63 
SPECIAL STATISTICS OF FARM RESOURCES AND PRODUCTS. 
A continuation of the analysis of “special statistics of farm resources and 
products,” which included the eastern and middle States in the last report, will 
embrace the southern States in this number, to be followed by a statement for 
the western States in the March issue. The following are the inquiries upon 
which the returns are founded : 
1. What is the average percentage of increase (or decrease, if cases of decrease exist) in 
the price of farm !ands in your county since 1860? 
2. What is the average value of wild or unimproved tracts of land; and what is the char- 
acter, quality, and capabilities of such land? 
3. What marked or peculiar resources have you in soil, timber, or minerals; and what is 
the state of their development, or inducement for attempted development ? 
4, What crops, if any, are made a specialty in your county; and what facts illustrating 
their culture, quantity, and the profit derived? 
5. What kinds of wheat are cultivated; and which of them are preferred; and why? 
What is the time of drilling or sowing? For harvesting? And what is the amount and 
mode of culture? What proportion is drilled ? q 
6. What grasses are natural to your pastures? How many months can farm animals feed 
exclusively in pastures? What would be a fair estimate, per head, of the cost of a season’s 
pasturage of an average herd of cattle? 
7. What are the capabilities of your county for fruit? What fruits are best adapted to 
your soil and climate? Give some facts concerning yield and profit. 
MARYLAND. 
1. Of the counties of this State from which returns have been received, Alle- 
ghany, in the extreme west, reports an advance of fifty per cent. in the value of 
farm lands as compared with the census estimates of 1860, and the adjoining 
county of Washington about thirty-three per cent.; Baltimore county reports 
an increase of thirty-five per cent., Montgomery, Cecil and Talbot about thirty 
per cent., Harford twenty per cent., Kent ten per cent., Queen Anne and Anne 
Arundel no advance, while St. Mary’s shows a decline of about twenty-five per 
cent. Along the line of the Metropolitan branch of the Baltimore and Ohio 
railroad, in Montgomery county, lands have advanced twenty-five per cent. more 
than in other portions of the county, while the rich bottom lands along the Po- 
tomac have decreased in value from the difficulty in procuring labor to work 
them. In Queen Anne the prices are reported considerably lower than in 
1864-’65. 
2. The average price of wild or unimproved lands in the several counties 
named ranges from $1 to $65, according to location, resources, &c. In Wash- 
ington county the waste lands are chiefly in the mountains. In Montgomery 
the average is from $10 to $20, with little inclination to sell; the lands are prin- 
cipally old fields, grown up in pine and sedge, but with a liberal application of fer- 
tilizers and labor are susceptible of high cultivation. Baltimore county contains 
a large area of unimproved lands, part forests, heavily timbered, part. worn-out 
fields, but contiguity to the metropolis of the State is increasing their market 
value, and they are now selling at an average of $65 per acre. The unim- 
proved land in Harford is chiefly wooded, and the average value is given at $40 
peracre. Sedge fields may be purchased at about the same figure. Cecil reports 
an average of from $10 to $30, and Kent $10 per acre, most of the latter being 
low wet lands, studded in many instances with scrubby timber, but clearing and 
draining would render most of them valuable. In Queen Anne much of the 
waste land is rather swampy, but easily drained. The timber is principally 
sweet gum and white oak. ‘There are some worn-out lands, but where the 
ground is high enough for fruit they can be made valuable at comparatively 
small expense. The average value is from $15 to $20. In Talbot the unim- 
proved land has good ved clay subsoil and sandy loam, easily improved 
