The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1938-07-21
AN EDITORIAL
GARRETT, FOR INSTANCE

10 SuCH MllGcIS w GSIGIIl 41etl y AetAANt
begins at Hagerstown and ends at
Cumberland, and Garrett county is
just the tail end of nowhere, an area
that should be given away, if West
Virginia or Pennsylvania would take
| it.
The latest article appeared in the
Baltimore Evening Sun several days
ago, written by Gerald W. Johnson,
under the title, Garrett, For In
stance"
To a true Garrett countian, it
makes his blood fairly boil, even in
cool weather. to read such paragraphs
as "There may be excellent arguments
for moving the people out of Garrett
county and leaving the land to the
foxes and the cattle ticks; but before
any such course is decided upon those
| arguments ought to be explained to
the people of the whole state"
"No candidate for Governor has adj
vanced any sort of program for deal
ing with Garrett" Gust like we were
a problem child or black sheep.)
There are various ways of going
about reestablishing a blighted area"
''There are 61,717 acres which people
are farming, or trying to farm, al
though there is no earthly hope that
anybody can ever make a decent living
farming that land"
maryland has already made some
progress toward preserving this coun-
ty. There are three big state forests
there now. But to date we have ac-
complished very little toward putting
the county to some use and giving the
people who live there break" Zone
idea of what ought to be done involves
returning a large part of it to forest
ry."
The only sane statement made was
that the logical future Of the region
was that of a recreation area where
it was delightfully."- cool in summer,
delight to the eye at all seasons, a
land apparently designed by nature
to be one of the finest recreation
grounds Imaginable" But recreation
is not all Garrett county has to offer.
We do not know what the writer's
purpose was in presenting Garrett
county as one of the states liabilities,
but it would be a safe statement to
make that he had never been within
the boundaries of the county, and
probably had never been outside of
Baltimore city, place where the
slum situation should be of far more
| concern to him.
Statistically over fifty percent of
the county is forest land, and it is
| true that some of the farm land is of
| poor quality. But on the other hand
some of the best growing land in the
state is in Garrett county and some
of the most beautiful farms.
Of the % counties in the state
| Garrett county is fourth in number of
acres in farms, ninth in number of
farms, first in percentage of farms
| operated by owners. 1t stands eleventh
| among the counties in number of
horses and colts, seventh in number
. of cattle and calves, Ian investment
of over a million dollars) ninth in
number of cows and heifers, second
in number of sheep, fourteenth in
number of swine and thirteenth in
number of chickens, twelfth in number
of eggs produced, eleventh in quanti-
| ty of milk produced, seventh in hay
acreage, second in production of white
potatoes, first in production of oats.
1t is the only county in the State
where maple syrup is produced, and is
now growing some of the finest peas
in the country.
The marsh land which practically
fills some of the Shore counties is
| absent here, and there is little of the
extremely sandy soil such as is found
in other counties of the state. In
these we are fortunate.
Although it stands fifteenth in
population among the counties, it has
a number of the best people in the
state, which cannot be measured by
statistics. The trees grown here make
better lumber than any other place in
the state. Garrett county is the real
beauty spot of the state 1t has
healthful climate, and we can boast of
few mosquitoes.
While it may not have as much
money as other counties, its county
Indebtedness is less than one percent
Of the taxable basis. Its banks have
over 312 millions of assets.
Relief rolls are heavy here as they
are in other counties. They would not
need to be so heavy, if it were not
for the attempt of the national ad-
ministration to buy up all the votes.
Farm income was almost $4,000 900
for the past year.
And this is the "blighted area" the
Baltimore writer speaks about saw
ing. He'd better save himself from
the class of the ignorant first of all.