CHARLES COUNTY. 



Charles is distinctively a "southern Maryland" County, low-lying, 

 along tidewater for the most part, and well in the Coastal Plain Divis- 

 ion. On the west and south it is bordered by the Potomac, while on 

 the eastern side the Patuxent River touches it for several miles. 

 Prince George's County is on the northern side, with Calvert on the 

 east. Light soils — from pure sand to sandy loam — predominate, and 

 along the swampy sections there is a large amount of clay. A great 

 part of this County was once intensively farmed, but changed econo- 

 mic conditions have brought about a reversion to forest of much that 

 was once cleared for agriculture. 



The Forests. 



Excepting the mountain counties of Garrett and Allegany, Charles 

 County possesses the largest percentage of forested land in Maryland, 

 59 per cent of its total area being in woodland. Unlike the forests of 

 those sections, the tree growth here is not, in great part, on land that 

 has never been cleared, but represents instead once cleared lands that 

 since have been abandoned and naturally reforested. Pine has come 

 up on much of this land, and it is usually possible in the young stands 

 to still trace the lines of the old corn-rows. Fine young stands, both 

 of hardwood and scrub pine, are abundant, but there is little timber 

 of saw-log size near the railroads, where close cutting has been prac- 

 ticed for many years. 



Great differences of elevation, with their corresponding change of 

 type, do not exist in Charles County, but there are increasing stands 

 of scrub pine, and the usual culled and merchantable hardwoods. 

 There is a distinct swamp type of hardwood growth, with pin, willow, 

 and swamp white oak, beech, river birch, black gum, red maple, red 

 gum, and tulip poplar. In other sections the forests of hardwood 

 partake of two different types, an upland and a lowland type. In the 

 former are black, scarlet, and Spanish oaks, chestnut, hickory and 

 scrub pine ; in the latter white and red oaks, tulip, black gum and red 

 gum. The forests of this county consist of 43 per cent hardwoods, 11 

 per cent pine, and 46 per cent mixed stands. On 6,868 acres of hard- 

 wood forest, according to the survey of 1912, there are stands of 5,000 

 feet or more per acre, and on 66,037 acres there are hardwood stands 



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