228 RIVERBY 



uniform as a carpet, and grows quite up to the boles 

 of the trees. One peculiarity of the blue-grass is 

 that it takes complete possession of the soil; it suf- 

 fers no rival; it is as uniform as a fall of snow. 

 Only one weed seems to hold its own against it, and 

 that is ironweed, a plant like a robust purple aster 

 five or six feet high. This is Kentucky's one weed, 

 so far as I saw. It was low and inconspicuous while 

 I was there, but before fall it gets tall and rank, 

 and its masses of purple flowers make a very strik- 

 ing spectacle.' Through these forest glades roam the 

 herds of cattle or horses. I know no prettier sight 

 than a troop of blooded mares with their colts slowly 

 grazing through these stately aisles, some of them 

 in sunshine, and some in shadow. In riding along 

 the highway there was hardly an hour when such a 

 scene was not in view. Very often the great farm- 

 house stands in one of these open forests and is 

 approached by a graveled road that winds amid the 

 trees. At Colonel Alexander's the cottage of his 

 foreman, as well as many of the farm buildings and 

 stables, stands in a grassy forest, and the mares with 

 their colts roam far and wide. Sometimes when 

 they were going for water, or were being started in 

 for the night, they would come charging along like 

 the wind, and what a pleasing sight it was to see 

 their glossy coats glancing adown the long sun- 

 flecked vistas! Sometimes the more open of these 

 forest lands are tilled; I saw fine crops of hemp 

 growing on them, and in one or two cases corn. But 

 where the land has never been under cultivation it is 



