Delaware

Delaware, one of the United States of America, forming part of a peninsula, and having the Susquehanna and Chesapeake Bay on the W., Delaware river, bay, and the ocean on the E., Pennsylvania on the N., and Maryland on the S. and W. It is 1,960 square miles in extent, thus being the second smallest of the States. The state is hilly in the N., the hills being formed of granite, gneiss, and limestone. South of this is a strip of red clay, followed by greensand and sand, and the southern part consists of swamp and sand. On the coast are salt marshes, succeeded by fertile alluvium. In the west, wood is abundant. The state keeps the old-country names of Kent, Sussex, and Newcastle for its "three counties, and is also divided into hundreds. The rivers are small but navigable, and a canal connects Chesapeake and Delaware bays. Among the productions are kaolin and iron ore; but the chief industries are agriculture, market garden produce, and fruit, especially peaches, and fishing, particularly of oysters and crabs. Of the population of 147,000, about one-sixth are negroes; and Delaware was formerly a slave state, though it did not take part in the Secession. The capital is Dover; but the largest town is Wilmington. The district was formerly settled by Swedes and Finns, but became Dutch in 1655, passing to the English in 1664.