NJDEP - NJGS - First Annual Report of the Geological Survey of the ...

leaves of red cabbage, the color is changed to a red. If aquaammonia (hartshorn) is poured into it_ there is a reddish orgreenish sediment formed.Professor Rogers, in his report, recommended that suchmarls be exposed to the weether some time before using, thatthe copperas and alum might leach out. As a still better'method, he recommended composting them with quicklime,using perhaps a bushel of.lime to a hundred bushels of marl.Wherever this remedy has been tried it has been found effectual,and upon soils which have been injured by the applicationof such marls it has restored their fertility. It is not sogenerally practised as it ought to be, most farmers thinking itcheaper to get marl from beds not contaminated with thesesubstances. The action of the lime upon the copperas produec_2/azter, but this is already in the marl, as is shown byits forming a white crust or powder on the surface of marlswhich are:exposed to the open air, as well as by the sparklinglittle crystals of it which may be seen in many cases.' :Plasteris'not generjflly found to produce any effect upon soils whichare well marled. Still the use of lime with those marls cannotbe too strongly recommended, the very fact that copperasand alum are present proving a want of.lime, and wheneverthere ;is a sufficient amount of quicklime, or of carbonate oflime, in a mar]_these substances cannot exist. The use oflime too may give activity to marls, .which by themselves arealmost valueless,'causing the grains to cnimble and give uptheir fertilizing constituents to the growing crops.Wells which are sunk in the marls frequendy contain somuch of tho copperas and alum in their waters, as to be unfitfor making tea or coffee, turning the tea black. A little saleratusor peurlash, or even woodashes, boiled in the tea-kettlewith the water, corrects this.As directed, specimens have been taken from all the layerswhich have been cyaniC.ned,and from those of the marl, greatnumbem from different pits in the same bed. The collectionof fossils is not as complete as is desirable----such an one requiringmore time than it has been possible to devote to it.NEW JERSEY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY