here." Work on the mines is now being carried on, and the company 

 owning the property announces extensive work of improvement and 

 development for the near future. 



Marketable stone is found in at least five districts of the county — 

 Potomac, Darnestown, Gaithersburg, Poolesville and Barnesville. 

 There are quarries of some little importance at Seneca, Gaithersburg and 

 Dickerson. Much of this stone has value for building purposes. A 

 considerable amount has been shipped from the Seneca quarries and 

 many buildings in Washington City including The Smithsonian Insti- 

 tute and The Georgetown College are made of this stone. These quarries 

 are now becoming exhausted. The Potomac and Poolesville stone has 

 commercial value but is not very extensively marketed. The Gaithers- 

 burg quarry is small, but turns out a good quality of stone. The quarry 

 at Dickerson produces and ships in considerable quantities a very hard, 

 durable stone used chiefly for roadtopping. 



Vegetable: For the county as a whole, the soil is chiefly adapted to 

 the raising of corn, wheat and forage crops. In certain districts, these 

 staples are supplemented by oats, rye, tobacco, potatoes, garden 

 vegetables, small fruits and apples. 



Other: There is a great deal of clay in the county which apparently 

 could be profitably used for brick making. But little use is made of it 

 for this purpose ; less now, perhaps, than formerly. 



(b) Developed Resources 



Farming Industry: The farm is the county's great wealth producer. 

 A large proportion of the money invested is invested in farm lands and 

 property. Over 90% of the population get their living directly or in- 

 directly from the soil. 



Other Productive Agencies: Montgomery is not to any considerable 

 extent a manufacturing county. There are, however, a canning factory, 

 a rope factory, a carriage factory, and several marble and granite works. 

 A dozen or more grist mills, equipped variously with water, steam and 

 electric power, furnish a local market for a limited amount of grain. 



THE BUSINESS OF FARMING 

 (a) Assets 



(1) The total land area of the county is approximately 333,440 acres. 

 82% of this, or 273,270 acres, is in farms. In 1900 the area in farms 

 was about 10,000 acres greater. 76.5% of the farm land or 209,153 

 acres is improved. Of the remaining 64,117 acres, 59,409 acres are 

 in woodland, leaving only 4,708 acres neither wooded nor improved. 



(2) Value: The total value of all farm property is about ^21,000,000 

 an increase of over 38% in ten years. Table No. 1, (Appendix, page I), 

 from the 1910 United States Census shows how this value is distributed. 



