The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1899-09-13

per ton of cane. The product of the
modern house will find ar eady sale
wherever offered. The open house SUI
gar can only be sold to refinery, as
the American public will use none, but
the best graduated. sugar."
AS faithful guardians of the public
and having probably larger invest
ments in Florida and with as honest
desire for the material advancement
of the South we cannot but feel that
such assurances of profits from invest
mcnt, whether it be in Sugar-making,
cane-growing, trucking, tobacco Gull
ture, OF any other industrial pursuit,
are misleading and with each deceived
investor the State gets a setback diff
cult to recover from. There is no per-
manent prosperity to a State, catching
suckers. California is in bad repute
for that kind Of business, but the suck
erS are no longer so plentiful.
If the st. Cloud sugar mill, and the
reclaimed Everglades will show an
nual dividends of 10 per cent. on the
investment, investors will be tumbling
over each other to go into cane-grOW-
ing and sugar-making in Florida.
How the South Economies.
| According to tests made at several
Experiment Stations, including Texas
Station, cotton seed are equal in feed
ing value to corn, and cotton seed
meal 3 per cent more valuable pOlm1
for pound. Cotton seed meal and bulls
combined in about the proportion of
one pound of meal to five of hulls form
an ideal food for fattening cattle. Tex
as exports to foreign countries about
200, 100000 pounds of cotton seed
meal annually and other Southern
States in proportion, and bugs pork,
beef and mutton. Farm and Ranch
says:
1t is plain that, having the feed and
the cattle,,we should do the feeding
and earn the profits. Texas has about
2,OOO,OOO,OOO pounds of surplus seed,
enough to feed 100000 beeves. Re
fore feeding, the value Of these steers
at present prices is about So, OOO,OO
The same steers finished and sold at
the present price in Chicago would
bring about $139OOO,OOO. A difference
of $S5,OOO,OOO due to feeding all our
cotton seed meal with hulls and hay.
1t is not to be expected that these
figures will be reached or these cOndi-
lions realized in the near future. but
surely we ought to come within a
million fat cattle of that which is
clearly possible. And with this rich
est of cattle feed on hand and some
where near 100000 cattle to be fed,
we surely should not ship bOtt feed
and cattle out of the country. But we
are not growing cattle enough to con-
sumo our cotton seed meal, and just
here is the weak spot in our agricul-
tural economy. We should raise cat
tie, and do the feeding on the farms
that produce both cattle and feed.
When our farms grow cattle as the
farms of Iowa do, we will have
100000 steers to feed every year
without calling on the ranches. 1t is
poor economy to sell cotton seed at Sc
per ton that is worth $40 on the farm,
or the meal at $16 per ton that is
worth $50 on the farm
With cotton seed meal and bulls,
cOWpeas, velvet beans, and the in
Vulnerable feeds that flourish in the
South, the Gulf States should have
more cattle trains running to the
northern slaughter houses, than are
coming from the West. But they still
buy their meat, while with good herds
of cattle and hogs and sheep. animal
farming would be her most profitable
industry. 1t is high time the South
awakes to it's advantages Southern
Ruralist.
Agricultural Progress