Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1857-12-03
m1st&Ilaneous.
Mari, Coal, &cD-The Forethought of Ma.
ture

4 long while ago, some laborers in digging
well near our A tlantic sea-coast, :hrew out
a sort of greenish sand, mixed with bits of sea
shells, which strangely puzzled them. The
next year the owner Of the farm was surprised
to find that wherever his green dirt had been
washed by the rains, the vegetation was unu-
suaIly rich Such was the first discovery of
mari, fertilizer which has already regenerat-
ed whole counties of New Jersey, and which
when it comes into more extensive use, will
make thousands of exhausted fields in the East
to rival the rich bottom lands Of the West.
Not less accidental was the discovery of
coal. Just when our great cities began to e1-
perience a scarcity of wood for fires, Just when
the astonishing national advantages of this
century commenced demanding an exhaustless
supply of fuel for manufacturers, chance re-
veaed, high up among the stony and barren
mountains of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Vir,
ginia, anthracite and bituminous coal At
the present day. millions of acres which other
wise would be unproductivc, yield up their foS
sill wood to warm our parlors, cook our din
hers drive our steamboats,, propel our locomo-
tlYes. and turn our cotton mills.
We owe both mari and coal to the provi-
dent fOrethought of nature countless years ago.
For mari is but the decayed remains of marine
animals and derives its fertiZing properties
chiefly from the lime, which forms a principal
ingredient Of Shells Far back in some remote
geological era, untold centuries before man
had been created, the waves of shallow sea
washed the localities where we now dig up
our mari, depoSiting there, precisely as the
ocean does in similar places now, the shells
and dead bodies of tiny marine animals Year
by year, generation by generation, age by age,
these deposits went on. At last, some change
in the shore, such as the opening or shutting
Of an inlet, the closing up of river, or the
sudden denudation of bank, stopped the ac-
emulation the deposit ceased sand or 9TH
er soil began to cover them in time they dis
appeared from sight trees began to grow
among them new and strange animals rored
tlFodsh these woods men finally came Upon
The scene But thousands of years passed,
ana tue red Indian had long given way to the
White American before these marine deposits
were brought to light and used to fertilize our
uelas as mari. Nature was patient and could
wait. She could foreSee aad was content
before man was created she laid up in her
NorehOuses under ground the manure with
winch he was to raise his bread when dense
III population and exhausted soil should make
corn difficult to get
And SO With coal In another remote geo
~ loslcal epoch, also before man trod the earth,
vast pine trees covered the globe, growing
IanAy everywhere as reeds in Jungle Age
# y age they germipated, shot upwards, shed
tseE ,neE cones, lived out their centuries, died and
.s'l; Age by age others grew in their places,
az a3a IN turn perished and fell, till they lay pill
su, one above another, like grass which the
mower has cut. Then came a different geo
Iseal epoch. The pine forests became swamps
'ne 'as SS~amps bogs, the bogs were succeeded by
s'uu earth ; and all this while, nature, in her
TVfe' alembic under ground, was converting
me submerged trees into coal The mighty
"'oonIterous era. which we have described
n;ur aI or Its chief purpose the providing fuel for
m'illzed man. Millions of years before hu
uan oeIng lived upon this globe, nature, aware
W. only Of bis coming but of his future needs
"aGe Me ready for his wants
Nc, we might follow out this thought and fur
non n,an other illustrations We might show how
r.iI. 'nat our cedar forests are becoming scarce
,r"n s ana shingles are made from primeva
most.S jug out OF sWamps, where the tempest
niabt i,tated them thousands of years ago. W,
rrs. ra' demonstrate that nature, long age
Osgaa to manufacture diamonds, irol