SOMERSET COUNTY
Transcribed by Denise Wells
Somerset county is the southernmost county of the Eastern Shore. It is bounded on the north by Wicomico and Worcester, on the south by Pocomoke river and sound, and on the west by Chesapeake bay. The area, including islands, is 526 square miles. The system of farming in Somerset county has, in the last ten years, undergone many changes, and the great wheat harvest, which in other days was the busiest season of the year, has, to a large extent, given place to what is commonly called the trucking season, when the strawberries, peas, wax-beans, potatoes, etc., follow each other in quick succession to market. With these developments, new opportunities are offered to the man of moderate means and small quantities of land, to make farming profitable. Being the southernmost county of the Eastern Shore, the mild climate and soils are well adapted to fruit growing and trucking; this branch of farming has grown to large proportions. In 1858 a two-horse wagon would convey at a single load all the fruits and vegetables shipped to the market each day from Somerset. Now the shipments reach seventy five carloads per day in the heavy part of the season. This enables the large landholder to diversify his crops, and the smaller ones to make farming profitable. Strawberries make the most important of all the crops, known as trucking crops, the average of the crop per acre being about $150, clear of gathering and marketing, in a favorable year. The soil, being mostly of the pipe-clay, and the loose black kind, with some mixture of red clay, is specially adapted to the growth of such produce. Land can be purchased at almost any price from $10 to $50 per acre, according to location, improvements and the state of cultivation. The soil is also adapted to the growth of hay, and this branch of farming, though much neglected, could be made profitable. The cleared lands are capable of being divided into smaller farms to advantage, and woodland abounds that can be purchased at reasonably small sums and easily reduced to a good state of cultivation, thus affording opportunities to industrious immigrants that are perhaps unknown to many who seek more distant fields of labor. The canning industry in the county is quite an important item to farmers near the packinghouses, of which there are several in the county. The pack of the county is about half a million cans of peaches, tomatoes, berries, &c., but principally tomatoes. There are two roller flour mills, one at Princess Anne, the other at Westover. These, with several steam saw-mills, are the principal manufacturing industries.
There are many peach orchards in the county. The trees grow splendidly on the red clay and sandy loam soils, and bear fine fruit. The opinion with Delaware peach-growers is gaining strength that the peach section is fast moving down the peninsula. The death of trees by yellows, and vast quantities of premature fruit in many orchards in Delaware appears to support the opinion. The Gulf stream by its approach here to the land, the isothermal line falling a few miles south of Crisfield, situated in the southernmost part of the county, renders the climate mild in winter, softens the breezes of summer, and occasions the best climatic condition for the early vigorous growth of fruits and vegetables.
The several rivers and creeks and the Tangier Sound, where the finest oysters grow, afford ample water transportation to Baltimore by steamers and sailing vessels, having the Eastern Shore Steamboat Company from Crisfield, the Maryland Steamboat Company from Salisbury, and the Manokin River Steamboat Company from Princess Anne. The county has unsurpassed transportation facilities by the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad to northern and western markets.
It may be safely said that nowhere in the rural districts of Maryland is labor better rewarded than throughout Somerset county. In winter the various branches of the oyster trade give employment to hundreds who would otherwise be without work, and in summer the crabbing interest has grown to be an industry that will almost rival the oyster trade in profit, while during the strawberry season a sufficient number of laborers cannot be secured from the county's borders to reap the crop, and hundreds are brought from Virginia and adjoining counties, and receive good wages. An excellent feature of this kind of labor also is that it is distributed among all classes, and every man, woman and child get their respective share of the profits. From present indications it would seem that Somerset county is destined to have a large acreage of vegetable and fruit-producing gardens, and when this is accomplished, and the vast resources which nature has furnished in the oyster bottom which lines the county's shores have been properly and judiciously cultivated, there is no reason why Somerset should not be one of the most progressive counties in the State. The principal towns are Princess Anne, the county seat, and Crisfield, which in recent years has become an important depot of the oyster trade. According to the census of 1890, Crisfield has a census of 1,565, an increase of 58.72 per cent., since the census of 1880. According to the census of 1890 the population of the county was 24,155 divided as follows: white, 14,502; colored, 9,653.
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. 107-110.