History of Western Maryland. J. Thomas Scharf
the gently sloping hills, like the billows of the ocean, swelling gradually in the direction of the Catoctin range, a spur of the Blue Ridge. The tributaries of the Patapsco and Monocacy Rivers permeate the soil in every direction, not only supplying abundant water for farming purposes, but affording to the miller and manufacturer unlimited power for their handicrafts. The soils comprise all the varieties of the Blue Ridge division of the State, as white and red isinglass, slate, mica, limestone, and the " Red Lands." They are for the most part exceedingly fertile, the county possessing probably a smaller proportion of poor land than almost any other in Maryland, and where impoverished they are readily susceptible of improvement by careful cultivation and the use of lime, which exists in such abundance beneath the surface. The county is well wooded, and the scenery picturesque and beautiful, abounding in charming valleys, hemmed in by hills, on which the growth of the heaviest forest-trees gives the necessary shading to the landscape, and where a view of the distant Blue Ridge can be obtained, which is the case in many portions of the county, very happy effects are produced. The inhabitants have always been thrifty and energetic, and agriculture has received here its most perfect development. Fine farms abound. Wheat, rye, oats, and corn, the various grasses, fruits, and vegetables are grown, and magnificent herds of cattle and improved breeds of horses, sheep, and hogs are the principal productions of the farmers, while much attention is paid to the dairy business, the proximity to the city of Baltimore by means of the railroads and turnpikes insuring profitable returns to those engaged in it. Tobacco has been grown to some extent, and small crops are still raised in parts of the county, but the expense and uncertainty attending its production have been so great as to render it unpopular with the majority of farmers. Well-tilled farms and fine residences are confined to no particular district, but are freely distributed through the county. There are numerous mills and manufacturing establishments, and a large number of tanneries in the county, the last induced, doubtless, by the heavy growth of oak timber, which forms the body of the woods in that section of country. Large supplies of granite, marble, limestone, and brick clay are to be had for building purposes.
There are also large quarries of the best variety of soapstone near Marriottsville, adjacent to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The stone is of the purest quality, and at the factory is sawed into every imaginable shape, and used for many varied purposes, its uses having multiplied greatly of late years. Even the refuse stone and dust are valuable in various ways.
Some of the finest hematitic iron ore in the United States, and also some excellent specimens of oxide of manganese, have been found in Carroll. The climate is salubrious, and the lay of the land and purity of the water favorable to health, so much so as to make many portions of the county favorite places of resort for the citizens of Baltimore during the summer months. The county is rapidly increasing in population, wealth, and enterprise, and the public-spirited citizens who have managed its affairs have adopted all judicious means for social and material advancement. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on its southern border, the Western Maryland Railroad which passes almost directly through the center of the county, the Frederick and Pennsylvania Line Railroad which runs across the northwestern portion, and numerous fine turnpikes, as well as an admirable system of public roads, constitute the means of transportation, and few sections of the country possess greater conveniences in this regard. Through these channels it is placed in direct communication with the city of Baltimore, where a ready market is found for its productions, and the rapid transportation furnished by the railroads has enabled its citizens to build up a trade in the products of the dairy unsurpassed probably elsewhere in Maryland. The prices of land vary of course with the quality of the soil and its proximity or remoteness to the highways of travel, but one hundred and fifty dollars per acre is not unusual, and many who have purchased land at that rate have had no cause to regret it. As far back as April, 1814, Peter Benedune, who was a restless speculator, sold out all his land in the vicinity of Union Bridge at from one hundred to one hundred and twenty dollars per acre, and removed to the Valley of Virginia. The accessibility of the lands in Carroll County, their healthfulness, and the social advantages in many of the neighborhoods, render them desirable either as residences or safe investments. The brown sandstone, so highly valued for building purposes, is found in the western part of Carroll, and will compare very favorably with the Connecticut sandstone, so generally in use in the construction of the finer class of edifices in large cities. In Emmittsburg, among the upper layers of brown sandstone are found strata of flagging. Some of it separates into flags from two to four inches thick, with smooth surfaces ready dressed for paving. The boundaries of Carroll County were made for political convenience and not as divisions between distinct varieties of soil or different geological formations. The " Red Lands," beginning in the northwestern part of the county and extending through the Taneytown and Middleburg Districts into portions of the Union Town District, are similar in geological formation to those found in Frederick County, differing only in their agricultural value, the former being more decomposed, thereby insuring a deeper soil. These lands are underlaid by compact shales, among which red sandstone is frequently found sufficiently durable for building purposes. The value of these lands is materially influenced by the proximity of these shales or sandstones to the surface. When they are immediately beneath it the soil is unproductive, being easily affected by droughts, as there is not sufficient depth to retain the necessary supply of water for the crops. When this is the case the remedy is always at hand. The land should be subsoiled and heavily manured with lime.
Slate soils are a continuation of those found in Frederick County, and differ materially from the red land described above. The slates from which the soils overlying them are formed are mica slate, talc slate, chlorite slate, and blue, or roofing slate, the composition of all of which is, in an agricultural point of view, so nearly allied as to reader any separate description of them unnecessary, and they are so intimately mixed that it would require almost an innumerable number of analyses to determine the special composition of each.
The lands drained by the waters of the Little Pipe Creek and its tributary branches are composed mainly from the disintegrated particles of these rocks or slates. They have by various influences become thoroughly decomposed, have been well manured and well cultivated, and are equal in productive value to the average of the best in the State. These lands are formed from the same rocks, and have the same composition in every particular, as all the lands in this section of the State are underlaid by the slates above spoken of; and the question naturally arises, why should some of them be so barren and some so productive? Why should the soils of the same formation on Parr's Ridge, running through the county to Manchester and the Pennsylvania line, be generally unproductive? Their mechanical texture must be examined for an explanation of their different degrees of fertility. Most of the soil in this part of the county, as it has been formed, has been washed off, and there has not been enough of it left to meet the wants of plants, by retaining a sufficiency of moisture for their support, or a proper quantity of nutrient materials to develop their growth and structure. To obviate these difficulties the soil must be deepened, decomposed, and the mineral set free which it has in a crude state.
There are also the light red sandy loams of this county, at the foot of Parr's Ridge, represented by the lands which extend over the whole county in a line more or less directly parallel with Parr's Ridge. They are famous for producing a variety of tobacco known as the Bay Tobacco, which sells at a very high price.
The red clay loam begins at the eastern border of the above-described lands, and extends eastward to where they meet the granite or isinglass soil. The next varieties met after going eastward from these are the white isinglass, soils formed from the disintegration of granite rocks. These are easily recognized, the bright shining spangles of mica, or isinglass, glistening everywhere. They are exceedingly light and dry, and are occasionally very barren. These comprise the chief soils of Carroll; they follow each other in regular succession, from west to east, in the order in which they are named, and can be readily recognized by their location as well as by their description.
The limestones of Carroll are fully equal to those found in any other portion of Western Maryland. Many of them are used only in the neighborhood where they are located, but there are many excellent limestone-quarries both for agricultural and building purposes. The principal limestones in the upper part of the county are as follows:
No. 2, a white limestone of fine crystalline texture, Uniontown, Maryland.
No. 2,