1892 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
577 
The  Marshes  of  South  Jersey. 
CURIOUS  FARMING  TO  INLAND  FOLKS. 
To  the  farmers  of  Southern  New  Jersey  the  marsh 
is  a  rich  manure  heap.  The  marshes  along  creeks  are 
more  valuable  than  those  along  the  hay  shore  ;  the  lat¬ 
ter  being  salt,  the  former  fresh.  The  fresh  or  banked 
meadows  are  owned  by  individual  farmers  in  lots  of 
five  to  100  acres.  These  farmers  form  themselves  into 
a  company  which  meets  yearly,  appoints  a  manager 
and  collector,  fixes  its  own  tax  rate  and  is  in  every 
way  independent  of  the  company  whose  property  may 
lie  just  across  the  creek.  The  manager  must  keep 
the  bank  and  sluice  in  good  repair.  The  collector  col¬ 
lects  taxes  and  forwards  the  money  to  the  manager. 
The  marsh  is  divided  into  lots  or  “coves”  of  five  to  ten 
acres,  each  owned  by  one  man.  He  may  own  a  dozen 
coves,  but  rarely  is  one  owned  in  partnership.  Each 
is  an  island  entirely  surrounded  by  ditches.  To  make 
the  bridges  from  one  to  another,  four  logs  are  thrown 
across  the  ditch  and  so  placed  as  not  to  roll.  On  these 
planks  are  laid  closely  crosswise,  but  not  nailed,  as 
when  the  owner  has  done  with  them  at  one  ditch  they 
can  be  easily  taken  to  another.  Again,  when  he  has 
turned  his  cows  on  the  meadow  he  has  only  to  take 
up  the  bridge  plank  and  the  bars  are  up.  The  ditches, 
which  are  the  lines,  are  kept  open  at  the  expense  of 
the  land-owners  on  either  side. 
The  company  is  responsible  for  nothing  but  the 
bank  and  sluice.  Early  in  the  spring  the  marsh  is 
set  on  fire  to  clear  it  of  reeds  and  rough  stuff.  It 
burns  day  and  night  for  weeks.  It  is  a  grand  sight 
at  night. 
Some  of  the  meadows  are  solid  enough  to  be  plowed 
and  planted  with  corn.  Rye  and  buckwheat  are  some¬ 
times  raised  ;  but  generally  they  are  seeded  down 
with  Timothy  and  Blue  Grass  mixed.  Curing  and 
carting  this  hay  have  a  regular  place  in  the  farmers’ 
routine.  Hot  work  it  is,  too,  the  sun  beating  down  all 
day  without  a  break.  Not  even  a  city  street  is  as  hot 
as  the  marsh.  The  hay  is  cut  before  it  is  quite  ripe, 
else  it  would  lose  nutriment  and  be  only  fit  for  bed¬ 
ding.  When  properly  cured  it  is  eagerly  eaten  by 
cows  and  by  no  means  scorned  by  horses.  Some  of  it 
is  cut  early,  so  that  when  upland  pasture  is  feeling 
a  drought  all  the  calves  and  dry  cows  are  taken  to  the 
meadows,  leaving  only  the  milch  cows  on  the  home 
fields.  Cattle  on  the  meadows  drink  from  the  ditches 
and  creeks.  They  require  no  care,  but  are  brought 
home  in  the  fall  sleek  and  fat. 
“  Gettin’  ready  to  go  down  in  the  ma’sh  ”  for  a  day’s 
mowing  is  quite  a  serious  matter.  An  early  start 
must  be  made  for  the  marsh  is  often  five  miles  from 
the  farm.  The  mower  is  hitched  behind  one  hay 
wagon,  the  horse  rake  behind  another.  Into  the 
wagons  go  long  and  short-handled  forks,  hay  ropes, 
scythes,  feed  for  the  teams,  water  buckets  for  water¬ 
ing  them,  a  keg  of  water  for  the  men’s  use,  and,  last 
but  not  least,  the  dinner  basket.  The  hired  men  mow 
around  the  ditches  with  scythes.  The  farmer  mows 
the  main  body  with  the  machine.  Everything  is  going 
tiptop.  But,  see  !  One  of  the  horses  begins  to  flounder, 
the  other  snorts  and  in  a  minute  both  are  down — 
mired.  The  farmer  and  his  men  unharness  with  all 
speed.  Of  course  every  trace  and  strap  is  as  “  tight  as 
wax.”  The  men  are  often  obliged  to  whip  out  their 
knives  and  cut  good  harness  to  get  the  team  loose. 
