USA > Delaware > History of Delaware : 1609-1888 > Part 37
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" No deeds are fortal because the Dutch destroyed the Swedish Ii records, and they ant the English tequnited all derds in the ban swedes to be sittende and in exchange for new deeds under the 1. government seal.
" Artelius, Ilist. New Sweden, pp. 100-5. Penna. Hast. Society's tion, 174.
+ All persons between the ages of sixteen and sixty wete mad . In ! to talation.
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MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
153
-trueted Captain Cantwell, high sheriff, to collect a list of taxables by March 25, 1678. The list as n turned under these instructions was as follows :
-oddo HV mu itanb
James Viccory. Will Courer. Geurge Courer. John Hermion. three negroes. Joseph Holding. John Foster. Tho. Liuhr. John Antmi.
Justa Andries.
lich Jefferson.
Evert Allery.
Juhu Mothy sse.
Will semple.
Will hannlton.
Joh de heus.
Ytopher Raruds & I serv't.
Moses de zan.
Barreta Ge;itze.
Job NettresLip.
Marking Laurins.
Roelof Andries.
Jan Wekr.
Adam l'etetson.
John Sierex.
Ambrose Backer.
Junibis Att Jo sierex.
Gerrit Smith & son.
Jurion Sterex
Jan hendrix.
Tho Arnold.
David & Peter hendrix.
Gerrit V Jimmen.
leaicq Sanoy.
Jat. V Jimmieu.
Jolın Taylor.
Mathias Nealson & man.
Julles Gilsomesen.
Will Sherrer.
Peter meslinder.
Minse Mitseti.
hans Schirr.
Jan Peterson.
huybert Lanreus,
Peter Hoelefs & son.
Johni pledger.
Thos Saddler.
Peter Volckerts.
Lucas Peters & son.
hipolet lafer & servant.
John Arionson.
Cl.Les Andries.
Jan Erix.
John Smith.
Jacob his mate.
Olle Toetsen.
Pant Min .
Sam Nicolls. Sam hedge & neger.
Hendrick Walraven.
Patrick Carr.
Mr outhat. "'e 2 servants.
Rodger Huggings.
Direk Laurens.
Peter Mathiass.
Will Gilsamson.
El Chamiles & Servit.
Dirck Willianis.
Hendrik sibrante.
Anthony Padge.
Edward & Jambs Williams. Corporns Herman.
Sybrant Janss.
Mach Lact . L
Will Wilkissen.
Philip Chevalier.
hendrik fronsen.
Ja Lacroy.
Will Moester's man.
William Pattison.
Jan Carentse.
Aert Jansen.
John fuller.
The doctor.
humphry Nicolis.
Stephen Jn11at19.
Markus Ellegart.
John Peers. Will Peers.
Cornelis Jansen.
Moth Bertelsun.
Thom Watson.
Evett hendrix.
Erik Jurinne & ser vant.
7 hom Dodwell & servant.
John Stucell.
John Smith.
John Corneliss.
Abram Enlans.
Mach Baron &: 2 6008.
John Nicols.
Total, 307.
Neither the magistrates nor officials were taxed, although their servants were included in the list.
John Barker.
Hoffell Michill Myer.
John Alliway.
Morris Liston.
Henry Clerg. Tho Jambs.
2 serv'ts of Morris Liston. John Wallis & 1 servant.
Mathias trutt.
James Crawford & 1 servant.
Leger Aukes.
Peter Slohe.
Augustin Dike. Rich'd Scrooge.
John Scott.
Martin Gerritz & his son.
John Arsken & son.
John Ogle.
Evan Salisburry.
Tho harris.
John Road.
Joseph Cooxen.
Rob. houses.
George Moore.
John hayles.
Will Jeacox.
Andries Tille.
John Watkins.
Thu .Jarohy & three sons.
-bert Jansen.
John Ninnnerson.
Olle Poulsen & his Brother.
Swart Jarol & 2 suh.
harmen Jausen.
Will Raynboo.
Walraven Jansen.
Guyshert Wolraven.
- SinHex.
Jurion Juriots.
Jan Minuex.
Mathin, Mathiasse.
Will Sautord.
