326 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 

 The Traveller. — No. 2. 



[New York American Agriculturist, 9:138; May, 1850] 



[November ?, 1849] 



From Philadelphia to Wilmington, the road lies along 

 the Delaware, over a very different land from that on the 

 Jersey side. There it is level and sandy; here hilly, 

 rocky, and clayey. There the farm houses are mostly of 

 wood, with a light, cheerful look; here they are mostly 

 of stone, with a dark, gloomy exterior, and from inter- 

 course with the inhabitants, one is constrained to think 

 that they partake in some degree of the nature of their 

 habitations. Most of the land along this road is used for 

 grazing purposes, and every road-side inn is a cattle 

 market. Many of the cattle fed here, first saw the light 

 upon the grand prairie of Illinois, whence they travelled 

 to the rich pastures of Northern Ohio, and from there to 

 the sweet grass-clad hills of the Delaware, and will at 

 last gladden the hearts of some of the hungry souls who 

 buy their daily allowance of beef in the city markets. 



Average Crops near Wilmington — Fann of Wm. 

 Webb.^ — Upon well-cultivated, richly-manured clay soil, 

 corn, 70 bushels, wheat, 20, potatoes, 200 per acre. Ro- 

 tation. Commence by turning under Timothy sod six 

 inches deep in the fall, put on twenty two-horse-cart 

 loads of manure in the spring, and plow in without turn- 

 ing up the sod, and plant corn first of May. Plow in 

 ridges in fall after the corn is off, and again in spring 

 with forty single loads of manure, and plant in drills, 

 fourteen bushels large potatoes, cut. After the potatoes 

 are dug, haul off the vines for manure, plow, harrow, 

 and sow 8 to 12 quarts of Timothy to the acre. Mow 

 three years without grazing or manuring, and then plow 

 and plant corn again. Mr. Webb finds this course more 



' William "Webb, of Woodland, near Wilmington, Delaware. Con- 

 tributor to the Farmers' Cabinet and the agricultural reports of the 

 Patent Office. Experimented with the manufacture of sugar from 

 cornstalks. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents, 1842, 

 pp. 67-75. 



