174 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY 



into smaller farms, thus affording an opportunity for home 

 seekers who are seeking cheap land amid congenial surround- 

 ings. Nearly all of these farms have buildings, some in 

 need of repair, others in very good condition. 



For those who wish to avoid the hard work of breaking 

 woodlands, the eastern and western shores offer abundant 

 well-cultivated lands with buildings, orchards, and woods, 

 in the immediate vicinity of navigable rivers and railways, 

 on good roads at from twenty dollars per acre upwards. 

 That seems cheap. 



For settlers who are accustomed to mountainous regions, 

 western Maryland has land for sale at even cheaper rates. 



"There are many large tidal marshes in Maryland, as might 

 be expected in a territory watered like this state. They are 

 of the richest soil to be found, because the Chesapeake Bay 

 is a great river valley, receiving the drainage of a vast area 

 of fertile land, comprising nearly one third of New York 

 and nearly all of the great agricultural states of Pennsyl- 

 vania, Maryland, and Virginia. Every year this drainage 

 brings down a black sediment, called oyster mud, which is 

 deposited on the marshlands and enriches the soil, making 

 it, with proper cultivation, of productivity like that of the 

 rice and wheat fields of Egypt. These unreclaimed lands 

 are used chiefly for grain." 



Proper drainage of small tracts of this land would bring 

 unsurpassed and absolutely untouched fertility. 



The Chesapeake River valley is not so large as that of the 

 Nile or Ganges, but is of enough consequence to play an im- 

 portant part in human affairs and to support in comfort and 

 prosperity a population as large as that of many famous states. 



"The eastern shore is uniformly level, with good roads. 

 The proximity of the ocean and the bay greatly modules the 



