Smyrna times., 1919-01-01
w. H. ARMSTRONG FLORIDA TRIP
Returned Just Before Xmas From a
Meeting of the Farmers National
Congress Held at Jacksonville.

William H. Armstrong, Smyrna's
well known retired farmer and Grang-
er, who recently returned from a de-
hghtful trip to Florida, in which he
made tour of several Florida coun-
ties with party of delegates to the
Farmers National Congress, follow
ing the Congress which was held in
Jacksonville, December 3-6, is show
ing his friends a souvenir diary of
their trip. Commenting upon the op-
portunities Florida offers for farming
and live stock production he saws:
"The trip which was arranged by the
Association of Florida Fairs took us
through counties where extensive
farming operations are being carried
on, and we were surprised to learn
that the corn crop of Florida this past
year, exceeded in value the citrus crop,
which was fully up to normal. We
were shown herds of pure Shothorns,
Angus and HerefOrds which have not
had any grain or housing, that were in
excellent condition. One of the En-
tries at the Florida State Fair, which
was open during our Congress, was an
eighteen months old grade steer,
weighing 1920 pounds, that sold at
public auction for fifty cents per
pound on the hoOf. 1t was raised in
Marion county, the dam having three
Shorthom crosses on a piney woods
COW, and the sire was a pure bred An
gus. The greatest opportunities
seem to be breeding the cheap, native
cows to pure bred beef type sires. The
climate is very mild, and calves drop
ped in January and February on the
pastures, make an excellent growth
for finishing as yearlings on velvet
beans, corn and peanut hay, which are
grown in abundance on cultivated
land. Considerable sport has been
made about the Florida piney woods
rOOters, but we visited hog farm where
prize winning pure bred Poland
Chinas, Duroc-Jerseys, Berkshire and
Hampshire are being raised at less
cost than is possible in our own eli
mate.
Picnics and a Ride on Silver Lake.
"On December 10th our party en-
joyed a fish fry dinner spread on
tables under green leaved trees in the
city park at Mcintosh. The following
day we had a picnic dinner and oyster
roast at Silver Springs, with an
abundance of oranges for desert. No
one should miss an opportunity of
visiting Silver Springs six miles from
Ocala and taking the ride in a glass
bOttomed boat. The English vocabu-
larry does not contain words appropri-
ate to describe the wonders of coloring
and formations, both of vegetable and
mineral seen under the water at that
place and there are numerous varie-
ties of fish swimming here and there
to lend life to the setting. We saw
number of tractors at work in the
fields, and inspected some barns full
of excellent oats, COW pea hay, corn,
and velvet beans. The latter is one of
the favorite leguminous crops and
makes heavy crop high protein con-
tent grain,as well as luxuriant growth
of vines.
Orange Groves Aplenty and Fine Road
"Of course we visited orange groves
and helped ourselves to the golden
fruit. Just before crossing from
Marion county into Lake county each
member of our party put little sand
into left shoe, as an attraction to re-
turn to that county to live. "The
roads we travelled over in automobiles,
going from Gainesville to Orlando and
on SIDE trips, covering a distance of
24O miles, were excellent, and are a
part of the attractions for tourists to
that state. The exhibits at the State
Fair proved that Florida is producing
a great many varieties of grains and
grasses. The peanut seems to be tax
ing the place of cotton and making
the farmers more money at less cost
for production. All of the farmers
we talked with said that they get two
crops per year from cultivated land
and some times get three crops. Land
values are comparatively cheap, and
the mild climate makes expensive
barns unnecessary for housing stock,
so Florida should become the mecca
for a large number of young, progress
sive farmers, when they learn of the