The  machine  is  then  backed  away  and  hay  a  foot  deep 
thrown  down  around  the  team.  It  is  then  an  easy 
matter  to  get  them  on  solid  marsh  where  they  are 
again  harnessed  to  the  machine.  The  miry  place  is 
mowed  by  hand.  A  horse  will  flounder  about  excitedly 
while  miring,  but  if  used  to  the  marsh,  when  he  is 
once  down  he  is  the  most  composed  of  the  crowd.  I 
have  actually  seen  horses  mired  up  to  the  bellies  lie 
there  and  eat  grass  with  the  utmost  sang  froid,  while 
the  men  were  sweating  and  tugging  to  unharness. 
But  just  the  same  the  old  stager  isn’t  going  to  mire  if 
he  can  help  it.  When  he  feels  the  mud  giving  way 
under  him  he  either  starts  on  a  trot  or  springs  for  the 
nearest  hay  cock,  and  by  these  two  expedients  saves 
himself  many  a  “  mire.” 
Carting  home  the  hay  is  tedious  work,  as  only  two 
or  three  loads  can  be  carted  in  a  day.  When  it  is  all 
home  the  stockyard  is  a  goodly  sight.  Often  there 
are  as  many  as  20  shapely  stacks  of  bright  herd  hay. 
Next  winter,  as  the  upland  hay  is  used  out,  this  hay 
will  be  carted  into  the  barns  a  whole  stack  at  a  time 
so  as  to  leave  none  untopped  to  get  black.  As  the 
farmer  fodders  his  cows  with  the  bright,  clean  hay  or 
beds  the  horses  with  the  second  quality,  he  wonders 
what  in  the  world  inland  farmers  do  without  any 
marsh.  In  the  spring,  when  carting  out  his  big  barn¬ 
yard  of  manure,  his  wonder  is  stronger  than  ever.  I 
know  of  no  place  so  lonely  as  the  marsh.  Level  as  the 
floor,  it  stretches  off  for  miles  to  the  right  and  left. 
No  sign  of  human  life  or  dwelling — with  no  sound 
save  the  singing  of  birds  and  the  chirping  of  insects. 
One  could  imagine  oneself  a  thousand  miles  from  a 
fellowman.  rhoda  s.  towne. 
Cumberland  County. 
Does  a  Roller  Indicate  Bad 
Farming  ? 
My  roller  is  made  by  sawing  a  round,  straight  log 
eight  feet  long,  driving  an  inch-and-a-quarter  iron  pin 
into  each  end  and  slipping  on  a  2x4  stick  four  feet 
long  projecting  one  foot  back :  then  a  washer  and 
next  a  pin.  We  hitch  to  the  2x4  stick  with  a  clevis 
and  singletree.  There  is  no  tongue.  The  roller  covers 
two  rows  of  corn,  and,  if  the  gudgeons  are  greased,  it 
runs  easily. 
I  never  use  a  roller,  except  in  quite  dry  weather,  or 
in  compacting  the  seed  bed  for  wheat.  I  prefer  to 
leave  the  seed  bed  for  corn  as  open  as  may  be  when 
nicely  pulverized.  If  the  weather  is  not  unusually 
dry  when  breaking  for  either  crop,  there  are  no  clods. 
When  the  weather  is  very  dry,  I  roll  every  morning 
while  breaking.  In  preparing  wheat  ground,  I  roll 
every  morning  and  after  every  harrowing.  On  clay 
land,  a  harrow  in  cultivating  corn  or  elsewhere  will 
pack  the  seed  bed  much  closer  that  a  l’oller  ;  the  teeth 
seem  to  break  up  the  arches  of  small  particles  of  dirt 
and  let  the  rain  run  the  soil  together.  A  roller  only 
closes  these  arches  a  little  and  firms  them. 