Charles se friedman.
Sam Peters & son.
Latre Waymoh. Tyman shillam & 4 sons. John Andiles & # Bons.
John Mathews.
Jacob T. Veer & 2 sons.
hans l'eters
Peter hendrix. Justa Pattheti.
Cora-bas l'ost.
Isascq Tay ne.
Juna ye Siwith.
John Bisk.
Peter Jegon. hindine nelson.
John Harmisen & bis ma"
Symon Gibson & his man
Jacob & Ulle Clemmens.
Will Osborne.
Herdesk Claassen.
Lace filet.
Jan Boyer. Claes Dunient.
farell Peterson.
Junies Wolhan.
Guyshert Durk.
Hendik Williams and Sibrant his man. huy bert hendrix.
Will Still.
Total, 24.1.
Losterie Store.
Rut Hadde.
Thos Spry. Phil Huggull.
Jo Waker, Senior.
Humphry Cittly. Jan hulk.
Lymen Eskell.
Jan heuser Krull.
Mach Larroa, Senior.
Will Goodchild.
Thos Gilbert. Edward Twendall. Hans Muller.
Tymen Jonsen.
John Mattison.
Will Grant.
Hendrix Everts.
LAce Andries.
Hendrix Lemmens.
Will Scott.
hendrik Andries.
Robt Tallent.
Andries Andriesse.
Albert Blueg.
Mouns Ponl-en.
Peter, Jan & Paull Jacquet. Peter Classe & two sons. Peter Clansso's boy. Jurion Batsman & son.
Andries Sunex.
Powell Loerson.
Jacob Young. 3 slaves & 1 servant.
Thomas danilts. Joseph hand, Joseph Burnham.
- 1 negro woman of Mr. Moll. William Currer. JamUs Crawford (also) Doctor. Anthony Bryant. Moth Berk man. John Adams.
Echgert, the smith.
l'eter, Mr. Alrichs man.
Jolin Eaton Taylor.
1 neger of M. Aldrichs.
Harmoniuts Wessels. John Karr. Henry stanbrooke.
John hendrix. Birorr, his man. Haşdi Hutchinson.
Roch Hutchinson, his cooper.
Mr. Dulatun. 104
Out of a list of 108 taxables in New Castle con- stablery in 1683, 43 were owners of land outside of the town.1 Of these, the largest were Peter Al- richsand Captain Markham, each of whom had 1000 acres. The estate of the former was probably on the Christiana and Delaware north of Croine Hook ; that of Captain Markham was north and west of New Castle. Charles Rumsey and John Watkins had 640 acres each on the Christiana between Swart Nutter Island (now Nonsuch) and Fern Hook, opposite Wilmington ; John William Neer- ing, 500 acres ; John Ogle, 400 acres ; Mary Block, widow of Ilans Block, 350 agres above New Castle ; John Moll, 300 acres near Swanwyek ; John Darby, 300 acres (Swart Nutter Island) ; Thomas Spry, physician and attorney, 500 acres ; William Haigh, a member of Penn's Council, 400 acres; John Jacquet, son of Jean Paul Jacquet, 280 acres; on Long Hook ; Edmund Cantwell, high sheritľ, 100 acres ; Arnoldus De Lagrange, 300 acres. Fif- teen of the land-owners also owned lots in New Castle, and William Penn also held one lot. Among the lot-owner- were John Moll, AArnoldus De La. grange, John Conn and Johannes de Haes, magi- strates ; Wmn. Welch, who subsequently succeeded John Moll on the bench; Ephraim Herman, ex- 1 This was prior to the division into hundreds.
>
Tho Snelling.
John Whyte. Rob Morton. John Street.
Peter de Witt.
Lace hendriks.
Rich Guy & 3 servants.
Peter Brink.
Ryneer V Collen.
Reiger Measur.
Molles Neelson. Oile fronsen & Son.
Quanboddo
Moth tu Reng. Engelbert Lutt.
Julin Ogle's servant. Jan Gerritz.
Robb Whyte.
John Sibrants.
154
HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
clerk of court ; Dominie Tessemaker, the preacher ; Emelin, de Ringt, former reader in the church and schoolma-ter ; and Dr. Gerardus Wessels.
