The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-07-21
HEATHER ISLAND IN
ALL IT'S GLORY


When Mrs. Hightower rode over
from Heather Island last Thursday
morning, on that seventeen-hand
high horse Poor Boy" and suggest
ed that / go over to the Island and
recuperate for few days, / seized
the chance and while over there /
saw some wonderful things. Round
ing up cattle, marking and branding
and running the cattle through the
anti-tick dipping vat, was the order
of the day and If it is anything that I
delights me it is chasing cattle thru
the woods 1T is no small task to
round UP and corral four or five hun
dred head of cattle with couple of |!
hundred calves to catch, throw, mark |
and brand The past week or SO
has seen strenuous times on the Is
land. Such work as this is healthy
and gives a person muscle, and i'll
takes the kind of rations that they
serve over there to make bone and
muscle. I never had such eating in
all my life. One bait of that jerk
ed dried beef leaves a longing taste
in the mouth long to be remembered
Talk about corn. rode through
sixty acre river side field of re-
claimed marsh land that had not
seen any fertilizer and sitting pn my
horse and raising my hands as high
as / could it was impossible for me
to reach the top of the stalks. As we
rode through this sixty acres of way-
ing corn we came out upon most
wonderful scene, the Hulburd man
sion and facing it sixty acre pecan
grove spread out in beautiful array.
Running down the center direct from
the house up over the hill was a
most wonderful avenue, fifty or six
tys feet wide, lined on either side with
triple rows of rose bushes, oak and
palmetto trees together with hun
dreds of the most shapely little cedar
trees / have ever seen. AL of this
vast grove with the house, and gar
dens surrounded on all sides by a
heavy thick wooded hammock for a
back ground makes scene that is
extremely hard to describe and OF
which there are few in Florida
One of Mr.. Hightower's hobbies
is his grape fruit and orange nursery
Of about twenty thousand trees tha'
are about waist high and 1ookins
rich and strong, of which he is very
proud.
The thousands and thousands o.
camphor trees looking so rich and
green also present a sight that beg
gars description.
One of the sights is an immenst
barn built after the western style
with gambled roof and at one end o
it an immense silo that will be uset
for preserving part of the corn 'crol
for winter feed for the cattle II
fill this silo they cut down the whole
stalk of corn when it is green am
juicy feed these stalks, leaves, ca
corn and all into big cutting ma
chine that chops everything up int
little half inch lengths and then blow
it through pipe up to the top o
the silo where it spreads and drops
In order to keep it evenly spread ov
er the silo men in their bare fee
walk around and around, trampini
1t down solid until the silo is com
pletely filled and then it is left t
work and turn itself into that swee
succulent animal food called ensil
age.
I took pictures of the barn and 81
10 from every possible angle, except
ing upside down.
The days were filled with hustlin
activity, as We rode from one end q
the Island to the other giving order
and directions that kept this vas
bee hive in motion and when nigh