22 IXTRODUCTION 



The largest settlement in the County is Solomons, located on Solomons 

 Island near the mouth of the Patuxent River. Its citizens are largely 

 engaged in the oyster trade. 



Calvert County is essentially an agricultural region, although its prox- 

 imity to the waters of the ChesapeaJce Bay and the Patuxent Eiver gives 

 it an advantageous position in the oyster industry, many of its citizens 

 being engaged in that business, which has meant so much to the material 

 prosperity of the State. 



The soils of the county are well adapted to the growth of tobacco, 

 corn, wheat and rye, while small fruits, especially peaches, can be suc- 

 cessfully raised. Still other areas are well adapted to the raising of sheep 

 and cattle. The lumbering interests of the county have been of consid- 

 erable importance in the past and with the introduction of modern 

 methods of forest management may again be revived, as there are many 

 large tracts in the county where valuable wood-lands could be advan- 

 tageously developed. 



The mineral resources of the county are not important, although the 

 beds of diatomaceous earth on Lyons Creek have been extensively worked 

 at different times and afford a high grade silica which is commonly 

 known in the trade as tripoli. These silica deposits underlie a consider- 

 able area in the extreme northern part of the county. There are also 

 beds of shell marl and clay, but they have not as yet been employed to 

 any great extent for economic purposes. 



The transportation facilities of Calvert County are mainly furnished 

 by the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railroad which runs frequent 

 boats to various landings on the Bay and river shores, the so-called river 

 being in reality a tidal estuary which with the Chesapeake Bay occupies 

 through recent subsidence of the country, the channels of earlier streams. 

 Only within the last decade has the railroad penetrated into the confines 

 of the county, when the Chesapeake Beach Railroad was built, to develop 

 a resort on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Many attempts have been 

 made to construct a railroad across the county from north to south with 



