Agriculture, With A Brief Mention Of Our Domestic Animals.

Sheep were early introduced, and we learn from Gabriel Thomas, that previous to 1698 of these useful animals there were "considerable numbers, which are generally free from these infectious diseases which are incident to these creatures in England, as the rot, scab, or maggots. They commonly bring forth two lambs at once, some twice in one year, and the wool is very fine and thick and is also very white." Capt. Heinricks in 1778 records that "there are plenty of sheep, but as the farmer drives them into the woods he loses the wool; however, he sells the skin for 8s. York money."

In the early times hogs were a very important part of the stock of the planters, for in most cases salted swine-flesh comprised the daily animal food consumed during the winter months. Hence it is not surprising that attention was early had to laws protecting the owner in his property, particularly when the hogs were turned out in the woods to shift for themselves. They must have found abundant food, for we learn that hogs about a year old when killed weighed about two hundred pounds and the flesh was remarkably sweet, which, it was believed, was the result of the animals feeding on fruit which then abounded in a wild state.

Capt. Heinricks, a German officer, who saw almost nothing to praise in Pennsylvania, at least had a good word to say for the swine. "Hogs," he writes, "are quite as good here as the best in Holstein, for there is a good mast for them in the woods, and they feed there the whole year." Under the Duke of York's laws, hogs were required to be branded, and the "theft of swine or other cattle" was punished for the first offense with a fine and the cropping of one ear. Under Penn, by the act of March 10, 1683, the party convicted of this offense was compelled to pay threefold the value of the hog stolen; for a second offense a like punishment and six months' imprisonment, and for the third conviction a fine of twenty-nine lashes and banishment, never to return to the colony, under such penalty as the County Court saw proper to impose in its discretion. At the December court, 1687, the grand jury presented Ann Neales, widow, of Ridley, for keeping a dog which worried and killed her neighbors' hogs, and also harboring an Indian boy named Ohato, who was detected in urging the dog to kill the hogs. The widow declared that the dog belonged to Peter Cox, but when the case was called she submitted to the court and "Putts herself upon ye mercy of ye King and Governor," whereupon she was fined ten shillings and costs. The Indian boy was held in twenty pounds to be of good behavior, and Andrew Friend became his surety.

When the meadow-land in Chester borough began to be improved, swine running at large was found to be very objectionable, especially to those who were "Improving the Marshes and Ditches and Drains," and to remedy the evil the Assembly in 1699 forbade unringed and unyoked hogs and goats from being at large in that town, and all such animals so taken up were forfeited to the county of Chester, while all damage done by hogs or goats owned by parties living outside the boundaries prescribed were to be made good to the party injured by the owner of the animal. The act designated the limits of Chester, - to be southward by the Delaware River, westward by Chester Creek, northward by the King's road, and eastward by Ridley Creek. The act of 1705 declared that no swine without rings or yokes should be permitted to run at large within fourteen miles of the navigable parts of the Delaware River, and that in the towns of Philadelphia, Chester, or Bristol they should not be allowed to run at large "whether yoked or ringed or not." The fine imposed was to be equally divided between the government and the informer.

The ordinary domestic fowls seem to have been abundant in the province in the early time. Gabriel Thomas tells us that "chickens, hens, geese, ducks, turkeys, &c., are large and very plentiful all over the country," and eighty years after this statement was made Capt. Heinricks records, "There are plenty of Guinea fowls, but not so many as in the Jerseys and Long Island. Turkeys belong to the wild animals, and are in the woods in flocks like partridges. Ducks and geese are common and as good as ours, but no better."

Wild Animals, Fish, Etc., Of Delaware County.

When the first European settlers located in Delaware County the territory abounded with wild game, and for more than a hundred years thereafter large animals in a state of nature were common. Gabriel Thomas informs us in his "History of Pennsylvania," that when he lived in the province, previous to 1698, "there are in the woods abundance of red deer - vulgarly called stags - for I have bought of the Indians a whole buck - both skin and carcass - for two gills of gunpowder. Excellent food - most delicious,