The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-04-24
AN ARTICLE THAT SHOULD AT.
TRACT ATTENTION

oklawaha, Fla, April II, 1914.
Editor the Banner:
The convention of the packers that
was held in Chicago to devise ways IN
induce the farmers to raise more
cattle brought out a great deal of dis.
! cussion. A National law to prevent
The slaughter of calves has been in
troduced in congress and several
other schemes have been advocated
Finally some of the farmers got into
the discussion and they talked lust
plain common sense. They said more
cattle would be raised when it paid
the farmers to raise them, one of
them sent in letter on the cost of
raising beef steers and said he knew
what he was talking about for he had
ried the business and quit. He was
located in farming district in ILL
1ois and furnished the following facts
20 the packers:
In the first place it takes at least
two years to get one steer ready for
market The expense of the two years
is as follows: Value of calf 81, pas
ture for first summer $500, for second
summer $1,000, hay for first winter,
| $4,000, for second winter, $4,000. To
fatten him costs fifty bushels of corn
at so cents a bushel, $500, and he
drinks about $1,000 worth of milk the
first six weeks.
The way the farmers figured it out
there was a loss on every steer that
he raised and from that loss to him,
the packers had accumulated their
immense fortunes. He said the pack
ers could have all the steers they
wanted if they would pay the farmers
the cost of raising them and little
over. He thought that there were only
two ways to increase the beef output.
One was for the packers to pay more
for cattle and the other was for the
farmers to go into the refrigerating
business themselves. The beef crit
ing to his figures. $1,000 each and he
sold them to the packers for $7A00.
He did not propose to do any more
towards creating fortunes for the
packers.
The trouble with the Illinois farm
ers is the short season, making neces-
sary housing and stall feeding which
runs the cost of production too high
to make it profitabIe-but how differ
ent in Florida, about the lakes and
on the prairie lands where the tooth
some maiden cane and other native
grasses flourish. Where the county is
most productive in every way. Corn
of quality equal to that of the middle
states is produced. Rhodes grass,
crab-grass, natal grass, cowpea vines,
velvet beans, beggarweeds-these and
many other kinds of hay are grown,
several cuttings a year being made
and heavy tonnage to the acre re-
sulting. Lakes and small streams pro-
vide abundant water for the stock on
the range.
Many new companies have recently
come into the field, organized for the
single purpose of raising stock. They
will raise cattle and hogs and expect
to anticipate the great demands for
meats that the country is making all
of the time. Florida has always been
regarded as the coming stock country
and the west are coming now to Flo
ida for their cattle. The hitherto
despised scrub cattle and the razor
back hog are taking on new impor-
lance when crossed with the more
delicate breeds of cattle and hogs OF
other climes and Florida as a hog
and cattle country is coming back in
to her own very rapidly. In the state
here there are such wonderful posi-
billities in the farming and stock rails
ing game there seems to be no limit
to what men of means and experience
can do, and cattle and hog raising are
bound to follow the returns from hay
and corn and the numerous feed
stuifs where such can be raised as
early as in Florida.
DAVID H. KIRKLAND.