Evening star., 1927-05-22
Washington Linked
With County In
Some Events
of Cos.
Has Summer Colony
Roads and Schools
Gaining Support;
Farm Hands
Own Cars.

Its business was absorbed by the rail-
road town
The other Charles County villages
have little economic importance. Each
consists of one or two stores and a
gasoline filling station at a cross.
roads. Sometimes there are three or
four houses Such villages are DON
caster. Wayside. Riverside, Pomfret
and Faulkner
Farming Prospects.
The county is bound to remain
essentially agricultural It's farm land
is we'll suited to the profitable tobacco
crop. Like Prince Georges tobacco.
that of Charles County is used largely
tor cigarettes. 1t has the essential
flavor and slow-burning qualities
which are necessary for cigarette
manufactures
The Maryland Agricultural College
and the county farm agent have
striven for a long time to encourage
other crops which will relieve the land
Of the strain Of tobacco production.
This IS difficult, however. Tobacco
culture enables a big profit to be
CLEANED from small cultivated area.
Wheat and corn are poor seconds TO
the dominant crop. Considera BILE
dairying has been developed in the
northern edge of the county, but very
little of it lies in the Washington milk
belt. The possibilities are more favor
able for beef than dairy farming.
Orcharding, particularly around La
Plata is attracting cOnsiderab BILE atten.
ton. Poultry farming usually is con.
fined to the home flocks.
Tobacco farming has changed little
since the days of the earliest settlers.
The requirements of the crop do not
permit of much change. The per-
sonal element is essential to success
The tobacco farmer must know the
idiosyncrasies of his own plants.
There are few set rules, which can be
applied by everybody. So the Charles
County farmers continue TO cultivate
their small tracts-different patches
every year-as their great-grandfa-
theirs did before them. They load the
product into 65O-pound hogsheads and
haul it to the railheads, as their an
cestors rolled it to the Potomac and
Patuxent wharves.
Charles County is one of the objec-
tives Of the Southern Maryland Immi.
grafton Commission. with headquar.
ters at College Park. Efforts are be-
ing made to put on the waste land
good type of European or American
settler, who will not be bound by the
tobacco tradition and who will be
sympathetic to the idea of diversified
crops. Good. productive tobacco land
is expensive, but there is a great deal
of land in Charles County which can
be made productive TO be had very
| cheap.
The other day the clerk OF courts
| auctioned $50 acres for taxes. 1t
brought slightly over 81 an acre, and
there was no very spirited bidding for
| ii at that price. The land auction is
rather picturesque institution which
! has survived out of the past. The
courthouse bell is rung and the viii
| layers gather about to listen to the
auctioneer rather than with any in
| tention of bidding.
| There are great areas of swamp
land in the county. which require con-
siderable clearing and draining before
| they can be made productive. Other
large areas are covered with scrub
pine. Originally the land of Charles
| County was in large estates, which be-
gan to be split up after the Civil War.
when the abolition of slavery made
extensive tobacco plantations uneco-
romic. The splitting-up process still
is going on. greatly to the advantage
of the county.
! Some of the swamp land probably
/ never will be available for agricul-
| ture, unless increasing density of pop
ulation forces the utilization of every
| possible productive acre. In 1865 Mai.
James f. O'Bierne. commander OF
party of soldiers combing lower
| Charles County for John Wilkes
/ Booth. after the assassination of Lin.
coin. thus described the swamps
| around the headwaters of the Wicom-
leo River in his report to the War De-
| partment: These are dense growths
Of dogwood. gum and beech. planted
| deep ponds dot this wilderness place,
with here and there a stretch of dry
| soil, but no human being inhabits the
malarious expanse. Even a hunted
murderer would shrink from hiding
there. Serpents and Shiny lizards are
| the only living denizens. Not even
the hunted negro dared to fathom
/ the treacherous Cay. or make himself
| a fellow with the Shiny reptiles which
reign absolute in this terrible soli-
| tude.''
| County have changed but little since
| the day when Booth was hiding there.
| waiting for his slim chance to get
across the Potomac in the dark.
| Greeks. once navigable. cut into the
| county from the Potomac, bearing
| such Indian names as Mattawoman.
| Chicomuxen and Mangemoy.
| The entire county comprises 454
| square miles and population is spread
I over IL rather evenly.