Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1868-02-20
Mistakes of Northern Settlers in Delaware
BY THOMAS B. oouRsEY.

NJ tnOmAb ID. tbuhbh1.
EDIroRs TRIBUNE Our population is
steadily on the increase by the influx Of
strangers, {" foreigners" some call them]
from the northern and eastern States. And
still they come, and we say let them come,
whether from the mountains OF Pennsyl-
vanis, the shores of the lakes, or the banks
of the st. Lawrence, and when they come,
we want them to ''come to stay" which we
are sorry to say, some of them fail to do.
Land agents, over anxious to make sales,
have perhaps in their circulars given too
high coloring to our section, by which
some may have been led into the error of
supposing that we are enjoying perpetual
summer, and that our climate is all that the
most frail constitution could desire. This
idea, if entertained, is one of the mis-
takes that might have been corrected about
this time, with the thermometer among the
teens, and occasionally approaching zero, it
is anything else but summer; and yet, if
they would compare our weather table with
Northern Pennsylvania, New York, or
Maine, they would find it much more favor
able, both in point of intensity and duration,
and though we may not have perpetual sum
mer, our winters are mild and short in COM
parison, and our climate and land, when
improved, are adapted to the growth of veg
etables, grain, and fruit of almost all kinds,
except tropical productions. These facts
should and do furnish inducements to draw
strangers from almost all sections of the
north. But With the multitudes that come,
some are disappointed, which generally or
iginates from mistaken views in regard to
climate. soil, or the mode of cultivation,
having been deceived in their calculations,
in some cases by Misrepresentation, while
others had over estimated the country, and
under estimated the inhabitants, as they
have subsequently discovered.
Some make mistake in supposing that
we are a set of ignoramuses, that neither
know the value of an acre of land nor how
to cultivate it. One, at least, of these
errors has been made plain to some of them,
who have found native Yankees in Delaware
quite as sharp at bargain as some of their
brethren further north, who have paid at
least the extreme value of their land, if
nothing more, though this is not always the
case. Another great mistake is in bringing
with them their notions of northern farming,
and attempting their adoption on an entirely
different soil, without first experimenting in
small way to soc how it will do here, and,
in the mean time, observe carefully their
neighbors, and Others, who arc most sue
cessful in raising crops, and the mode they
pursue to do it, adopting what seems to be
good and rejecting the balance. This would
seem to be the sensible way, and some do
it, but others do not. One says, "You Del
awareans know nothing about farming, you
don't half plow your land. The best of the
land is at the bottom untouched, will show
you thing or two" And so he did. For,
with heavy team and large pillow, he broke
the ground about q foot deep, when it
should not have been over seven or eight
inches at most, at that time. He planted
the corn, which tried hard to get above the
clods, but never succeeded in attaining any
'seminence. Consequently, he became dis
gusted and left before the year was out
cursing Delaware and all the inhabitants
thereof, while all the fault was his own.
The land was really good, capable of raising
forty to fifty bushels of corn per acre, with
proper cultivation, and would have borne
his deep system if he had taken little at a
time.
Another purchases farm that has been
worn out and laid by. He finds on il a
heavy growth Of brown sedge, and argues
that land that will produce such growth OF
vegetation will give something else, il
broken deep enough. There must be fer
tility at the bottom So he breaks up deep
in the spring, and having turned no soil
down, nor none up, as consequence the
corn maintains sickly existence, and does
nothing more than tassel, il it does that.
There is not strength to force shoot much
less fill it with corn. If he had broken il
six months earlier, lined it, and let it remain
until about planting time, and then given it
a dressing of some good commercial man
ure, 0here is nothing else like manure on
such farms to dress with, he might expect
fair crop, even with deep blowing. But
deep blowing is not necessary at first.
Indeed, doubt whether there is much ben
eft attained by very deep blowing on our
land, at any time. We have been over
twenty years in getting down twelve inches,
and do not know that our crops have been
increased by the pillow, since VIC got eight
inches deep. The largest portion of our
county and much the largest portion Of
Sussex county is sufficiently porous for the
roots of plants to penetrate tits especially
so for clover, which is subsoicr and does
not stop for anything short of stone, but
digs deep if thcie is anything to dig for, and
brings what it gathers to the surface, where
it is most needed, especially for cereal crops.
But perhaps the greatest mistake Of some
Of our northern friends is buying twice as
much land as they can pay for, and it too
poor TO support family, until improved.
If they have friends in the north, able and
willing to help them along for few years,
this may do, but otherwise they find it an up
hill business. Having everything to buy
for family and stock for nearly year, will
the interest accumulating on the unpaid por
ton of the purchase, and among strangers
from whom they cannot reasonably expect
to be extended 10 an entire stranger who ma,
depart at any time without an extended
notice, leaving nothing tangible behind
The failure of the first crop, under such cir
eumstanccs, produces discomfort and en-
barrassment, if nothing worse. Better bu,
less land, especially if it be poor, and leav,
some money to improve with.
Now, DESTROYS as we are to see industri
Gus, enterprising men from the north com
among us to swell our population, and de
velop the resources of the State, we regre
to see one settle here without the probable
ity of remaining, and we would have bu
little fear of any industrious man returning
if he would be careful first to locate on Ian