North Christiana Creek constablery had sixty- five taxables. Of these, John Ogle and Valentine Holling-worth " each owned 1000 acres ; Morgan Druitt, 500 acres, in the " Bonght " on the Dela- ware ; Thomas Wallaceton, deputy sheriff from 1673 to 1679, 370 acres, on White Clay Creek and 100 on Mill Creek ; Conrad Constantine, 560 acres, on which Newport was located : Jacob Van- dever, 500 acres, on Brandywine Creek, opposite Wilmington ; John Nommers, in Mill Creek Hundred, on White ('lay Creek, three-quarters of a mile above its mouth ; John Con, 500 acres, on White Clay Creek in Mill Creek Hundred ; Arnoldus De Lagrange, 1150 acre-, of which a portion was in Christiana Hundred, where he re- sided ; Broor Sinnexsen, 770 aeres, 400 of which adjoined the estate of De Lagrange, in Christiana Hundred, where he lived ; Abraham Mann, 570 acres on Bread and Cheese Island and west of Red Clay Creek, where he resided (he was justice of the peace two years, and was chosen sheriff in 1683); John Moll, president of the court from 1672 to 1683, 210 acres, in Mill Creek Hundred, above Bread and Cheese Island ; Joseph Borne, 350 aeres woljoining Moll's.
In the constablery on the north side of Duck Creek there were forty-seven taxables, of whom Henry Williams, magistrate, owned 400 acres ; Ephraim Herman, 1200 acres; Peter Bayard, 600 acres and also Bombay Ilook ; Captain El- ward Cantwell, 4285 acres, a portion of which was at Cantwell's Bridge (now Odessa) where he lived ; Morris Liston, 750 acres at a place still known as Liston's Point.
The constablery from St. George's Creek to the north side of Oppequenomen had fifty taxables. Among them Casparus Herman, 400 aeres ; Henry Williams, magistrate, 250 aeres; Gerret Otts magi- strate, 452 acres; Peter Alrich, 400 acres, at &t. Augustine's Landing ; Gabriel Rappe, 1000 aeres, Henry Vandeburg, 1000 acres.
Following is a list of taxables in the consta- blery of New Castle in 1687:
John Gibbs, Jacob Clawson, Jacob Jacquet, Robert Hutchinson, Peter Juegnet, Abraham Hayin, John White, Widdow simmons, Adam Hays, Jane- Williamson Spry, Mathias Lawson, Mary Blog, Edward Lamol, Damel Smith, Hatar sower, John Lemmington, Hendrik An', rson, 11. 11- drick Williams, Forras Land, John Gorsok, James Walliam, Charles Rumsey, Hendro k Evertoon, John Bisens, Pawoll Lawson, lybra Johnson, Josyne Hamilton, John Richardson, John sybrance, Rn haid Hollywell, Artobuy De Lagrange, Wolow Priestuor, John Williams, Crian Bowson, James Hilleday, John Bower, Johanana le Hace, Math- las de Hing. Jacob Cornelesen, Mathias Vanderheyden, Domini Testo- maker, John Hales, Il-whick Vanderburgh, Englebert Lott, Thomas Longshan, John Hortensen, sarah Welsh, Leonard the taziet, Ephraim
1 Valentine Rolfingsworth came to this country prior to the arrival of William Penn and returned to Irelatil soon after les His three sons, Valentine, Henry and Thomas, came over in the " Welcome" in Bag atal in DEist, and Anfrequently owued large tracts in Brandywine linn- dred. Firmy represented New Castle in the General Assembly in 100 and filled other offices of importance in Petin-ylvania. ile was the founder of the finnly m Dela sare and Mary land.
Herman, John Cann, John Burgroad, Emelie de Ring, Garrett 1 enn. simon a 4 ,John Park, fuar Jine Widow Mandy, Thomas Pte W les, Edward Boulter, sobre North, Anderson Hand Hanke, 1:
John Dan Hebert, James Anderson John Ford, Lamene Nahet . John Hendrickson, Jade, Voll, Poter Con Jen, Peter Minha, los Vandereorlen, Joha Darby, Antony Bryant, Will atn Markham, M Ereckson, Matt, Coubena, Jan Pral-hay, James Claypoole. Wi. Chambers, Zachariah Vander winden, Joseph Clayton, Widow Me ... Richar IN ble.
