142 The Gardens of the Chesapeake. 



THE GARDENS OF THE CHESAPEAKE. 



By William C. Lodge, Claymont, Del. 



Standing upon one of the low sand-hills that skirt the Chesapeake, 

 in the County of Somerset, Maryland, we perceive on our right a num- 

 ber of small islands, stretching, like a string of beads, away up the bay, 

 until lost to sight in the distance. These islands and the eastern shore 

 form a bay extending nearly sixty miles in length, and twenty miles in 

 extreme width, known as Tangier's Sound, famous for its abundance 

 of wild game and its fine fish and oysters. It has also recently become 

 famous for the variety and excellence of the fruits and vegetables culti- 

 vated on the islands. 



The waters of the sound are, comparatively, shallow, and are so 

 sheltered as to be rarely much disturbed by the stormy winds that fre- 

 quently stir up the bay proper into waves ahnost as boisterous as those 

 of the ocean. Hence the bottoms afford the most favorable breeding- 

 grounds for oysters and clams, while the islands enjoy a temperature 

 free from the extremes of heat and cold common to the same latitude in 

 the interior. The more delicate plants, that generally require a more 

 southern latitude, here flourish luxuriantly. 



Neither frosts nor summer heats greatly interfere with horticultural 

 operations, and, in consequence, the season is lengthened so as to bring 

 to perfection the more tardy fruits. The salt atmosjDhere, too, is de- 

 structive to such insects as render fruit growing in other localities a 

 precarious business. The borer, curculio, and apple-moth are, as yet, 

 practically unknown, and while the fruits are not affected in their 

 growth and ripening, the trees grow well, and attain an age much 

 greater than elsewhere in the Middle States. The peach here bears 

 annual crops for forty and fifty years, and the limit to the age of the 

 tree is unknown. Plums, nectarines, apricots, quinces, and figs find a 

 congenial soil and climate, and bear large crops of perfect fruit. Melons 

 and sweet potatoes attain equal perfection, while vegetables which 

 delight in a taste of salt, such as celeiy, asparagus, and cabbages, grow 

 to great size, and are particularly sweet and tender. For peanuts the 

 soil is admirably suited, and large crops are raised. 



In a small peach orchard we noticed a fair crop of fruit, while the 

 intervals between the trees were planted in corn, with melons in the 

 alternate hills. The crop of each appeared about as good as though 



