tlers thus introduced. Some are mechanics, but most of them are farmers. I saw their improvements, their crops, and questioned them as to their prospects. As most were from a colder climate, they spoke strongly in favor of this. I found none. of these recent comers desirous of selling and removing. On the contrary, they were writing letters to former neighbors to invite them to settle beside them. The cheap lands they had bought a few years ago had in all cases risen in value, some double, some treble.

It did not appear that any of these settlers were mere speculators-they came to cultivate the soil. But while doing so, it rose enormously in value. A farmer from Bucks county, Pennsylvania, purchased in 1858 a tract of 475 acres, at $12.50 per acre, within two miles of Milford. It had good buildings and fences, and much of it was cleared. He made payment in a house in Philadelphia, with a mortgage on the farm for the remainder. He has sold off three farms containing 355 acres, in the three, for $12,600, and reserved, during a period of fifteen years, the fruit from 3,000 peach trees he had planted, besides having a farm of 120 acres, now worth $6,000. The peach crop thus reserved is worth $3,000 per annum. Other instances of rapid increase of values were pointed out, some of them quite as remarkable.

Mr. Johnston showed me a long list of properties which he controlled, and was offering to settlers. Many of these were large enough to cut up into half a dozen farms. Others would divide handsomely

into two or three, while some were already of the proper size, and others contained only fifteen acres. The aspirations of every possible class of buyers could here be gratified, from the man with a full purse down to him whose whole capital was only a few hundred dollars. Most of these properties were astonishingly cheap, the price, in many cases, being less than the cost of the improvements. All could be had by paying down a fourth, a third, or half the purchase money, with, in most cases, a long term of years for the remainder. Some had been sold without any money being required, a credit having been given for the whole.

For men not strictly farmers, or for farmers with a talent for other business or trade, there were on some of these very advantageous openings for operating in lumber. The timber standing on much of this land could be cut and marketed at a profit of double the first cost of the land, leaving the lat ter all clear, with a profit besides. This operation has been repeatedly performed, as much of this fine timber stands within a few miles of schooner navigation, and with saw-mills near at hand. In short, for those looking for a new location, there are few regions deserving more attention than the hitherto neglected woods and farms of Delaware.

The lands on which Mr. Johnston is thus introducing settlers, are located principally in Sussex county. It is here the peach tree flourishes in such profitable luxuriance. The product of the county was very large in 1863, but for 1864, it was estimated at 500,000 baskets. This increase is owing

to the young orchards, planted by new settlers, coming into bearing. Mr. Johnston's estimate is, that in five years from this time, Sussex county will send millions of baskets to market. The strawberry culture is just beginning on a large scale. But in the common wild blackberry trade, the amount has been so great as to be a most important item in the cash account of every railroad in the State. Sussex county has poured these things into Philadelphia by tens of thousands of bucketfuls, the railroads having opened a market for what formerly perished in the fields. At every railroad station I saw the platform covered with hundreds of buckets of these berries, sometimes a thousand in one place, waiting for the train, while men, women, and children, were constantly bringing in additions to the huge supply. There were buyers from the city who were taking all that came, paying fifty cents per bucket of about eight quarts. In less than twenty-four hours, the great bulk of this supply would be eaten up by the people of Philadelphia.

It will be a subject of wonder with many as to what becomes of this vast supply of light and extremely perishable fruit. The history of a single establishment will go far to remove it. A house in Philadelphia, Messrs. Aldrich and Yerkes, has been several years engaged in the business of canning and preserving fruit. This firm occupies three large five-story warehouses in Letitia street, in which they manufacture pickles, jellies, marmalade, champaign cider, and put up great quantities of tomatoes, strawberries, and blackberries, in cans. These va

rious preserves are sold all over the Union, penetrating even to the gold mines of Pike's Peak, and consumed in every ship that sails the ocean. The demand increases as their productions become better known. They contract for whole orchards of peaches, and last year used 26,000 baskets. Of common wild blackberries they consumed immense quantities of pine apples 3,000 dozen cans were preserved; of raspberries and currants they consumed wagon loads. In addition to these items, they put up 60,000 jars of honey, and 36,000 bottles of champaign. Pears and good plums they have never been able to procure in sufficient quantity. This year, 1864, they will want some 40,000 baskets of peaches, and fifty acres of pickles. They employ 400 hands, principally women, and can put up nearly 20,000 cans daily. Their pickle tank holds 25 barrels, which are greened in 24 hours, and replaced by as many more. In 1863, this establishment consumed $30,000 worth of sugar.

Here is a single manufactory which buys orchards, cucumber patches, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, tomatoes, &c., by the acre. But it is only one among many others doing quite as large a business. Every city contains several such, and they are springing up in all the smaller towns. Even in the present infancy of the business, they exercise a marked influence in preventing a discouraging glut of the general market. The public, having had a taste of canned fruits and vegetables, call for increased quantities. The market for these perishable productions, instead of being limited to

a few weeks, is made to extend over the whole year. Formerly, a third of the peach crop did not pay for taking to market, and fine fruits of other kinds were frequently given away on reaching the city, the glut being so complete that no buyers were to be found. The canning and preserving establishments are now so numerous as to check these gluts and prevent these losses. From this brief reference to them, the reader will learn something as to what becomes of the enormous amount of the smaller fruits transported over the railroads, as well as of the propriety of going to work at producing them.

Leaving Delaware for Maryland, a very similar condition of things is found to exist. The quantity of land for sale is enormous. The firm of Messrs. R. W. Templeman & Co., of Baltimore, control more than four hundred farms, to which they are inviting the attention of settlers. Some of these contain thousands of acres in a single tract, and could be advantageously divided into smaller farms. Others contain only five to seven acres. Every possible variety of property is embraced in the extensive catalogue which these gentlemen control, while the locations are as various as the different tracts. Many are within easy reach of Baltimore, a city whose daily wants require the products of a large extent of country. In that market, all that the farmer can produce, the fruits and vegetables especially, command highly remunerative prices. Around that city there are farms having fifty acres set with strawberries alone. Some of the first pickings are distributed among northern cities as