Taxables on the north side of Brandywin. C'reek :
Jacob Vanderveer, Cornelius Vandewes, Mouns Justy, Corn Engen, Jones Sagging, Fans Extern, Jacob Clemens, Peter At 1. por Selen Means, Peter Moms, Thomas Fun -- Stoffel, . . News It, Pois sonno Bergan Dauett. Mathew Sanders, Thelast. Ping. JONG GruOk, WIRran Stuck lle, John Burkly, Oliver Coupe, J. Crow William coord, Fiera ih clone. balward Fgboston, Isaac Wat er, Valentine Holingsworth, Il riy Hollingsworth, Thomas in William Lester, Adana Sharpdes, Thomas Chiton, Walham Hanly, Hint,- art Beachent.
Taxables on the north side of Christiana Creek :
William Gnest, Willian: Gos.op, Chui-to; her White, Wolla They .. Aron Jolin-on, Israel Helma, Broor Finessen, Christian Viblir Grussleri Walraven, Arnol pi-de Laframes, Charles Pickering, Betju spube ... Jar d Hendrickson Mathias De Vous, samt 1 Peteisen, thu tian stollrop, robert Robinson, Pichard Robinson, krasnius stidha. Lucas Sadhana, William dolog, John Gregg. Henry Hourine, Jon Conkaun Horas Arski., Andrew Tilly, Bit. seth Ogle, Hugh Matsliter. James Claypoole, John Brewster, John Omet-on. James Reed, Hetes Dull, John Alloway, Thomas Longshaw, Bryan DeDewall, Giles Barrer. Thomas Pierson, John smith, Timis Wollation, Joseph Darnes, Ile .- ry. Paul at } Jacob Garietson, William Rakestraw, Jobn Caun. Attr ham Mann, Wilhem Mann, Andrew Stoleop, Tin mais Gillet, Neites Law sou, Thomas Grand, Heury Jacoleun. George Hope, Sr, Thomas Malt- rws, John Callott, George Hogg, jr., William and John Rawhuge, Zach. arial Patrick, Francis snuth ar , Francis snuth, Jr., Anthony Burg's, David Sharply, Oliver Tayhe? Nathamel Cantwell, Jantes Statulir 11. John Bradshaw, William e-born, Jolm Couch, John Iuns, Peter Me cup, Philip Davis, Nicholas Ian. Thomas stern & Company, John Jocomb, William Stuchduje, Sy mon Cock, George Haveland.
Taxables on north side of St. George's Creek :
Hendrick Vandenburg, Peter Wollaston, John Moll, Hans Hansen, Jobu Darby, Mathias Vanderbayden, John Hayley, Jacob Young (in all only 5200 ac.es).
Taxables on the north side of Oppoquenomen :
Roelof Anderson, George Baker. Alexander Cammel, Ephraim Hel. mon, Joirantes de Haes, Robert Hutchinson, Adamn Peterson, J. ha Boulton, Je hn und Ryly Webster, Nicholas Pallet, James Binokes, John Walker, William Pinlige, William Burrows, Richard Hamiett, Hat - Hanson, Richard Haddon, Otto Otto, John Otto, Hendrick Vatpp ir burgh, Thomas Salloway, Peter Johnson, Edumed Perkins, Elvati Green, Sr., Gabriell Rippe, Peter Andries, francis Richardson, Inlet. Noble, Widdow Atuk rson, Hendink Wahaven, John Hayly, Isto .: Laurence, Casparus Ilerman, Samuel Ridding, John Cole, John Lawta, William Grant, Formand Jimkay. Thedeals Lans, John Simes, And . Nicholis, Jobin Willson, Elle- Humphreys, Peter Aliche, Jacob Deren, Robert Ashton, Doctor Staples, Edwurd Gibbs, Hewolri h Vandenburg !. , Cornelius Emipson, John Pearson, Witham scarsse, Daniel Sunth.
