332 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



Holcomb, obviates a common objection of city gentlemen 

 against engaging in the business, on account of the in- 

 convenience of having farm laborers around the mansion 

 house. He hires a farmer and wife, who reside at the 

 farm house, taking charge of the dairy and providing for 

 all the laborers, without any other trouble to the pro- 

 prietor than the general superintendence, which he gives 

 the whole business. If it should be objected that this will 

 consume all the profits, I will undertake to prove to the 

 contrary by an exhibit that will shov/ a very handsome 

 per centage gained upon the capital invested. 



Neat Farming. — This may be seen in high perfection, 

 upon the farm of Mr. Jackson,^ one of Major Holcomb's 

 nearest neighbors. Hedges, too, trimmed and kept with 

 such care as he learned in his native English home to be 

 necessary, may be seen upon this farm, and equal to any 

 live one that I have ever seen, unless I except the Chero- 

 kee-rose hedges of Mississippi. 



The beauty of the general appearance of this delightful 

 farming neighborhood is very much blurred in conse- 

 quence of the town of New Castle owning considerable 

 tracts of land which lie wedged in among those of indi- 

 viduals, and which are rented upon short leases, to those 

 who can make the most out of them by the smallest out- 

 lay of improvement. This American system of renting 

 land only for one or two years, at a time, is one that must 

 ever prevent tenants from improving, if it does not actu- 

 ally ruin the soil. 



As these town lands cannot be sold, an enlightened 

 policy would dictate that they should be let upon long 

 leases, with such stipulations that they would not only 

 become the most beautiful, but most productive farms in 

 the state. 



' Bryan Jackson, emigrant from England to Delaware. Devel- 

 oped his estate, said to be inferior to none in Delaware, entirely by 

 his own efforts. Member of the agricultural club of New Castle 

 County and active in its meetings. American Farmer, 4th series, 

 4:13-14 (July, 1848); 7:138-39 (October, 1851); 7:430 (June, 

 1852). 



