"Delaware also offers unequalled opportunities to immigrants. It is
ideally situated on the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware Bay, and is
penetrated by numerous creeks and rivers.
"The railroad, steam, and electric facilities of the State are
developing steadily year by year, while every section of the State
possesses easily navigable streams, with vessels for carrying
freight and passengers.
"Over fifteen millions of people live within a radius of three
hundred miles; the large majority reside in cities and towns and
furnish the finest markets in the world. Within five hundred miles
are more than one third of the people of all North America.
"Wilmington is a city of seventy-five thousand people, is growing
rapidly, and is becoming a great manufacturing place.
"These people may be reached in one day by the luscious fruits that
grow in Delaware, and every one of them is perfectly happy when he
gets a Delaware peach. Many other Delaware products are as good as
the peaches.
"As cattle and wheat raising developed in the great West, Delaware
people thought that they were ruined. They did not change at once,
but slowly discovered that the light lands are wonderfully
productive of fruits and vegetables, and that they pay much better
than cattle and grain ever could. But these new methods have not
been adopted in all parts of the State, so that land neglected and
unprofitable is for sale. The tides of immigration have swept
westward and left Delaware untouched. Men, money, and enterprise are
needed.
"There are few unoccupied or 'abandoned' farms in Delaware." The
land is mostly held by descendants of the early settlers, who form a
species of landed aristocracy. Lately, owing to the younger members
of these families having become established in the newer states and
on account of the death or incapacity of the older members left in
possession, there has been a marked tendency to sell off these
farms. However, "a large proportion of the farms in Delaware are not
for sale at any price. Some of them have been in the same family for
generations, and if put on the market would sell for from one to two
hundred dollars per acre."
The soil is all the way from a heavy white oak clay, which is too
stiff and too sticky for most crops, to very light sand.
The heaviest clay is made lighter and more porous, and the lightest
sand is readily made retentive of moisture and extremely productive,
by plowing in different kinds of crops as green manure, such as cow
peas, soy beans, the vetches, etc.; crimson clover, winter oats,
rye, turnips, and numerous other crops may be sown in August or
later, and produce a fine crop for turning under early in the
spring. Crimson clover grows nearly all winter. Pure cold water is
reached at from twenty to fifty feet by dug or driven wells.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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