Farming set the rhythm of Sandy Spring life for more than two centuries. Virtually everyone worked the land or in related tasks: as wheelwright to make and repair farm wagons, as smithy to forge farm tools and equipment, as miller to grind grain for families and livestock, as storekeeper to buy farm products and supply farm families. When businesses such as the bank and insurance company took root, their founders were primarily farmers.

The rhythm of agriculture perilously faltered in Sandy Spring's greatest crisis, some 200 years ago. The cause was exhaustion of the soil wrought by overcultivation of tobacco and corn. A trickle of Sandy Springers joined a mass emigration to the new frontiers of Ohio and Kentucky. Most held fast, determined to reclaim the land. They built kilns for baking limestone into lime, spread manure, and ground bone, marl, oyster shells, and plaster of paris for fertilizer. Their greatest victory came in 1844 when the newly formed Sandy Spring Farmers' Club spearheaded the use of guano--rotted bird droppings quarried in Peru. Soon Edward Stabler could report a more than eight-fold increase in his wheat crop. The rhythm of farming swelled as never before.

A six-horse team pulls a wagon loaded with bundled wheat at the Hallowell farm Rockland. Young Tom Hallowell straddles a horse. The load heads toward a thresher, probably near the barnyard. Some six-horse team drivers could control the animals without using reins--only words and whistles.