The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1885-12-03

TALLAHASSEE, October %, 1885.
Your account Of the weather, contained 10 your
letter of - instant. received yesterday, excited
my sympathy. can only wish you were - for
tuuate as myself. and able to enjoy the perfect
weather 1 am experiencing here.
gather from general report that this fall has
been exceptionally equable here, and that while
nothing approaching cold or frost has made its
appearance as yet, still the entire month Of Oc,o
Der has been cooler than is sometimes the case.
All can say about it is that had power to alter
1t TO suit my exact fancy would be totally At .
loss how to suggest q desirable change.
l live out Of doors, keep up my daily canters,
visiting the farms, searching out the prettiest
views, examining the different soils, and their
tree and plant growth, stopping at the negro
houses, questioning them about their crops,
their methods. purposes and aims IN life, Observ-
ing the cattle, and indulsin9 in picturiug future
changes that must take place when this beauti-
ful region becomes better known and appreci
ated.
You can understand what this holiday lite is
to me after the years OF ioilsome routine you
have seen me grind through.
begin TO suspect we have all been guilty OF
serious error in mercilessly wearing ourselves out
in pursuit OF money. / Can plainly see more
money 10 an evenly and temporarily conducted
lite here, and with it refined, intellectual and
supremely 'dignined surrounding that makes Of
liet al enjoyment rather than D0rry.
find myself, of late, gwen greatly to reflect
ing on these things
If the girls are half as we'll pleased-viewing
matters from their standpont-as l have been,
why don't see what is 10 prevent our seriously
considering u permanent Location here. There
are certain pale cheeks in our household that
l,..,,v, I 49, L.
ing all his days with narrowing anxieies for the
health and lile OF those dear to him, when such
country this lies out OF doors waiting TO be ia
ken and lived in almost for the asking. Turn
these things over in your mind.
1t We were twenty years younger should
waste little time in considering change so OBJ
viOusy Tor the better, but at our time OF lille one
wants to move slowly, and consider the future OF
others rather than themselves. =
But must not mOraliZe thus for fear of re-
lapsing into that too an xiOus state of mind that
has SO long depressed me. promised to describe
in this letter what had been able to see and
conclude with relation TO stock raising here
/ am very glad to learn that what have here
tofore written you OF this country and its indus
tries, has served to interest those of our neigh
bors to whom you have shown them. l am get
ting letters from some of them.
The FLoRIDIAN people will begin with their
next issue serial publication of letters written
L
per to any one who will ask for them.
The American mind has become pretty we'll
fixed in its conviction that no country can as
pre to the successful raising Of live stock, which
cannot produce Indian corn and grass in abund
ance
Neither of these important crops Can be dis
pensed with. The advantages of their combined
effects enables American beef pork and mutton
to traverse the long arms of railway reaching to
the eastern seaboard, then cross the ocean by
steamer, and on ice, (both expensive methOds)
and in far away Liverpool and London, with
handsome profit to producer, shipper. carrier and
middle men, and drive the English meat raiser
out of his own market.
l have, in q previous letter, told of the great
fitness of Middle Florida lands for the produc
ton of Corn. Not that the actual yield per acre
here is equal to rich bottom lands of the West,
but that corn can be produced here abundantly,
at less cost per bussel than in Illinois or Indiana,
and now give it as my deliberate conviction
that less than one-half the amount of this grain
necessary 10 be fed beast in either of those
States will suffice here for the accomplishment
of like results
But another staple commodity in stock feed
ing economy is seed cake, than which nothing is
a more desirable help to corn and grass. Seed
cake is expensive, but in the South, particularly
here in Middle Florida, cotton seed uncrushed
are abundant at SO 90 per ton, or ons-third Of a
cent per pound. Ten pounds per day of these
seed is heavy feeding for fattenng cattle, where
straw and hay are fed with il, and whole cotton
seed have this additional advantage over COM
mercial cake or meal that the hulls so rich both
in potash and phosphOric acid are retained in the
manure, thus adding fully fifty per cent. to its
value in the hands OF the farmer.
A Western gentleman who have met here,
and who has invested in a stock raising enter
prise, said to me the other day while discussing
this matter OF cotton seed as a feed, " NV seed
Ia / cnu
afford TO pay thirty cents rather than do without
them for manure alone, for am confident that
more than thirty cents in value Is added to the
manurial value OF the droppings Of my cattle
for every bushel of seed fed to them"
This IS strong language, and should be dis
posed TO question its tull worth, but il came
from an eminently practical man, who has ac-
cumulated money and ripe information by an
habitual counting Of per ccntum
Oats and rye are both cheap and sure crops
here. The straw of both has val0e familiar to
stock men, but here in Florida these crops pos
sess another merit they do not have with US in
the North and that is they furnish rich green pas
turage all ~snter, besides yielding abundant crops
OF grain in May.
Ordinarily the time necessary to feed stock
here is from the mid lie of December " the mid
die of March, ninety TO one hundred days. 1t is
Just at thai time that grain sown in September
and October furnishes a most abundant bite of
green fodder, and can stand the greatest amount
of treading with least injury. With Indian corn
worth from 25 cents to 40 cents per busher, cot
ton seed Ten cents per bushel, green fields for
grazing, and no sheds and sheltering necessary,
the problem OF carrying lot Of steers through
the winter and putting them into market fat in
April does not seem difficult of solution, and
does seem almost to do away with the n cess,ty
of supply of hay. Yet it is on the very theme
of hay and grass prSduction that think the
praises Of this region might be most iairly sound
ed make this assertion advsedly, not with
standing that, as far as can learn, no single ton
of either clover timothy, red-top, orchard or
other hay grasses familiar to US lin the North and
West has ever been cut or cured in Florida
What, then. you exclaim, how else can hay
be pOssblef Upon the same principles that
there are good roofs and worm fences TO be
found here, although not hemlock board or q
chestnut rail were probably ever seen in the
State.
Or, more aptly still, for the same reason that
sugar is not made here from beeis or sorghum.
There il something better at hand.
The nutritious properties OF several varieties
OF native Southern grasses, quite unknown in
the North, have been most favorabiy reported
upon by government experts and others to whom
specimens have been submitted. Some Of these
Southern grasses flourish here Among those
have had an opportunity to examine and see ev-
idences of their worth as pasture or grazing
grasses, are four that in many respects appear
quite equal to any am familiar with elsewhere.
Bermuda is the only one Of these whose name /
Gao give a. the other three have never heard
ing grazed upon every day by thrifty cattle, and
7 l. &ho A.nt ~vn1 At fkn ts~s~t