Taxables of north side of " Duck Creek hun- dred ":
Richard Hallywell, John Mackarty, Robert Moreton, Justa Ander bon, William Grant, Henricus Williams, Bar-iha Osborn, Robert Mones, James Sickes, Walter smith. Lucas Mahall, John Hartop's chull. 1. Thomas Selling, 1-tack Werldon, An. Westingdale, Thomas Gulf t 2. Benjamin couples, Joseph Huits, frawis Cook, Uwen Hawks, MI . Liston, Ephraim Herman, Joseph Hallman, Joseph Humbling, ... Taylor, Georg Taylor, Andrew Lot. ,, Thomas Harrison, Ichard Mit ell. Exec, LIward Gibts, Ichard Quince, francis Johnson, Mali. Offley, sybrant Valk, Witham Hatton, Antony Tomaking-, Edward Owe'. Robert Countries, Thomas Harris, William Ulern, Lewis Owen, I'd . Byard, francis Letts, John Harris, Heury Bevins, Richard White.2
Acrelius is not just to his fellow-countrymen in calling them idle. They were timid, and they lacked enterprise to enable them to grapple with the possibilities of the situation. They were simple " At this time (1687) the territory of Hoere- Kil, or Whore Kill, "a- very sparsely settled und was hot districted.
1
155
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
peasants of a primitive race and a secluded coun- try, thrown in among people of the two most energetic commercial and mercantile nation- the world has ever seen. They were among strangers. who spoke strange tongues and had way - such as the -wedes could not understand. It is no wonder that they should have shrunk back, bewildered. and con- tented themselves with small farms in' retired mighborhoods. But these small tarms, after the -wedes settled down upon them, were well and laboriously tilled, and, small though they were, we have the acknowledgment of the Swede them- alves that they yieldled a comfortable support. with a goodly surplus each year besides to those large and rapidly increasing families which attracted William Penn's attention and commanded his admiration.
The husbandry of the Swedes was homely, but it was thorough. The soil which they chiefly tilled was light and kindly. In the bottoms. -wamps, and marshes along the streams, which the Swedes knew quite as well as the Dutch how to dyke and convert into meadows,-the Brandywine meadows are to this day famous as examples of re- claimed lands,-the soil was deep, rich and very productive. The earlier Swedes did not sow the cultivated grasses on these meadows ; they simply dyked them and mowed the natural gras, planting corn and tobacco, and sowing wheat wherever it was dry enough. Acrelius speaks of the high price which these lands brought in his time-"-ix hun- dred dollars copper coin [sixty dollars] per aere" -- when thoroughly ditched and reclaimed, though constantly liable to inundations from the tunneling of the muskrat and the craytish. The Upland soils were excellently adapted to corn, wheat and tobacco when they had been cleared. The forest growth on these soils comprised the several varieties of American oak familiar in the Middle States, the black-walnut, chestnut, hickory, poplar ( tulip-tree), >safras, cedar, maple, the gums, locust. dogwood. wild cherry, persimmon, button-wood, spice-wood, pine, alder, hazel, ete. The forests gave the Swedes much trouble, and undoubtedly had an influence upon the modes of cultivation employed. The cost of labor made it difficult to clear the thick woods.1
1 Wages are always interesting to study, for their averages are evi- dewer's which cannot be contradicted of the condition of a people. The earlier servants in the employment of the Swedish company received, as a role, twenty copper dollars (two dollars of our money) for outht, and twenty riksdaler wages per annum (equal to twelve dollars). The wages of fremuen, however, were more than double this, and these wares E. reuver included board and lodgings. With wheat, at an aset of-, aRy cents per bushel, a freeman's wages were equal to about sixty dol- .sy a year at present values, besides keep. The E plaind recopi- show fait just prior to Penn's orempancy wages had sensildy buttered In " in: h. 1480, Thomas Kerby and Robberd Drawton, servants, surl Gil- 1- st Wheeler for wages. Kerby wanted pay for seventy days, between o . d .r 7th amel Jannary ;th, " at nich as is notall to be given pr duy, a big tower ( b) guiders pe them with costs." The court allowed Kirby 1 . | Drawton each fifty attvers itwo and a half guildeist jer di, the """ " to be paid " in Corne or other good pay in yo River." The four kod 1 ts was probably the " usttall " rate of summer wages, the award : the court represented fall and wint r wages "Corue in ye river "- that is delivered where it could be shipped-was valued at three guild-
