Ferguson house in 1974; by then, the house was Weatherby’s. CU file photo
provided by Billie Giberson Moloney
Last week, you may recall, we talked about The Nature Conservancy’s Bluff Preserve and CU Maurice River’s tour with geologist Mark Demitroff. He shared how the Bluff Preserve is illustrative of the effects of a periglacial past here in South Jersey. This week we take over where we left off, with some of the tools used to ascertain the geologic history of a place.
Mark discussed the Charles Hartman maps that date the Thomas Ferguson house as being extant in 1859, and, one could suppose, earlier. I’ve perused Hartman’s maps for years and they provide insight into our past. Charles S. Hartman was a Cumberland County antiquarian and land speculator who amassed maps from deeds and put together at least a dozen composite maps still appreciated and referred to by local historians. These are available on the West Jersey History Project’s website (https://www.westjerseyhistory.org/surveys/Hartman/index.shtml).
Mark asked if we had been to Tuskee Run. None of us knew it by the name he used so we replied “No.” The Hartman maps point it out as the creek “Tuskee Run” on Map 3 along with the Ferguson Farm dwelling, and many of us had crossed it numerous times on the Red Trail or even on Buckshutem Road.
Soon we would find ourselves crossing the dell, which was filled with tussocks and relic savannah habitat; yes, it is a “tussocky” Tuskee Run. This valley is a periglacial basin, a sparsely wooded wetland hollow or small valley. Chapter 5 of Soggy Ground: A Geography of Pine Barrens Wetlands (Demitroff 2024: 101–124) is devoted to cripple dynamics. The South Jersey vernacular for a dell is a “cripple,” from the Low Dutch kreupel. There we were asked to sing “The Farmer in the Dell” and, later, “Alouette.”
“The Farmer in the Dell” is evidently a courtship song and game of German origins. And I assume that the purpose was for us to remember that we were standing in a dell and that we had indeed used the term ourselves as children!
Holly trees and songs about labor led to a discussion about the French-Canadian work song “Alouette” and birdlime, a sticky substance used in various parts of the world to capture birds. In Europe, holly tree bark was harvested and boiled to make this product. It was applied to windowsills to capture birds that were ultimately plucked and eaten. The work song takes a distasteful and laborious task and sweetens the chore.
Gall-riddled red maples in the Tuskee Run Dell at the Maurice River Bluffs Preserve. Photo: J. Morton Galetto RIGHT: Weatherby farm, former Ferguson farmhouse.
The origins of the song are debated, but it is often theorized that since it arose during a period of subsistence hunting, it may have been sung while preparing fowl for a meal. Translated, it essentially means “lark, nice lark—I’ll pluck you,” mentioning the discarding of beak, head, eyes, wings, feet until ultimately the entire body is properly prepared for cooking.
In the dell, numerous softball-sized growths disfigured two large red maple trunks whose crowns were stunted. I asked Mark for his thoughts about these abundant growths, to which he replied without hesitation, “Agrobacterium tumefaciens.” The possible causes included fungi, bacteria, insects, genetic mutation, or physical injury. We commonly call these burls, tumors, or galls. The swelling takes place when cells divide more rapidly than normal, causing an excessive enlargement. The most common bacterial gall is crown gall or Agrobacterium tumefaciens.
In “Agrobacterium tumefaciens” the University of Connecticut Home & Garden Education Center describes the process like this: “The bacteria, upon attaching to the plant cell walls, send DNA that causes production of plant growth hormones into the plant cell where it is incorporated into the plant cell chromosome. Affected cells begin to multiply at an uncontrolled rate, resulting in visible tumors within 2-4 weeks. More than 600 plants are susceptible to crown gall.” The gall doesn’t generally harm the tree but often stunts it.
We followed the Red Trail up the hill to where it meets a dirt road and makes a hard right. This is the road that leads to the silo foundations of the former Cargill Granary. Here we came to what possibly was a cubby hole. The approximate 14-feet square depression would have been made by a collier or charcoal maker. During the 1800s or as late as the early 1900s these men made coal by burning a teepee of limbs covered in dirt around a triangular wooden chimney and central green stick called a “fagin,” thus charring the wood and dehydrating it in a low-oxygen environment. Once the moisture was removed this resulted in a very light wood product. The cubby was used as a root cellar for the tiny—often portable—abode above it, in which the collier lived while preparing coal (J.G. Wilson). Coal was still being produced in the 1940s, and the last personal operation, in Buena, was fired for the final time in 1999 on Old Landis Avenue, east of Vineland.
Charles Hartman portion of Map 3 shows Ferguson House and Tuskee Creek.
Multiple-trunk trees, evident around the cubby, are further evidence of charcoaling, since cutting of trees at the base often results in new growth of coppice wood. Mark explained that the newly sprouting trees on stump sites were used for “hoop poles,” or barrel hoops—yes, the hoops that hold barrels’ staves together. A wooden hoop, as opposed to the metal ones associated with wine and whiskey barrels, was advantageous for highly corrosive materials such as pickles and other brined products. Mark described our region as the capital of wooden hoop-pole making.
We made our way east on the Red Trail to its confluence with the White Trail and the Maurice River. Here we learned about the formation of bluffs on the colder side of the river and the role of permafrost in their creation. The river’s entire drainage basin would have been permafrost. But when the sun rose over the water, the west bank would only have been exposed to the cooler morning sun while the warmer afternoon sun would have heated the east side, and for a longer period. The thawed side would erode more quickly, so that the Maurice River’s west bank remained higher (because it remained more frozen) than the east side, which melted like an ice cream cake in the hot afternoon sun.
I’m continually amazed by the quality of the CU Maurice River’s guided walks. The intertwining of history, culture, and our natural landscape is defined by all of the components. Nature’s frozen impact on the landscape has endurance, be it good or bad, and there is always a story to be told while rambling in the Pines!
Sources
Demitroff, Mark, Soggy Ground: A Geography of Pine Barrens Wetlands, South Jersey Culture & History Center, February 9, 2024
University of Connecticut, Galls & Burls Explained… Sort of, April 20, 2011
Coal Was an Early Product of the Pine Barrens, By J.G. Wilson, Batsto Citizens Gazette, 1987. www.co.ocean.nj.us
France, Connexion (18 March 2021). “Glue trap hunting of birds in France illegal, EU court rules”. www.connexionfrance.com. March 18, 2021 (birdlime)
