320 THE PLANT LIFE OF MARYLAND 



River to the seaport of Baltimore was of great importance to the 

 latter. Its influence was felt by the life all along the route of the 

 road, from which a large amount of freight was drawn in the shape 

 of farm produce. It is this "Bank Road" to which the name "Na- 

 tional Pike" is commonly applied in the counties between Cumber- 

 land and Baltimore. 



Canals and Railroads. — Soon after the turnpikes were thoroughly 

 established as freight routes, the project was revived which had 

 been more or less dormant since the time of Washington's Potomac 

 Company. This contemplated the building of a canal westward to 

 the Ohio River for the conveying of freight across the mountains 

 between the seaboard and the interior. In 1823 a convention met in 

 Washington, and declared in favor of a canal route to the West. 

 Surveys were made for a canal to Pittsburg, by way of the Potomac 

 valley to the Savage river and across the divide to the Youghiogheny 

 at Bear Creek, then by the valley of the Youghiogheny to Pittsburg. 

 On account of the development of steam transportation the canal 

 was not built farther than the mouth of Wills Creek, at Cumber- 

 land, to which point it was completed in 1S50. The railroad had 

 in 1840, reached the canal terminus. The canal thus found a more 

 speedy rival to meet instead of having a clear field to draw upon 

 for freight. It has not figured largely in the agriculture of the State, 

 the chief canal freight being coal from the vicinity of Cumberland. 

 Wheat was carried to a considerable extent however in the earlier 

 years. This was ground in the mills at Georgetown, which obtained 

 their power from the canal waters.* 



The influence of the railroad upon the development of agri- 

 culture, especially in the Midland and Mountain Zones, need not 

 be mentioned in any detail. The fact may properly be stated that 

 the presence of a rail route from Baltimore westward through the 

 Patapsco Valley, past Ellicott City and Mount Airy stimulated set- 

 tlement and agriculture in the Upper Potomac region. The other 

 routes leading into the tipper part of the State have had a direct 

 influence upon the development of the different types of farm prac- 



*For further details, see Early Development of the Chesapeake and Ohio 

 Canal Project, Johns Hopkins Studies in Historical and Political Science, 

 Series 17; Nos. 9, 10, 11, 1899. 



