L12 2s." In that year Thomas Taber, Esq., satisfied his account with an
ox, L6 16s.; cash, L10; three pounds and nine ounces of old pewter, 4s.
6d.; seven hogs, L20 11s. 6d., and the above 29 cheeses. So that
approximately one-fourth of the "money crop" of this substantial farmer
was in the form of a dairy product. In the year 1895, the average Quaker
Hill farm was producing, as will be shown in Chapter III, Part III,
ninety per cent. of dairy product, namely milk.

The second phase of the industry proper to Quaker Hill was that of
raising fat cattle. This culminated at the end of the period of the
Quaker Community. In this industry were laid the foundations of some
large fortunes. It brought in its day more money into the neighborhood
than any other occupation had ever brought. It disappeared with the
coming of the railroad into the valley, bringing, in refrigerator cars,
meat from western lands, and killed in Chicago. Then the cattle were
fattened on these hills, in the rich grass, and driven to New York to be
killed and sold there.

In "Some Glimpses of the Past," Miss Taber says: "But the chief business
of most farmers was the fatting of cattle. The cattle were generally
bought when from two to three years old, usually in the fall, kept
through the winter and the following summer fattened and sold. They were
the only things that did not have to go to the river to reach the
market. From all over the country they were driven to New York on foot,
and the road through the valley was the main thoroughfare for them.
Monday was the market day in New York and all started in time to reach
the city by Saturday. From Pawling the cattle were started on Thursday,
and those from greater distances planned to reach this part of their
journey on that day. It used to be said that the dealers could tell what
the market would be in New York on the following Monday by watching the
cattle that passed through Pawling on Thursday. The cattle were
collected and taken to the city by drovers; theirs was a great business
in those days. Hotels or taverns were provided for their accommodation
at frequent intervals along the road. Ira Griffin was a drover and Mr.
Archibald Dodge remembers when a boy going to New York with him and his
cattle, walking all the way. There were also droves of cattle other than
fat ones, on the road, some called store cattle, and the books of Mr.
Benjamin V. Haviland, who kept one of the taverns, show that in the year