MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY • 143 



Many of the farm buildings of St. Mary's County are of remote date. 

 The farmhouses particidarly are types of colonial structure, and the 

 residence upon the farm at Sotterly is one built for the first governor of 

 Maryland, while numerous other manor houses in the county are nearly 

 as venerable. Even the less pretentious houses display the long sloping 

 roofs, the gable windows, and the large end chimneys of the early 

 colonial period. The atmosphere of antiquity, of romance, and of his- 

 toric interest which surrounds these old residences and the equally ven- 

 erable churches and farm properties gives a local color and a local pride 

 to the county that can be shared only by other communities of equal age. 



Outbuildings are not so essential in this climate as in regions of 

 heavier snowfall, so the older farms are provided only with the tobacco 

 barn, smokehouse, and corncrib of the plantation, the large stock and 

 hay barns being almost totally unknown. Cattle can graze upon the 

 meadow lands in all but exceptionally severe weather, and the side of 

 some existing building or the shelter of woodland protects them during 

 the coldest weather. 



The fences are mostly built of rails and poles cut in the native forests, 

 though some barbed and other patent wire fences have been introduced. 

 The Virginia rail or worm fence is the most common type, while the 

 mortised post, into which the ends of the rails are fitted, is also common. 



No account of the condition of agriculture in St. Mary's County would 

 be complete without a reference to the common draft vehicle and beast. 

 Owing to the steepness of the grades and to the general difficulties attend- 

 ing land transportation, the ox-cart is usually employed for heavy hauling. 

 It is no uncommon thing toward the latter part of June to meet from 

 one to twenty 4-ox or 6-ox teams attached to heavy 2-wheeled carts, 

 upon which one or two tobacco hogsheads are being drawn to the wharves 

 for shipment. Each hogshead constitutes an unwieldy mass of about 

 800 pounds of tightly packed tobacco, and the successful transportation 

 of some of these loads down the steep slopes from the upland to the 

 wharf, under the existing road conditions, is no small feat of engineering. 



The field labor is largely performed by the numerous colored population 

 of the county, some of whom labored as slaves on the same farms where 



