354 THE PLANT LIFE OF MARYLAND 



vantage. In this method the furrows are run around the hill in- 

 stead of up and down the slopes. Each furrow thus acts as a terrace 

 to check the rush of water, and hy retaining the first accumulation 

 permits a longer period for soil absorption. In a moderate rain such 

 check to the beginning of the rivulets may prevent the washing, and 

 the field thus escape serious cutting or gullying for a considerable 

 time. The damage done by washes in the fields may be seen to some 

 extent on almost any slope in Southern Maryland, the Midland 

 Zone, or in the higher land westward. The damage is done not 

 only by the carrying away of the soil from the field which is cut 

 and gullied, but the lower fields and meadows or pastures are to 

 an often serious degree injured by the deposition of the transported 

 material. While the damage by sudden bursts of extreme rainfall, 

 can not be avoided, the amount could be decreased, and in normal 

 rains materially reduced by a little more care in methods of tillage, 

 and of selection of fields for cultivation. 



AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS. 



The figures given in the following tables are taken from the 

 United States Census for 1900. The details there available are 

 more complete than in other sources at hand, and their value for 

 comparison is not lost by the passing of a few years. The actual 

 figures would vary considerably from one year to another, according 

 to climatic factors, but the relative amounts would not be subject to 

 such immediate fluctuations. Thus the amount spent for Labor 

 and for Fertilizers in the several counties will not be the same in 

 any two years. But the amount spent in Baltimore County will 

 not vary much as compared with the amount spent in Calvert County 

 in the same year. 



It will be noted that those counties which rank high in expendi- 

 ture stand high also in values of produce. Another comparison 

 quickly made, is between the values of farm buildings in the dif- 

 ferent counties, high total values being associated with those coun- 

 ties which are so situated as to require winter shelter for crops and 

 animals. By comparing the value of Farm Implements for different 

 counties, the type of farm practice may be judged in a general way. 



