292 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



agriculture, as I find to be more often the case among 

 physicians than any other profession. 



Dr. Thompson is President of the Agricultural Society, 

 and to his energetic exertions, in a considerable degree, 

 may be attributed the great good that has been effected 

 by this society. The power of one man to accomplish 

 wonders is indeed wonderful. By the judicious use of 

 manure, marl, and lime, the poor worn out farms of this 

 part of Delaware have been doubled in value within a few 

 years past, and now show a state of fertility that was 

 considered impossible for them ever again to attain, after 

 having been "skinned" for more than a hundred years. 



I visited one of Dr. Thompson's farms, upon which I 

 saw a peach orchard of an hundred and fifty acres. He 

 also keeps one hundred cows, for the purpose of raising 

 calves for the Philadelphia market. As soon as one calf 

 is taken off, another, which is purchased for the purpose, 

 is put on. Some of the cows had two calves, and some 

 calves had two cows. This way of using milk he finds 

 very profitable. 



While viewing his peach orchard, I learned a fact well 

 worth the attention of all peach growers. Let the trees 

 branch as much as possible from the ground, and never 

 cut off a limb that is broken down by an overload of 

 fruit. If it hangs on by wood enough to keep it alive, 

 let it lay, and it will sprout up next year most luxuri- 

 antly, and then produce the finest kind of peaches. 1 The 

 ground between the trees is kept well plowed. 



Around Wilmington there is a good deal of thorn 

 hedge, but it does not generally look flourishing. But 

 the general state of agriculture does, as I was still more 

 convinced by what I subsequently witnessed at the Fair 

 of the Agricultural and Horticultural Societies, which I 

 attended on the 15th of September. At this fair, I saw 

 Mr. Canby's celebrated Durham cow, Blossom, that gave 



1 Commentator, in his review of the February Cultivator, took 

 exception to this advice about peach trees, and advocated judicious 

 pruning. Cultivator, 9:79 (May, 1842). 



