The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-09-26
FUTURE OF THE LIVE STOCK IN
DUSTRY OF THE SOUTH
Oklawaha Fla, Sept. 10 1918,

1t is with interest note in your is
sue of the 18th the attention you call
to the advertisement of the Seaboard
Air Line Railway in the Baltimore
Manufacturers Record, under your
editorial caption, Marion County's
Opportunity"
There are three conditions abso-
lutely essential to the successful and
profitable breeding and fattening of
live stock, viz: Good food, good wa
ter, good health.
Being a firm believer in the future
growth and development of the live
stock industry in the south, and par
ticularly that portion of the south,
Georgia and Florida, wherein I have
lived for twenty-five years since | left
my native country of Canada, which
is noted for its fine grade of mich
cows and thoroughbred hogs and
horses, it devolves upon me to show,
if possible, that the three necessary
conditions above referred to obtain
in these two southern states.
First, the question of good food. In
the variety, quality and quantity of
admittedly the best stock foods now
in use, we challenge comparison with
any section of the United States. AL
falfa, the king of all forage plants,
and the one attracting so much at
tention among stock growers every
where, is now successfully grown in
many portions of these two states, as
we'll as in the other southern states.
From three to five cuttings per sea-
son, with an average of one ton per
cutting per acre is our record on our
muck farms in Marion county. This
of itself constitutes a good reason on
which to base our faith in the future
live stock industry in our county.
Cotton seed meal, another good food
product now regarded as indispensa-
BILE even among the milk producers
of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, ILL
nois and Canada, is exclusively a
southern production. In some re-
spects it has no equal as an animal
food, and nowhere can it be produc-
ed so cheaply as in the cotton states
of the south.
Only a few years since, corn, the
most valuable of all food products in
the United States, reaching in value
the enormous sum of one billion,
seven hundred and twenty millions
of dollars in 1912, was supposed to be
confined to a comparatively narrow
belt, embracing portion of Illinois,
Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Nebras-
ka, but today, strange as it may seem,
the states of Georgia and Florida,
Louisiana and Mississippi are, under
favorable conditions and intelligent
cultivation and fertilization, produc-
ing more corn per acre than the so
called northern corn states. The Ok
lawaha River Farms yield IS to 100
bushels to the acre, and without the
aid of any artificial stimulant. This
in large measure is due to the long
season and plenty of moisture. A
drouth-like Kansas and Nebraska
have so severely suffered from re-
cently-is something unknown and
never experienced by the farmers of
Georgia and Florida.
The boys corn clubs throughout
the south-each boy experimenting
with an acre of land-have demon
strated that an average of 60 to rs
bushels can be produced on the ordi-
nary up-Iands of our southern states.
Oats, another food product, in gen.
eral use among the breeders of hors-
es, mules and cattle everywhere, and
fifth in value of the many stock food
products of this country, has become
one of the surest and safest farm
crops of the south. Let me empha-
size the thought that from a food
standpoint for stock no section of
this country is comparable with the
south.
Good water, and plenty of it, is the
second essential condition wherever
stock growing is carried on with sue
cess. In this particular Marion coun-
ty is especially favored, being we'll
supplied with springs, running
streams and lakes. We have an an
nual rainfall of more than fifty inch
es, and in many localities artesian
wells may be had at depth of from
$50 to 500 feet, furnishing an abun-
dance of the purest water, which,
without the aid of expensive gasoline
engines or windmills, is being car.
ried in pipes laid on top of the ground
to barns, barn-yards and fields.
The third, and what regard as the
most important condition essential to