[December, 
466 
AMERICAN AGrKICULTURIST. 
^^hTbItIon of 
DITCHING, BEICK, PIPE, AND TILE MACHINES. 
OASH ^XJOTIOIN SA.T^E. 
A 1 
WILJO BE SOLE AT AUCTION EECMAIBMB 12, PMECISELT AT 10 1-2 O’CLOCK, 
ON THEIR RIVER PROPERTY, TO CLOSE UP THE BUSINESS OF 
CEOSSMAN BEOTHERS, OF AVOOBBRIDGE, MIDBLESEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY. 
One good farm of 63 acres, with one good residence and 
two tenant houses thereon; together witli out buildings, 
crops, carriages, furniture, 24 horses, 20 head of cattle, and. 
various implements connected with farming, mining, and 
manufacturing business. Also, a quantity of fire brick; 
400,000 common brick: several thousand feet of first quality 
and damaged drain pipe; several thousand tons of fire clay, 
suitable for No. 1 fire brick, stove linings, stone ware, drain 
pipe, alum manufactories, foundry purposes, &c., &c. Five 
pipe machines that make drain pipe from 2 inches to 22 inch¬ 
es diameter; three clay tempering wheels and circular pits, 
well paved with blocks of wood set endwise; two substan¬ 
tial common brick machines, (and soak pits), capable of 
grinding and moulding ordinary clays, at the rate of 2,000 to 
8,000 brick per hour, with two horses and six men. Also a 
water-power flour and grist mill, with two run of stone; 
turbine water-wheel and new machinery lately fitted up. 
This mill is located on the property where the business of 
the company, and the surrounding clay, mining, and manu¬ 
facturing business, and the facilities for freighting grain to 
the mill by water, give advantages over distant mills for an 
excellent custom trade. Also, 
TWELVE HUNDREB SHARES 
OF 
^ S O EACH 
IN STOCK OF 
The Crossman Clay and Manufacturing 
Company, 
whose capital stock is $250,000, free from all assessments. 
The real estate consists of factories, houses, wharf, railroad, 
connecting all with ship channel; 1T7 acres of land of 
W'hich to 14 ia underlaid with beds of a variety of such 
valuable fire clays as are uuequaled in quality and value any¬ 
where, excepting in the Woodbridge Clay Mines. Careful 
estimates show that an acre of our fire clay land produces 
over half a million dollars’ worth of manufactures, or even 
double the amount in some places. Two responsible mem¬ 
bers of our company offer to manufacture the more valuable 
goods at 25 per cent, of their value, and for 50 per cent, of 
the value of tlie cheaper goods. 
The price of "Woodbridge clays constantly and slowly in¬ 
creases, and the price of clay lands rapidly increases. Be¬ 
fore clay is freighted, its price is greater than coal after the 
freight is paid. Consequently good fire clay property is 
among the best real estate investments of the country. 
In addition to the unequaled manufacturing and transpor¬ 
tation advantages that this property possesses, another very 
Important and valuable peculiarity of these clay beds is, 
that they overlie each other up to the surface dirt for a 
deptli of 10 feet to 40 feet thickness. The small quantity of 
surface dirt is cheaply removed to uncover the fire clay, and 
leveled oft into brick yards, capable of producing next year 
from 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 bricks to be made from the surface 
Clays. Our other fimtories and other clay strata produce an 
equal value of fire brief;, drain pipe, etc. 
The business of manufacturing these upper strata is profit¬ 
able ; it also uncovers valuable fire clay to be cheaply trans¬ 
ported and manufactured into fire brick. In other places 
upper strata are removecLand piled up in the banks at heavy 
expense, to become a nuisance in obstructing the drainage 
and proper working of the beds of fire clay, and making the 
clay costly. The whole present process of stripping, min¬ 
ing, transporting, and manufacturing fire clay, is clumsy, 
discreditable, and costly, to the loss of all consumers, and all 
connected with it, excepting that the manufacturers and 
owners of "Woodbridge fire clays become wealthy in spite of 
the present awkward, anti-progressive system. 
Many manufacturers of fire brick and drain pipe adhere so 
firmly to the old-fashioned systems they learned when 
young, as constituting “ experience,” and are so opposed 
to increase of knowledge, under the fear of affecting prices, 
as not to admit strangers or suspected competitors in tlieir 
works to see brick made by hand, (or worse made,) or to see 
drain pipe clumsily and badly made in plunger machines in¬ 
vented and used a lifetime ago. Again, such parties will ig¬ 
nore the inexorable laws of trade, of supply and demand, 
and vainly endeavor to sustain prices and remove competi¬ 
tion by combinations. Again, as will happen in all trades, 
the most crafty operate against the majority of their honor- " 
able competitors and the consumer in fixing prices, by influ¬ 
encing with commissions, and otherwise, such masons, super¬ 
intendents, captains, or officers, that act for brick consum¬ 
ers, each consumer seeming to think his employees will not 
accept outside favors, or be influenced by them. "While 
these systems of acquiring wealth prevail in different de¬ 
grees among clay manufacturers, there are true and great 
progress and improvements being made by mechanics and 
Inventors of genius in their workshops and in other arts. 
