Gentleman Farms in Kentucky's Inner Bluegrass: A Problem in Mapping

GENTLEMAN FARMS IN KENTUCKY'S INNER BLUEGRASS: A PROBLEM IN MAPPING Karl B. Raitz* America's rural economy, long characterized by the small family farm, has been evolving along several avenues of specialization. (1) One form of rural settlement which is becoming increasingly visible, both in terms of total numbers and in terms of its impact on the local and regional economy, is the gentleman farm. The gentleman farm is very different from general crop and livestock farms in point of raison d'etre. While many gentleman farms are long-standing establishments, others are recent creations of urban wealth. Not all wealth generated by urban employment remains in the city. Increasingly, the prosperous urbanité has sought the amenities of a rural environment. In the country , he can pursue the creative arts and an aesthetic appreciation of nature while enjoying the fresh air and freedom from the crime, congestion , and banalities of the city. (2) Farm land, well beyond the encroaching suburban fringe, has been purchased by urban patricians who have razed the rubbly and relict structures, constructed in tìieir place elaborate farm buildings and a grand house, and moved to the country. Farming is not an economic necessity for most gentleman farmers, nor does agriculture become their full time vocation. The land may be rented to a farm neighbor for crop tillage but is more often planted in grasses and legumes and maintained as pasture for horses and beef cattle. Gentleman farmers are usually independently wealthy, and their rural interests are often an avocational experiment. Concentrations of gentleman farms have developed in several regions . The Virginia Piedmont counties west of Washington, D. C, and the Inner Bluegrass counties of central Kentucky have had long traditions of gentleman farming. Chester County, Pennsylvania, and Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island, in the shadow of the nearby cities of Philadelphia and New York, have numerous gentleman farms. In Marion County, Florida, the rolling karst landscape is being cleared of its scrub vegetation and a new gentleman farming region is expanding west and north of Ocala. (3) Of all the gentleman farming areas, Kentucky's Inner Bluegrass has the most extensive development and the richest tradition, with its roots in the cavalier culture of antebellum Virginia. (4) The establishment of gentleman farms has had a substantial impact in the region. Real estate prices, for example, are significantly higher on land adjoining a gentle- "Dr. Raitz is associate professor of geography at the University of Kentucky. This paper was accepted for publication in October 1974. 34Southeastern Geographer man farm than for similar quality land some distance away. Taxes paid to state and local governments for a variety of farm-associated activities have now become a major contribution to governmental revenues. The farms, originally established because of urban propinquity or the amenities of rich, rolling parkland and meandering streams, now attract growing numbers of tourists. Relatively little is known about the geography of the gentleman farms in the Bluegrass. This paper attempts to establish a method for defining and mapping them. GENTLEMAN FARMS AND FARMERS. Many of Kentucky's gentleman farmers engage in horse racing and breeding as their prime hobby. Consequently, they refer to their establishments as "horse farms" just as Newport's social leaders called their palaces "cottages." (5) Each farm domain includes hundreds, even thousands of acres. Land acquisition costs a minimum of $1,000 per acre. The rolling parkland is fenced into pastures and paddocks by miles of white or black fences. Very little land, despite high fertility, is planted to cash or fodder crops. Burr oaks, American elms, and whitebarked sycamore trees are attractively clumped on the open grasslands or shade the winding farm roads. Flowering trees and shrubs lend pastel contrast to the barns and farm service buildings. The farm home may be an architect-designed ranch style or a stately white-columned mansion. Barns and outbuildings tend to be models of efficiency or of experimental design rather than simple utilitarian structures. The blooded livestock, race horses or purebred beef cattle, command some of the highest prices in the agricultural world. In 1972, the average thoroughbred yearling sold for over $11,000 in Kentucky. Breeding fees range from...