166 THE SOILS OF CALVERT COUNTY 



in the trade world under the name of Maryland pipe tobacco. This 

 tobacco is in demand for the French export trade, and the region is 

 called upon at present to furnish from 15,000 to 18,000 hogsheads of 

 about 800 pounds weight each year. Kot all of the tobacco produced 

 reaches the standard set by the French market, and of late years increas- 

 ing quantities of Ohio tobacco have come in competition with the Mary- 

 land product. 



The Civil War, as in other localities, brought about an entire change in 

 the social and economic relationships of the county and consequently in 

 its agricultural activities. Many plantations which were admirably tilled 

 by large forces of hands speedily deteriorated, since the labor necessary 

 for their cultivation could not even be hired. The financial loss of the 

 owners, due to the freeing of the slaves, was thus augmented by seasons 

 of enforced non-production. The larger plantations were either mort- 

 gaged heavily, in an effort to keep them under cultivation, or else por- 

 tions of them were allowed to go out of cultivation. Even the sale of 

 land which became superfluous under the new order of affairs was diffi- 

 cult, since the great majority of the community suffered from the same 

 causes. At the same time the tide of western migration carried settlers 

 past the eastern seaboard to cheap government lands in the West and 

 very few men of means came in from other localities to aid in the further 

 development of the region. 



As the western country was settled its enormous grain crops, pro- 

 duced at a minimum expense for fertilizing and cultivation, came into 

 direct competition with the corn and wheat crops of the East. Thus 

 the crops which, in the absence of abundant hand labor, could be pro- 

 duced to best advantage came upon a market fully stocked with grain 

 produced by less costly methods. 



These conditions of labor and of market have tended to discourage and 

 dishearten even the most capable and energetic. On the other hand the 

 natural advantages of climate and abundant food suj^ply have encouraged 

 improvidence on the part of the wage-earners and laborers. Where 

 the wants are few and easily supplied the tendency toward energy of plan 

 and of action is dwarfed. Thus some of those most in need of advance- 



