22 INTRODUCTION 



the west, Calvert County may have continued to control the southern 

 shore of the Patuxent for a short time, but it seems more probable that 

 after 1658 St. Mary's possessed the same limits as are prescribed by her 

 boundaries to-day. 



For a short time during the supremacy of the Puritans, from 1654 to 

 1656, St. Mary's County was known as Potomac County, Calvert and 

 Anne Arundel counties being called Patuxent and Providence counties 

 respectively. 



St. Mary's County is very nearly surrounded by navigable waters ex- 

 cept along its northern and nortliwestern boundaries adjacent to Charles 

 County. It is bounded on the east by Chesapeake Bay, while its nortliern 

 and southern boundarieif are mainly formed by the Patuxent and Po- 

 tomac rivers. The Wicomico Eiver forms part of its western boundary. 



St. Mary's County is a peninsula across which from northwest to 

 southeast runs an elevated plain which gradually declines from an eleva- 

 tion of about ISO feet near Charlotte Hall to 100 feet in the vicinity of 

 Eidge. From this highland the streams drain to the north and east by 

 short courses into the Patuxent Eiver and Chesapeake Bay and to the 

 south and west by longer channels into the Potomac Eiver and its 

 triliutaiT streams. The County-town is Leonardtown, situated in the 

 south-central part of the county near the head of Breton Bay, au estuary 

 of the Potomac Eiver. 



The people of St. Mary's County are chiefly agriculturalists, the soils 

 of the county being well adapted to the growth of tobacco, corn, wheat, 

 and rye, while small fruits, especially peaches, can be successfully raised. 

 Truck farming can also be successfully pursued. The lumbering in- 

 terests of the county were important in the early days and with the 

 introduction of modern methods of forest management might again be 

 revived, as there are many tracts in the county where valuable wood- 

 lands could be advantageously developed. 



St. Mary's County is prominently identified with the oyster industry, 

 valuable oyster grounds being found along the borders of the county both 

 in the Chesapeake Bay as well as in the Patuxent and Potomac rivers. 

 Many of the citizens of the county are employed in the oyster business 



