214 



Delaware Lands. — Murrain among Cattle. 



Vol. VI. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Delaware Lands. 



Sir, — I am informed that the people of 

 Pennsylvania have received a very wrong 

 impression in regard to the healthfulness of 

 the state of Delaware. A very respectable 

 gentleman of Philadelphia recently told me 

 " he was very much surprised to find such 

 fine lands in Delaware." He expected, from 

 what he understood, to have found it a com- 

 plete frog-hole ; enough to give any man in 

 good health the chills to look at. How ex- 

 tensive such impressions are, I know not ; but 

 from what I can learn, they must be consider- 

 able, and operate to deter capitalists from in- 

 vesting their money in some of the best lands 

 to be found in the United States. 



Now sir, it is the duty of some one, to put 

 the public right in this matter; and as you 

 have lately made us a visit, and had an op- 

 portunity to see and form an opinion for your- 

 self, may we not expect to hear from you, 

 through the columns of the Farmers' Cabi- 

 net — for who so proper, so disinterested or 

 unprejudiced, and therefore, to be implicitly 

 relied upon 1 And here suffer me to say what 

 I know — I purchased the farm where I now 

 live, four years ago, and the spring following, 

 moved my family from Connecticut on to it. 

 Having always resided in that state, breath- 

 ing its pure air, and drinking the delicious 

 waters that flow from its granite hills, I could 

 but expect we should suffer from sickness 

 before becoming acclimated ; but I have been 

 most agreeably disappointed. The health of 

 my family has been uninterrupted, except in 

 one instance, and that I attribute to extreme 

 imprudence. 1 could not expect to enjoy bet- 

 ter health in any part of the globe. Since 

 removing to Delaware, the average number 

 of my family has exceeded twelve, and not 

 an individual residing upon the farm has had 

 a chill. You must not infer, that I consider 

 all other parts of the state equally healthy. 

 Like other states, while some parts are 

 healthy others are not so much so, or, in 

 other words, where the lands are high and 

 the water pure, it is healthy, and vice versa. 

 I have been in the east and west, north and 

 south, and know of no place where money 

 can be invested more pleasantly and profita- 

 bly than in Delaware. 



Yours and the public's humble serv't., 

 Elijah A. Bingham. 

 St, George's, Jan. 8th, 1842. 



» We very cheerfully respond to the call of our corres- 

 pondent, and feel pleasure in saying, our late visit to 

 that part of the state from which he hails, was in every 

 respect agreeable and very instructive. From all that 

 we saw and heard, we do not hesitate to prcmounce 

 that part of the country healthy, and peculiarly adapt- 

 ed for the permanent residence of the agriculturist, be 



his system of management what it might. With a 

 surface sufficiently undulating to carry oft" the super- 

 abundant moisture, and level enough to form a real 

 sporting country for the plough, we can safely recom- 

 mend it as being, in our estimation, one of the most 

 desirable locations for the man of science and capital, 

 anywhere to be found. Our correspondent's statement 

 concerning the health of himself and family, stands in 

 singular juxtaposition with another account of the 

 health of the same individuals, as related to us in con- 

 versation with a friend residing at Salem, New Jersey 

 — which place is situated just on the opposite side of 

 the Delaware, and almost within sight of their resi- 

 dence! The remarks passed in the way of dialogue — 



fV. How is the health of that part of Delaware which 

 you have been visiting ; is it better now than it has 

 been ? 



P. I did not hear of a single case of sickness of any 

 kind, during the ten days I have spent there. 



}V. I understand the bilious fever has been very bad 

 there, and that an eastern family by the name of Bing- 

 ham, after a residence of about four years, during 

 which time they have all been sutfering with the fever 

 and ague to such a degree that their neighbours have 

 been constrained, out of pity, to plough and sow their 

 lands, are jireparing to return to Connecticut, never 

 having enjoyed their health in all that time. 



P. I spent the last evening with them, and never did 

 I see a more healthy family— they are the pictures of 

 health ; and I heard them declare that no persons ever 

 enjoyed a greater share of that blessing than they had 

 done, during the whole of their residence in Delaware. 

 On the subject of the general health in that part of the 

 country, I can only say, a physician called one morn- 

 ing at the house of the person with whom I was stay- 

 ing, to ask if any of the family wanted the doctor! and 

 on my remarking, I considered such a circumstance as 

 speaking volumes in favour of the health of the coun- 

 try, he declared that he had not had five cases of hilous 

 fever for the last year, and as for losing a patient, he 

 could scarcely remember such a circumstance! adding, 

 " The country has been distressingly healthy for a great 

 length of time." — Ed. 



Murrain among Cattle. 



Within the last 12 months, cows and oxen 

 have suffered very severely in various parts 

 of England, insomuch that many small gra- 

 ziers and dairymen have lost their whole 

 stock. This disea.se was at first considered 

 to be only epidemic, but the veterinary sur- 

 geons throughout the country have pronoun- 

 ced it to be highly infectious, and the conse- 

 quence has been that cattle affected with the 

 above malignant disorder have been very 

 properly kept apart from those which were 

 healthy and sound. A gentleman residing 

 near Plumsted, by way of experiment, caused 

 the cows on his estate to be inoculated with 

 the vaccine virus (pus), which appeared to 

 operate as a preventive to the malady, for al- 

 though his neighbour's cattle were dying 

 around him in all directions, not one of his 

 cows (seven in number) evinced the slightest 

 symptoms of murrain. 



