MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 165 



and texture adapt it to general farming and it ranks as a medium wheat 

 and corn-producing soil capable of producing good crops of clover, peas, 

 and tobacco. Good peach orchards are found on it and stock raising has 

 been undertaken on some of the farms along the Patuxent. The Sassa- 

 fras sandy loam presents a pleasing picture of the best farming condi- 

 tions in the county. The level or slightly rolling fields of brown, loamy 

 soil are tliorono-hlv cleared and carefullv cultivated. 



The Meadow areas, particularly the larger tracts on the low foreland 

 terraces, need extensive underdraining to fit them for either general or 

 special farming. Wlien properly drained tliey would be well adapted 

 to the production of wheat and grass. The expense involved in clearing 

 and draining these lands will prevent their utilization to the best advan- 

 tage until after other more easily managed soil types have been brought 

 to a higher state of cultivation. 



It follows at once from the summary of the capabilities of the Calvert 

 County soils, deduced from the experience of other communities with 

 the same or similar soils, that large areas of Calvert County are not 

 producing to the best advantage, and that the responsibility for this 

 condition does not rest solely if at all with the soil. 



The soils of Calvert County were first brought under cultivation when 

 the entire area farmed in the present limits of the United States con- 

 stituted bill a narrow fringe along the tidewater portion of the Atlantic 

 seaboard. They have been tilled continuously for nearly two lumdred 

 and fifty years under various conditions and with varying success. The 

 early colonists began the cultivation of tobacco to the exclusion of food 

 crops and an early enactment of tlie colony provided that two acres of 

 corn must be planted for each person in the colonist's family in order 

 that they should have a grain crop to live upon. This indicates the extent 

 to which the tobacco crop held sway even at the beginning of the history 

 of the county. Calvert County in common with the other counties of 

 southern Maryland remained a tobacco-raising region of eminence for 

 nearly two centuries. The crop was cultivated by means of slave labor 

 and large plantations were the rule rather than small farms. During 

 this period the type of tobacco was developed which has secured a place 



