75

by the Choptank, which separates it from Talbot county, and
by Caroline county, on the south and west by the Chesapeake
Bay, and on the east by the Nanticoke River which separates
it from Somerset county. It contains about three hundred
and eighty-six thousand acres. Its soil in the northern part,
and on the Choptank is to a great extent composed of sandy
loams, some with and some without a red or yellow clay sub-
soil. The soil in the western and lower sections is of a first
quality white oak soil, in some places highly improved, and
everywhere capable of being made equal to any of this va-
riety elsewhere.

The spirit of improvement has not been as general here as
in some of the counties north of it, yet many of its citizens
stand in the front rank as skilful agriculturists and stock rais-
ers, and excel in the cultivation of vegetables, fruits and
flowers, many gardens being embelished with almost every
variety of these latter in due season.

The crops are the several staple crops with quite a large-
production of fruits and vegetables for export; the soil and
climate with abundant facilities for transportation, all tend
greatly to favor their cultivation,—the former by aiding the
quality and quantity, and the latter by giving remunerative
profits.

The lands on the Choptank are light and well drained,—
those on the bay and southern sections of the county are more
flat and level, but are likewise capable of thorough drainage.

On the Choptank are many fine dwellings and highly-im-
proved farms, in other sections of the county more attention
has been directed to the quick and abundant returns from the
oyster traffic and the development of the other treasures of
the Bay than to the improvement of the soil, and as a conse-
quence, its productiveness is but slightly developed. The soil
itself is, however, fully as capable of easy and certain im-
provement as the same variety elsewhere, and has in it an
immense amount of undeveloped wealth for its future purchas-
ers and cultivators. Nothing but proper attention to well-
ascertained means of fertilization is required to make this as
fine a farming and grazing country as any on the shore, and
in some places this has been fully shown by actual opera-
tions.

Much of it is yet in primitive forests of the best quality of
white oak for ship-building, all of it is well timbered for or-
dinary domestic purposes, and is well watered; the" health of
the county is good, its facilities for transportation of the first
class, and the average price of its lands very cheap, thus giv-
ing every advantage to purchasers and future setlers.

The facilities for improvement are oyster shell lime, sea
grass, Indian shell-banks and in some sections of the county