336 Agricultural Mania! 



The disagreement led to much litigation in the courts for over 

 fifty years. Among the early settlers of the mountains were a 

 number of the followers of Shay, who took refuge there on the 

 suppression of his rebellion. 



DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRY 



Previous to the construction of the Erie Canal, Catskill com- 

 manded the trade of the adjacent counties on the west and of the 

 southern tier through to Lake Erie, and some portions of northern 

 Pennsylvania. It was a large wheat market, and on the falls of 

 Catskill Creek were the most extensive flouring mills in the state. 

 The canals and railroads built since that time, however, have 

 limited the commercial transactions strictly to home trade. 



A change scarcely less important has taken place in the indus- 

 trial pursuits of the mountain towns. About 1817, on the 

 discovery of improved methods of tanning leather, tanners rushed 

 into the Catskill Mountains, purchased large tracts of mountain 

 land covered with hemlock timber, and erected extensive tan- 

 neries. Villages of considerable magnitude sprang up quickly, 

 and a little less than a century ago Greene County made more 

 leather than all the rest of the state. When the supply of bark 

 was exhausted, the proprietors gradually abandoned their 

 establishments and extended the business further south. The 

 result, however, was to carry cultivation of the land to the high- 

 lands, thereby opening an excellent dairy and wool-growing region. 

 Sheep raising, which was formerly a prominent occupation, has 

 become much less important within the past twenty-five years. 



At about the time of the Civil War iron foundries were in 

 operation at Oak Hill, in the town of Durham, where malleable 

 iron was first produced in this country, coal and iron being hauled 

 from the river at Catskill. The last foundry ceased operations 

 about 1890. 



Although generally best adapted to grazing, where properly 

 cultivated the soil is moderately productive. In general we may 

 say that the river towns east of the mountains produce fruit and 

 grains, while the mountain towns produce dairy products, 



