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Report on Crops qfJVew Castle Co. Jig. Society, Del. Vol. IX. 



with black spots, was placed under a glass, 

 in the same circumstances as experiment 

 No. 1, in contact with a whole sound pota- 

 toe. The fifth day the sound potatoe re- 

 mained uncontaminated and without worms. 



3rd. A whole and much diseased potatoe 

 was buried two inches below the soil, which 

 was damp but not wet. A sound potatoe 

 was buried in the same soil, two and a half 

 inches distant from it, the temperature kept 

 as before — 57^ to 62°. In five days this 

 latter remained quite sound. 



It is possible that five days is not long 

 enough ; I jiave therefore left them all in 

 the same state, and shall not touch them for 

 three or four weeks. 



As I do not seek to establisii any favourite 

 theory, I tru?t my remarks may incite to oh 

 servation and provoke discussion, and pro 

 vided the practical and useful truth on this 

 subject be discovered, I do not care much 

 whether it be by myself or by others. 



J. E. Tesciiemacher. 



Keport ou Crops of New Castle County 

 Agricultural Society, IJel. 



The committee on crops, beg leave to 

 state, tliat although but few farmers have in 

 timated an intention to put in their claims 

 for the premium on either wheat, oats, pota- 

 toes or hay — the only crops that have been 

 gathered this season, that can come under 

 the notice of this committee at this time — 

 enough is known to satisfy them that the 

 wheat has yielded an average crop, particu 

 larly where the Mediterranean variety has 

 been sown. It is known to many of the 

 members of this committee, that a crop of 

 ten to fifteen, and even twenty bushels, has 

 been gathered from land, that seven years 

 ago, would not, under the same circum- 

 stances, have averaged half that quantity. 

 The cause of this happy result, may be 

 mainly attributed to the use of lime, clover 

 and plaster — and for their use we are much 

 indebted to the enterprise and industry of a 

 few individuals. It is within the recollec- 

 tion of some of the members of this com- 

 mittee, that there were but two well culti- 

 vated farms in the county, south of the 

 court-house at New Castle; one of those 

 farms, called Whitehall, at that time owned 

 by Capt. William Frazier, and now owned 

 by Augustine Mailly ; the other was in the 

 same neighbourhood, both in St. George's 

 Hundred, and was owned by Christopher 

 Vandegrift, and now owned by Eli Biddle. 

 It was upon these two farms that clover was 

 first used ; and although great improvement 

 was made there by the use of the clover, 

 but few farmers availed themselves of the 

 benefit of the example set them, but con- 



tinued to adhere to the old system of culti- 

 vating in three fields, until about 20 years 

 ago a few otlier enterprising farmers, the 

 most prominent among whom were Philip 

 Reybold and William J. Hurlock, of Red 

 Lion Hundred, and David Wilson and others, 

 of St. George's Hundred, and some in New 

 Castle and other Hundreds, adopted the plan 

 of seeding wheat on clover lay, &c. 



Notwithstanding the good example set by 

 these few enterprising farmers, it was but 

 slowly and reluctantly followed by others, 

 j until a new era was brought about by the 

 I introduction of lime as a manure. And 

 ! thanks be to our worthy fellow-citizen. Dr. 

 'James N. Sutton, of St. George's, who with 

 la commendable zeal for the improvement of 

 his native State, was induced to erect ex- 

 tensive lime-kilns at St. George's, on the 

 canal, in the year 1831 — at which period 

 ] there had been no lime used as a manure in 

 that part, or any where south of it in Dela- 

 jware. The farmers appeared to be perfectly 

 I ignorant of its fertilizing properties; and so 

 incredulous were they, that it was with much 

 persuasion, argument and explanation, by 

 j writing and other means, for two or three 

 years before he could induce them even to 

 try it with a few bushels. All at once, how- 

 ever, the spell was broken — the few that 

 , were induced to try a few bushels began to 

 jSee that their crops were doubled, and like 

 magic the mist was removed — and from that 

 I time a new epoch dawned upon the agricul- 

 • tural interests of our own worn out and much 

 neglected lands of New Castle county.* It 

 was found by repeated experiments that the 

 additional yield from a single course of crops 

 —say corn, oats, wheat and clover — would 

 amply reimburse by extra produce, not only 

 the cost of a dressing of 40 bushels of lime 

 to the acre, but in many cases, leave a bal- 

 ance equal to what had been the selling price 

 of the same land — ten dollars per acre. 



After the value of lime became fairly es- 

 tablished, so great was the demand for it at 

 20 and 22 cents per bushel, that the writer 

 of this article recollects in the month of 

 May, 1835, he had an occasion for some for 

 building purposes, and sent early in the 

 morning to Dr. Sutton's kilns, and he found 

 twenty teams at the kilns at sun-rise in the 

 morning, awaiting their tun. to load. Since 

 then, lime has become of such general use, 

 that the farmers of New Castle county would 

 as soon think of starting upon a day's jour- 

 ney without their breakfast, as to think of 

 planting corn on land that had not received 

 a dressing of lime. 



* This refers to ihe Hundreds before alluded to. Lirno 

 as a manure, was freely used in the upper part of New 

 Castle county long previous. -' -■ ■ 



