USA > New Jersey > The New Jersey coast in three centuries; history of the New Jersey coast with genealogical and historic-biographical appendix, Vol. I > Part 42
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STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.
By an act of the State legislature, in 1864, the income from the land- scrip for the maintenance "of a college to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts" was directed to be paid to the trustees of Rutgers College, for the salaries of teachers in that branch of the college designated in the act as the State Agricultural College. The annual income to the college from this source is $5,800, and, in order to meet the further requirements of the law, which provided for forty free scholarships to students from the various counties of the State, the insti- tution was enlarged, additional professors appointed, and a farm of one hundred acres bought and maintained.
In 1888 the trustees of the college offered ten extra scholarships, and
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in 1890 a further act of the legislature provided for an additional scholar- ship to each Assembly district. These scholarships are now all filled, and there have been but few vacancies since the provisions of the acts were ac- cepted by the college. More than eight hundred students have been in attendance at the institution, of whom more than two hundred and fifty have graduated, the remaining number having attended for shorter or longer periods.
In 1890 an act providing for the more complete endowment and sup- port of the Colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts was passed by Congress. By the provisions of this act the sum of $15,000 was appropriated for the year ending June 30, 1890, and an increase of the amount by $1,000 until the annual appropriation shall be $25,000. This addition to the funds of the Agricultural College was very grateful, since the early appropriation of less than $7,000 had not been supplemented by any appropriations by the State government, as has been the policy in most of the States of the Union.
In 1891 the regular course in agriculture was thoroughly revised, and the various departments more completely equipped. In 1892 college extension in agriculture was begun. This feature of the college work seems to meet a well-defined want, and promises to be of great usefulness. Several courses of lectures have been given by the Professors of Agricul- ture, Botany and Entomology, and the attendance and interest in the work are growing.
The aim of the State Agricultural College is to meet the present press- ing demands on the part of the farmers for a broader education and a more detailed knowledge of the principles which govern their business, while, at the same time, maintaining its high standard as a scientific institution.
An Agricultural Experiment Station is maintained in connection with the State Agricultural College. The buildings comprise a laboratory, green- houses and dairy-house, and are well equipped for the lines of work car- ried on, with ample accommodations for offices and laboratories of the Chemist, Botanist, Entomologist, Biologist, Geologist and other specialists who may be engaged in experimental work.
Five acres of land are used in field experiments with fruits and vegeta- bles, and two acres in experiments with plant diseases. These areas were transferred by the college authorities to the authorities of the Stations in 1895, no compensation being paid. In addition, the college authorities transferred to the Stations the remainder of the farm (about 85 acres) in April, 1896. This land is used for experiments in dairy farming. The business of the farm is kept as a separate account, and the income is suffi- cient to pay running expenses and contribute to the cost of experiments.
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The Stations own but little live stock. They make use, however, of the college herd of about thirty-five cows in their experimental work in dairy farming. Permanent herds are maintained, though individual ani- mals are purchased from time to time for use in special experiments.
The collection of specimens in the botanical division consists of a nearly complete set of the vascular plants of the State, represented by seven thousand specimens ; a catalogued mycological herbarium of about forty thousand specimens, and a set of the weeds of the world, with the seeds of several hundred kinds arranged in cases. The collection in the division of entomology is in two parts-a systematic and an economic series. In the systematic series are more than four thousand species, represented by at least twenty-five thousand specimens. The economic series is very com- plete, and represents all of the usual injurious insects occurring in the State, in all stages, with specimens of the injury caused by them. Each subject studied is illustrated as far as possible or necessary by microscopic slides, and of these between two thousand five hundred and two thousand six hun- dred have been accumulated. The division has also nearly nine hundred lantern slides, illustrating a great range of subjects in economic entomology. Station workers have access to the college museum, which is very well sup- plied with mineralogical specimens. The library contains two thousand eight hundred and fifty-five works on agriculture and related sciences, be- sides all of the leading American and foreign scientific journals.
AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS.
The oldest State farmers' organizations are the State Board of Agri- culture and the State Grange, both organized in 1873, and the State Horti- cultural Society, organized two years later. These societies are mutually helpful. The purposes and work of the Grange are well known, and its comprehensive efficiency as a farmer's organization is acknowledged. Local farmers' clubs existed, however, in different parts of the State as early as 1840.
The State Board of Agriculture is organized as a representative body. The members of all agricultural and horticultural societies, farmers' clubs, granges of the Patrons of Husbandry and other agricultural associations, constitute the membership.
Its investigations include facts relating to the various soils of the State, their chemical and mechanical condition, their productiveness and susceptibility of improvement; the best natural and artificial fertilizers, their adaptability to crops; the best methods of rearing, improving and fattening stock, including the prevention and eradication of all forms of
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disease among them; the examination of new implements, and process of working the soil and the best method of drainage; the economy of farm management as applied to market gardening, farming and forestry; the proper laying out of a farm into pasture, meadow, tilled land and woods; the location, construction and cconomy of farm buildings and fences ; the methods and principles of beautifying rural homes, and the consideration of what legislation may be needed to secure the interests of farmers.
