The Southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1895-1909, 1902-11-15
fIorida's Cattle Fields.
W!.H

rove uncheCked and the cowboy
rides and swings his lariat, says
the Jacksonville Ella Citizen.
There are vast prairies, savan-
mas and pine or hammock woods
where one might ride on horse
back all of a summer day and
see no sign of human occupation
except, perhaps, here and there
a board fence corral, where cat
tie are rounded up and the beeves
cut out. Yet when these prairies
shall have been drained, if only
with the plow, bedded up in strips
to permit of cultivation, they will
be capable of supporting a popu-
lation of 100 souls to the square
mile, and ultimately double as
much or more.
Long before the admission of
Florida to the sisterhood of states
cattle breeding within her bor-
ders was a bold and facinating
pursuit. Folio wing close upon
the heels of the retreating Semi
mole, and not always awaiting his
retreat, either, wherever the
half-wild, vagabcndizing herds
roved in quest of better grass,
the cowboy, mounted upon his
swift and hardy mustang, follow
ed in pursuit.
So inseperable from his pony
was the cowboy that the steer
regarded him as a centaur, man
and horse, as a single being. If
by chance a. human being ap-
peared alone, walking across the
prairie, the bewildered herds,
according to the action of their
leaders, either gathered close
around him in savage curiosity,
believing, paving up the earth,
lashing their sides with their
tails, or else, standing aloof for a
time, regarding him in terror
with heads upllfted, then turn
ing and fleeing for miles without
once stopping to look back.
So prolifically have the prairies
of Florida swarmed that her
beeves have been introduced
into the markets of nearly all
the southern states and the West
India islands. During the civil
war Florida cattle contributed
largely to the support of both
the contending armies. Regular
details we're made from the ranks
composed of cowboys, who en-
gagged in collecting and driving
vast herds of cattle to supply the
commissaries. They were one
of the greatest contributors to
the scanty food resources of the
confederate army.
Since the civil war hundreds
of thousands of Florida cattle
have been transported across the
gulf into the markets of Cuba, to
supply, first, the Spaniards;
second, the Americans; third and
chiefly, the Cubans themselves.
It is safe to say that ever since
the war closed in 1865, not less
than 10000 head, on an average,
have found their wav yearly into
the slaughter houses of Cuba or
onto her ravaged farms to re-
plenish the wasted breeding
stock.
But the unwonted specter of
the human form divorced from
the horse is becoming daily more
to the Florida steer, and
he regards it with familiarity.
pressing southwark
No place within the confines of
the state is so isolated, so obscure
or forbidding as to prevent the
hardy pioneers from searching
out every nook ard corner. "Vain
is the attempt of the cattle men
to beat back the wave that is set
ting in upon south Florida.
AS the sections of the state
where the former vast herds
were grazed become settled up,
the number of owners will in
crease, the holdings grow small
err and confined to narrower
limits. AS the numbers are
diminished so will the importance
of improving the her increase,