476 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



express ourselves, always on the qui vive. Tims only can progressive improvement be ae- 

 cured. Why offer bounties, again and again, for expenmeuts whi( h do not look to any re- 

 nults beyond what we already know can be accomplis-hcd, and have long since, and a ihou- 

 «aiul times, been recorded in our ainials as matters of agncultnral history, together with ac- 

 counts of the processes and materials employed in their accomphshment ? 



MAJOR P. REYBOLD, OF DELAWARE, 



WITH SOME OF HIS DOINGS. 



Major R. is assuredly one of the tallest farmers in the United States. We 

 will not here anticipate the fuller memoir which may hereafter be given of his 

 " rise and progress ;" but speak only in very general terms, of himself, his sons, 

 his sheep, and his peaches. Suffice it to say that he has risen, from the cradle, 

 not to strangle a serpent, like Hercules, but to be " well on toward " seven feet 

 high in his stockings, and well formed in proportion ! In this, however, there is 

 no merit, as all is due to Nature and good nursing ; but it is to his especial honor 

 that he has risen from standing a respectable victualer, in the Philadelphia 

 market, to the higher honor of being one of the largest, wealthiest, and most 

 successful landholders in the State of Delaware — which, if she be little, con- 

 tains multum in parvo, were it only that she contained such men as Thompson, 

 and Jones, and Rcybold, and Canby, and Clarke and " sich like," all leading 

 farmers, and holding offices of the highest and most honorable kind, /. e. in as- 

 sociations/or the promotion of Education and Agriculture. 



Major P. Reybold has, in some respects, done more to strengthen if not to ex- 

 tend the Union, than even the President of the United States himself. In truth, 

 few men in the Union have equaled him in the performance of the three cardi- 

 nal and particular duties of man. These are said to be : to build a house^ 

 to become a. father, and to plant a tree. Now, Major R. has built a " palace of 

 a house," from the top of which (with all the modern improvements) one may 

 behold under his feet little Delaware spread out like a garden, surrounded by 

 New-Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Next, he has begotten and has 

 around him not less than eleven children, all thriving and " well to do in the 

 world," with their several score of grand-children to amuse their grand-parents 

 in their ripe old age. As if confident of the vigor and prolificity of his stock, 

 in which he takes great delight, the Major built in his house a room about 60 

 feet long, for the young things to play in. 



Then, as to the duty of planting a tree, which is more than some do, besides 

 many ornamental and other trees, he has pianted enough for himself and his 

 sons to send to market last year 80,000 (not 800, but) 80,000 baskets of peaches, 

 each holding about 3 pecks ! 



But we only meant to hold up to view a few of his sheep : He bred, and one 

 year fed and fattened, 21 sheep, that weighed alive 4,294 lbs. — averaging upward 

 of 200 lbs. weight. Net weight of the 21, 2,421 lbs. — or an average of rising 115 

 lbs. being more than 28 pounds to the quarter ! Where has it been beaten in all 

 ovine annals ? The Patent-Office Report, from which this statement is sup- 

 posed to be taken, (and which, being the story told by the scales, admits of no 

 doubt,) goes on to say that their wool was long, yine and silkt/ — such as is raised 



(95C) 



