The St. Johns herald., 1895-10-03
GOPHER FARMING.
Successful Experiment of a Dis
 couraged Florida Orchardist.
The Unique Industry Is she Outcome of Having His Orange Grove Killed by Last Winters Severe
 Frosfs.

Gopher farming is one of the unique 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 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 attitudes. He is called by the encyclopedias the testudo polyphemus, a 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 be found, there also will be found rattlesnake. The gopher snake is also a friend of the gopher.
 Mir. Dalywelle's farm is situated on the banks of the Wekiva river. The Wel1iva is named for the central figure "a maiden-in Q Seminole Indian legend. Wel1iva, 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 a bear. The youth tilted Wekiva, and she wept so copiously that where once was arid sand there is now beautiful and cool river.
 Mir. Dalywelle lives with his family of wife, three blue-eyed girls and two tow-headed boys, in two-roomed resi- 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 ot the city regarding the gopher, properly cooked, as 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 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 a 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 Dorth who visit this state dur ing the winter season. Rattlesnake oil is far-famed as cure for rheumatism, and numberof wholesale drug houses buy their oil from Mr. Dalywelle.
 There is a rare flavor to the gopher that cannot fail to tickle the palate of the epicure. Mir. Dalywelle says that in the course of @ few years the people of the whole union will be educated to gcphers. Then, he predicts, the gopher will not go begging at twenty-five cents apiece, but will command thirty six dollars a dozen. He proposes to in- augurate the kindergarten movement, and says that in 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 as to how gopher compares with other meat.