One  objection  to  rolling  in  the  spring  is  that  the 
weeds  come  up  much  more  quickly  on  rolled  land.  If 
one  plows  the  ground,  leaving  it  rough  and  cloddy,  a 
rather  light  rain  will  scarcely  moisten  it ;  but  if  firmed 
and  leveled  by  the  roller,  it  becomes  uniformly  moist 
and  friable  after  a  rain.  If  plowing  leaves  the  land 
cloddy,  especially  if  the  clods  are  hard,  it  is  a  sign 
that  it  does  not  contain  enough  vegetable  matter  or 
fertility,  or  both.  A  farm  in  good  heart  does  not  often 
need  a  roller  except  to  firm  a  seed  bed  for  winter 
wheat.  A  spot  fertilized  and  made  light  by  a  rotten 
straw  stack  is  never  cloddy  or  dry  enough  to  greatly 
injure  a  crop.  These  spots  are  hints  pointing  to  a 
standard  to  strive  for  as  fast  as  practicable. 
I  sow  clover  in  wheat  after  corn  after  clover  and  on 
my  coming  clover  meadow.  I  like  to  use  the  roller  to 
smooth  the  bottom  and  crush  gritty  corn  butts.  In 
proportion  as  mellow  virgin  soil  loses  its  vegetable 
matter,  it  needs  a  roller.  The  roller  is  therefore  a 
sign  of  bad  farming  and  of  hungry  and  clayey  land, 
or  land  abused  by  tramping  when  wet.  e.  H.  collins. 
Tennessee  Labor  Troubles. 
Like  several  other  Southern  States,  Tennessee  has 
for  some  years  leased  her  convicts  to  private  parties 
fora  stipulated  sum,  the  contractors  feeding,  clothing, 
and  housing  the  men  within  guarded  stockades. 
Thus,  while  in  most  of  the  Northern  States  where  no 
such  system  exists,  the  convicts  are  a  source  of 
expense  to  the  community,  in  Tennessee  and  the 
other  Southern  States  which  lease  out  the  men,  they 
are  a  source  of  revenue  ;  but  the  system  is  considered 
radically  wrong  by  the  most  advanced  reformers,  on 
account  of  the  impracticability  of  the  enforcement  of 
reformatory  measures  under  it,  and  the  demoraliza¬ 
tion  and  numerous  gross  abuses  which  appear  to  be 
inseparable  from  it.  For  several  years  the  Tennessee 
Coal,  Iron  and  Railway  Company,  whose  president  is 
ex-Senator  T.  C.  Platt,  of  New  York,  has  been  the 
lessee  of  the  Tennessee  convicts,  paying  the  State 
$100,000  a  year  for  their  services.  They  have  never 
been  numerous  enough  to  do  all  the  work  in  the  com¬ 
pany’s  mines,  so  that  the  employment  of  free  miners 
in  the  same  mines  has  always  been  necessary.  When¬ 
ever  work  becomes  slack  some  of  these  are  discharged, 
because  the  labor  of  the  convicts  is  cheaper,  and,  more¬ 
over,  the  company  has  to  find  employment  for  the 
latter.  In  every  State  in  the  Union  the  competition 
of  convict  with  free  labor  has  been  highly  obnoxious 
to  the  working  classes  in  general,  and  especially  to 
those  who  are  liable  to  suffer  directly  from  it.  In 
Tennessee  this  feeling  was  accentuated  among  the 
miners  by  the  frequent  discharges  of  some  of  them 
owing  to  the  competition  of  their  convict  co-workers. 
Many  of  them  are  foreigners,  mostly  turbulent  Hun¬ 
garians,  and  all  are  exceptionally  reckless,  impres¬ 
sionable  and  ignorant. 
Their  objections  to  convict  competition  found 
vent  some  months  ago,  in  open  rebellion  and  hostilities 
in  East  Tennessee,  at  Briceville,  where  the  stockades 
were  stormed  and  some  of  the  convicts  set  free  while 
others  were  sent  prisoners  under  guard  to  Knoxville. 
