Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1868-03-19
sreensand Mari as a Manure.

10 the FARMERS OF eastern maryland anu
northeastern Virginia new means of en-
richment of the soil has been added in the |
exploration and development of the mari
beds Of Prince Georges and neighboring
counties of Maryland.
Although these beds have been known to
exist for many years, they have but recently
received that attention which they merit.
Very many openings have been made along
the eastern edge of the District of Columbia,
from whence large and increasing quantities
of mari are being drawn for the uses of the
vicinity.
While these beds are found in localities,
as beds of sand and gravel, with shells, and
are thus somewhat like alluvial sand and
clay hills, they are of much older formation
than the common surface soil or the mari
pits which exist at the bottom of old lake
beds and water-courses. Indeed they are of
so respectable antiquity that at the period
when these green mari beds were being de-
posted in shallow estuaries, there existed
upon this continent no great number of ami
mails known as the mammalia. The pre-
dominance of the type Of the life of the
world at that period was reptilian, and
while these mari beds were being formed
here, under similar conditions in Europe
the vast beds of chalk which line the SOUTH
ern coast Of England and the channel shores
of France were deposited. Hence these
beds are everywhere classed as belonging to
the cretacsous or chalk formation, constitu-
ting q series of rocks and beds with pretty
uniform characters. Where these beds now
exist marks the place at which courses Of
water ran carrying down large bodies OF
sand and gravel to be deposited in the
ocean further down. In fact, where these
beds now are was formerly the basin of a
considerable estuary, in which tidal action
was tolerabIy powerful. Along the eastern
shore of the States there is no deposition Of
chalk, but in the region west of the Missis
sippi, where the same formation recurs the
beds are better developed, more calcareous
and solicited into rock strata.
In New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland
they constitute alternate layers ofsandy ant
micaceous clay, between which are interba
lated beds of grecnish sand, and upper lay
ers Of which contain shell remains.
The lower beds of the chalk formation
in Europe nave been called greensand beds
on account of their color and texture. l
this country the upper beds have the bluis
green tint, and are found most abundant
in New Jersey, where they are met with
Monmouth, Burlington, Gloucester, an
other counties. The green color of the ma
beds is due to the large amount of san
made up Of fine blue grains, rounded an
polished like the fine rolled sand of a rive
bottom. These grains mixed, with yellowis
clay, or sand, give the greenish tint to thes
strata they resemble gunpowder in size
and are scottish, SO that when crushed by tn
finger nail a green streak is left on paper
These beds in New Jersey have a sligi
slope dip towards the east or southeast, IN
are generally worked at watvgIevel, or
very few feet above Underwater. The who
formation in New Jersey may be from 3C
to 400 feet thick, ami coniain three work.
bile beds of greensand marl some Of whe
are, in different counties, from 90 to 30 fc
thick, aud are great sources of wealth to Il
farmer propretors, and for some years pa
the Freehold and Jamesburg and Camd6
and Amboy railroads have carried immen
quantities of 1t TO various stations on the
lines. The charge at the pits was, fc
years before the war, six or seven cents
bushel.
These beds thus described in New Jers
leave that State by crossing the Delawa
river, and pass into the State of that nam
the general strike or direction is sout
westerly, and they can be traced in caste
Maryland at the head of Chesapeake ba
whence they pass into Anne Arundel, Prin
Georges, and Charles counties, where III
cross the Potomac into Virginia, and thcr
pursue tho general southwesterly tire
through the Southern States into Alaban
Mississippi and Texas, where they II
north and pass into the Indian Territory 0
New Mexico