It seeks to maintain communication with all societics, associations and clubs organized for the above purpose in the State, to gather from them the results of their observations and experiments, and to furnish them in return with results obtained from other societies, or digested material drawn from a comparison of the whole of the results together.
It makes its investigations and results useful to the entire State by printing and distributing, as widely as possible, its reports and papers, and the results of experiments conducted under its advice in various parts of the State.
The State Weather Service, as established and now in operation under the laws of New Jersey by an act, entitled "An Act to Establish a Weather Service in New Jersey," approved June 19, 1890, and amended April 7, 1892, and appropriating therefor one thousand dollars annually, is an organization of voluntary observers, co-operating with the United States Weather Bureau and the State Experiment Station, the National Bureau detailing an experienced meteorologist, who is the director, and supervises the work carried on, in a commodious office furnished by the State Experi- ment Station. Here all the records are kept, with the various data received from the outlying stations, which are carefully verified and summarized and issued in the form of a weekly weather-crop bulletin and monthly and annual meteorological reports. Copies of these reports are mailed to all co-operating observers, the various State weather services in other States, to the public libraries, and to members of the agricultural societies and granges of the State.
Each meteorological station is fully equipped with standard self-reg- istering instruments, consisting of a maximum thermometer, minimum ther- mometer, rain and snow guage, measuring rod and instrument shelter, and the necessary forms, stationery, etc., for use in recording the readings of these instruments. The stations now reporting to the central office are as follows: Meteorological stations, 57; display and disseminating sta- tions, 66; and crop correspondents, 133.
CHAPTER XIV.
ROADS AND RAILROADS.
The trail of the savage, from the coast to the hills, and from stream to stream, is identical with the line of present railways which extend over various portions of the State.
For many years the white settlements were immediately upon the coast, or on streams reaching to them, and travel and transportation of merchan- dise was in large degree by water craft. As early as in 1668 Christopher Allmy sailed a sloop from Shrewsbury river to Rhode Island ports, carry- ing passengers as well as goods.
As population extended inland, land travel became necessary, and the shortest path over meadow and through forest was pursued. There were no vehicles for many years, and officials and traders rode on horseback. Merchandise was carried by pack horses, or by Indians or negro slaves accompanied by an overseer. Early paths in the country were one from Elizabeth Point to the site of the present city of New Brunswick, and thence to the Delaware River where is now the city of Trenton; the Minisink Path, from the Navesink Highlands to the Raritan River, three miles above Perth Amboy, and thence to Minisink Island; the Burlington Path, from the present site of Burlington, by way of Freehold, to the Mini- sink Path, near Middletown: and a branch forking between Freehold and Middletown, and thence to Tinton Falls.
The people of Monmouth county were among the beginners in road making. As early as in 1668 a road was designated with great particularity by a general assembly which convened at Portland Point (the Highlands ) and this enactment is worthy of notice. It prescribed "another highway in Shrewsbury, on Navarumsunk, the breadth of the said highway to be two rods and not under ; the breadth over it left at the discretion of the towns- men ; likewise, that those fences which are now made, which shall be found standing in the highway, are to remain in that place. This highway to be understood and meant the common passage highway and street which goes from one end of the town to the other."
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In 1682 the Proprietors' Assembly passed "An Act for making and settling Highways, Passages, Landings, Bridges and Ferries within this Province," and appointing commissioners for the purpose. For Monmouth the commissioners were the surveyor-general, Colonel Lewis Morris, Cap- tain John Bowne, Richard Hartshorne, James Hance, Joseph Parker and Lewis Morris, Jr. In 1686, John Throckmorton, John Slocum and Nich- olas Brown were appointed commissioners in place of Colonel Lewis Morris, John Bowne and Joseph Parker.
The designation of the direction to be taken by these roads is curiously suggestive. There were no surveyors with theodolite and chain, nor any memorial stones, but natural objects or established residences were taken to mark the course. Thus: "From Shrewsbury Falls to Swimming River Bridge, as the road now lieth, to two white oaks girdled on the south side of the same, at John Ruckman's hill; then by stakes to the barrs near his house." Another highway, begins at "the pond by Richard Gardner's meadow, by marked trees to the grave." A road from Egg Harbor to Cold Spring (1706) was laid out by Shamgar Hand and William Golden, and is described as beginning "at a bush near the water's edge on Great Egg Harbor River, and from said bush along William Golden's fence to the gate post * * by a line of marked trees to the old going-over at John Shaw's," etc.
