The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1881-07-05

We find the following in a letter of a CORES
pondent of the FIordd Mirror, published at Fer
nandina
at Cedar Key the other day was Mr.. Zeba King,
who is largely interested in the cattle business.
Mr. King is the owner OF upwards OF seventy
five thousand head, that roam over a thousand
hills" numberless broad prairies. and along the
Kissimee, the Chittacohatchee, Istokpoga, Myak-
ka, Tsalo Apopka, Josh, Peace and Caloosahat-
chez, free of cost for pasturage. Buyers are COM
ing into the country this early TO purchase for
the Cuba market, and are Offering fourteen dol
lars per head, but do not want the cattle dis
tuIbed yet They are being driven into large
herds as many as a thousand in bunch, by the
attacks OF flies, for mutual protection. There is
nothing destructive in the bite of the fly, only
annoying to the cattle. If they are not disturbed
by cattle drivers they feed and fatten, and later
are fine lat beef, and bring better price. Mr..
King has one hundred men and three times as
many horses in his employ, and when gathering
time comes his COW hunters mount their horses
with saddle-bags, -four, meat and coffee, pipe
and tobacco, flint and steel, q blanket, lariat,
cOw-whips and spurs; he Is equipped then for a
cruise of weeks, hardly ever seeing q habitatlon,
except that of cow-herder or MQtero Headed
by their general, Mr.. King they make for the
range of particular stock and scatter being
divided off as his judgment dictates, with orders
for each party TO range certain section of
country, gather up certain marks and brands,
and drive them 10 pen designated, where the
calves are marked and branded with hot iron,
generally on the hips. The suckers are milched
a little merely to gentle them, but thousands
never get a hand put on their teats the beef
cattle are cut out and sold 10 Cuban purchasers.
MIR. King is man that stands six feet, seven or
eight inches in his stocking feet, about forty or
forty-five years of age, agreeable, pleasant man
ners, well informed on the current events Of the
6av and rlv fQd IN ho T,r;co of
cattle and the men who come to buy he sells
at delivering point and gets the money before
parting with his stock. When starting out with
newly gathered drove Of wild cattle that are
breaking and running at every bush or noise
mounted on u sturdy horse, giving his orders to
his men to keep we'll up on the flank of the cat
tie, throwing his long twenty-foot cow-whip
over his head, and with a sudden reverse bring
ing il back, the surprise To the buckskn cracker
making it sound like n report Of a musket, and
giving the " COW sound, that echoes and re-
echoes through the woods as he gallOps away
after the herd, he the foremost man, one cannot
but admire the dash and cklessness of the cat
tie king" who handles his cattle stock with
the same care and judgment that Jay Gould does
his railroad Stock
There must be some mistake about Mr. Kings
immense, alleged ownership of cattle. The
Mirrors correspondent credits him with the pos
session of upwards of seventy-five thousand
head" Mr.. King returned cattle in 1880 in two
counties only. One OF these is Manatee, where
he resides, and in which he returns 5000 head of
cattle and two horses, the whole valued at
$3.50, or a traction over So cents head ; the
other county is Monroe, where the return is
1000, valued at 1900 or So head. Thus it is
quite evident that either the correspondent of
the Mirror or the tax-boOks of Manatee and
Monroe do this 50 called "caitle king" great in
Justice, Can the Mirror explain? If he owns
the large numbers credited TO him, why does not
the fact appear on the tax-booksg On the other
hand, if his return in the two counties OF 1000
head is an honest one, where is the sense in
calling him The Cattle King OF Florida" where
there are others, like F. A. HendIy, of Monroe,
for example, who returns more than thrice the
| number?
| Another thing in this connection requires eK-
| PLANTATION. Mr.. Kings herd of cattle, including
two horses, are valued in Mapatee at the insig-
| nifcant sum of ffty-f foe ce1aLs a head and in
Monroe the value is 50. Why this discrepancy
and what sort of q system have we In opera
ton which allows such returns and such valua-
| lions?