and a limited amount of dirt on the worn places and let the traffic crush 

 it. The dirt roads are not necessarily bad; they have the advantage of 

 having been laid out according to the contour of the land. But the 

 culverts and bridges are apt to be poor; moreover, in the wet season, 

 it saddens the soul to behold the mud; good rich, red clay of the kind 

 that sticketh closer than a brother. The investigators experienced the 

 joy of many long drives during the month of March, when a good horse 

 might attain the dizzy speed of 2)4. or 3 miles an hour. But the rest of 

 the year they are not so bad, as there is little sand and much clay and 

 stone. The roads chiefly important for marketing which may be 

 termed good roads are as follows: 



Norbeck to Rockville. 

 Ashton to Burtonsville. 

 Columbia Turnpike. 



From the Sandy Spring Road to the Columbia Turnpike near White- 

 oak, via Colesville. 

 Union Turnpike. 

 Ashton to Olney. 



Sandy Spring to Norwood to Lay Hill to Glenmont. 

 Georgetown Turnpike. 

 Rockville to (near) Gaithersburg. 

 Darnestown to Gaithersburg. 

 Laytonsville to Gaithersburg. 

 Poolesville to Barnsville. 

 Potomac to District of Columbia. 

 Clarksburg to (near) Boyds. 



These roads give access to Washington by stone road to the Coles- 

 ville, Olney, Wheaton, Bethesda, Potomac, Rockville, Laytonsville, 

 Gaithersburg and Darnestown Districts. The Laytonsville and Darnes- 

 town Pikes also connect with the B. & O. at Gaithersburg; the Pooles- 

 ville-Barnesville Pike connects with the B. & 0. at Barnesville Station, 

 and the Norbeck Pike connects with it at Rockville. 



In general, it may be said that what has made Montgomery County 

 commercially is its proximity to the City of Washington, afifording it a 

 ready and easily accessible market for all of its products. We will now 

 discuss in detail the methods of marketing which prevail in the different 

 districts. 



Poolesville. The farmers here have two mediums of transportation, 

 the canal and the railroad. The canal is now used less and the railroad 

 more than formerly; both, however, are important. In general it may 

 be said that all those living between the Potomac River and a line drawn 

 from Seneca to the mouth of the Monococy, ship by the canal. The main 



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