The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-01-23
THE STATE MUST LIVE

The winter of 1918-1919 found the
farmers of Marion county very pros
porous as Armour's packing plant in
Jacksonville was paying from II to
20 cents per pound for hogs on foot,
and from SIC to $40 per head for old
cows. Until the plant opened the
farmers of Florida had never been
able to sell at any price more than a
limited number of hogs of the smaller
sizes, and until then hogs above 125
pounds were almost unstable. Ar
mour's plant then offered the only
market we had ever known for an old
cow. An average of no less than
$4,000 head of old cows die each win
ter on the Florida ranges, which is
loss the packers have taught the west
ern cattlemen to reduce to a minimum,
by offering a market for these old
cows, which are known to the trade
as Gamers" Even when winter feed
is abundant it does not pay to feed it
to old cows, and where it is not abun-
dant no use of them is attempted, un-
less the packers offer to buy them for
canning. A great economic saving is
the world, through the use of the
meat, hides and bones which would
otherwise be wholly lost.
The chance to make this saving and
profit was in 1918 just beginning to
dawn on the Florida cattlemen, so
/ long accustomed to a waste not to be
| averted, except through the aid of the
packers. One of such told me that in
that year he sold two train-loads of
| such cattle to Armour's Jacksonville
plant for about $4,000; and if we cut
the then price in half he could by this
means make an annual saving of over
$4,000, as his additional contribution
to the wealth of the world and to the
benefit of the consuming public, which
annual saving he was never able to
make until Armour opened this plant
in Jacksonville. Even at the present
very cheap prices of cattle an oppor-
tunity to contribute $500,000 annually,
in this way to the wealth of the state,
is wholly denied to the cattlemen
when Armour's plant shut down, be-
sides entailing larger losses on hogs
and the better grades of cattle, such as
our farmers produce.
For more than thirty years people
in every part of the world have been
well accustomed to eat the products
of our larger packing houses; and of
the millions who ate them few, if any,
were ever poisoned, or made sick,
through any fault which government
al inspection would avert. Those de-
fects which are naturally developed
by heat and time are always left for
you to find.
During all these years these plants
have been open to the world; have
been models of perfection and economy
in their line, the pride of their owners
and the pride of one of the largest
and most progressive cities in the
world.
Everything which modern science
: and intelligence could suggest was
there availed of, to extend the use OF
. American meats and to impart added
: values to the products of our farms.
1t may serve our own interests tc
/ remember, too, that Argentine Repub
, lie is not a possible factor in this mat
, ter, but she is now an Immediate forc'
: to be given consideration by all whc
/ are interested in the production OF
! meats. To refresh your memorie:
about Argentine, I will say that he
: length would reach from here to Can
ada, and that at the widest point sh'
, measures about 1900 miles from cas-
: to west; and by far the greater part o
| that vast area is rich with prairi'
land, on which feed the finest rang
cattle in the world. Many American
? packers and cattlemen were along ag
: attracted by its splendid opportunitie
to invest there, and are being well re
warded.
One nation is too small to empoun'
ienergy, intelligence and money, whicl