WICOMICO COUNTY. 



Wicomico County occupies a position on the Eastern Shore penin- 

 sula just south of the Delaware State-line. It is of rectangular shape, 

 bordered on the west by Dorchester County, on the south by Somerset 

 and Worcester, and also on the east by Worcester. The Wicomico and 

 Nanticoke Rivers, together with Quantico Creek, furnish the county 

 with tide-water transportation for a considerable distance, for the 

 surface is very flat, with an elevation which varies from sea-level in 

 the west to about 80 feet near Parsonsburg, in the east-central part. 

 Along the Nanticoke, and to a lesser extent the Wicomico, there are 

 considerable areas of salt-water marsh. Fresh-water swamps also oc- 

 cur in the eastern and western parts of the county, and it is in the 

 southern portion that the principal hardwood stands are located. The 

 central part is better drained, containing the bulk of the pure pine 

 stands. The soil is generally sandy, and wherever the elevation is suf- 

 ficient to give good, drainage the land has been largely cleared and 

 cultivated. There is, on the other hand, some land, once cleared, that 

 was allowed to grow up again in pine after its fertility had been ex- 

 hausted. 



The Forests. 



In this county there is 46 per cent of woodland, and the county 

 stands well as a timbered and timber-producing district. The large 

 percentage of undrained soils which are only suited for the growing 

 of timber accounts chiefly for the large forested area, making the for- 

 est interests of this county of great importance, and on the whole, 

 partly because of extensive abandonment of exhausted lands, this 

 forested area is apparently increasing. Considered as a county, there 

 seems little variety in the size and range of the forests. There are 

 some very large hardwood stands in the west, but on the whole the 

 wooded areas are pretty evenly distributed, irregular in outline, and 

 generally following drainage contours in more or less connected bodies. 



There is practically five times as much pine in the county as hard- 

 wood, with loblolly constituting 95 per cent, and the balance largely 

 scrub pine, with a small amount of cypress in the eastern part. Scrub 

 pine in small patches is found principally in the eastern and western 

 parts of the county, although the stand of timber is nowhere very 

 heavy. There are few hardwood stands that do not contain some seat- 



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