hogs may be produced without extra cost on most Florida ranges. While they will not sell for the top prices unless fattened on some concentrate, they bring a very fair figure as against combined result and overhead charges, and should be a big factor in revenue and one that we do not have in Texas.

Your lands are singularly free from pests. To illustrate, it cost us something over $75,000 to kill prairie dogs on about 450,000 acres of Texas lands, and outside of the shinnery lands the great bulk of Texas lands have been populated with prairie dogs, which in bad times take at least one-third of the grass. You do not seem to have the screw worm, which bothers us a great deal in very wet weather.

You can own your posts at a comparatively small cost and with normal prices of wire I should say could construct your fences for three-fourths of what it costs us. You have no very long drives for your cattle when shipping them, and in the matter of winter help to your cattle it will cost very little as compared with what we have to spend in Texas. To give you an idea, we are buying $50,000 worth of feed to winter a herd of 25,000 head of cattle. While your season here will permit you to get through with very little extra cost, if any, I think that you should make a provision for some concentrate, so as to have it. In Texas, when the grass is all gone, the use of cotton seed cake is limited when not taken in conjunction with a good filler, and there is never a time when you at least don't have a good filler. It is simply a matter of getting a little concentrate on it and cutting out the weak cattle and concentrating them to such winter help.

You are right where we were in '82—large areas of land, in which our problem was to make them carry themselves without cost, or pay a small interest until such time as they would sell at good value. We had very low values on cattle, long distances from the railroads—in fact, every possible disadvantage, but these lands have always paid for taxes and overhead expenses and have always given us a little something in addition, and are at a point now where they pay us a very good net interest on $10.00 land and $70.00 cows. We probably could sell every acre that we own at a price which would give us more net money than we get from the cattle business, but our people consider it a mighty good back-log to have lands which were almost without value brought up to that value and to their earning capacity.

I think that if you go into the cattle business you should study very carefully the possibility of disposing of the calf at weaning time. That is something you will have to grow to. The Government is authority for the statement that the economical production of beef is the calf, taken at weaning time, not allowed to go back, but kept coming in the matter of feeding, and if this calf is to be taken at that age, you can run twenty per cent more cows on your range, producing an average of fifteen per cent more calves, as against developing a steer to the three or four year old period, in which his individual gain is your revenue in the matter of a carrying charge. I believe, too, you will find it an economy to dehorn these calves at branding time. It can be done with practically no loss of blood. The animal is well in a very short time. I think he develops better and he certainly sells quicker.

Packers have immense contracts, and if the war continues they must have lots of tinned beef. On the other hand, if the war stops the world must stock up again with tinned beef. We know that they expected to pay an average of at least one cent per pound more for their canners the past year, but that the great drought has forced so many cattle in, the owners were very thankful to take what they got and the packers were forced to their capacity to attempt to handle them in such quantities. We know that the calf crop of Texas next year will probably show a decrease of twenty-five per cent, and that if rain comes in time to give good spring grass that a farmer will pay anywhere from ten to twenty-five per cent more in Texas than any other part of America. It would not surprise me at all to see your Florida cattle shippped over to Texas. We know, too, that next year, instead of the normal number of cows coming in in the culling process, which find their average market as canners, it will be the disposition of every ranchman to hold back cows which would ordinarily go into the culls in order that his ranch may be brought up sooner to re-stocking.

I would urge all of you to get your fences up and buy as many cattle as you can handle, because the she-stuff is going to be higher. This is particularly true of the she-stuff which has been selling at the values of Florida primitive cattle.

FORAGE CROPS FOR FLORIDA.

For many years I have been interested in the problem of more and better forage for the South, because it has long been evident to students of agriculture that sooner or later there would be an important live stock industry developed in the South. The present greatly increased interest of Florida, and, indeed, of the entire South, marks, I believe, the beginning of this epoch. Several economic incentives have conspired to bring about the present active interest and development. Chief among them, perhaps, were: First, changes necessitated by the spread of the cotton boll weevil; and, second, the present high range of prices for live stock—prices that in all probability will be little, if any, reduced for many years to come.

Another incentive that must, however, be recognized was the desire of enterprising men to develop the latent resources of the South, not only as an attest of their economic faith, but also from the patriotic motive of helping the nation in this period of stress.

As an indication of the extent of this movement I may state that within the past two years over thirty extensive live stock enterprises have been launched, all in the piney woods region of the Southern States. Most of these companies have ample capital, and most of them are proceeding along conservative lines.

The future development and prosperity of this industry must rest upon a thorough knowledge and proper utilization of the forage crops adapted to the region. In very large measure these forages are quite different from those used in the portions of the United States where animal husbandry is most developed. From a practical standpoint we cannot use in the South the forages of the North and West, with the important exception of corn. The other great forages—timothy, red clover, alfalfa, blue grass and white clover—can never become important in Florida. This fact needs emphasis, because the newcomer in Florida is often carried away with the idea that these forages may be made to succeed.

In the beginning of this active live stock development it is unfortunate that there is not a larger body of exact data concerning both the culture and feeding value of the more important forages available. There is a large amount of such information concerning corn, timothy, red clover, alfalfa, blue grass and white clover, not only in America, but also in Europe. Furthermore, countless live stock farms exist where the practical utilization of these forages has been worked out in detail. In comparison, our stock of knowledge concerning Southern forages, both from experimental investigations and from practical experience, is relatively small. This is not surprising, because the experiment stations have very properly been compelled to devote their energies mainly to assisting agricultural industries in