West-Jersey pioneer., 1868-06-26
SOUTH JERSEY.

SOUTH JERSEY.
This section of our State, formerly known
as West Jersey, but more appropriately South
as it is the extreme Southern end of the
State, has been making rapid advancement
during the past few years, and at present is
improving more rapidly than at any former
period. The Railroads to Salem, Bridgetop
and through Glassboro', yineland, MillvilIe,
and other towns, to Cape Island, have inau.
! gurated new era in the history of South
Jersey. The Agricultural and Manufacturino
resources of this end of the State are being
developed with rapidity heretofore unknown
to this section. The Religious and Educa-
tional interests have received new impetus.
which is being felt throughout our communi-
| ties. All denominations are waking up, and
the churches of the cities and towns of South
Jersey will compare, in many respects, favor
ably with those OF the central and upper part
of our State. The church edifces are not
only very numerous, but many of them COM
modious, and built in the most fashionable
style, with all the 'smodern improvements" in
lighting, ventilating, comfortable seating,
costly organs, well trained choirs, and congre-
cations which know how to appreciate good
music, as well as help to make it. The large
and attentive congregations which throng the
different places of worship is sufficient evil
dence that the preaching is Of the right kind.
The churches are increasing every year in
number and influence, and the cause of relig-
ion is advancing perhaps more rapidly than in
any other portion of this State. The educa-
tional interest is also progressing rapidly.
Our schools and seminaries of learning are
becoming more thorough, and the number of
students in attendance Is increasing every year
Instead of sending abroad to find proper in
stitutions of learning for our children, in
which to educate themselves, we have them
in our midst, patronized largely by students
from other sections of the country.
The Manufacturing interests of this section
of the State are increasing rapidly. 1t is true
that the unsettled state of the country and the
decline in prices has, to considerable extent,
interfered with the prosperity of the glass,
iron, cotton and wooden manufactures, but,
taken altogether, the manufacturing interest is
increasing in this part of the State. The
quality of our iron and glass ware, and the
productions of our cotton and wooden mills
are noted for their superiority, and the guam
titles annually produced add greatly to the
industry and wealth of South Jersey.
The Agricultural resources of this end OF
the State are not generally known and appre-
ciated as they should be abroad. We have
township in Cumberland county which pro-
duces more wheat per acre than any other
township in the Union of an equal number of
acres. The grain, grass and potato crops of
South Jersey are very large, and increasing
sUii aud oiimato is unsurpassed by any In
the Union, and the production of pears,
grapes berries, melons, vegetables, &c., is
becoming source of wealth to this section of
the State. Property of all kinds is rapidly
rising in value, and farm land which, a few
years since, sold for ten dollars per acre, now
sells at prices ranging from twenty to one
hundred or more, according to location and
improvement. The system of farming has
been wonderfully improved upon, and land
which produced comparatively nothing, now
yields large crops of grass and grain, and
when planted with small fruits and success
fully cultivated, produces hundreds of dollars
per acre. Five hundred dollars from an acre
Of blackberries alone, in one season, has fre-
quently been produced from soil in this neigh
borhood, and many with ten acres in small
fruits, berries, &c., produce an income sniff
cient to support in good style large family,
and have something over for rainy day.
The liberal use of mari, lime, phosphates, and
manures of different kinds, with skillful man
agement, is bringing up this part of the State
to high state of cultivation, and with the
use of improved labor-saving implements, our
farmers are enabled to harvest five times the
crops they could few years since, without
these appliances. The spirit of progress and
improvement is seen, not only in our towns
and villages, and throughout the agricultural
districts, but along the line of our Railroads,
which has shown to such great disadvantage
heretofore, the land is now being rapidly
cleared and cultivated, and in very few years
South Jersey will be the garden spot of the
State, as New Jersey is now the garden spot
of the Union.