. The story of corn and the westward migration. his taxes, he tried the careful treatment the cattle lost less than ahundred pounds apiece by the journey, and hefound a ready market for them. His successencouraged others, and . both Philadelphia andBaltimore became cattle markets. Fattening cattleon the corn of the West for the markets of theEast became a most important industry. DuringMarch and April, three- or four-year-old cattlewere fed heavily on corn. They were then allowedto graze all summer; then for five or six months,were fed on com to give them solid flesh to standth
. The story of corn and the westward migration. his taxes, he tried the careful treatment the cattle lost less than ahundred pounds apiece by the journey, and hefound a ready market for them. His successencouraged others, and . both Philadelphia andBaltimore became cattle markets. Fattening cattleon the corn of the West for the markets of theEast became a most important industry. DuringMarch and April, three- or four-year-old cattlewere fed heavily on corn. They were then allowedto graze all summer; then for five or six months,were fed on com to give them solid flesh to standthe long journey. This began the following July,when the grass along the way would supply thecattle with food. The trip of three hundred milesacross the mountains took fully a month. But atlast a way had been found to turn the corn of theWest into money, and for a time much of the comraised in the West was used in this way. 144 The Story of Corn It was easier to drive cattle than hogs to market,but it was cheaper to raise the hogs. It took from. Photograph by E. J. Hall Cattle in a blue-grass pasture. The rich natural pasture lands of the Ohio Valley soon made the raising and fattening of cattle for the growing markets of the East an important industry three to five years to get the cattle ready for market,but pigs could be fattened within twelve required less skill and labor to handle the hogsbut it was considerably more difficult to drive themsuch a great distance. It was not unusual to see adrove of five thousand hogs or three thousandcattle, accompanied by a group of horsemen, on theirway to Baltimore or Philadelphia. Then, too,great droves of horses were raised for the marketsof the East, and it is said that immediately followingthe War of 1812 more than one hundred thousandpassed through Cumberland Gap on their way tothe cotton fields of the South. It is said that the practice of cutting corn andstacking it in the field was for the convenience of Early Life in the
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