314 THE PLANT LIFE (>K MABYLAND 



of corn, equivalent to five acres ; and 6,000 hills of tobacco was the 

 season's task in the tobacco field for one field hand.* 



Eeference lias been made to the importance of numerous laborers 

 in the agriculture of the Colony, both as to the actual working of 

 the fields, and as to the acreage of one planter's holdings; and to 

 the wasteful methods of clearing, exhausting, and abandoning the 

 land required for the production of tobacco. Not every planter 

 thus severely treated his land, for we find that apple and other 

 fruits were set out in the fields on which tobacco was no longer a 

 profitable crop, in St. Mary's County as early as 1656, and it is 

 probable that the custom was practiced to a considerable extent 

 among the more thoughtful of the planters.' The more careful and 

 observant colonists learned to conserve the fertility of their fields 

 by the use of marl, which is abundant in some parts of the Coastal 

 Zone. The wild fruits made up then to a large degree the relish 

 dietary furnished by the more highly developed but not always 

 better flavored fruits of the present growers, just as the different 

 wild game animals and birds of many kinds, furnished the early 

 supplies of meat in a reasonably sure and economical manner. 



EXTANSION. 



One condition as to location was imposed by the lack of roads or 

 other means of land communication; the tobacco bad to be grown 

 in regions convenient to navigable waters. The two "Shores" of the 

 Bay met this requirement through the numerous rivers and creeks 

 which are navigable for many miles inland from their mouths and 

 still are in great measure the routes for freight transportation. The 

 settlement of Maryland by the colonial planters under the Charter, 

 was a progressive advance from the mouth of the Bay towards its 

 head. The deep estuaries from the Hay and along each shore, made 

 the shipment of tobacco easy even if the plantation was some distance 

 from the Capes. But the area suitable to the cultivation of the 

 staple was narrower in the upper part of the Bay than lower down, 

 and as the demand continued to grow, other lands were developed 



♦Scharff, History of Maryland, i, 13-60. 

 tScharff, vol. ii, p. 6. 