Hence the common expedient was resorted to of removing bushes and undergrowth only and gird- ling the larger trees, which were left to stand leatless and dead till they rotted and tell, when the logs were after a time " niggered up," or ent into lengths, rolled into piles and burnt. It was difficult to plow between and among so many trunks and stumps, and this led the Swedes, in order further to economize labor, to resort to a system of husbandry which still, in a great measure, regulates the pitch- ing and rotation of erops in the Delaware, Maryland and Virginia peninsula. The ground was cleared in the winter, and then, unless tobacco was grown, the " new ground," as it was called, was planted in corn in the spring. The process, which is known as " listing," was to throw two furrows or four furrows together. by plowing up and down the field instead of around it, leaving a series of ridges with an unplowed space between. The soil of the ridges was pulverized with the harrow and then stepped off into hills about four feet apart, the corn-planter dropping his five grains in each hill, scooping the hill out, dropping and covering with a heavy hoe,-a simple operation which experts dispatched with two motions of the implement. At the last working of the corn, when it had grown stout and waist or break-high, the " middle" of the li-ts were plowed out and the fresh earth thrown about the roots of the vigorous plant. This "list- ing" process was found excellently well suited to the low, flat lands of the peninsula, as, besides saving labor, it afforded a sort of easy drainage, the bottom of every furrow being a small ditch, and this enabled the farmers to plant their corn much earlier than they otherwise could have done. When the corn had gone through the " tasseling" and "silking" processes and the ear was fully developed, the " blades" were pulled and the " tops" cut for fodder. In September the ground was lightly plowed with small shovel-plows (as yet the " culti- vator" was not) and sowed in wheat, the stalks being broken down after frost with the hoe or by running rollers over them. Wheat thus sowed on ers per cripple (or bushel). The winter wages, therefore, were equiva- lent to thirty cents a day in modern money, but in purchasing power, rating corn at the average present price of fifty cents per bushel, amounited to forty-one and sixty-stk hundredths cents per day, summer rates being actually forty-eight cents, with a purchasing power of sixty - two cents March 14, 167- israel Helm bought of R dbwerd Hutchin- som, attorney for Ralph Hutchinson, "dasighep of Daniel Jumper, of Accumac," " a Certayne mun servant nutned Witham Bromfield, for ye terin . & stride of four Jeans [years! servitude now next Ensming. . .. The above named servant. William Bromfield, being in Cort, did pron- i -- e to serve the ( int I-rael helm faithfully & truly the aboves! terme of four Jears. The windpph Cont fupon ye Request of both partees con- cernedi Did order that web iahavesaid to bee so recorded " The price paid by Holm was " twelve hundred Guilder." This was equal to three hundred guilders per annum, and it shows how valuable labor was and how prosperous agriculture meist have been at that day on the Delaware Heim podd rand other court entity show he simply padd the average protegerel dung the hotelred and forty-twee dollars in money (the present exchangeable value of which in corn is offe hutired and ninety- two dollarsitor four years' wiviets of a man when he lvl to board, ludzn, clothe, care for when stek, and provide with an outht when free. At twenty years' purchase this would be nearly one thousand dollars for a servant for hte. Farming must have been very profitable to enable such priors to be paid.
......
156
HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
ridges was so well protected by the drainage from famous. It was a Dutchman, settled among ; earlier Swedes, who produced the best rock frost and " winter-killing " that many farmer- in the peninsula still throw their wheat-ground into corn- apple, and one of the best sort for eating -- the V. devere-that is grown in the Middle States, and. was a family of Delaware Swedes,' who cari . cultivated the peach by wholesale, and made it . . article of commerce. The peach-tree proba' came to Delaware from Maryland, having trav .. . along the coast from the early Spanish att. ments in Florida ; but it has nowhere become . completely naturalized, so healthy, so products. of large, succulent, delicious fruit as in the con ... try which the Swedes first reclaimed from t: wilderness. In the time of Aurelius the pea .. was supposed to be indigenous, and was cultivate : so extensively as to be relied upon as a standard food for swine.
