. Highways and byways of the South. limestone of a very ancient era,and their rapid decay keeps the soil constantly amount of cultivation, even without fertilizing,seems to exhaust it, and for pasturage the region isunequalled either in America or in Europe. The Blue-grass country is to a notable degree a landof rural homes. The people love the soil and prizethe feeling of personal worth and importance thatarises from the possession of a generous estate and asense of lordship over all they survey. Practicallyevery man of note in all Kentuckys history has beenof rustic origin, and t
. Highways and byways of the South. limestone of a very ancient era,and their rapid decay keeps the soil constantly amount of cultivation, even without fertilizing,seems to exhaust it, and for pasturage the region isunequalled either in America or in Europe. The Blue-grass country is to a notable degree a landof rural homes. The people love the soil and prizethe feeling of personal worth and importance thatarises from the possession of a generous estate and asense of lordship over all they survey. Practicallyevery man of note in all Kentuckys history has beenof rustic origin, and there never has been a time whenthe farmers have not been a controlling element of thepopulation. Even now, more are engaged in agricul-ture than in all other pursuits combined. With apopulation of some two millions, the states only good- 176 Highways and Byways of the South sized city is Louisville on the Ohio borders. Of thehundreds of towns and villages scattered through theinterior scarcely any exceed five thousand inhabitants,. A Blue-grass Mansion and most of them are wholly dependent for theirmeagre sustenance on the surrounding farm towns are themselves pastoral. The cultivatedfields, the meadows, and the woodlands approach totheir very borders, rustic vehicles abound un theirstreets, and the farmers are more in evidence than thetownsmen. The homes of the Blue-grass aristocracy resemblevery closely the ancestral mansions of the Englishgentry. They are large and dignified and set far back The Blue-grass Country 177 from the highway in parks dotted with ancient trees —mostly gnarled and sturdy oaks or walnuts. Thesemansions are not occasional. They are omnipresent,and everywhere you go there is evidence of a well-to-do existence. You find a constant repetition ofwood and field, meadow and lawn, a lazy stream, anartificial pond, orchard and hedgerow, a tobacco barn,a race-track, browsing sheep, horses and cattle, and,half hidden by groves and shrubbery, the attra
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Keywords: ., bookauthorjohnsonc, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1904
