Damascus line, raise tobacco. The average yield on these products 

 for all land sown is fairly constant throughout all the county. For the 

 ordinarily good land, this would run about 18 to 30 bushels for wheat, 

 150 bushels for potatoes, 10 to 14 barrels of corn, 1}4 tons of hay, 1,200 

 to 1,300 pounds for burley tobacco, and 700 pounds for all other tobacco. 

 The average for the entire county, including as it must, all the poor land 

 planted, is not so high. 



(2) Specialized Farming: Stock Feeding. In five districts, viz., Clarks- 

 burg, Rockville, Colesville, Potomac and Bethesda, there is little or no 

 stock feeding. Through the remainder of the county it is a more or less 

 important industry. Laytonsville, Gaithersburg and Olney lead in 

 this respect. Sixty or seventy car loads of stock are shipped into the 

 the town of Gaithersburg yearly, and are bought up by the farmers living 

 within seven or eight miles, averaging about 15 or 18 head to the farm, 

 90% of the farms within that radius sharing in the distribution. In the 

 Olney district, 75% feed 10 to 20 head. In Poolesville, 25% feed 10 to 

 15 head. In Damestown and Barnesville, 10% feed stock. In Damas- 

 cus, many feed a little, but it is not an extensive industry; so also in 

 Wheaton. 



Breeding. In no part of the county, is stock breeding carried on to 

 any considerable extent. Only three exclusively stock farms were found. 

 Otherwise, most of the breeding done is for home use, to keep up the 

 dairy herds or replenish the string of draft horses, and not for market. 

 In Laytonsville, probably 60% of the farms breed horses and sheep to a 

 limited extent. In Poolesville, there is some general up-grading of cattle, 

 mostly Durham or Hereford. Through the rest of the county, there is 

 little or no breeding except as indicated above. 



Dairying. In the eastern and southern ends of the county, and along 

 the entire length of the B. & O. Railroad dairying is an important in- 

 dustry. There are at present, from ten to twelve thousand dairy cows 

 in the county. During the last two or three years, the tuberculine test 

 has been administered to all herds whose milk is shipped to the District 

 of Columbia (and practically all the milk is shipped there.) The method 

 of administering the test has been considered by many dairymen very 

 unfair, and decidedly unsatisfactory. Many cows have been condemned, 

 and the farmers have received no compensation for their loss. In con- 

 sequence, the dairy business in some sections is not as prosperous and 

 thriving as it was. It still remains, however, a very important source 

 of income for the county. The districts doing little or no dairying are 

 Darnestown, Poolesville and Damascus, though in each of the first two 

 named there are a few farms running dairies on a small scale. The 

 sections most important in this connection are as follows: the parts of 

 Barnesville, Clarksburg, Gaithersburg, Laytonsville, and Rockville 



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