The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-10-30
RANCHING IN FLORIDA.
CATTLE-HERDING IN TIE EVER
GLADE REGION.

pany's Herds The Seminoles anC
Their Habits Slavery Still in Elk
istence Among the Indians
One of the principal industries of Soutl
Florida is the cattle trade, and few men
can talk on the subject more entertainingly
or instructively than Lee Mansfield, fore.
man of the Manatse Cattle Company.
Mr.. Mansfield has been spending short
vacation among friends in this city, and
will return tomorrow morning to Tampa.
He has been in the employ of the cattle
company for the last six years. He is
anative Of South Florida, and is we'll posted
on South Florida matters. The Manatee
Cattle Company, of which Senator King OF
De Soto cou ty is president, has a cattle
range of $50 square miles, located in Man.
aztec, De Soto, Brevard, Lee, aud Dade
counties, aud has about 200 900 head OF
cattle.
"Where is the market for them?n Mr..
Mansfield was asked.
CUBAN BEEF EATERS.
"There was time" he replied, "when
Cuba drew largely upon South Florida for
its beef cattle, but in the past two or three
years Cubans have stocked the island with
country. We still send few TO Cuba, but
Key West takes more cattle than any one
foreign point"
''Are the Cubaps large beef eatersg"
Eyes. indeed. We ship from 900 to 200
bead of cattle to Key West monthly The
company has two schoouers I'll ming regu-
lArly from Punta Rassa to Key West--the
Lilly White, with carrying capacity OF
about 125 head, and the Alice Vane. pauet
fba ~
for so to 90 head, and the two vessels de-
liver from 900 to 1000 head every mouth at
Kew West We send about 400 head to
jacksonville every month, a few are shipped
to Savannah, and more are shipped TO
Charleston"
"What kind of cattle are raised in
Floridag'
FLoRTDA-RAISED CATTLE.
"They are small, but they are very fat
except in the winter when the very old
cattle are not in such goo1 order. n rth-
ern cattle couldn't live in South Florida
without they were stall fed, but the South
Florida cattle would not eat if they were
fed. They do not require to be given salt,
as the salt atmosphere appears to answer
the purpose There are no salt lick5 there,
and in the waters where the Gulf tides
come up the cattle do not drink the salt
watern
"Are many men employed in herdingY'
There are about seventy-five herders,
divided into gangs of fifteen, each of which
has foreman, and the foreman works just
as hard as the herders. The cattle are, of
course, wild, and when a shipment is to be
collec ed gang usually is out for three
weeks gathering up the CATTLE after which
the herders come in and rest up"
"Are the cattle brandedf
''Not all of them. We usually spend
about four months in the year hu lting uD
the young cattle and branding them, but
we do not get them all, and during the year
wherever we find cattle that are not
branded we brand them, but some are never
caught. Four months of the year are de-
voted to hunting up the young cattle to
brand them.n
THE EvERGLADE INDIANS.
"If you have cattle in Dads and Monroe
counties they must be in the Everglades,
and you have met with the Seminoles In
your travelsg'
20, yes; we often meet with the Indians.
have been liz their camps over and fUen,
and although it is denied that the India rs
of the Everglades hold negroes in slavery,
l know it 10 be abs )lutely true, and this
accounts for the abs .nce OF negroes in the
settled portions OF South Florida. The Semi
noles have quite number of negroes in
slavery. A very few of these slaves can
speak little English, but as general rule
they have been taught the Indian language,
or rather the language OF the Seminole
tribe, and are kept in abject slavery
do you often come Ia contact with the
Indians?'
Quite often. We not only meet them in
the Everglades, but often on Lake Okeecho-
bee, on the waters of Peace creek, aud ON
the Kissimmee and Caloosahatchie rivers.
Ihey come out in twentys and twenty-tives
and camp for three or four months and
hunt deer and bear. After the hunting
season Is over they return to the Everglades.
THE FLORIDA FUR TRADE.
1T is not an unoo nmon sight to see them
come In to Fort Ogden on foot nr on horse.
back with furs, deer pelts and buckskin.
They get 81 pound for dressed buckskin
and the buckskin of commerce is dressed by
their secret process In he Everglades.
Some two or three years ago the state of
Florida offered premium on the scalps of
wlld animals, such as deer, wild cats,
wolves and tue Florida tiger and cata-
mount Five dollars were paid for bear
scalps, and wolf aud tiger scalps, and a
lesser premium for wild cats and cata-
mounts, but the Seminoles were so success
Iui In their hunting excursions that they
were about to brankrupt the state, and the
scald law had to be repealed
Then game is plentiful in South Florida!n
BIG GAME RESERVE.
Yes. 1t will al ways be. Bear, deer,
wild turkeys, catamounts and wild cats are
plentiful and there are few panthers and
Florida tigers. 1t has often happened that
a drove of wild turkeys has been driven
into our camps with the cattle, and some
times deer are driven up with a
herd: Very few people kill squirrels
or ducks, as they are hardly consid-
cred worth the killing. The cat squirrels
are very plentiful. The oak hummocks are
alive -itth them, and they are seldom shot
except by tourists from North Florida, as
there is other game in abundance there.
With the approach Of cold weather the
ducks come in, and the rivers, creeks and
lakes will be alive with them until spring,
when they go north again"
How about the sheep raising industryri
"Sheep will not do well in South F orida.
1t is too wet for them. Sheep want high
land, and there is YER little OF that in the
southern part Of the peninsula
LIFE ON THE RANGE.
1.-THE range life must be a hard life."
Yes: but there Is a certain fascination
about the wild, free life on the range. Hard
worka Well, yes. 1t is not chi DIS play BY
any means; but it is an independents life,
and ole that has its attractions There is
enough Of romance about 1t to compensate
for the privations that one sometimes has
TO encounter, and there is enough of the