The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1881-10-01
New Jersey MARI.

The great mari formation of New
Jersey, stretching from the head o
Delaware Bay to the coast opposite
Staten Island, is about one hundred
miles long, five to fifteen miles wide
and about 800 feet thick. 1t contains
phosphoric, sulphuric and silici'
acids, potash, lime, magnesia, alum
ina ard oxide of iron in such proper
tons as to make it a fertilizer of very
great value. Millions Of bushels are
annually spread on farms in Central
New Jersey. and its use is constantly
increasing. A correspondent of the
New York Evening Post gives the
following information respecting the
use of it.:
The mari is good for all crops ii re-
news them on exhausted land, it in
creases them on land already produc-
tive. For potato plants it is specific,
killing worms, enlarging the root, and
making the potato smooth-skinned
and fair, There IL n mari, however,
very common, and known locally as
"poison mari" the effect of which is
quite opposite. It contains an excess
of copperas, which is deadly to the
fields, killing every living plant for
years. Not uncommonly stratum OF
good mari runs into one that is nox-
ious, and serious injury to a farm fol-
lows. The poisonous mari, however,
can be cured by mixing IL with lime I;
and in that case it becomes superior
for raising crops TO the mari which
does not have to be acknowledgement
ed. The poisonous mari is detected by
the length of time that is needed to
dry it after it is wet by the rain. But
the farmers have what they regard as
q more radical test. If white clover
grows on the mari few days after it
Is thrown from the pit the compost is
good otherwise il is poisonous. The
best mari has thus singular affinity
for the germs of white clover floating
in the air, and In few weeks the big
gest heaps may become blanketed
with the little flowers.
The more general results of the con-
tinuous use of marls on the soils of
Salem and adjacent counties are very
five dollars an acre have been enriched
within few years toa value Of one or
two hundred dollars an acre. The
surface stratum of this county consists
Of light sandy soil, easily exhausted
unless some artificial fertilizer Is APP
piled, consequently il is not too much
to say that the county has been abso-
lutely reclaimed as to farming by the
greensand which underlies 1t. The
Salem farmers brag that no lands in
the Union can compare with theirs in
average selling value, and so long as
ordinary farms here bring hundred
dollars an acre, the boast seems JUST
lied. What Is true of Salem county
holds good for most other parts of New
Jersey through which the mari belt
runs, aud one effect has been to in
crease during the last half century the
average value of the farm lands OF the
whole State in a most extraordinary
Probably 1000 square miles
m the wild southern counties of the |
state are absolutely unimproved, yet |
he new census will probably show |
hat New Jersey can sell her farms
or more money per acre than any one |
If her sister States. The story of her |
agricultural redemption is registered
n mari, though much Is written In
and the record grows palmer with
lime.
II the New Jersey marls are so use
al TO lands, we can't see why the
3yram marls cannot be made equally
profitable. Analysis shows these
narls contain some valuable fertiliz-
ng properties. Wherever the Byram
narls have been properly composted
nd applied, the result has generally
'roved satisfactory.