In many cases the establishment of roads was merely nominal. Many were abandoned, and it was half a century before public conveyances were put to use on any of them. Such a highway would in modern times hardly be deemed worthy of being called a road, and probably it was simply a development of an Indian trail widened enough to permit a wagon to pass, and leveled where it was absolutely necessary that leveling should be done to prevent a horse or an ox from breaking its neck. We have no actual description of that primitive road ; possibly it differed in no respect from the other roads which then served as the means for internal communication in the country. The fact that it elicited no comment, that it was neither better nor worse than its neighbors, however, enables us to form an idea of what it was like from the description we have of others. It was not straight. If a clump of trees stood in what ought to have been its course, it was easier to direct the road around the obstruction than to cut the trees down. No part of the road was hardened, and where a gully crossed it the hole was filled in by a tree or by a number of branches being thrown into it and loose earth piled on top. In summer, the growth of weed and fern which spread over it from the luxuriant hand of nature prevented it from becom- ing a bed of sand. In other seasons it was a bed of mud, especially in the spring-time. when the snows were melting and the rivulets and creeks were
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KEYPORT AND KEANSBURG ROAD, BEFORE IMPROVEMENT.
KEYPORT AND KEANSBURG ROAD, AFTER IMPROVEMENT.
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bursting with the waters rushing from their sources in the high ground farther inland, and when nature was throwing off the passiveness of winter and preparing to adorn hill and dale, field and meadow, in her own beautiful and unaided way. Should a loaded wain once get stuck, it had to remain fast until a dozen men could be gathered to give it a fresh start; and some- . times that operation itself lasted an hour or two. No stage coaches in the earlier days ever ran over such a road; none were needed. The stolid pas- senger, unencumbered by baggage, passed along as well as he could, regard- less of mud, or flower, or creeping thing, with rifle ready to unsling at a moment's notice should a wild animal cross his path, or the savage glare of an angry Indian dart on him from some thicket. If he had to use a wagon, the solid sturdy Dutch wain, innocent of springs and an adept in the art of jolting, was the only vehicle at command. The road really belonged to everybody, and so, of course, belonged to nobody. When an accident happened through a fissure caused by rain, or the action of frost and ice, or if a tree fell across the track, those who essayed to repair the effects of the accident tried to remedy the trouble while on the spot; otherwise nothing was done. It was, part of the way, a steep and toilsome ascent for man and beast, and the descent, in places, for horses or wagons, was even more dangerous.
In 1707 there were in operation vehicles of some sort between Burling- ton and Perth Amboy. This service was fortnightly, and was extended so as to make a merchandise carrying line between Philadelphia and New York. Soon after 1710 the privilege under which the line was operated seems to have been withdrawn, and competition was established. In 1732- 33 a weekly goods carrying service between Burlington and .Perth Amboy was in operation. In 1750 a line was opened between Philadelphia and New York by way of Perth Amboy, by "stage wagon and stage boat." tive to seven days being consumed in the journey. The next year witnessed a wonderful improvement-the "stage boat" between Perth Amboy and New York was fitted with "a fine commodious cabin and a tea-table." Until this time the "stage wagon" was an ordinary Jersey wagon without springs, with a canvas top, and the mails were carried on horseback. About 1760 the English stage-coach, swung on heavy leather thoroughbraces, drawn by six horses, came into vogue. This reduced the time between Philadel- phia and New York to two days in summer, and three days in winter. Such speed was regarded as phenomenal, and the stage went by the name of the "Flying Dutchman.".
As population increased and dispersed into the interior, everywhere forming settlements and creating marts of trade principally for farm prod- ucts, the necessity for practicable highways became more urgent, and the
.
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legislature made attempts to procure means for road improvement by aid of a lottery. About 1804 various turnpike roads were chartered, extending into the region on both sides of Raritan Bay. Monmouth county, notwith- standing its proximity to the metropolis, was somewhat laggard in these enterprises, turnpike road companies not being incorporated until 1857. Among these were that between Red Bank and Shrewsbury, which proved highly advantageous, and that from Shrewsbury to Tinton Falls and Colt's Neck. Considerable money was expended for gravel and earth in the making of these roads, yet they were awkward and uncomfortable for the traveler. In winter he was caught in snowdrifts, and in spring and autumn his wagon floundered in mud hub-deep.
Plank roads came into favor about 1847, and many were constructed from then until 1856. Among those constructed were the road between Freehold and Keyport, by way of Matawan; that between Freehold and Howell, built mainly for the carriage of marl; and that from Middletown to Port Monmouth. Plank roads proved costly and unprofitable and were soon abandoned.
Indispensable to modern commerce as are railroads and natural or artificial navigable waters (which are considered elsewhere in this chapter ). the country road is, in its place, of not less importance. The latter is to the former what the river is to the harbor and the ocean. It reaches the door of every farmer, gardener and orchardist, and over it must be conveyed every product that reaches either the small market in the village near by, or that greater one where hundreds of thousands are to be fed.
