TALBOT COUNTY. 



Talbot lies mid- way of the Eastern Shore peninsula, and directly 

 on the Cheasapeake Bay. Two tide-water streams, the Miles and Tred 

 Avon Rivers, extend for some distance into the county, and on the 

 north and south respectively are the Wye and Choptank Rivers, also 

 tide-water streams. These streams are the county's most distinctive 

 topographic feature, dividing the land surface of fully two-thirds of 

 the whole into a series of necks and peninsulas. The numerous water- 

 courses, in addition to the unsurpassed means of transportation which 

 they afford, constitute one of this region's chief charms, and have 

 brought hundreds of people into the county to settle on river-front 

 farms. Local soils vary somewhat in different portions of the county, 

 though for the greater part they are either a silt loam or a light, sand 

 loam, the former occurring particularly in the western section. 



The Forests. 



Of Talbot '& total land area, 29 per cent is wooded. These forests 

 are rather evenly distributed, and frequently large areas of 500 acres 

 or more occur, although such tracts consist usually of a number of 

 woodlots contained in several neighboring farms. A forest map of Tal- 

 bot County shows rather more hardwoods in the northern part than 

 pine, while from the central portion south this proportion is reversed. 

 However, there is much more pine than any other species, and nearly 

 all of it is loblolly. In most cases the pine is growing in mixture with 

 some of the hardwoods — of which the oaks, red and black gums, red 

 maple and hickory are the most important. Good soil and generally 

 excellent conditions of drainage combine to produce high-quality tim- 

 ber, with perhaps more favorable conditions for its growth than in 

 any other county of the Eastern Shore. Much of this land now in 

 forest, however, is so eminently well suited for agriculture that a con- 

 siderable percentage of it will no doubt be cleared eventually for cul- 

 tivation. In fact, clearing is now quite extensively in progress in the 

 southern and northeastern sections of the county. 



Considered as a whole, 19 per cent of Talbot County is in mixed 

 hardwood stands ; 26 per cent in pine ; 55 per cent in mixed hardwood 

 and pine. Some of this, particularly the pine, is in heavy stands : the 

 Forest Survey, made 1910, showing 441 acres of hardwoods amount- 



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