328 THE PLANT LIFE OF MARYLAND 



For the same purpose, conservation of moisture and compacting 

 of the surface layer, there is in use in Worcester County, upon an 

 area of sandy loam, a drag much like a small stone boat, which is 

 used in the rows immediately after the passage of the cultivator. 

 This treats but one row at a time, and is drawn by a single mule 

 or horse, the boy driver sitting upon the drag to make it the more 

 effective as a soil compactor. Often after a rain this drag is run 

 between the rows without the preliminary use of the cultivator, as 

 it is in effect a very fine toothed weeder or cultivator, and this pre- 

 vents the loss of moisture by the prompt production of a dust mulch 

 over the surface. 



The value of these light soils for the early and quick growth of 

 crops, is shown in the trucking industry, which is most largely de- 

 veloped on the soils of the. coastal plain type. Their light and friable 

 texture is unfavorable to the production of turf forming or pasture 

 grasses, especially on the Western Shore. 



MIDLAND ZONE. 



In contrast to the soils of the Coastal Zone, those of the Midland 

 Zone are not of material transported from a distance, and rear- 

 ranged by a large body of water acting by wave and current upon 

 the transported particles, but the soils are formed in place by the 

 weathering of the rocks which underlie them. Thus the character 

 of the soil is found to vary in its fertility as the composition of the 

 original rock differs, and according to the manner in which the 

 rock is broken down into soil. Tor example, the region in the vicin- 

 ity of Mt. Washing-ton, Baltimore County, known as "Bare Hills,'" 

 is one of the poorest of farm soils because of the lack in the rock 

 itself of minerals, such as feldspar which would by their decomposi- 

 tion form a soil. The serpentine rock which forms an ex- 

 tensive outcrop at that point does not contain the substances that 

 are available for plant nourishment, and they are bare of plant 

 growth to a degree not often seen. 



The rocks of the Eastern extension of the Midland Zone, have 

 mostly come from the gneisses, ami usually form fertile and rather 

 compact soils, open and deep in texture, well adapted to the raising 

 of general farm crops. The gneiss soils are favorable to grasses, 



