No. 63. J 223 



costs nothing, and in a climate where the sheep will winter nine- 

 tenths of the time upon rye and blue grass pasture. 



What we can afford to raise beef for, you can easily " cypher up 

 on the slate," when I tell you that I can buy calves at $1 ,50 each 

 in the fall, and I can hire them wintered by contract for four years, at 

 $1.50 each per year, making four year old steers cost $7.50 each, 

 and as fat as grass can make them. 



I might go on with details; but I do not think it necessary. I 

 think I have said enough to oocupy all the space that one individual 

 should occupy in the pages of your Transactions. 



AGRICULTURE OF MARYLAND. 



ITS CONDITION, PROSPECTS, AND PROMINENT FEATURES. 

 BY GIDEON B. SMITH, BALTIMORE. 



The present condition of agriculture in Maryland, compared with 

 that of states north of " Mason & Dixon's line," is rather below than 

 above the meridian line. The crops are generally inferior in quan- 

 tity to those of the northern states. There are exceptions, it is true, 

 but they are mere exceptions. The cause of this, is generally, if not 

 universally, attributable to the soil and climate, the former being de- 

 ficient in constitutional stamina, and the latter liable to all the evils 

 of both northern and southern climates, without any of the advan- 

 tages of either. A farmer or a gardener, who lives by his trade in 

 Maryland, earns richly all he gets. The soil is generally thin and 

 easily exhausted; and hence a severe winter is very likely to destroy 

 all that a dry and parching summer may have left unburnt, and vice 

 versa. This state of things, together with the habit of rouiine fixed 

 in the constitutions as it were, of our agriculturists generally, has 

 fixed the standard of our agriculture at a grade below mediocrity. It 

 is believed that the average yield of corn per acre, will not exceed 

 twenty bushels, and that of wheat not twelve; and that the average 

 profits of agriculture in the state will not exceed three per cent on the 

 capital invested. So much for the present condition of the agricul- 

 ture of Maryland. Its prospects are quite another thing. Improve- 

 ments are rife in the land. The application of lime for the improve- 

 ment of the constitution of the soil, is working w^onders. Large sec- 

 tions have already been rescued from the blight caused by emigra- 

 tion to the west, by this powerful renovator. It operates as effectu- 

 ally as could a writ of" depart not," from our courts of law. Although 

 it does not seem to act as a manure, (nor could this be expected,) it 

 enables the soil to accumulate nutrition from vegetable growth and 

 atmospheric gases. Wherever it has been used judiciously, the most 

 beneficial effects have resulted, and it may be fairly estimated that 

 the average of crops have been doubled by it. So universal has been 