rows even where they use drills to sow it. Where wheat was not sowed on the corn-ground, and oats was not sowed in the spring, the stalk-field was summer-fallowed, being plowed in May, July and again before seeding. The wheat was ent with siekles, bound in sheaves. and thrown into " dozens," each shock being expected to yield a bushel. Rye, wheat and oats were thrashed with tlail-, and the former, sowed in November, was a favorite crop with the Swedes, the straw being sometimes shipped to Europe. Buckwheat was often sowed on the rye, wheat or oats stabble, the grain being used to feed stock. Flax and oats were sowed in the spring, either on the corn-ground or stubble-fields. Pota- toes were planted on the bare ground and covered with the listing-plow. Sweet potatoes, however, were planted in hills after the ground had been deep- ly furrowed. Turnips were not much sown, except on new ground, and tobacco, in Acrelius' time, was only planted on such tracts or in the gardens.
The implements were few and rude, as were also the apparatus of the farm animals. The plows often had wooden mould-boards, and were not capa- ble of working deeply ; the harrows were of the primitive triangular shape, and the oxen or horses working them were attached by means of double links to the apex of the V. The ox-yokes had bows made of bent hiekory-wood, the horses' traces were of twisted deer-hide and the collars of plaited corn-husks. The rest of the harness was home- made, of the same serviceable deer-skins, and the farmers and their lads, all fond of riding on horse- baek, were content with a bear or deer-skin girt about the horse, with a rawhide surcingle in lieu of a saddle, imitating the Indians in dispensing with stirrups. Beans, pumpkins, squashes and melons were commonly planted in the hills with the corn. Much cabbage was produced, but the variety of other vegetables was limited to onions, peas, beets, parsnips, turnips, radishes, peppers, lettuce, pepper- grass and scurvy-grass, with a few herbs, such as chamomile, sage, thyme, rue, sweet marjoram, laven- der, savory, etc., to supply the domestic pharmacy, or afford seasoning for the sausages, liver-pud dings, head-cheese, ete., which were made at "hog- killing."
Penn, in his letter to the Free Society of Traders, speaks rather disparagingly of the orchards of the Swedes, as if they declined to profit by the pech- liar adaptedness of their soils to fruit culture. Yet they must have been the first to naturalize the apple. the cherry and the peach on the Delaware, and we must give them the credit of having anticipated the cherry and apple orchards of Eastern Pennsyl- vania and Cumberland Valley, and the grand peach- tree rows for which the streets of Germantown became
Domestic animals increased very rapidly amon: the Swedes. They imported their own milch kir. and oxen in the first instance, but they found horses and swine running at large and wild, many having escaped into the "backwoods" from the Maryland planters.3 These horses had a goud touch of the true Barb blood in them, as descend- ants of Virginia thoroughbred sires, and they were probably crossed with pony stock from Sweden It seems likely that it is to this cross and the wild half starved existence they have led for two hun- dred years, living on salt grass and a-paragus and fish, bedding in the sand and defying storm and mosquitoes, that we owe the incomparable breed of " beach " or Chingoteague ponies, fast, wiry, true as steel, untiring, sound, with hoofs as hard as iron and spirits that never flag. Acrelius noticed them aentely. He would not have been a parson if he had not had a keen eye for a horse. He say -. " The horses are real ponies, and are seldom found over sixteen hands high. He who has a good riding horse never employs him for draught, which is also the less necessary, as journeys are for the most part made on horseback. It must be the result of this, more than of any particular breed in the horse, that the country excels in fast horses, su that horse-races are often made for very high stakes. A good horse will go more than a Swel- ish mile (six and three-quarters English miles) in an hour, and is not bought for less than six hun- dred dollars copper coinage " (sixty dollar> .. The cattle, says Acrelius, are middling, yielding. when fresh and when on good pasture, a gallon of milk a day. The upland meadows abounded in red and white clover, says this close observer, but only the first Swedish settlers had stabling for their stocks, except in cases of exceptionally good hu --
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