The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-01-17

together many times over III IS
so because We are an agricultural
people. or nothing ; and because OF
its range and durability of fertiilz-
inc powers; its abundance Its
wide distribution; It's facility OF
transport o more than half the ter
ritory Of the State, and because OF
the facility of mining tits fire.
~quentlv lies on the surface.
Mari occurs in above 80 oun
ties.-from Halifax to Robson and
eastward to the sea. 1t underlIes
the whole area Of many of them,
and is often Of many fathoms depth.
That is. il undcr,ies about one third
CT the area o. the State, a territory
larger than the whole State OF Mas
sachusctts Oh New Jersey. 1t is OF
three kinds, belonging to three diff
ferent geological formations, lying
one above the other IN immediate
succession. In the counties lying
along the south of the Neuse to the
Cape Fear, all the three kinds are
found. sometimes all on the same
farm, very often two of them. 1t
outcrops in the banks Of streams,
large and small, IN hillsides and
bluffs it is found a few feet under
the surface in rayineS, bottoms,
flats, swamps and savannahs in
deed, it may be found almost any
where in many sections by dig
ging.-in the woods and fields
is found in the farm bitches and
railroad cuts, IN springs and wells;
in fact, the country is made of it in
large part.
At the bottom lies the cretaceous
mari, called greensand in New
Jersey. 1t differs from the New
jersey mari, however, in its chem
ical constitution and agricultural
value. That owes its great fertiliz-
ing quality to the presence of three
to five per cent. each of phosphoric
acid and potash /; although some of
the most popular of the New Jersey
marls are mainly calcareous. The
North Carolina greensands do not
contain a larger percentage Of these
ingredients, (and Of ~magnesia) than
the other marls, Cess than | per
cent each), but average Is per cent.
of carbonate of lime.
This mari is found in the banks
of Tar river about Tarboro and
Greenville, in the Neuse and tribu-
taries about Kinston, Snow Hill
and Goldsboro, on Rockfsh Greek
in Fender county, in the banks of
the Cape Fear and Wilmington, and
half way to Fayetteville, and in its
tributaries, Livingston's Greek,
Black and South Rivers. In most
of these sections it has been used
with great advantage,-e. g., by
Gov. Clark on the Tar and D..
! Flowers and j. f. Oliver on the
Cape Fear. This mari forms the
bedrock, the lowest stratum ever
/. penetrated in all this region, and is
of course ineXhaustible.
g The second species of mari,
eOcene or chalk mari, is commonly
o a course kind of friable chalk, con.
sisting of comminuted shells and
t %corals, of a light yellowish or gray
+ ish color to white, sometimes com
! pacted into d pretty solid limeston,
/ as about Newbern and Wilmington
This overlies the preceding bed
IS (of greensand). 1t is found IL
abundant outcrops about Whining
ton and in almost every river an,
d creek bank northnard and north
"a eastward through New Hanove
and Onslow to the Trent and Neuse
D. extending along the latter fror
It Newborn to a point ten miles aboy
Goldsboro, nearly to the borders {
y Johnston county ; and is also foun
D. IN a few places north of the Neuse
# near Snow Hill and eastward.
e. forms cliffs of 20, 40 and rs feet o
ID the right bank of the river betwee
e. Goldsboro and Kinston. Its col