168 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



Mr. Truman Piper, Birmingham, Conn., said he has tried in vain to gel 

 8()me information about Delaware; that many would like to emigrate there, 

 particularly into the south part, if circumstances are favorable. He wants 

 to know the character of the soil, what crops succeed best, whether the 

 region is considered healthy, and any other information useful to one 

 anxious to purchase land and settle in that locality. 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — In answer to this I can state that the south part 

 of Delaware is generally level; at least it has no very hilly land. The 

 most of the soil is sandy or sandy loam, except the black land of creek 

 bottoms and swamps, some of which have been reclaimed and are very 

 productive. The upland soil is very light to work, and produces, with 

 manure, good crops of corn, wheat and sweet potatoes, and where it is cul- 

 tivated, good clover and grass. The best crop in Delaware is peaches. 

 Apples do not do as well in the south as in the north part of the State, 

 where the land is more clayey and rocky. There are but few stones in the 

 two southern counties. There is much good land, good timber, and many 

 good people, and some who hate a Yankee worse than they do the devil. 

 They hate freedom and all its accompaniments. With this exception, Dela- 

 ware is a good State for Nortliern men to emigrate to. There was a society 

 organized at Dover to encourage emigration Where is it? Let it speak. 



Dr. Snodgrass said tliat he hoped the action of tliis Club may have as 

 favorable an effect upon emigration to Delaware as it had upon Maryland. 

 He has no doubt whatever but the letter addressed by this Club to the 

 Marjdand State Convention, was really the cause of making it a free State. 

 It was published in nearly all the papers in Maryland, and it showed to the 

 small landholders of Maryland that there was a spirit of inquiry abroad 

 about purchasing homesteads in that State, if slavery should be abolished. 

 From personal observation he knows, that many such owners located in 

 filaveholdiiig neighborhoods have been long anxious to sell but could not, 

 because the slaveholders would not allow the hated Yankee to come among 

 them. As there were only 474 votes majority for the Constitution, it is 

 very fair to suppose that 238 of this number, which made the turning 

 point, were influenced by this letter, as the probability of being able to 

 dispose of real estate. He is happy to mention this subject to show what 

 an influence for good may be produced by the action of a few men organized 

 and acting together as this Club has for many years. 



White Willow. 



On motion, it was resolved that the Secretarj* open a correspondence 

 with Mr. E. S. Pike, of Painsville, Ohio, in relation to sending out a mem- 

 ber of the Club to examine and report upon the value of the white willow 

 as a hedge plant. 



Adjourned for two weeks, John VV. Chambers, Secretary. 



