HARFORD COUNTY. 



Harford County lies in the northeastern section of the State, ex- 

 tending to Pennsylvania on the north, the Susquehanna River on the 

 east, Chesapeake Bay on the south, and the Gunpowder on the west. 

 The northern four-fifths -of the County is in the Piedmont Plateau, 

 and ranges in elevation from 200 to 700 feet above sea level, with gent- 

 ly rolling to hilly land, and generally rapid streams. The southern 

 fifth lies in the Coastal Plain and varies from 10 to 90 feet in altitude ; 

 it is generally flat, and supplied with broad tidal streams and slug- 

 gish creeks. 



The soils of the Piedmont division vary considerably, there being 

 three general types — the clays, extending irregularly through the cen- 

 tral and northeastern parts of the County, and forming a soil which 

 is good, but often difficult of tillage because of large, scattered bould- 

 ers; the loams, which constitute by far the larger area of any of the 

 soil types in the northern section, and also in the southern or Coastal 

 Plain division, in both regions constituting the most productive soils ; 

 and in the third division, which is just north of the Baltimore & Ohio 

 Railroad, largely gravelly soils merging into clays. The latter type is 

 covered almost entirely by forest, and is considered of the least value 

 for agricultural purposes. There is much of the County's soil that is 

 unsuited to agriculture, indicating that a large portion of the County 

 should always remain in forest growth. 



The Forests. 



Two hundred years ago the County was heavily forested with tree 

 species of much present-day commercial value, although at that time 

 they possessed little or none because of their abundance. At the pres- 

 ent the forest areas are limited largely to the hilly or stony areas that 

 are relatively unsuited to tillage, 29 per cent of the County being now 

 in forest growth. The woodland is quite well distributed over the en- 

 tire area, and there are few very extensive stands, the only noteworthy 

 ones being in the vicinity of Rocks and Dublin, with a strip extending 

 through the County along and north of the Baltimore & Ohio, and 

 others through the two peninsulas of the Coastal Plain division. 



87 



