No. 5. 



Little Delaware. 



153 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Little Delaware. 



Mr. Editor, — I attended the exhibition 

 of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society 

 and its ploughing match, at the Lamb tavern, 

 on the 4th, 5th, and 6th of last month, and 

 had the pleasure of seeing most that was to 

 be seen, and of partaking of the hospitalities 

 of the Society, and also of listening to the 

 able Address of P. A. Browne, Esq., in 

 which he gave much statistical information, 

 in relation to the agricultural, mineral, and 

 manufacturmg wealth of the United States, 

 and of several of the individual States, in 

 which Pennsylvania, the Keystone, com- 

 pared well with the wealthy old Bay State, 

 the Empire Slate, or the Queen of the West, 

 — no reference was made to Little Sis: 

 Why her resources were overlooked in the 



estimate, I cannot imagine : certain I am, it 

 was from no ill feeling towards her, either 

 in the orator, or the officers, or members of 

 the Society, as might be abundantly inferred, 

 during the three days of the exhibition, from 

 the attention to the citizens of Delaware 

 generally, and particularly by the liberal 

 premiums awarded to those who took up 

 stock or agricultural implements, and those 

 who entered the lists as ploughmen. After 

 hearing and seeing the statement made by 

 Mr. Browne, I thought I would look into 

 the census returns of 1840, and see how 

 New Castle county would compare with 

 some of the counties in Pennsylvania. — • 

 Herewith I send a few items, not having 

 time to extend the inquiry further; — if you 

 can cull any thing from them that would be 

 useful, you can do so. 



The Pennsylvania State debt is estimated 

 at $40,000,000; Delaware is not in debt, 

 but has funds, the interest of which pays to 

 each of the seventy-four ScJiool Districts 

 of New Castle county, this year, $147. 



Many of the valuable products of Dela- 

 ware, are not included in the U. S. returns. 

 Amongst the items omitted are, furs, skins, 

 and feathers. The fur-trade on the Dela- 

 ware marshes, is quite extensive ; I have 

 known a single trapper, to take over 100 

 muskrats in one night ; besides otters, 

 minks, foxes, and occasionally a few old 

 coons. 



From the facts heie set forth. New Castle 

 county compares well with the rich and 

 highly improved counties of Pennsylvania, or 

 old Dutchess, the pride of New York. I 

 have take a these counties, because they are 

 well known to be in as high a state of culti- 

 vation as any in the United States. The 

 farmers of New Castle county have been 

 taking a kind of Ripp Van Winkle nap, 

 for nearly one hundred years ; during this 

 time the land has been hard tilled and much 

 exhausted ; but the spirit of improvement is 

 now abroad — our farmers are waking up, — 

 several of them have put as much as 10,000 

 bushels of Pennsylvania lime on their farms! 

 in a single season, — and unless I am much 

 deceived, the statistics of 1850, will give a| 



very different result from the one last taken, 

 and still more gratifying. Already many of 

 our farmers have doubled, and some have 

 quadrupled their crops, since 1840. I will 

 cite one instance of extraordinary yield ; 

 this is a field of Dr. Noble's, near the Sum- 

 mit-bridge of the Chesapeake and Delaware 

 canal, — one acre of which, that was mea- 

 sured, yielded 47 bushels of wheat the pre- 

 sent year, with but a single dressing of eight 

 cart-loads of manure, procured in Philadel- 

 phia, at a cost of one dollar per load, or only 

 eight dollars per acre ; and this was on land 

 that was lately purchased by the Doctor for 

 fifteen dollars per acre : this land would not 

 have produced more than five bushels of 

 wheat three years ago. The census returns 

 will show the skill of our artizans, and the 

 value of our manufactures, — and they will 

 also give a faint view of the value of our 

 District school system ; a system, the ab- 

 sence of which, when I was a boy, I now 

 feel the effects of Nor is the health of 

 Delaware quite as bad as some people sup- 

 posed it to be; in Pennsylvania, one in about 

 10,400 arrives to the age of one hundred 

 years; while the chances for long life seem 

 better in Delaware, where one in about 

 2,400 attains that age. 



J. Jones, 



Wheatland. Delaware, Nov. 18th, 1843. 