While the sewing machine and watch manufacturers are 
rapidly producing their valuable goods by machinery, those 
classes that must work in the dirt and mud are left behind 
the age to dig ditches with such spades as Ames made yeara 
ago; with such plunger pipe and tile machines as were 
used a lifetime ago, and are still advocated in treatises on 
drainage, and make brick with machines no better than 
Hall's expired brick machine patents, and often with such 
machiftes as ruin all that use them. It is as important to se¬ 
cure genius for the unpleasant duties of perfecting inven¬ 
tions to work in dirt and mud, as in the more pleasant du¬ 
ties of perfecting other arts in the workshop. But in such 
dirt and clay business where physical strength rather than 
genius has been employed, principally radical improvements 
have slept, while the whole country and every branch of 
business suffers thereby. Every branch of trade needs good 
crops; and still one may ride a thousand miles in some sea¬ 
sons and see one-half the crops thinned out and injured 
by wet lands capable of being underdrained. Hoping to do 
our share toward practical improvement for the benefit of 
ourselves and others, we have purchased three patents of 
the most radical practical improvements of the age, in the 
ditching, pipe, and tile business: also the agency of Sword’s 
brick machine for certain districts. They are all from the 
same workshop of H. Brewer, in Tecumseh, Michigan. We 
also secured the assistance of two of the inventors of these 
unequaled machines. They are undoubtedly the best inven¬ 
tors of their day in their line for practical results. These 
inventors have become acting members of the Crossman 
Clay and Manufacturtng Co. All parties will cheerfully be 
granted free access to our works, (as yet in a rude state,) to 
examine our principles; the use and sale of the ditching, 
tile and brick machines, for the benefit of our company and 
otliers; and we do not yet see why these patents and ma¬ 
chines will not alone he as much benefit to our company and 
the country, as any sewing machine or mowing machine, or 
any great improvement benefits any company and the coun¬ 
try. As yet we place the drainage of lands, increase of crops, 
and decreased price of brick building material, before all 
other Improvements, to benefit all classes. These Inventors’ 
machines are of the original and not imitation Invention 
class, that cease when no more ideas can be borrowed. If 
they live, the company will directly and Indirectly receive 
farther benefits, that cannot now be foreshadowed. 
In addition to the great benefit to the company of the sale 
of pipe and tile machines that belong directly to the compa¬ 
ny, and the indirect help by co-operating with the ditching 
machine, we have located our regular business on the most 
valuable clay beds known in this country. Our whole com¬ 
bination of stripping, mining, carting, manufacturing, and 
shipping advantages of clay goods, has been practically 
tested one by one for eight years, and our present incom¬ 
plete business was built up from nothing meantime. To se¬ 
cure the benefits of the future better development of legiti¬ 
mate business, the company get the clay property at far less 
cost than it would bring at auction if the improvements 
had not been placed on it. This company can manufacture 
cheaper than all others, it can compete in all markets, but 
cannot be driven out of all markets; and the eompany 
could any time make a profit by selling it at auction, as tliere 
is not a fire brick maker in the country that could safely let 
his competitor get it. This alone practically puts the stock 
above par at the outset, aside from all benefits from sales of 
machines and our combination of all advantages. Any reli¬ 
able dealers and consumers that become stoekholders di- 
reetly or indirectly on account of themselves or friends, will 
naturally have influence and preference over others in the 
bu 3 ’ing and selling our goods in distant markets. We believe 
we shall in future make goods of quality and price to place 
our customers beyond the reach of injurious competition. 
We believe it will be the interest of buyers of fire brick, 
drain pipe and tile, and common brick, to take an interest 
in our company and buy direct from the factory and clay 
property; also the interest of individuals, clubs, and com¬ 
mittees, to take interest with us in starting combined brick 
and tile yards in country places where clay lands make 
drainage necessary. By selecting proper men, machinery, 
and by industrj', competence can be attained from clays 
now lying idle—a gain not appreciated in many places. A 
Sword’s brick machine, and one Tiffany tile machine could, 
together, make a handsome business in many places where 
one alone would be less remunerative. Such a tile maker 
would have no competitors if he secured the agency of In¬ 
graham’s ditching machine, as digging cheap and good ditch¬ 
es is equivalent to cheap tile. As an investment for capital¬ 
ists, this fire clay property, constantly Increasing in value, 
possesses advantages over any other investment yet seen by 
us or any one else that has yet examined it so far as is yet 
known. To develop the business, to give consumers, buy¬ 
ers, and investors, a chance, and to exhibit the macliinery on 
the same day to public inspection in these daj's of locating 
enterprises behind the Alleghanies and Rocky Mountains, 
we shall have an auction of from $50,000 to $75,000 of our 
personal stock and much other personal property. $50,000 of 
the stock for working capital of the company will be held 
for sale to secure desirable associates, and, perhaps, sold at 
the same auction. From one-half to three-fourths of the re¬ 
maining capital will be principally held by us, the inventore 
and workers of the company. Not one cent has been or 
will be spent for influence or personal assistance. The com¬ 
pany has more than the full benefit of our former labor and 
development. Every article put up must be absolutely and 
rapidly sold by an energetic auctioneer, to enable parties to 
decide whether or not to bid without delay. The Steamer 
Magenta will leave Barclay street. New York City, at 7 A. 
M., Nov. 11th, land at our wharf, and remain long enough to 
examine everything thoroughly. Also, at the same time and 
place, Nov. 12th. We do not compete with customers buy¬ 
ing clay of us. Tickets out, 30 cents. Excursion tickets to 
return, 50 cents. For sale at the Astor House. Meals pro¬ 
vided on board by giving notice at the Astor House the pre¬ 
vious day. 
Applications to manufacture machines solicited from ma¬ 
chinists. 
Wanted a young man of superior ability to assist in the 
oflice and out-door work of introducing our machinery, and 
starting tile yards in various sections. 
CROSSMAN BROTHERS, 
WOODBRIDGE, 
MIDDLESEX CO., NEW JERSEY 
