96 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



Greene, Clark, Champaign and a few other counties grew 

 it especially strong and vigorous. Timothy grass was 

 introduced and sown for meadow. Blue grass established 

 itself in these meadows and crowded out the timothy. 

 The national road was builded and communication with 

 the East established more easily than before and cattle 

 began to be a prime source of wealth. In the early '305 

 men began learning that there was as much profit in 

 fencing pastures and letting cattle graze the unsown blue- 

 grass as in anything. Later it became the most profitable 

 industry of the southwestern part of the state. Hogs 

 were always grown in numbers and this industry was 

 most important, but cattle could travel afoot to Baltimore 

 or Philadelphia. 



In Pickaway, Madison, Clark, Greene and Champaign 

 counties there grew immense estates, from 600 to 4,000 

 acres in extent. The timber was bur or white oak, black 

 walnut, elm, wild cherry and ash. It did not stand very 

 thick. There grew up after settlement thickets of hazel- 

 nut. These the cattlemen grubbed out and the bluegrass 

 took possession of the ground beneath the trees. Im- 

 mense pastures set with trees like parks of England were 

 grazed by cattle that fattened mostly on the grass. Charles 

 Phellis had one pasture of this nature of 500 acres as 

 late as 20 years ago. White clover came with the blue- 

 grass. Neither was ever sown, so far as I can learn. 

 The cattle were sold at four or five years, sometimes as 

 young as three years. They were mostly grown from 

 cows kept by the settlers on the hills, New England Yan- 

 kees. Many of these hill farmers were content with small 



