St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1886-09-18
STOCK-RAISING IN THE
FLORIDA PARISHES.
Times -DemGcrnt.

undeveloped. or lacking the stimu-
lus of sufficient capital to send
them to the front among our indus
tries, which must some day lend NJ
to the great prosperity Of the State.
Among the mGst important OF these
are the fine s,ock-rnising facilities
of the Florida parishes. "Those who
have ridden over the rich pastures
and undulating grassy plains OF the
Felicianas have not failed to OBJ
serve the sleek and fat herds OF
homegrown cattle That browse
knee deep in the herbage of thei,
well-watered meadows, or Craze
along the crests and slopes of their
Bermuda-clatl hills. In tbut Sec
ton already many comparatively
small stock growers have developed
Il profitable business in rearing cat
tie. though no one seems to have
gone INTO the industry on n scale
approaching that conducted in the
valleys and plains of Texas.
Political economists have lately
maintained, with much of a show
of reason in their remarks and
writings, that the South was an
ntiully committing the mistake OF
over-production in its cotton crop.
and that the Gulf States, following
the example of the interior and
Atlantic cotton States, might more
probably turn their attention to
diversified Industries. Men are
prone to he timiI about entering
new fields of labor until some pio-
neer has explored them aud found
that they could be proiitubly work
ed.
South Louisiana, and particu-
ticularly that portion embraced
within the limits of the Florida,
parishes. has had it's pioneers Ill IL
small why in this business. Tie
fact has been demonstrated that
cattle and sheep are prolific i'll this
region; that it is wei! ws.tered. and
contains IN almost perennial srowtl,
of rich grasses, from the bluff-bor-
derel shores OF the Mississippi river
III West Feliciana to the tiut mead
ows along the banks of Pearl River
in st. Tammany parish.
Travellers on the Mississippi Val
ley trains. or on the little Wood
ville and Bayou Sara road, have
freqHently commented on the fine
condition of the herds III those por-
tons of the State intcrsected by
these lines, and those who have
passed its son.heastwartl extremity
ON the Louisville ana Nashville
road hive observed the well-fed
of the little herds that
roam over the marshes and mead
ows of the "over-the-Lake" region.
st. Ta,nmany and West Felicinna
parishes are but the extremities OF
this stock-growins section. With
in its broad domain lie also tho fine
parishes Of East Feliciana, st. He
lena. East Baton Rouge. Livinss-
ton and TanyipaI,oa. whose sell is
fertile and generous in the produc-
ticn of corn, oats. hay and other
food and forage for winter fatten-
ing, and whose rich valleys. reedy
brakes and grass-grown plains
could be made to support herds of
thousands of cattle and
fioeas of sheep, numbered as they
are i'll Texas, by millions.
Here is che of tie richest and
most favored cattle regions of the
South, a belt of good erass-grow-
ing and we!lwatered country. con-
tanning several large parishes and
more than 5000 square miles OF ter
ritory, sheltered from the biting
blast of the Texas norther, free
from the deep snow drifts that cum
Der the winter pastures of Coloru
DO, protected 10y the infullible
laws Of latitude from the ice aud
sleet storms of the States north of
he Ohio: and yet not containing
OF tie proporlionate de-
selopment of the less favored Sec
lions. which produce the bulk of
beef, mutton and wool.
EVERYWHERE in the Florida par
shes one may see fat cattle and
we'll conditioned, fire wool-bearin.
locks of sheep, which in fact fur
,ish the highest graded wool in the
eading markets; and in seeing
haSa fkiprs ono 10 lol l., tho cn,,