The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-02-13
For Stock Improvement and
lick Eradication.

Tick Eradication.
The closing of the last market still
open to Florida cattle by edict of the
Louisiana state stock board placing
quarantine against cattle from tick
infested states ought to make our cat
tlemen sit up and take notice. 1t is
hardly worth while to raise cattle a.
an adjunct to the landscape, and with
the markets of the world closed to
Florida cattle, that will be about the
only use to which they can be put
True, our own people will have to be
fed, but many of them prefer western
beef, even at a higher price. and our
local butchers, relieved from any COM
petition from outside buyers, will set
their own price. The result will be that
cattle in Florida will be lower than
in any other state in the union, and
instead of standing at the head of the
stock industry, to which place it's
natural advantages entitle it. it will
be tagging along at the tail of the pro-
cession. Cattle turned out on the open
range to fight the tick and semi
starved through the winter. will iney&
itably degenerate into worthless runts.
The wild cattle of the open range to-
day prove that.
If the cattlemen of Florida see their
pet industry destroyed, they will have
only themselves to blame. They are
standing in the way of progress, and
no body of men, however powerful
have ever been able to do that for
(long. BY standing firmly on the
rights and privileges granted them
long years ago when conditions were
entirely different from those of today
they are blocking the advancement of
the state, and they will surely have
to pay the penalty in the diminished
value of their herds, If in no other
! way. They may be able to control
the policy of the state for a time, and
retain their unjust and unwise privi-
| Ieges, but they cannot control outside
states which insist on protecting their
stock against contamination by the
tick-infested and fever breeding herds
| of Florida. The result will be the iso-
Iation of Florida, and the destruction
| or our markets, and what will cattle
be worth when they are shut out of the
market?
The only things that will give Flor
| ida her normal place among the great
cattle states of the union, are fenced
pastures and the eradication of the
LICK. The two go together and are
lnseperably connected. The stock can
not be improved on the open range
nor can the tick be eradicated.
Inc proposition put forth by some
Of the opponents of the no fence law
that counties which do not want the
cattle to run at large should put up
renee along their borders is puerile
and unworthy of consideration. 1t
throws the burden of protection upon
those who need it and not upon those
who make it necessary. Moreover #
| has been tried and failed. pinelIas
county, which is most favorabIy stu
ated for an experiment of that kind
Iof the line to be fenced Is compare
lively short, tried it, and an investiga-
uoh made recently disclosed the fact
that the fence had been cut in 1877 diff
| Ierent places, and one panel of four
lengths had been removed in toto. Not
much protection in that. The no fence
plan Is fair to all parties 1t provides
Tor referendum in counties and dis
tflcts where free range is advocated
ana those sections voting for free
range must prevent their cattle from
straying over to those sections on
| posed to it, by fencing. 1t places the
| burden where it belongs, and makes
every man care for his own. which is
the American way. 1t will be a long
step in advance in the cattle indus
try, Tor it will make improvement and
TICK eradication possible, as they new
CT VIII be II the present outworn sys-
tenn is continued.-Tampa Times.