50

section flowers, fruit, vegetables of every kind grown in this
latitude flourishes in the greatest degree of perfection. Their
cultivation has, and is now giving more certain and greater
returns for labor and capital than any other tillage in any
other part of the United States. With a varied soil, most
excellent for the growth of fruits, flowers and vegetables,
(articles most needed in a large city,) by means of railroad and
water communication—they may be placed in the city mar-
kets before the dew is off their leaves. The district known
as the Fork of the Patuxent, has within six miles of its most
distant point, either the Annapolis and Elk Ridge railroad,
or the Baltimore and Washington railroad. The remaining,
part of this county is furnished with most liberal water com-
munication by South river, Rhode river, West river and the
Chesapeake bay on the one side, abounding in landings, with
bold, deep water, and the Patuxent river on the other, having
the same advantages. No part of this section of the country
being more than six miles from the finest water communica-
tion, much of it having this blessing at the borders of many
of the farms.

But transportion is not the only advantage derived from
these waters. They abound in the greatest variety of the
finest fish, oysters and wild fowl, at all seasons of the year.
Not only this, but they abound in seagrass, one of the quickest
and best manures for crops, and the shells of the oyster fur-
nishes lime of the kind best adapted to many of the soils lying
directly on the navigable waters.

The face of the country is genlty rolling, with slight hills,
the shores of the bay and rivers which I have mentioned are
of clear, bright sand, in some places with high commanding
bluffs, with bold, deep water at their very base. No marshes
of any extent are found, those small ones which do exist can
all be easily drained and are very fertile. No stagnant pools
or lakes are anywhere to be found in it.

Varieties of Soil. First—That of the kind that I have
described as being on the Baltimore and Washihgton railroad,
partly bordering on it.

Second—Light sandy soils. These for the most part,
prevail on the Magothy peninsula, in the Piney wood
district, in the Forks of the Patuxent and on the banks
of the Patauxent. It must be said here that these soils
are very early, and from them the best and finest fruit
and vegetables reach the Baltimore and Northern markets.
Although the general character of these soils are light and
loose, yet in many parts of Anne Arundel county there is an
outcrop of good red clay, and of any required tenacity and
stiffness can be found specially adapted to the vegetables
flourishing best in this kind of soil. I have heretofore said
that the great desideratum of a soil is in its proper mechani-