
course, to sell at a profit, and he appeared to exercise 
such tact in making his arrangements that while he 
would ultimately secure his object, he w'ould also afford 
to a great number of people comfortable homes, at low 
prices for the sod, and by a sort of combination of inter¬ 
ests, the new settlers would suffer much less of tile incon¬ 
veniences of a new settlement than usually attach to 
those who make homes in the woods. He evidently 
understood “ how to settle a new country,” and this is a 
point to which I would draw particular attention. I have 
had much experience in making new homes in the 
woods—once fifteen miles from neighbors. I have al¬ 
ways found a great difficulty in the lack of combined 
effort. In the want of system—such system as cannot 
be practised where each individual acts independently— 
in opening roads for new settlements, and forming centers 
of business for trade, travel, mechanical and manufactur¬ 
ing works. The inconvenience of spending a weak on 
a trip lo mill can be appreciated by a few pioneers and 
only a few. In the settlement of West Jersey very few 
of the inconveniences of new settlers are ever felt. Let 
us see why. 
In my first visit to the tract under consideration, 1 found 
Mr. Landis engaged with a corpsof surveyors and axmen 
opening roads and plotting the tract into small farms and 
a site for a village in the center, and a railway station on 
the road from Philadelphia to Millville, but not an acre 
of land had been sold, though two or three new farms, 
previously located on the tract, were just beginning to 
demonstrate the productiveness of the soil, and gave me 
full assurance that the new settlement of “ Vineland” 
would be equally as successful as Hammondton had al¬ 
ready proved, and as the tract was four times as large, 
would afford more than four limes as many homes for 
those in need, because it would support a larger commer¬ 
cial center. As I looked at the enterprise, in a utilitarian 
point of view, and not as a mere “land speculation,” I 
said what I hoped would induce others to go and see for 
themselves, and perhaps secure homes for ilieir families, 
which they could call their own. 
My second visit was made in October, 1863, and it gave 
me abundant reason to be satisfied with all that I said 
two years previous. Let me tell what change these two 
years have wrought in the wilderness. Of the satisfac¬ 
tion which individuals expressed for my advice to them, 
I will only mention one case, though a good many others 
were equally satisfactory. Edgar Morehouse, after rea¬ 
ding the article in The Tribune in 1801, wrote from 
Wisconsin that he was deaf and dumb ; that he had but 
little capital ; that he desired to have a home of his own, 
but that he was not satisfied with the climate of Wiscon¬ 
sin, and wished to know if I thought him a suitable set¬ 
tler for the new,cheap lands that I had described in Jersey. 
I had forgotten the circumstance, but he had not, as he 
met me with a smile at Vineland and said (with his pen¬ 
cil). “ I am very much obliged to you for all you said of 
this place, and particularly for what you said to me in 
reply to my letter. I think you were right on the whole. 
You thought I had not quite means enough to come here, 
and that was true, but I came, and have got some em¬ 
ployment besides upon my land, esfl have managed to 
pull through, and now you see I have got a snug little 
home for my family, and we are well pleased. And that 
is not all. I have planted The Tribune strawberries to¬ 
day, and I hope to live to eat the fruit and thank all the 
proprietors of that paper for it, as well as my home 
here.” 
Why should these people be satisfied with their new 
homes? Let us see. Instead of the wild scenes of two 
years previous, I found a village at the railway station, 
with two commodious hotel buildings, always full ; sev¬ 
eral stores and mechanic shops, and a steam mill, near¬ 
ly completed, and a busy post office, but not a single grog 
shop upon the whole tract. I found three church organi¬ 
zations ; Presbyterian, Episcopal and Methodist, and two 
church edifices under way. When it is known that the 
population, which then numbered about 1,500 upon the 
whole tract, is mostly composed of natives of Nevv-Eng- 
land and New-Y'ork, It is needless to say that school- 
houses already exist ; that schools and churches are not 
neglected. 
I found that in these two years about 300 houses had 
been built, some of which were like other small, rude 
new country homes, though no log cabins are allowed, 
while many have all the indications of comfort, thrift, 
and even elegance. 1 also found the number increasing 
at the rate of a new house every day. At least locations 
were taken at that rate, and all purchasers are obligated 
to build within a given time, and also to make certain 
publicimprovements on the street, road, or avenue, by 
clearing off the front and planting shad e-trees, and seeding 
it in grass. Every house, too, must be set at a uniform 
distance from the road, which for farms is fixed at 75 
feet, and upon town lots, 20 feet. The location of a house 
being chosen by the purchaser of a lot, is fixed exactly by 
Mr. Landis’s surveyor, free of charge. 
