io8 The Winning of the West 



were considered legitimate, the officers, who were 

 accustomed only to use their fists, generally had the 

 worst of it; so that at 1'ast they made a practice of 

 carrying their side-arms which secured them from 

 molestation. 



Besides raising more than enough flour and beef 

 to keep themselves in plenty, the settlers turned 

 their attention to many other forms of produce. In 

 dian corn was still the leading crop; but melons, 

 pumpkins, and the like were grown, and there were 

 many thriving orchards; while tobacco cultivation 

 was becoming of much importance. Great droves 

 of hogs and flocks of sheep flourished in every lo 

 cality whence the bears and wolves had been driven ; 

 the hogs running free in the woods with the branded 

 cattle and horses. Except in the most densely set 

 tled parts much of the beef was still obtained from 

 buffaloes, and much of the bacon from bears. Veni 

 son was a staple commodity. The fur trade, largely 

 carried on by French trappers, was still of great im 

 portance in Kentucky and Tennessee. North of the 

 Ohio it was the attraction which tempted white men 

 into the wilderness. Its profitable nature was the 

 chief reason why the British persistently clung to 

 the posts on the Lakes, and stirred up the Indians 

 to keep the American settlers out of all lands that 

 were tributary to the British fur merchants. From 

 Kentucky and the Cumberland country the peltries 

 were sometimes sent east by pack-train, and some 

 times up the Ohio in bateaus or canoes. 



In addition to furs, quantities of ginseng were 