Most  of  the  freed  convicts  were  recaptured,  however, 
and  after  a  great  deal  of  trouble  a  compromise  was 
made  between  the  State  authorities  and  the  recalcitrant 
miners,  in  accordance  with  which  the  prisoners  were 
permitted  to  return  to  work,  and  the  Governor  called 
a  special  session  of  the  legislature  to  repeal  the  con¬ 
vict  labor  law.  This,  however,  it  refused  to  do,  and 
the  trouble  again  broke  out  the  other  day,  this  time  at 
Coal  Creek,  a  few  miles  from  Briceville.  Five  thousand 
truculent  miners  bound  by  a  secret  oath  to  achieve 
their  end  at  all  hazards,  collected  around  the  stockade 
surrounding  the  convicts,  with  the  purpose  of  releas¬ 
ing  these  or  sending  them  under  guard  to  Knoxville. 
They  tried  to  intimidate  Governor  Buchanan,  whose 
conduct  through  the  whole  affair  has  been  exasper- 
atingly  vacillating  and  pusillanimous  ;  but  after  con¬ 
siderable  negotiations,  he  refused  their  demand  for 
the  withdrawal  of  the  convicts.  Meanwhile  the  stock¬ 
ade  guards  at  Coal  Creek  had  been  reenforced  by  a 
small  body  of  militia  and  these  for  days  kept  the 
miners  at  bay.  The  whole  State  was  thrown  into  a 
violent  ferment.  The  miners  in  all  the  adjacent  coun¬ 
try  as  well  as  in  northern  Georgia  actively  sympa¬ 
thized  with  their  confreres  at  Coal  Creek,  and  smaller 
riots  occurred  around  the  convict  stockades  at  Oliver 
Springs,  Inman  and  other  mines.  A  large  proportion 
of  the  militia  also  sympathized  with  the  revolt  and  re¬ 
fused  to  join  their  companies  when  the  Governor 
called  them  out.  It  was  found  that  the  State  was 
without  an  adequate  supply  of  guns  and  ammunition, 
the  deficiency  being  finally  supplied  by  the  United 
States  on  the  requisition  of  the  Governor.  At  length  the 
rioters,  emboldened  by  reenforcements  from  neighbor¬ 
ing  mines  and  maddened  by  the  steady  though  tardy 
concentration  of  troops  against  them  and  the  peristent 
refusal  of  their  demands,  as  well  as  by  a  liberal  supply 
of  “  moonshine  ”  whisky,  fiercely  attacked  the  stock¬ 
ade  at  Coal  Creek,  but  after  a  temporary  success,  were 
routed  pell-mell  by  the  brave  little  garrison.  Before 
they  could  pluck  up  courage  enough  to  renew  the 
attack,  they  were  assailed  and  scattered  by  General 
Carnes  at  the  head  of  a  strong  reenforcement  of 
militia.  Half  a  dozen  of  the  troops  were  killed  and 
pi'obably  two  score  of  the  rioters,  and  hundreds  were 
more  or  less  severely  wounded,  and  about  1,000  taken 
prisoners.  As  the  rioters  carried  off  most  of  their  dead 
and  wounded,  the  exact  number  will  probably  never 
be  known,  as  many  will  decay  in  the  mountain  fast¬ 
nesses.  By  the  law  of  Tennessee  all  prisoners  must 
be  tried  in  the  county  in  which  their  crime  was  com¬ 
mitted,  and  it  is  already  thought  impossible  that  a  jury 
to  convict  the  miners  can  be  found  in  Anderson 
County,  as  many  of  the  most  prominent  citizens  and 
not  a  few  of  the  officials  were  implicated  in  the  rioters’ 
conspiracy. 
Improving  an  Egg  Trade. 
The  Dublin  Farmer’s  Gazette  has  been  trying  for  a 
long  time  to  interest  Irish  farmers  in  a  scheme  for 
making  their  trade  in  eggs  more  profitable.  The 
Irish  hens  are  apparently  all  right,  but  the  methods 
of  selling  the  eggs  are  all  wrong.  Some  of  the  sug¬ 
gestions  for  the  new  plan  are  as  follows  : 
Instead  of  cramming  them  Into  boxes  between  layers  of  straw  (not 
always  very  sweet),  the  eggs  will  be  placed  tlrst  In  little  boxes,  each 
having  12  nests,  or  partitions,  to  hold  one  egg;  these  boxes  containing 
12  eggs  each,  will  again  be  packed  in  light  crates  holding  12  of  the 
boxes,  and  It  will,  no  doubt,  surprise  some  to  learn  that  a  crate  and  12 
boxes,  with  gummed  wrappers  for  the  latter,  can  be  supplied  for  Is.  (Id. 
