My mother’s uncle became a dairy farmer after seeing dairy cows out the window on the train from New York to New Haven early last century. He then convinced my grandfather (his sister’s husband) to switch from raising chickens to raising dairy cows.
(This train, now called the Northeast Regional, still runs from New York to Boston.)
Trainstar 
Ha! Whenever I ride the El in Chicago I stare opened mouthed at the nooks and crannies of neighborhoods that I never manage to see in my car.
I ride the train from New Haven to NYC every Monday (the commuter, which is on the same track as the regional), and I don’t see anything close to dairy cows. Oh, there are some lovely homes with boats tied up to the docks in the back, though. And a whole lot of trash and debris. There’s even a makeshift shack that is hard to catch, but I see it now and then.
This was back around 1920. Things have changed a lot. All of the farms have been pushed out by suburban development. My cousin still has a dairy farm, but further north. It is one of the last in Connecticut. Almost all of the milk in New England is imported from other regions.
I used to live on a dairy farm on Whidbey Island in Washington State. Thanks for making me think about it again …those were some of the best years of my life!
Cool story too about your mom’s uncle and your grandfather ….makes you wonder about now; and the things that happen to you & the decisions you make, how they will affect future generations of your family?
My family had an experience that a lot of families are having now of not having as much as they used to. It really helped to be connected into the world around them. One thing about cars, they really cut off from the world.