The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1895-09-07
GOPHER FARMING.
Successful Experiment Of q Dis
couraged Florida Orchardist
The Cnique Industry II the Outcome of
Having His Orange Grove Killed
BY Last Winters Severe
ErOstS.

industries which an original man OF
Florida has gone into since his orange
grove was killed to the roots by last
winters cold weather. Henry DAILY
welle, German by birth, but who has
been in Florida for a decade, expects TO
have fifty Thousand gophers on the
market inside of two years. Fifty
thousand gophers ought to contribute
in some degree to the discontinue of
the beef trust.
The gopher of Florida, says the st.
Louis Republic, is not the gopher of
more northern latitudes. He is called
by the encyclopedias the testudo
polyphemus, species OF turtle, which
can claim first cousinship to the tor
toise. He makes his home in the high,
rolling pine land of this state. He and
the rattlesnake are the best of com
panions. Wherever gopher hole is to
he found, there also will be found q
rattlesnake. The gopher snake is also
a friend of the gopher.
Mr. Dalywelle's farm is situated on
the banks of the Wekiva river. The
Wekiva is named for the central figure
"a maiden-in a. Seminole Indian
legend. Wekiva, the beautiful daugh-
ter of the ancient Thomas Tiger Tail,
celebrated for the number of scalps he
had taken, was once in love with hand
some Indian youth, who stood six feet
in his moccasins, and could shoot an
arrow through the heart of bear.
The youth Tilted Wekiva, and she wept
so copiously that where once was arid
sand there is now a beautiful and cool
river.
Mr.. Dalywelle lives with his family
of wife, three blue-eyed girls and two
dence, the walls of which are of hewn
pine. In his first struggle for exist
tence in this state gopher more often
furnished the piece de resistance Of his
dinner than Florida beef. "Why
would it not do" he asked himself one
day, Ito raise these things for market?"
There was ample demand for gophers
in all of the Florida markets, the resi-
dents of the country as well as those of
the city regarding the gopher, properly
cooked, as a delicacy equal to diamond
backed terrapin. He resolved to carry
out his idea, so he and his boys secured
the country for miles and miles, and
gathered together all the gophers they
could find, and placed them upon a
two-thousand-acre tract of virgin pine.
The gophers took kindly to the spot,
and industriously set to work to dig
themselves homes in the yellow sand.
The place is now literally honey
combed with their tunnels.
The only unpleasant feature of gopher
farming, according to Dalywelle, is the
snakes. Hundreds of rattlesnakes have
flocked to the homes OF the gophers.
Not day passes but the gopher raiser
and his boys kill from three to dozen.
They never venture into the farm with
out heavy top boots, heavy stick and
pint of antidote. The snakes, while
dangerous, are also made to yield a
revenue to this provident farmer. He
cures the skins and sells them to curio
dealers. The curio dealers have them
manufactured into purses and hand
satchels, and sell them to the visitors
from the porth who visit tbs state dur
ing the winter season. Rattlesnake oil
is far-famed as q cure for rheumatism,
and number of wholesale drug houses
buy their oil from Mr.. Dalywelle.
There is rare flavor to the gopher
that cannot fail to tickle the palate of
the epicure. Mr.. Dalywelle says that
in the course Of a few years the people
of the whole union will be educated to
gcphers Then, he predicts, the gopher
will not go q begging at twenty-five
cents apiece, but will command thirty
six dollars q dozen. He proposes to in
augurate the kindergarten movement,
and says that in a few weeks, when
gophers are fattest, he will send pair
to President Cleveland, and other dis
tinguished men. All he asks in return
is an honest testimonial ~ to how
gopher compares with other meat.