During these two years Mr. Landis has opened at his 
own expense 40 miles of public roads, mostly 100 feet 
wide, and these are grubbed out and made good for 
traveling as fast as farms are opened and the exigencies 
of the case require. One of these roads, leading east 
and west through the village, is in fine travelling condi¬ 
tion six miles, and is to form part of a main road from 
May’s Landing to Bridgeton, some 30 miles, between 
which points there has never been a direct road, because 
until now there were no inhabitants to require one. 
At all the main road-crossings there is a plaza, of about 
an acre, and a larger one at the railroad-crossing at the 
village. Liberal provision is also made for church and 
school houses. 
The town plat is laid off in lots 50 by 100 feet; price 
$100 each, “ first come, first served,” and no change of 
rice. The same rule holds with the farming lands, at 
20 an acre ; good or bad, first sold or last, it is all the 
same. The farm lots are laid off in forty-acre tracts, but 
can be purchased in regular sub-divisions, larger or 
smaller as may be desired. 
At first it was required that each front should be fenced 
with boards or pickets ; but that requisition has been dis¬ 
pensed with, as the settlers have determined to do with¬ 
out fence, and woe to any outsider’s cattle that trespass 
upon the Vineland domain. 
When I was first there the tract was almost destitute 
of passable roads, other than narrow, crooked paths, for 
hauling out wood and charcoal, except one north and 
south road, and that was never made nor repaired, and 
there were only three or four houses on lhatin a distance 
of six or eight miles. Nowin half a day’s ride in various 
directions, I was never out of sight of new houses, alrea¬ 
dy inhabited or building. Most of the buildings are frame, 
though a very good building material can be had cheaply, 
of a more durable character than wood. This is a kind 
of adobe or concrete brick, made of lime, sand and grav¬ 
el, of a peculiar character that abounds on the land. 
The bricks are made eight inches wide, eighteen long, 
and six inches thick and for a two-story house, 24 by 26 
feet, with a one-story projection 12 by 26 feet, a contractor 
offered to make and lay up the walls for $103, the owner 
furnishing the stone foundation, for which there are con¬ 
venient quarries of a sort of sandy ironstone. I observed 
that the new steam-mill is made of this material, and the 
chimney of stone, which indicates that the brick are 
stiong and the stone fire-proof. 
After all this description perhaps readers will think 
that 1 have not answered (be most important questions 
—“ Is this land productive ?” •• ('an a poor man locate 
there and live?” “What are the products?” These 
questions 1 will answer ; for although I have not the re¬ 
motest interest, direct or indirect, in Vineland nor any 
oilier land, nor with anybody there, nor elsewhere who 
has, I have the common interest of humanity that makes 
me desire to see every wilderness changed from the 
abodes of wild beasts to'happy homes for my fellow men, 
and therefore desire to see this experiment succeed, and 
if it succeeds then 1 nitty hope io see a great many thou¬ 
sands of acres of similar land in New -Jersey. Delaware. 
Maryland and the Eastern shore of Viigiida converted 
to some more valuable purpose than furnishing employ¬ 
ment for a few half civilized charcoal burners and wood- 
choppers, rabbit burners and cranberry pickers, such as 
have made up the population of large districts for many 
years. 
To show what can be done I will relate a few facts of 
what has been done on the soil of Vineland. 
Capt. Geo. L. Post was the first of Mr. Landis’s pur¬ 
chasers. He was a refugee, if I mistake not, from Mobile 
where he left a comfortable home, and finding, on his 
arrival North, the necessity of creating a new one. set¬ 
tled upon one of the farm tracts at Vineland, in Dec. 
1861, where he has built a nice house and good barn, and 
he and his boy, with very little hired labor, have fenced 
his plot and got ten acres under cultivation, and four 
more grubbed ready for the plow. I found them digging 
potatoes; the average yield was 140 bushels per acre, 
fertilized wilh alight dressing of superphosphate. Upon 
adjoining rows, dressed with a little horse-dung and 
green sand marl, the yield would be greatei, and not near 
as great where more horse-dung, but no marl was used. 
Marl costs $1 05 a tun at the station, being bought by Mr. 
