Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1915-03-23

sive farmers so far as it relates to the
care of their live stock, for most of
them make little or no provision for
feeding their cattle through the six
weeks or two months of the year
when the native grasses are dormant
on the ranges, and take a chance that
cattle will be able to pun through.
Most of them do, but they come
through in very poor condition. The
loss sustained during this season
would more than repay for putting
up necessary forage and in addition
the whole herd would come through
the winter in good shape. You can
not talk that into the cracker farm
er. His argument is that he has
never put up fodder for winter use,
and so why should he do so now. He
will admit that out of herd of 300
to 400 cattle his loss during the win
ter will run from % to 40 head, but
as these cattle have always had free
range and have in reality cost him
nothing to produce, he does not con-
slider this as a loss, merely as small
curtailment of his profits.
/ have mentioned the barren look
| ing homes of the "one-mule" farmers,
but | do not want to convey the inn
preston that they are all this way.
| In fact right in the vicinity of Waldo
| and on the banks of Lake Sante Fe, |
have seen some of the most beautiful
home grounds | have ever seen in
| Florida, places that for natural beauty
discount anything to be seen in con-
nection with the big Flagler hotels.
! These home grounds have wealth
of tropical plants, magnolia trees,
palms of various kinds, roses with
out end and wealth of foliage trees
and plants the names of which | can
not remember. They are as near an
approach TO paradise as / ever ex-
pect to make on this earth. One OF
these is owned by an English gentle.
man and the other by a German
baron, who have lived there for many
years and who have not only made
their farms and orange groves a COM
mercial success, but who have been
able to give expression to their artis-
tic ideals in the making Of their home
grounds. When you revel in the
| beauties of some of these homes and
when YOU recollect the barrenneSs of
others which with a minimum OF
abor could be transformed into such
Iattractiveness, you marvel to think
that there is a bare and unattractiye
home ground in the county.
"We have long Sc son and can
raise fruits of all kinds, corn, oats,
rye, chufas, pinders, COW peas, soy
beans, various kinds of grasses, need
no barns to protect our cattle and
hogs, and these latter can raise more
cheaply than you do in the North and
with much less work." said Doctor
Eaton, in parting with me, but We
will never make much headway along
these lines until we get new class
of people in here, who BY precept vii
| demonstrate how these things shoulC
be done. Our cracker farmer is moi
as a rule much of a traveller, he ha'
no adequate conception of what rea
farming is, nor is he much OF reader
| Unless a new class Of people come IL
here to stir him up and show hin
how things are done, he will cling II
the old one-mule plow, the raising o
cotton as his principal crop, and JUS
enough corn, sweet potatoes and othe
vegetables and few hogs to satfsfl
his immediate wants. Government
bulletines will never do them an.
good. Nothing but actual demonstra
! tion, and the sad part OF 1t is tha
about the time they awaken to thu
conditions surrounding them, the lanC
. will have so advanced in value tha
but few of them will be able TO gel
any, and our farms will pass away
from the native element"