332 THE PLANT LIFE OF MARYLAND 



elevated to a considerable height before their slopes are reached, 

 the appearance of height being less than in the region of steeper 

 slopes but lower elevations about Cumberland. 



The Zone has not yet been strongly developed in an agricultural 

 way, the area being less highly cultivated than the regions which 

 were settled earlier. The soils are in some considerable areas of 

 sandstone origin, there is some little limestone, and a series of shales 

 is also present, but of a different character from those previously 

 mentioned. To a large extent the whole country is still in forest, 

 or in the condition of waste land that follows the ordinary method 

 of lumbering, but a few sections near the railroad being under care- 

 ful cultivation. 



The general features of elevation and its associated phenomena 

 of temperature and moisture have been discussed in an earlier chap- 

 ter, the same factors have an important bearing upon vegetation and 

 hence upon agricultural practice. The general conditions of cli- 

 mate in this Zone are such as to make the arrival of Spring two 

 weeks later, and of Autumn two weeks earlier than in the region at 

 the foot of the Mountains as at Cumberland.* Thus the growing 

 season is sensibly reduced from that of the lower parts of the State, 

 and has been calculated to extend, on an average, from April 15th 

 to October 20th in an ordinary season. The shortening of the grow- 

 ing season by two weeks at each end necessarily influences the pos- 

 sible crops, and this is evident to the eye in the increased proportion 

 of oats, decrease in wheat; and the presence of buckwheat as a crop 

 of considerable importance. There are a few natural cranberry 

 bogs from which a small local supply is gathered, and it is from 

 the same or similar wet spots that the finest blue-berries are gath- 

 ered in the early summer. The forest types also show the influence 

 of the colder conditions, as there are present those trees which are 

 characteristic of the colder sections of the country, Hemlock, Spruce 

 and Tamarack. 



In the Zone as a whole there has been but a slight development 

 of the agricultural resources, as compared to the other areas of the 

 state. This is largely due to the prominence heretofore of the lum- 

 ber industry, in its various phases. As the forest crop is removed 



♦See Introduction — Climatology. 



