The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1919-02-11

aged by a man skilled in his work.
With two assistants, he il busily en-
gagged in turning out shoes. They are
good shoes, not only strong and ser
viceable but good-looking. The man
in charge takes a great pride in do
ing good wofk The little factory is
saving money for the state, and Mr..
Bitch hopes to enlarge it. 1t Is pos
sible, he thinks, to put in tannery,
cure leather and not only supply all
the convicts with shoes, but have
some to sell. The cost of shoes made
III this factory is $1.88 pair.
Another noticeable feature is the
poultry farm. This is only begin
ming, but so far as it has gone it is
complete. 1t is raising several of the
choicest breeds with houses and nests
of the latest construction. 1t is yield
two men who take the greatest inter
est and pride in their work, and Mr..
Bitch expects to see it grow TO large
proportions.
The farm has an electric plant
which furnishes light for the build
ings and streets of the farm and
power for all the industries. We
found the power plant far out from
the stockade, in charge of couple of
engineers, whose machinery was in
fine condition. Nobody would have
any but the freest of men.
Looking thru the stables and barns
late in the afternoons where the men
were feeding and watering the stock
for the night, we found them going
about their work exactly as free Ia
borers would have done on any other
big farm. Nobody was ordering them
around, but every man was busy and
seemed to know just what TO do.
Mr.. Bitch and some of his assist
ants said they were sorry the Star
man could not have made his visit ON
q week day, so he could have seen
how well the men worked, almost eve
ry man doing his best, and every unit
vieing with every other unit.
Mr.. Bitch is farmer by birth and
raising, and understands what good
farming is. So his position is con-
genial to him in more ways than one.
In many things the farm is doing we'll.
There have been big crops of corn,
rice, potatoes and feed stuffs. Cab
bage, onions and turnips do fairly
well. There is plenty of meat and
syrup. Over thousand head of hogs
were on the farm last year, of which
four hundred were butchered. We
had look in the smokehouse, where
hams, shoulders and sides were cur
ing, and never saw so much meat at
one time before. Mighty good meat,
too. There is dairy which furnishes
enough milk for all the people TO
have milk in their coffee, and also
enough for a plentiful supply for
what patients there may be in the
hospital, or anyone who needs it as
a diet
i Mr.. Bitch took a justifiable pride
in showing where he had effected a
number of savings. One was in the
mattresses for the convicts. Some
firm had been supplying mattresses
4 with sleazy ticks stuffed with excel
sior-mattresses that soon wore out.
Mr.. Bitch took several of his old and
more feeble men-"decrepit," they
are called-supplied them with good,
strong ticking and plenty of shucks
from the cornfields, and set them TO
making mattresses. He showed us a
number of these mattresses finished
and piled up. They are strongly made
and thick, and VIII feel mighty good
to tired man; beside, they cost about
i two-thirds as much as the cheaper
ones the state has been buying.
The farm has its own machine shop,
its cane mill and syrup refinery, its
i grist mill and rice mill. and pretty
!. near everything else it needs TO be-
come sef-supportin institution. 1t
has herds of cattle, droves of swine
! and flock of goats. Some of the
: cattle are the pretty Jerseys. others
. are the black Angus, and some are
! the native stock. The cattle are tick
free, the swine are carefully preserved
| from lice and inoculated against
cholera. The hundreds of plows and
!, scores of wagons are pulled by
| sturdy, well-fed mules. There are q
! number of horses also. We did not
see anything like an ill-kept animal
on the place; we did not see any waste
J chinery not In use was carefully
J housed. We doubt that any private
J farm in the country is as well kept.
We were introduced TO Mr.. w. A..
Brown, the assistant superintendent,
: and with him rode over much of the
farm. Mr.. Brown is Georgian by
birth and a practical and scientific
J farmer by inclination and education.
! He was sent to the farm by the agri-
: cultural department. of the University
i of Florida. 1t is easy to see he has
his heart in the work, and every
where as he pointed over the wide
acres, he showed that he had work
planned for months ahead. He is en-
tirely in sympathy with the honor
system and says he would not have
come to the farm If it had been run
by the old methods.
i Another invaluable assistant of Mr..