V 95
I - 4 - FAIRS AND FAIR MAKERS `
part the_fhrmcr played in the preparation of the fiber made every grower a semi—
manufacturer, keenly aware of the vital economic interest shared by the grower,
the manufacturer, and the user 0f the final prodpct. This alliance between agri-
culture and industry was extended ir the 1830's and later to the development and
perfecting 0f all lines of arricultural machinery and farm, equipment, as well as COT
to their manufacture and use. Thé close relationship found expression in the SP€
ii name "Agricultural and M@chanic&1," applied to the societies organized during and m€T
A `aftcr the third decade of the nineteenth century.
Tobacco was another crop that eargr c&m@ into the Kentucky agricultural and br*
Y industrial picture. Like hemp it required muph labor and gave correspondingly roc
largcfinancial returns per acre under cultivation. Unlike hemp, which reached Tu]
the peak of its industrial importance in the day of the sailing ship, tobacco did b&(
not assume its pr0scnt—day major role until it was brought int0_pr¤mincncc by the Am?
pressing nconomic nccd of the State as a whole after 1865 and the gradual decline Va·
of hemp grcwing. br?
. th:
Flax, a leading fiber crop of the early years, followed closely the fortunes f°‘
of hemp, and the linens of Kentucky hclpcd bind still closer the alliance between Wa:
farmer and manufacturer. Corn, a crop easily grwwn under pioneer conditions and tO
a basis of one of Kantucky's greatest industries, the manufacture of whisky, has t€°
never achieved any more than local marketing importance. Wheat, rye, awd barley,
the other leading grains, have entered into the manufacturing and marketing pic- lil
ture with varying degrees of intensity. With the possible exception of wheat, ht
these grain crops were geared to the home demand and only pressed upon the Na- q7é
ti0n's markets after the adoption, in the l850's, of modern farm machinery. dax
, _c0Mi1;g OF mlgmms - J°h’
The pioneer of the late eighteenth century, along with the meager equipment
hc céuld transport across the mountains, brought his greatest possessions, his ?&I
horses and his cattle. N0 introduction [to the story cf the fairs cf Kentucky 1aI
would be complete, and no such story would be understandable, without some men- Cl(
ticn 0f what hai taken place in the pastures and breeding lots of Virginia, M&ry- Of
land, and, porhapé, Rhode Island and New York. Certainly those sections and the
counties 0f England and Scotland whence the great brcgds came cannot be forgotten 8V(
— Holdernsss and Durham, Berkshire and Yorkshire, Hereford aud ·`_· Devon in England;
Ayr, Aberdeen, Galloway, and Angus in Scotland-- all these for "hcrncd c&ttl@," _
as Our ancestors called them; Shropshire, Essex‘ and Lincoln, the Cotswold and ¥&]
Chcviot hills, and the downs of Southampton for shegp; the dry Spanish platcaus " d;
for Spanish Merino sheep; also for jacks and jcnnets, foundation of the mule ` “
industry. A `
THE HORSES OF LCNG AGO
First mentioned are the great rural counties of southern and central England E;
where, in the days after the Crusades, managers of great estates, while directing fi
their tenants, rode horses known simply as thc "English brcad." Those horses al
_ possessed, very c0n0@i*&bly, more than a little 0f the blood 0f the Barb 0r Turk.
They are described by Thomas Blundeville, writing in 1580, as "& race of swift
runners to run for wagers or to gallop the buck." A smaller, gentler type fT@— mg
qucntly spoken of in literature as the "p&lfrey" was also in common usc, purticu- bg
lnrly by women and children. In the ballad 0f "Fair An;©t," the ambling 0r pac- Jé
E ing gait charwctcristic 0f the palfrcy is thus mentioned: Ca
I