As  to  collecting  and  selling,  these  points  are  sug¬ 
gested  : 
Railway  stations  or  wharves  would  be  chosen  as  centers  where  local 
agents  would  receive  eggs  dally  from  the  district  for  examination  and 
packing,  the  system  of  examination  and  packing  being  as  follows: 
Each  egg  Is  placed  In  a  tester  and  examined;  If  new-laid  It  will  be  per¬ 
fectly  clear  and  will  be  so  classed:  if  the  egg  appears  spotted,  thick 
and  cloudy,  It  will  be  more  or  less  stale  or  old,  and  classed  according¬ 
ly;  it  is  then  examined,  and  If  necessary,  gauged  for  size,  and  placed 
In  a  grease-proof  or  air-tight  paper  bag,  which  Is  closed  at  the  mouth, 
or  opening,  and  lightly  pressed  close  to  the  egg,  so  that  no  air  remains 
In  the  bag.  The  egg  thus  enveloped  in  a  second  skin  or  shell  is  placed 
in  one  of  the  partitions  of  the  box  provided  for  its  size,  whether  it  Is 
a  small,  middling,  or  large  description  of  egg,  In  accordance  with  the 
recognized  standard  of  size  and  weight  acknowledged  by  the  trade. 
In  each  box  of  12  eggs  a  card  will  be  Inclosed;  on  one  side  will  be  the 
address  of  the  head  office  of  the  association  organizing  the  scheme, 
and  on  the  other  the  following  words:  “Should  there  be  auv  cause  for 
complaint  with  the  eggs  this  box  contains,  the  receiver  will  much 
oblige  by  writing  the  particulars  on  this  card  and  posting  promptly 
(with  or  without  stamp)  to  theeentral  or  local  agency,  when  the  mat¬ 
ter  will  be  promptly  attended  to.“ 
When  the  box  of  eggs  is  fully  closed  up  as  described,  an  India  rub¬ 
ber  stamp  with  type  set  to  print  the  particulars  of  the  contents  of  the 
box  and  the  date  of  their  being  packed  Is  then  inked  and  Impressed 
twice  on  the  perforated  part  of  the  wrapper,  at  each  end  of  the  per¬ 
forations,  so  that  upon  opening  the  box  the  seals  are  destroyed. 
The  eggs  packed  In  this  form  are  then  In  a  condition  to  be  easily 
handled  and  distributed  by  shopkeepers  with  the  minimum  amount  of 
labor,  and  with  ordinary  care  the  eggs  cannot  be  broken.  One  dozen 
of  eggs  can  be  handled  with  the  ease  and  rapidity  of  a  pound  packet 
of  tea  or  sugar,  and  customers  can  be  supplied  with  the  “  new  laid  ” 
eggs  they  require  with  perfect  conildence,  and  without  any  Inspection 
of  the  contents  being  necessary ;  the  inelosure  of  the  cards  relieves 
the  shopkeeper  from  all  responsibility  as  to  the  character  and  condi¬ 
tion  of  the  eggs,  while  any  act  of  dishonesty  or  negligence  on  the  part 
of  the  packer  is  promptly  and  effectively  discovered  by  the  nature  of 
the  Information  gathered  from  the  cards  that  are  returned. 
*  *  * 
AN  Obi)  Mowkk. — The  first  mowing  machine  l  used  here  in  Rock¬ 
land  County,  N.  Y.,  was  the  Allan,  which  I  bought  about  18(50,  and  used 
about  10  years.  Then,  although  It  was  not  worn  out.  but  simply  be¬ 
cause  It  was  very  heavy.  I  bought  a  Buckeye  harvester  and  mower, 
which  1  am  using  still.  Nothing  has  been  done  to  it  except  the  making 
of  a  few  repairs  on  the  knives,  and  putting  in  a  small  cog  wheel,  and  I 
think  It  good  for  three  years  yet.  I  have  been  mowing  about  45  acres 
per  year,  except  the  last  three  years,  when  I  have  annually  mown 
about  52  acres.  jas  v.  clakke. 
