28 INTRODUCTION 



Cecil county, as a whole, drains toward Chesapeake Bay. The 

 streams in the western part of the Piedmont, the most important of 

 which are the Conowingo and Octoraro creeks, now into the Susque- 

 hanna river, while the other streams of the Piedmont now south and 

 enter the head of Chesapeake Bay; of these the most important are 

 Principle, Big and Little Elk and Northeast creeks. The streams 

 of the Coastal Plain have been depressed since their valleys were 

 excavated and converted into estuaries. These estuaries prolong the 

 navigable waterways beyond the limits of Chesapeake Bay well into 

 the interior of the county ; the most important of these are Northeast, 

 Elk and Sassafras rivers and Back and Bohemia creeks. 



Cecil county lies in two great geologic provinces, the Piedmont 

 Plateau and the Coastal Plain. The rocks of the Piedmont Plateau 

 are both eruptive and metamorphic, and antedate, by a great per- 

 iod, the deposits belonging to the Coastal Plain province.; indeed, 

 the rocks of the Piedmont Plateau have experienced so much dis- 

 turbance that their structure and geologic history are now extremely 

 complicated and very difficult to unravel. The reverse is true of the 

 formations belonging to the Coastal Plain province; none of the 

 deposits here date back earlier than the Jurassic and perhaps not 

 before the Lower Cretaceous. Except for local indurations they are 

 unconsolidated. The earlier deposits of the Coastal Plain series are 

 tilted slightly toward the southeast but the younger ones, although 

 they have been somewhat elevated since their deposition, have not 

 apparently suffered much, if any, differential uplift and are as hori- 

 zontal as when first deposited. 



The mineral resources are varied, including building stone, clays 

 for brick, terra cotta, and stoneware, fire-clay, kaolin, flint, chrome, 

 iron and possibly gold. Each of these has influenced the develop- 

 ment of the wealth of the county. 



The agricultural conditions, closely related to the underlying 

 geological formations, show a corresponding diversity; wheat, corn, 

 timothy, and clover are the main crops, and these are grown over the 

 entire county. Truck is grown to some extent in the southern portion 

 of the county, but in the northern and central parts the growing of 



