294 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 5 



might, il, is believed, be advantageously pursued 

 for the benefit of a large portion of the Eastern 

 Shore of Maryland. 



In the upper part of Dorchester county the soil 

 is mostly a sandy loam, well adapted, with proper 

 management, to the growth of corn, rye, and oats. 

 This character of soil belongs more especially to 

 those portions lying on the rivers, and extends, 

 with veiy lew exceptions over a narrow slip of 

 land on the Choptank, as far as Hill's Point, on 

 the bay shore. The neck between the Big and 

 Little Choptank is a low flat country, mostly com- 

 posed of a stiff da}' soil, covered with a plentiful 

 growth of pine, sweet-gum, oak and dogwood, but 

 suffering greatly Irom a want of convenient drain- 

 age; an evil that might be remedied, and by 

 which thousands of acres of land, now of little 

 value, would be reclaimed and rendered fit for cul- 

 tivation. With the advantages possessed by this 

 section of country, in her now extensive deposites 

 of shells on the river banks, her sea-ooze, together 

 with her proximity and easy access to the marl 

 deposites of Talbot county, it ought to become 

 one of the most productive and flourishing por- 

 tions of the state. 



The necks and islands, forming the western and 

 south-western portions of the country, liicewise 

 present us vvitli low and level lands and a stitt' clay 

 soil, mostly well timbered with pine, white, black, 

 and willow oak, sweet-gum, &c. The situations 

 on the islands are delightful and generally reputed 

 healthy. 



Meekin's Neck, on the bay shore, is marshy, 

 and this is the case of nearly one half of Hooper's 

 Island, the extent of which is nearly fourteen 

 miles in length, and from one to two in breadth; 

 such portions of the island as are arable have a 

 productive soil. At the head of Honga river and 

 bay, there are extensive meadows; and where the 

 soil, also a clayey loam, is cultivated, it Ls said, to 

 yield abundantl3\ Bishops-head Neck offers the 

 same character of soil and physical aspect. 

 Throughout the whole of this district the depth of 

 wells is rarely found to exceed ten feet, penetra- 

 ting the clay to sand, from which the water issues, 

 seldom perfectly clear, and occasionally slightly 

 brackish. 



At the heads of Big and Little Blackwater Rivers 

 there are also extensive marshes; the country is 

 very level, low and swampy ; the soil a stifl" clay ; 

 timber principally oaks and sweet-gum. Between 

 the. Blackwater and Transquaking, around Bucks- 

 town, the country is more elevated, the soil light- 

 er, with a growth of very large oaks and Ameri- 

 can poplars. The wells here are sunk to the 

 depth of 12 led, through clay, reaching gravel 

 and sand. 



Towards the head of the Transquaking, and 

 between it and the Chicamacomico, the soil is a 

 clay-loam, that v/ould yield very good crops of 

 grain, if properly improved. Beyond the "Chica- 

 macomico the country is more uneven, the soil 

 lighter, sometimes sandy, the level of the country 

 rising towards Vienna. Wherever the soil is 

 stiff, it is covered by a heavy growth of oaks and 

 gum. 



Hurley's Neck, along the Nanticoke, south of 

 Vienna, is a level stifl" clay, well wooded, fi)r the 

 distance of about seven miles, after which it ter- 

 minates in an extensive marsh. 



No fossil deposites, similar to those occurring so 



abundantly north of the Choptank, have been dis- 

 covered in Dorchester county, that would answer 

 for agricultural purposes ; but the large accumu- 

 lations of shells found at Horn Point, at Oyster- 

 shell Point, and other jilaces, together with the de- 

 posite on Taylor's creek already relerred to, might 

 be made emirienily serviceable if' burnt into lime. 

 The only mineral formations of any value are the 

 deposites ot bog-ore, at the heads of Transquaking 

 and Chicamacomico, and on Reedy Creek, in the 

 vicinity of Federalsburg. This ore is compact, 

 heavy, free from phosphate of iron, and would 

 probably yield from 40 to 50 per cent, of good 

 metal. Some inclination having been manilijsted 

 by an enterprising proprietor of an extensive de- 

 posite of ore, on the Chicamacomico, to work it 

 in place, il was thought more advisable to recom- 

 mend that it should be forwarded to the Baltimore 

 market, where it would probably command from 

 $3 to S4 a ton. 



Somerset county presents, in its physical geog- 

 raph}^, as might have been expected, great fea- 

 tures of resemblance with the county that has just 

 been described. Its upper portions are very san- 

 dy and rolling — a succesion in fact of sand hills, 

 gently inclining to the south, and terminating in 

 a level deposite of stiff clay — as if at one time 

 this part of the country had been a sea beach, 

 from which the waters have receded to a consid- 

 erable distance beyond the mud flats that formed 

 at the same period of time the shallow bottom of 

 of the ocean, and extended several miles from her 

 shores. But what is here supposed to have been 

 formerly an extensive mud flat, is now a populous 

 country, in many places well cultivated, every 

 where very improvable, possessing a productive 

 soil, well timbered, and intersected by numerous 

 creeks and rivers. These form the necks of the 

 county, falling by an imperceptible slope into 

 marshes many miles in extent, with here and there 

 a hummock, crowned with some lofty pines, or a 

 herd ot" grazing cattle looming against the hori- 

 zon, to relieve Ihe monotony of the scenery. The 

 waters of the sound, by which these marshes are 

 limited, are not seen, unless perhaps from the top 

 of some hummock, and are only indicated by the 

 occasional passage of some skiff, whose white 

 swollen sails contrast agreeably with the lu.xuriant 

 dark-green growth of these grassy plains. 



Without having reason to believe that the wa- 

 ters of the Chesapeake bay have absolutely di- 

 minished, it is nevertheless true that the amount 

 of dry land is increasing on the Eastern Shore of 

 Maryland, by the filling up ot creeks, rivers, and 

 small bays, at the confluence of its muddy streams. 

 The flats of" Fishing Bay and Pocomoke Bay fur- 

 nish us with examples of this, upon a sufficiently 

 large scale, to produce, in no great lapse of time, 

 very remarkable changes in the geography of this 

 part of our terrilory. 



That portion of" the neck of land lying between 

 the Nanticoke and the Wicomico, and contiguous 

 to the former river, is within a narrow stripe, wavy 

 and sandy, inclining moderately to the S. E. and 

 terminating in marshes. The intervening coun- 

 try is level, with a stiff clay soil; this being the 

 character, as mi'st already have been perceived, 

 of all those portions of the Eastern Shore, com- 

 priseil within what are termed the necks. Gene- 

 rally speaking, the N. and N. W. parts of these 

 necks, extending along the rivers and creeks, have 



