Legal interest rate, 6; usury forfeits excess of interest.
| DELAWARE. | Del´a-war. "The Diamond State." |
One of the thirteen original States; named in honor of Lord Delaware, Governor of Virginia, who entered the bay, 1610. First permanent settlement made by Swedes, near present city of Wilmington, 1638. First to ratify Federal constitution, 1787.
Area, 2,050 square miles; extreme length, 96 miles; breadth, about 36 miles on south, and 10 miles on north. Number counties, 8. Temperature at Delaware breakwater: winter, 30° to 38°; summer, 69° to 74°: rainfall, about 50 inches.
Wilmington, metropolis, and has important coasting trade; population, 42,478. Dover is capital. Breakwater protecting Delaware Bay at Cape Henlopen greatest work of its kind in America, cost the United States $2,127,400, and was over 40 years in course of construction.
Number farms, 6,658, of which 5,041 are occupied by owners. Average value per acre, cleared land, $19; woodland, $15.