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In the mid-19th century, the nation grew rapidly and spread across the open landscape westward. Revolutionizing
travel and transport, trains carried the westward migration and linked East Coast markets with producers in far-flung areas. People shipped goods across great distances at unheard-of speeds. As the network of
tracks spread across the country, agricultural and manufactured products could be shipped virtually anywhere. The Upper Eastern Shore, however, was not connected to this network. Its economy was
hindered, as it remained bound to old shipping technologies.
Agriculture on the Upper Eastern Shore was intimately tied to the transportation technologies available during that
period--ships and steamboats. The local economy had always been linked to regional, national, and global markets by these means. Previously, when the markets dried up the only solution was to switch
products and continue farming and shipping as before. When railroads and land-based transport began to dominate the industry, water-based transportation networks became obsolete as a means for regional
distribution of goods. Thus, growers linked to the rail networks had an advantage over those who did not. In the mid-19th century, farmers on the Upper Eastern Shore lacked access to the railroad and
could not remedy the situation by switching crops alone. The farmers did what they could, but all they could do was wait for the railroads to come.
In the meantime, farmers began to shift crops for the third time in their long history. To the west, the Great Plains
were found to be much better suited for grain production than places like the Upper Eastern Shore, so local farmers switched to vegetables and fruits well-suited to the mild climates of the lower mid-Atlantic
region. Faced with slow transportation systems and perishable crops, farmers relied on canning their goods for shipment. Canning technologies, perfected during the Civil War, helped open a new market for local
growers. Canneries sprang up along most wharves and marinas and grew into a major local industry. Steamboats and ships transported goods to the major ports of Baltimore or Philadelphia to be loaded onto trains and
distributed to other markets.
By 1865 the Maryland and Delaware Railroad was constructed through Caroline County and down to Easton, and the Kent
Railroad was constructed to Chestertown. Thus linked with the rail networks, farmers had access to many more markets and the region enjoyed an economic upturn. This also caused the direction of transportation
to shift on the Upper Eastern Shore. Mainly, products of the area had been shipped downriver to the bay and out to major ports. The railroad changed this by providing a land-based link out of the
Delmarva peninsula. This shift lead to a rapid decrease in water-borne activity. Steamboats became obsolete, and their landings were abandoned.
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