After acquiring the Salubria land and building his manor house there in 1830, Dr. John H. Bayne concluded that devoting the entire property to tobacco would not provide the income he needed because tobacco was labor intensive, enslaved labor had become too expensive to acquire and maintain, and the crop exhausted soil nutrients if planted too often. He therefore turned to fruits, vegetables, and flowers for the national capital market, experimenting with crops suited to Salubria’s soil and weather and developing early-producing strains through cross-pollination and selective grafting. His work produced notable strawberries and superior peaches, apples, pears, and grapes, and his reputation as a horticulturist, first recognized locally in 1843, spread across the mid-Atlantic, New England, and even Europe. By 1847 he was commonly called the Prince of Horticulturists, and at that year’s Prince George’s County Agricultural Exhibition his mammoth apples and superior grapes won exceptional praise. By 1852 his orchards contained 15,000 trees, including 8,000 peach trees producing fruit for table use rather than only for brandy, and the enslaved workers at Salubria were apparently trained not only to plant and harvest but also to prune, maintain, and likely help carry out the selective cross-pollination and grafting that produced superior strawberries, grapes, and potatoes. Bayne also promoted professional agricultural education by publishing articles in local, regional, and national trade journals, serving as president of the Prince George’s County Agricultural Society in 1849, and helping found the Maryland Agricultural College, later the University of Maryland at College Park.