It is only of recent years that intelligent care has been given to the making and keeping-up of the country road. Even now the matter is woe- fully neglected in some of the most fertile agricultural regions in the country-where the soil is so deep that in the rainy season the wheel of the farm wagon sinks into the ruts until the hub drags along the road surface. In such regions the old fashion of "working the road" yet prevails. For one or two days each year the adjacent property holders are called out by the road commissioner, and for a few hours perform an inefficient job, filling up a few ruts, or drawing down an upheaval by means of a scraper, devot- ing the greater part of the day to sitting in the fence corner, discussing politics and crop prospects.
As in various other matters, the State of New Jersey-little, but well versed in domestic economy-has proven a capable schoolmaster to others in the science of roadmaking. One of the most important enactments of the General Assembly was the State Aid Road Law of 1895. Its operations have not only fully justified the every expectation of its framers and sup- porters, but it has received the highest encomiums, unexpectedly and from
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the highest possible authority. Attestation of this is discerned in the fact that the annual report of the State Commissioner of Public. Roads is each year in such great demand that the supply authorized by law is wholly in- adequate. Requests for this important document come from the officers of the Engineer Corps of the United States Army for the use of those building roads in our new possessions, from the many road improvement associa- tions, from municipalities, from Senators and Representatives in Congress, from members of the different legislatures of the United States, from engineers in all sections of the country, from the geological survey boards of the different States, from numerous libraries, from citizens of every rank and condition, and from foreign countries.
The law to which reference is made, provided for the improvement of public roads under the authority of the board of chosen freeholders in each county. The board was to cause all necessary surveys to be made and specifications to be prepared-the specifications to be for the construction of a macadamized road, or a telford or other stone road, or a road constructed of gravel, oyster shells or other good materials, in such manner that the same, of whatever materials constructed, would, with reasonable repairs thereto, be firm, smooth and convenient for travel at all seasons of the year. It was also provided that bids for material and work should be prepared and submitted to the board; that on approval they should be transmitted to the State commissioner of public roads, who should make a personal examina- tion of the character of the soil upon which it was proposed to construct the road, and if, after consideration of the specifications and facts, he should be of the opinion that the road prescribed would, with reasonable repairs there- to, be firm, smooth and convenient for travel at all seasons of the year, and if he should also be of the opinion that one-third of the cost of constructing the road or section of road, together with one-third of the cost of con- structing all other roads and sections of roads under specifications pre- viously approved by him, would not in any one year exceed the State road appropriation, then he should approve the specifications, but otherwise he should reject them.
The law safeguarded personal property rights by providing for due notice of meetings of the board, when abutting property holders should be heard with reference to assessments upon lands benefited. Restriction as to tax rate was made under a provision that the estimated amounts of con- tracts awarded in any one year, together with the estimated cost of roads already constructed, should not exceed one-fourth of one per cent. of the ratables of the county as reported in the preceding year. One-third of the cost of all roads constructed in the State was to be paid for out of the State treasury, unless the aggregate estimates exceeded the State fund,
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($150,000). in which event it was to be apportioned among the counties of the State in proportion to the cost of roads constructed therein for such year.
In 1897 an act was passed providing for the acquirement of turnpike roads for free public use, whenever the owners of two-thirds of the land fronting on any turnpike toll-road prayed that said road might be acquired for free public use, and where they were willing to pay ten per cent. of the entire cost of suchi road, when the Governor was to appoint five commission- ers to estimate and determine the fair and just value of said road; after having arrived at such value, if the State Road Commissioner ratified the same, the board was to purchase, the State paying one-third of the cost and the county paying the balance, fifty-seven per cent. There are now prob- ably not more than fifty miles of toll roads in the State of New Jersey, and these are principally in the three counties of Burlington, Camden and Gloucester.
For the better preservation of the roads, a law was enacted in 1896 authorizing township road committees, in their judgment, to pass an ordin- ance allowing a rebate of taxes for township or road purposes to all owners or possessors of wagons and carts used in said township for transportation of goods, wares, merchandise, produce, passengers, and for general farm, freight and express purposes, having tires of not less than four inches in width ; provided, the said rebate should not exceed one dollar for each wheel in use in any one year.
In the State of New Jersey there are twenty thousand miles of roads independent of city streets. This would make about one thousand miles to each county intending to avail itself of the State aid bounty. Under the present State appropriation there can be built on an average not more than one hundred miles per year. This, if all the counties were building alike, yould allow but five miles per year to each county. With this, and the opera- tions for the year ending October 31, 1901, as a basis, the extent of the work accomplished in the various counties may be readily discerned.
Middlesex county had 66.51 miles completed, with 3.93 miles in course of construction. The estimates made for the following year were for fifty miles-an amount considerably in excess of what can be provided.
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