Fisheries.— The oyster, shad, herring, stur geon and menhadden fisheries of the State are of considerable magnitude and value.
Commerce and Transportation.—Wilming ton, Lewes and New Castle are ports of entry and the first is a customs district. It has some direct foreign commerce, a steamer line to New York and coasting lines to Philadelphia and down the bay, besides communication with Bal timore by the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal (see CANALS), miles long, 66 feet wide and 10 feet deep, completed in 1829. The great Delaware Breakwater opposite Lewes was be gun in 1828 and finished in 1869 and forms an artificial harbor some 300 acres in extent, with 24 feet of water. (See DELAWARE BAY). Railroad facilities are excellent; there are about 400 miles of main track in the 'State. The one great line, which serves nearly all the State, is the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, whose main line, double-tracked, runs through it lengthwise from Wilmington to Delmar at the southeni boundary, where it connects with another to Cape Charles and Norfolk, Va.; its Delaware, Maryland and Virginia branch in the southeast 'serves that section. Eight other branches run from it. In the north, the Balti more and Ohio and the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington division of the Pennsylvania system parallel each other through Wilming ton, and the line to Philadelphia and Baltimore, the Maryland, Delaware and Virginia Railroad, runs across the State centre to Chesapeake Bay.
Banks, etc.—The State, national and savings banks of Delaware had (1918) a total paid cap ital of $6,521075; a surplus of $9,695,040; de posits, $75,154,040— total resources of all bank mg institutions, $91,370,155. There are a number of local fire and mutual life insurance societies.
Churches.— The strongest religious denomi nation is the Methodist Episcopal; next in order of size are the Presbyterian, Protestant Episcopal, Baptist, Roman Catholic, Quaker and Lutheran. There are several smaller bodies. Wilmington is the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of the same name, embracing Delaware and part of the Southern Peninsula, and of the Protestant Episcopal diocese of Delaware.
Charities and Penal Institutions.— There is a State Almshouse and Insane Hospital. There being no State institution for the feeble minded; deaf-mutes or the blind, the statutes permit five of the last, two from each county, and 14 imbecile children from the State to be main tained at institutions of other States; and they are so kept at Philadelphia and Washington. Wilmington has The Ferris Industrial School for Boys, founded by Dr. Caleb Harlan; two industrial colored institutions and one for colored boys; also the Gause Home for Friend less and Destitute Children. There is a public workhouse in New Castle County. There is a State prison at Greenbards capable of ing 500 inmates. The whipping post is a pun ishment for many offenses such as burglary, arson, larceny, wife-beating, etc.
Good Roads, new spirit of progress pervades the entire State, shown in better, mod ern roads, improved farming, finer homes, etc. General T. Coleman Du Pont spent $500,000 building in Sussex County a model• public road from Selbyville on the extreme southern edge to Georgetown, and with characteristic liberality signed (Aug. 1918) an agreement to connect this road with a fine boulevard system north and south throughout the entire State. A joint county and municipal building, costing $1,500,000, was completed in 1916 in the city of Wilmington. It is a commodious and handsome structure. The capitol building at Dover has been enlarged and beautified and a large mural painting by Stanley M. Arthurs commemorating "The De parture from Dover Green, July 1776, of the First Delaware Regiment,') placed upon the walls of the senate chamber.
Various State Boards, are the following State boards : Health; •Medical Ex aminers; Dental Examiners; Education; Par dons; Trustees of Delaware College; Trustees of Delaware College for Colored Students; Agriculture; Trustees of State Hospitals; also a State Library Commission; State Revenue and Taxation Commission; and seven hospitals with capacity, for about 700 and a tuberculosis sanatorium.