The climate is good; there are no cyclones. There is some damp
weather in winter, but there are no malignant fevers, and there is
little or no malaria, except in a few marshy places. There are some
mosquitoes and flies, but they are not especially troublesome, and
there are no poisonous reptiles.
The population is mostly native, five sixths white, one sixth
colored. The white population is almost entirely of Anglo Saxon
descent.
"Perfect titles may be secured, but all titles everywhere should
always be searched by a competent lawyer, the usual fee for which is
ten to twenty dollars.
"Farm hands receive from twenty to twenty-five dollars per month and
board, for a season of nine or ten months, sometimes for the whole
year. Day hands receive from seventy-five cents to two dollars per
day and board themselves."
Those who are tempted by the advertisements for fruitpickers should
beware. Delaware, like some other states, allows fees to constables
and to the "squires"--Justices of the Peace they would be
elsewhere--for arrests, and it is a common practice to advertise for
fruit pickers, then arrest them as tramps when they come, and the
next day release them on condition that they will leave the county
at once--and leave the trap open for the next comer.
Delaware peaches have made fortunes for many, but will make still
greater fortunes in the future for the owners of the land.
Pears, plums, grapes, watermelons, and cantaloupes thrive, and find
an ideal home, and small fruits all flourish. Sweet potatoes yield
bountifully and are of the finest quality. Asparagus and early white
potatoes pay handsome profits. Tomatoes, the great canning crop, are
grown by the thousands of acres.
"The grasses and clovers grow in luxuriance, and hence dairying and
beef production are profitable. Poultry pays as well as anywhere
else; chickens often run on green clover all through the open
winter.
"The game consists of various species of ducks, quails, reed birds,
hares, marsh rabbits, and other small creatures. Shad, trout,
herring, crocus, black bass, pike, white fish, rock fish, oysters,
clams, crabs, and terrapin are abundant in Delaware waters."
The tax in the rural counties is generally sixty cents on the
hundred dollars. Besides this there are taxes on business and a very
light school tax. There is no state tax, yet the state makes large
appropriations for the support of the public schools, which are free
to everybody.
Maryland has established a State Bureau of Immigration in Baltimore
to give information to home seekers, and advise them as to choice of
location, opportunities for getting started in agricultural
production, and aid them in any way consistent with a State Bureau.
Most of these facts are taken from such reports.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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