JERSEY, NEW, one of the United States of America, situated between 39° and 41° 24' North Lat. and be tween 25' West and 1° 20' East of the meridian of Philadel phia. It is hounded on the north by a line running from Hudson's river at 41° of N. Lat. to the Delaware river in 41° 24' N. Lat.; on the east by Hudson's river and the At lantic ocean ; on the south by the same ocean and Dela ware bay ; and on the west by the Delaware bay and river. Its length,. from north to south, is 163 miles. Its least breadth, about the middle of the state, does not exceed 45 miles. In the north its greatest breadth is about 70 miles, and in the south about 75 miles. It is reckoned to contain nearly 8320 square miles, and 5,324,000 square acres. It is said to have been first discovered by Capt. Hudson, in 1609, then in the service of the Dutch ; and by them a part of it was settled, about the year 1614. Its original in habitants were the Delaware Indians, who, after a series of contentions with the Iroquois, or Five Nations, were, by the latter, subdued and reduced very low, when William Penn landed in Pennsylvania in 1682.
This state, when owned by the Dutch, formed a part of a much larger tract of country, called New Belgium, or New Netherlands. It was ceded to the English, and grant ed, with what is now the state of New-York, by Charles II. in 1664, to his brother James, Duke of York ; who made over New-Jersey to Lord Berkley and Sir George Carteret. In or about the year 1675, Lord Berkley sold his half of the province of New-Jersey, which was the western part : and hence the province was divided, in 1676, into two parts, called East New-Jersey and West New-Jersey—a division which is still recognised. The proprietors of East Jersey derive their claims from Sir George Carteret, who gave name to the province, in compliment to his, family, who came from the Isle of Jersey, on the coast of Normandy, belonging to Great Britain. The West Jersey proprietors trace their claims to Lord Berkley. It was originally in tended to divide the state equally. The present division line may be seen on Lewis' map of New-Jersey. The ce lebrated William Penn was one of the chief instruments in settling West Jersey, before he became proprietor of Penn sylvania. It was his concern in settling West Jersey that
made him acquainted with the eastern part of the province which he afterwards owned, and to which he gave his name.
New-Jersey is now divided into 13 counties, which con tain 116 townships, viz.
The three northern counties of this state are mountain ous, and the next four are agreeably diversified with hills and vallies. The south mountain, which is one great ridge of the Alleghany range, crosses the state in Lat. 41°, and the Kittatilmy ridge passes a little to the north of the south mountain. The highlands of Navesink, on the coast, near Sandyhook, are about 600 feet above the sea. The great er part of the six southern counties are occupied with that long range of flat land, which commences at Sandyhook, and lines the coast of the middle and southern states. Much of this range is entirely barren, producing only shrub oaks, and yellow pines ; but the rest of the state contains .good soil, and excellent pasturage. Great numbers of cat tle are raised in the mountainous parts for the markets of New-York and Philadelphia; and wheat, rye, maize, buck wheat, potatoes, oats and barley, are raised for home con sumption. Large dairies are also kept, and great quanti ties of butter and cheese made. Jersey is also remarkable for an excellent breed of horses.
Great quantities of leather are manufactured at the va luable tanneries of Trenton, Newark', and Elizabeth-town. There is a considerable shoe manufactory at Newark, a glass house in Gloucester county, and paper mills and nail manufactories are erected and wrought to advantage in several parts of the state. The iron works, which are a great source of wealth, are erected in Gloucester, Burling ton, Sussex, Morris, and other counties. There are no fewer than seven rich iron mines in Morris county, two furnaces, two rolling and slitting mills, and about 30 forges, with from two to four fires each. The annual produce of these works is about 540 tons of bar iron, 800 tons of pigs, besides large quantities of hollow ware, sheet iron, and nail rods. In the whole state, the annual produce is computed at 1200 tons of bar iron, 1200 tons of pigs, and 80 tons of nails, exclusive of small articles.