Advocates Reclamation of Assateague Marshes
This is a little side-light on that section of the United States where the Anglo-Saxon's plough first broke the sod and his cattle were first pastured. It is also, a story of reclamation, quiet and unostentatious, and therefore lacking the action and romance which comes with the building of monster concrete dams or the transporting of water through flumes from snow capped mountains miles away. Nevertheless, it promises to be far more profitable for those engaged in it and for state and nation, than many of the huge projects of draining swamps and tidal marshes of New Jersey or watering the arid regions of the west. And, it is right at the door of that portion of the United States which has the greatest density of population.
Take out your atlas and turn to the map of the Middle Atlantic States, and where the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay, seem to be held apart by a mere string of land, you'll find the Eastern Shore of Virginia, or the two counties of Accomack and Northampton, which are today called the "Tip of the Del-Mar-Va Peninsula of Plenty."
According to the Soil Survey of the department of Agriculture, these two counties, though containing only about 754 square miles, possess the best agricultural soil in the United States and have been brought to the highest point of cultivation. That however isn't where your reclamation comes in. But stretching along the seaside and the bayshore of these two counties is a fringe of tidal marsh cut up into many islands.
Look again at your map, and on the Atlantic Coast side where the Eastern Shore joins Maryland you will find a long island rejoicing in the aboriginal name of "Assateague." Within a few years, Assateague will be the southern terminus of the proposed 70 mile Del-Mar-Va Ocean Boulevard, with Lewes, Del., the northern gateway. But at present it is a stretch of coastal sand, tidal marsh and high sand dunes heavily covered with long leaf pines.
It is the property of Samuel B. Field, a native Eastern Shoreman, and president of a large Baltimore Corporation. He holds title to this home of the long since vanished Assateague Indians, under a deed granted by an English King in 1687.
There have always been horses and cattle on Assateague as well as upon the thousands of acres of similar tidal marsh since the first years of the white settlers. Like all stock turned out to feed for itself there has been the degeneracy due to inbreeding until it is on a level with the mustangs run down and shot by western cattlemen.
The grazing was there and from time to time attempts have been made to replace the native stock with high grade cattle but the environment was not suitable and the experiments were costly until the owner of Assateague and a few other far sighted Eastern Shoremen attacked the problem from another angle, several years ago Polled Angus Bull and Hereford bulls have been introduced and crossed with the native stock and now "Reclamation" seems to be operating at a minimum of cost with a maximum of profit.
The progeny of this crossing born and raised on the island is accustomed or acclimated to the conditions of grass, water, etc., and the results are startling in some respects.
Year old calves, the increase from the native stock and the improved bulls, weigh twice as much as the native calves or as much as the two year old native cattle. Likewise it has been found that 70% to 80% of the calves take after the male, in that way they are black and hornless.
Herefords have been introduced recently and the crossing seems to do better than the Polled Angus producing better hustlers and getting a living where other stock might starve. They grow to better size and weigh more.
On Assateague Island alone, or that part in Virginia Mr. Field owns, there are over four hundred acres of grazing land which has never been profitably productive. It is in a fair way, to be the nucleus of a Eastern cattle industry, which, in a small way, may supply the demand for fresh beef in nearby cities and at a lower cost of transportation. the latter will be definitely established when the projected inland waterway now before the U. S. Engineers, is approved. This contemplated barge transportation between Rehoboth, Del., and Kiptopeake,the last point in Virginia's Eastern Shore.
It may be well to get the opinion of the business man who is experimenting in this novel from of reclamation. Mr. Field says:
"We have at the present time perhaps about 150 to 200 head of cattle and sell off from time to time steers and old cows keeping, of course the young heifer calves for breeding purposes. The cattle raised on these islands live almost the year around without any feeding, that is of grain or fodder or hay. The pasture is a mixture of salt and fresh grasses and the hot suns of August and September "cures" the grasses on the ground and they live thru the winter on this. There is a certain percentage of loss from deaths which is inevitable by the most of the stock that has been raised on Assateague Island in years gone by has never touched or eaten a grain of corn or other food other than the native grasses.
"Unfortunately, in the past there has not been much attention paid to improving the breed of cattle in that section, that is, the cattle that have run on the range on this and adjacent islands. They have been allowed to interbreed, not looked after or cared for and the breed degenerated into a smaller type of cattle but by introducing, as we have described above, improved males, we are attempting to build up the breed of cattle and increase the weight which can easily be done in this manner. We, of course, have to look after and feed the males for a few months during the winter but the vast majority of the stock lives the entire year around without any feeding whatever except what they get on the pasture. In addition to the cattle we have on Assateague about 15 to 20 of what are called Chincoteague Ponies. They require very little attention and no feeding whatever. They seem to be able to take care of themselves much better than the cattle and are almost always in good condition. Occasionally one or two of them may get a little thin in winter but on the whole they come through in fairly good shape. The advantage of that section for raising stock is the fact that feeding is not required, that the stock obtains its living from the pasture the entire year around making, of course, a low cost for the raising of the cattle. That is, no feeding has to be done which you appreciate would make it expensive if they had to be fed."
What is being done on one small strip of this vast area of tidal marsh may be accomplished elsewhere under similar conditions, and it requires no stretching of the imagination to vision barge loads of beef cattle passing north to Philadelphia and New York stock yards.
Not only beef, but mutton can be produced on the marshes for sheep, even scrubs do well here and an effort is on foot to follow Mr. Field's method of crossing with high grade stock.
Out in Chesapeake Bay, Mr Charles Hardenburg, of Jersey City, has take up his residence in the abandoned lighthouse on Little Watts Island. On Little Watts Island proper, which has been the property of his family for many years, he will introduce high-grade sheep. Watts Island contains about two hundred and fifty acres, and though much of it has grown up in thicket, there is good arable soil which once produced schooner loads of vegetables for the Baltimore market.
The Eastern Shore of Virginia Chamber of Commerce has aligned itself with the Virginia State Plan for agricultural diversification and is backing a program for the two Eastern Shore counties of "Raise More Food for Home Consumption" and is lending its aid to this sane "reclamation" of the tidal marshes.
It is safe to assert that the bitterest opponents of reclamation can find no fault with this new method while the advocates of reclamation may use it as a point in favor of their claims. At least, there won't be any dipping in the "Pork Barrel" to bring it about.