14 



Restatement. 



Vol. IV. 



me obtrusive. If I interpose a plea, and ask of 

 him the favor, that when an " Old Subscriber" 

 pays him a visit, he will advise him not to in- 

 vest until he has extended his reconnoitering 

 into New Castle county, Delaware, particu- 

 larly the lands in Red Lion and St. Georjre's 

 Hundreds, better known probably as lyin^ in 

 the vicinity of the Chesapeake and Delaware 

 canal. 1 mistake the character of a "Young 

 Farmer" much if he, as well as an " Old 

 Subscriber" will not be interested in a detail 

 of the improvements now in progress in the 

 section of country alluded to. No longer than 

 fifteen years ago, it may be asserted, without 

 the fear of contradiction, that not less than 

 three-fourths of those lands were reduced to 

 the lowest state of exhaustion. 



The land destroying system, of taking off, 

 crop after crop, without any adequate return 

 of vegetable matter to supply the exhaustion, 

 was the legitimate cause ; and afforded to the 

 stranger as he passed along, a panorama of 

 comfortless buildings, dilapidated fences, and 

 worn out fields. True, here and there might 

 be seen a tolerably improved farm, but like 

 the oasis in a sandy desert, "they were few 

 and far between." It ought to be mentioned 

 also, that one co-operating cause in consum- 

 mating this disastrous condition was the un- 

 healthiness of the neighborhood, occasioned 

 by a large body of meadow being covered with 

 stagnant water, the natural outlets having 

 been obstructed during the cutting of the ca- 

 nal, which greatly depressed and paralyzed 

 the energies of the citizens. After the com- 

 pletion of the canal, however, the health of 

 the country began to improve, and with it the 

 dormant energies of the proprietors of the 

 soil were aroused. A few enterprising men, 

 with sound judgment and ample means, by a 

 judicious appropriation of both upon their 

 lands soon brought them up to their former 

 fertility, and even beyond it ; for not content 

 as my friend " A Young Farmer" with his 

 sixty bushels of corn per acre, they demand 

 of old mother earth, shall I say it ? One 

 hundred bushels per acre ! In fact my next 

 door neighbor has a field of thirty acres at this 

 time growing, which if it does not yield per 

 acre the above number of bushels, then must 

 the decision of the question whether an acre 

 of land [in this section] can be made to yield 

 100 bushels, bo forever put to rest. [!] 



As might be expected these praiseworthy 

 examples have exercised a benign influence 

 throughout tiie district. Enriching the land, 

 and thereby increasing its fertility, has become 

 of paramount importance. 1 might go so far 

 UK to say, a passion, not as evanescent as the 

 muUicaulis fever must certainly be, — but more 

 permanent and abiding. 



Lands have risen in value, so much so, that 

 in ll"d Lion Hundred in particular, there are' 



not one half dozen farms that can be pur- 

 chased for less than ^•'^0 per acre. It may 

 be conjectured by a " Young Farmer," and 

 others unacquainted with our locatio'i and re- 

 sources, that these prices cannot be sustained. 

 It is the opinion of many intelligent men, 

 that they have not reached their acme, for 

 several reasons. Our resources for enriching 

 the soil, and convenience to market. Our 

 soil with some exceptions is composed of a 

 loam, based upon a yellow clay subsoil, having 

 a very good proportion of clay and sand, the 

 two essential ingredients in a good soil ; the 

 surface moderately undulating and free of 

 rock-stones. Until very recently, vegetable 

 and animal manure and lime were the prin- 

 cipal agents in renovating the soil, the latter 

 costing on the landings from sixteento twenty 

 cents per bushel. 



Shell marl and green sand marl have been 

 recently discovered of a very superior quality 

 in inexhaustible beds in different sections in 

 both Hundreds; and here, at the hazard of 

 becoming prolix, it is but justice to say that 

 the community is mainly indebted to the Ag- 

 ricultural Society of New Castle county in 

 petitionkig the Legislature for a Geological 

 Survey of the State ; and when their request 

 was complied with, then, and not till then, 

 was a decisive effort made on the part of the 

 farmers to search for it; and try its fertilizing 

 properties. True, it was known to exist .some 

 time previous, and some of it tried was found 

 to be good, but skepticism as to its value spell- 

 bound the community, until the anticipation 

 of having the marls analyzed, stimuJated them 

 to renewed effort.s. As an illustration of its 

 fertilizing powers, I will state that one of my 

 neighbors covered a field at the rate of 15 

 bushels per acre, 20 bushels to the load. The 

 land was a wheat stubble and the next spring 

 put in corn and succeeded with oats, each 

 succeeding crop decidedly improved by the 

 operation, clover was sown with the oats, and 

 last summer the average yield of hay was 

 two tons per acre. Let it be distinctly un- 

 derstood, however, that the field had no vege- 

 table manure or lime either, for ten or fifteen 

 years previous. It cannot be otherwise than 

 good, else the fertilizing ingredients of soils 

 are little understood. The shell marl has 

 twenty per cent, of the carbonate of lime and 

 forty per cent, of green sand. The green sand 

 has from six to twelve per cent, of potassa. 



Then as to convenience to markets, we 

 yield the palm to no section of country. We 

 have a daily intercourse with Philadelphia of 

 but few hours' ride in commodious steam boats 

 at a cheap rate, where all kinds of marketing 

 as well as grain can be taken with much 

 greater comfort, and about as cheap as those 

 who reside within ten or fifteen miles of the 

 city. We are also within six days' sail of 