Landis in large quantities, and given to settlers in small 
quantities at cost. A tun contains about 20 bushels, and 
it is used in various quantities, from 20 to 200 bushels 
per acre, and is a very valuable manure. It appears to 
be particularly beneficial to grape vines, and the settlers 
are very rapidly making the place a real Vineland, for 
they have already started more than a hundred vine¬ 
yards, and in some of them, which had no fertilizers 
whatever, I noticed a growth of canes 20 feet long the 
first season. 
I noticed in the hotel garden as fine a production of 
vegetables of all kinds, particularly sweet potatoes, as 
one could desire. In various gardens I saw very thrifly- 
pear and peach trees, and on the farm of a Mr. Gerow, 
formerly a clerk in The Tribune office, a very large 
plat of exceedingly thrifty strawberries. Everywhere the 
appearance of the Indian corn was beautiful, being just 
then in the perfection of ils full growth and ripeness. I 
did not hear a single one complain of unproductiveness of 
the soil. Why should they ? Here is the reason why 
not: 
I found a reason quite sufficient for me upon one of the 
farms that I visited. It"is owned by Robert Brandriff', 
three miles north of Millville, and the soil is of the same 
character as the most of the Vineland tract. Indeed this 
may be said to be a part of it, though it was purchased by 
Mr. B. ten years ago. He must have known the nature 
of the soil and its capabilities for he was born within two 
miles of his present location. He has 60 acres under cul¬ 
tivation, all of which he has cleared and fenced will: his 
own hands. This farm is in a beautiful state of cultiva¬ 
tion, and his coops show that it is profilabie. It is so 
easily workei i£at he finds one raule quite sufficient for 
plowing. Hit fjrincipal reliance for fertility is upon clo¬ 
ver ; yet he ti me until he was 17 years of age, he never 
saw grass grof'fi as a crop. The study was how to get lid 
of it. 
He farms upon what is termed the five-course system— 
that is. one year wheat, the ground for which is manured 
broadcast, if he has the manure to spare, which is not 
always the case. The wheat land is sown with clover- 
seed, and the crop cut two years, in June for hay, and in 
September for seed. The fourth year it is planted to 
corn without manure, and yields from 50 to 80bushels per 
acre of shelled corn. The w heat crop ranges from 12 lo 
20 bushels, and will average 15 ; it was 18 this year. The 
clover hay sells at $12 a tun out of the field, which is 
equal to $20 when dry. The yield is always large, and 
the after-growth Mr. 11. thinks of great advantage to the 
land. He believes in all kinds of mulching. 
The fifth year of the course the land is well manured 
fora vegetable crop, principally potatoes, with a large 
patch of cabbage, wnich sells for two cents a pound and 
in a good season is very profitable, making, from 5,000 
heads per acre, full $200. Beets, carrots, rutabagas, 
squash, lima beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.., are grown 
as part of the vegetable crop, which averages $100 per 
acre, and are all off in time for the wheat sowing, and 
leave the land in fine condition for that crop. Straw sells 
readily at $10 a tun, but Mr. Brandriff has learned better 
than to sell it for that. He prefers to feed it at home and 
convert it into manure. His system of farming does not 
permit him to keep much stock, but as he makes the 
most of everything for manure, he does not have to buy 
much. The two years in five of clover and one in wheat, 
with an after-growth that keeps the ground well shaded, 
holds it in good fertility. Indeed he considers his oldest 
fields the best, and as he has cleared and fenced his farm 
wilh his own hands, and has paid for it and good buildings 
with its proceeds, beside supporting a family, and “get¬ 
ting a little ahead,” he is pretty well satisfied that he is 
not located in a barren country. Yet his farm is just 
what the whole region may be under the same system of 
cultivation, and that is why I have and dp still advocate 
its settlement and conversion to usefulness. I recom¬ 
mend Vineland, because, while the land is held at a rea¬ 
sonable price, it is systematically managed, and a liberal 
share of the proceeds are expended by the proprietor in 
such a manner that every one enjoys the benefits, and 
every new settler feels the advantage here of a good 
neighborhood, such as isolated settlers in the woods can¬ 
not have. I do not say that other tracts are not good, 
but I do not know any that afford all the advantages that 
this does to those in need of cheap homes. 
In conclusion, I ask one favor of my readers. Do not 
bore me nor The Tribune for further information. Y'ou 
have the name of the proper person to address; write to 
him, and not me. 5. R. 
