HARFORD COUNTY
Transcribed by Denise Wells
Harford county, situated near the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay, with the Pennsylvania line on the north, the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay on the east, Chesapeake Bay on the south, and Baltimore county on the wet, contains 422 square miles of territory, and according to the census of 1890, 28,993 inhabitants, divided as follows: white, 22,416; colored, 6,577. The population of the city of Havre de Grace, the larges place in the county, is 3,244, an increase of 428 since 1880, or more than fifteen per cent. The population of Belair is 1,416.
The soil varies from light loam to heavy clay, and is easily improved and very productive. The land is for the most part arable and undulating, and highly improved. For farming purposes the price varies from ten to a hundred dollars per acre. The chief products are corn, wheat, oats, hay, tomatoes and small fruits and vegetables. Stockraising and grazing and the making and sale of butter and milk are growing industries. Since the opening of the Maryland Central Railroad, a few years ago, from the Baltimore county to the State line-a distance of 25 miles-the development of the milk trade has been very rapid. Over this road are no shipped 1,500 gallons of milk daily. Most of the farmers are industrious and thrifty. As a result they have improved their stock of horses, cattle, sheep and swine by crossing with the best strains of each, and now use labor-saving machinery of the most approved patterns.
INDUSTRIES AND PRODUCTS.
The canning industry is extensive and profitable. The number of packing houses now in operation is estimated at four hundred. Many of them begin with the early fruits and vegetables in the spring, and close only with the remnants of corn and tomatoes left by the early frosts. The entire pack of fruits and vegetables in a prosperous year aggregates near a million cases.
The manufacture of flour, fertilizers, feed and carriages is not extensive, but sufficient for the wants of the county, with a margin for expert. There is a large paper factory on the Susquehanna River, near Darlington, that is highly remunerative. Other manufacturing enterprises are invited by the abundant water power of the Susquehanna River, Deer creek, the Little Gunpowder, Bynum's and Winter's run and other streams of pure water that traverse the county.
The estimated annual amount of the general mercantile business transacted in the larger towns gives to Abingdon, $15,000; Aberdeen, $75,000; Bel Air, $500,000; Churchville, $30,000; Darlington, $35,000; Dublin, $20,000; Norrisville, $10,000, and Perryman's, $60,000. Other towns would swell the aggregate to two million dollars.
DUCK SHOOTING AT HAVRE DE GRACE.
There is no place in the country like the City of Havre de Grace, in Harford county, for duck shooing. All the ducks found in the waters near Havre de Grace are better and bring higher prices than those from anywhere else. This fact is due to their feeding on wild celery in fresh water. The Susquehanna flats, below Havre de Grace, but nearly opposite the city, cover an area of about fifteen square miles, with an average depth of about four feet of water. There are vast beds of the tender, juicy wild celery on the bottom of the Susquehanna flats. Every high river brings down the necessary fertilizers from the rich lands above, which are caught by the tide and settle on this bottom. When winter sets in early in the far North, the ducks put in an appearance about the middle of October. The blue-winged teal are the first ducks to visit the flats, then come the bald-pate and the black ducks, followed by the sprig-tails or gray ducks, as they are called by the native shooters. Later on the red and black-head ducks come in quantities, followed by the canvas-backs, which reach their greatest number about November 15.
The game laws by the Maryland Legislature are very strict, and have proven a great protection to the ducks. They now have a chance to settle on the flats, and get plump and in good condition before the shooting begins. The season, as regulated by law, now opens November 1 and ends March 31, and prohibits shooting at any other time except from shore. When the shooting is good carloads of ducks are shipped to New York, Philadelphia and other Eastern cities. Hundreds of dozens of the delicate game are also sent West and South, and large quantities are often shipped to Europe. It is claimed that more ducks are eaten in Baltimore than in any other city in the United States.
There are few counties that possess superior transportation facilities to those of Harford. Bush, Gunpowder and the Susquehanna Rivers and the Tide-water Canal are accessible to nearly one-half of the inhabitants, and the Pennsylvania, Northern Central, Baltimore and Ohio, and Maryland Central Railroads accommodate the other half. The projected road from Bel Air to the Susquehanna River, when completed, will furnish all the facilities desired. During the last twenty years there has been a marked improvement in the farms and buildings, and the wealth and comforts of the inhabitants-attractions that catch the eye of strangers and cause many of them to remain in the county, which is regarded as one of the most progressive and prosperous in the State.
SOURCE: Scharf, J. Thomas, "The natural & industrial resources and advantages of Maryland: being a complete description of all counties of the state and the city of Baltimore: together with an accurate statement of their soil, climate, antiquities, raw and manufactured products, agricultural and horticultural products, textile fabrics, alimentary products, manufacturing industries, minerals and ores, mines and mining, native woods, means of transportation, price of land, cheap living, ready markets, excellent homes, and the material and social advantages and unequaled opportunities Maryland possesses for those seeking homes, and for capitalists who wish to invest in industries that are sure to pay big dividends," C.H. Baughman & Co., Publisher; © 1892. pps. 36-39.