sing nearly one third of New York and nearly all of the great
agricultural states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Every
year this drainage brings down a black sediment, called oyster mud,
which is deposited on the marshlands and enriches the soil, making
it, with proper cultivation, of productivity like that of the rice
and wheat fields of Egypt. These unreclaimed lands are used chiefly
for grain."

Proper drainage of small tracts of this land would bring unsurpassed
and absolutely untouched fertility.

The Chesapeake River valley is not so large as that of the Nile or
Ganges, but is of enough consequence to play an important part in
human affairs and to support in comfort and prosperity a population
as large as that of many famous states.

"The eastern shore is uniformly level, with good roads. The
proximity of the ocean and the bay greatly modifies the temperature.
It has a great trunk railway, with connections along its entire
length, called the Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania railroad,
which furnishes direct transportation to Philadelphia, New York, and
other northern cities."

"On the eastern shore there are many thousand acres of land devoted
to garden truck, and the strawberry crop has of late years become of
importance. Over one hundred carloads of strawberries are shipped
daily during the season to the Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York,
and Boston markets."

Land properly cultivated will yield four thousand quarts of
strawberries to an acre.

The canning of various fruits and vegetables has grown to be larger
than that of any other state and is one of the most profitable of
the industries of Maryland. The principal articles canned are
peaches, peas, and tomatoes.

The tomato crop is also profitable to the grower. The young plants
are set out in the spring; many do this with a machine, but two
persons can easily plant seven acres in a day by hand.

An acre will produce from six to eighteen tons of tomatoes,
according to the quality of the soil. All such products bring better
prices now in Maryland markets than they did before canning was
resorted to. The Maryland tin can is known wherever civilization
reaches.

Tobacco is extensively produced only in southern Maryland, although
it can be raised in any section of the state.

In the neighborhood of the larger cities trucking and fruit growing
are profitable, combined with poultry raising, often on farms of not
more than five or ten ac