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worth now an average of $20 per acre. Anne Arundel reports an average of 
$35 per acre for such lands, being susceptible of improvement and capable of 
producing fruits and good quality of tobacco. In St. Mary’s this class of land 
is chiefly timbered with a light growth of pine, sometimes oak and chestnut, and 
worth, remote from navigation, $10 per acre, and $20 near the water. 
3. The soil of Maryland is various. In Frederick, Washington, and Cumber- 
land, superior farms for wheat are found, and portions of the two former are 
highly cultivated and held at high prices. Someof these farms were worth $150 
per acre before the war, and the realestate of these counties will to-day command 
nearly as much in gold asin 1860. The lands between the Chesapeake and Potomac 
are, in part, sandy loam, underlaid with marl near rivers, and in the Black 
Forest of Prince George's are black soils almost as rich in organic matter and 
as productive as the best prairie soils of the west. These lands are very 
cheap at $50, the price at which they have been offered. In Kent, a light loam 
prevails, inclining to sand, highly susceptible of improvement with lime and 
ashes. Queen Anne has a loam underlaid with red clay. Harford has sandy 
and clayey loams. The Eastern Shure is sandy but rich in marls, and very 
productive, with the use of shell lime, marl, and sea-weeds, all cheap and acces- 
sible. It is, perhaps, unsurpassed as a peach region. Timber is yet abundant, 
of nearly all kinds common to Pennsylvania and Virginia. 
Minerals abound. In Montgomery is found gold, copper, iron, and chrome. 
Near Gaithersburg are beds of magnetic iron ore pronounced very rich by Pro- 
fessor Silliman. Iron is also reported in Baltimore, Harford, and Talbot, and 
furnaces are working in several counties. 
In Cumberland, coal lands are worth from $25 to $5,000 per acre. The coal 
shipped in 1866 amounted to 835,939 tons —550,519 by the Baltimore and Ohio 
railroad, 285,420 by the Cumberland canal; and in 1867 to 939,917 tons— 
556,235 by railroad, and 381,682 by canal In this county “ farming pays good 
profits, as the mini: g regions consume farm products,” a practical truth which 
contains the germ of wealth, population, and high civilization for the mountain 
section of the South, unless a false system of political economy shall be per- 
mitted to seal up such resources for the use of future generations, and repress the 
advance of immigration, and convert these mountain glades into solitary sheep- 
walks for the production of wool that shall search in vain for an American 
market. 
Our correspondent in Baltimore county says: “The timber is of good qual- 
ity, oak, hickory, chestnut, and some locust. ‘The timber is taken to Baltimore 
for building purposes, agricultural implements, machinery, freight cars, ship- 
building, and for many other purposes. ‘The large beds of clay near Baltimore 
have always been celebrated tor producing brick unequalled. This clay is also 
manufactured into stone and earthen ware. Brown hematite iron ore, magnetic 
oxide and carbonate of iron, are found in many parts of the county and smelted 
in several furnaces. Copper mines are worked to some extent. Extensive 
beds of chrome furnish most of the supply of the United States, and much of 
it is exported to Europe; these mines are valuable and supposed inexhaustible. 
Large quarries of fine building stone are extensively worked. Fine grained, 
white marble exists in unlimited quantities. This marble was used for the ex- 
tension of the Capitol at Washington, and the alum marble of this county for 
the construction of the Patent Office at Washington.” 
4. In most of the counties a mixed husbandry prevails, the climate and 
soil being suited to the cultivation of the cereals, root crops, tobacco, fruit, &c. 
Sheep and the dairy receive considerable attention in Alleghany, and the pro- 
ducts, with the general farm crops, find ready home market in the mining dis- 
tricts. Washington county makes a specialty of wheat, and no failure has 
occurred in the crop since 1837, though rust, &e., injures it occasionally. Corn, 
