e water, and water is very hard to get by digging,
the wells averaging from 150 to 1,000 feet deep, and in a great many
instances no water at all. In Mexico they also have a great many animals
that prey on the live stock, such as panthers, lobo wolves, bears, as
well as the common, ordinary coyote. None of these have to be contended
with here.

In Arizona and New Mexico about the same conditions prevail as do in
northern Old Mexico. In Texas we have bears and sundry pests to prey on
our live stock. The prairie dog infests a great many of our ranches,
destroying the grass, digging holes in the ground, and making it
dangerous for the cowboy to ride over in the pursuit of his range
endeavors. We have wolves of all species. In Texas we have also the
screw worms that are a tax on the live stock producer to the extent of
from two to five per cent of the calves born on his ranch, and I am
sorry to say that worst of all we have periodical droughts. None of
these adverse conditions I find prevail in Florida.

Here I find the country covered with a thick, heavy coat of grass,
streams running with plenty of water and I understand where natural
water is not available that it is only about from twenty to one hundred
feet to an abundant supply of water under the ground, making the
proposition of watering the ranches in Florida, where artificial water
is necessary, a very simple matter. The climate in Florida is temperate
and mild, rainfall is regular and abundant, and, so far as the
production of forage for live stock on the range is concerned, your
rainfall and your soils all seem to combine in favor of the producer of
live stock.

I never was more amazed in my life than I was last summer, when, in
company with a committee of other cattle men from Texas, I visited this
state. At that time I was shown over the southern middle part of
Florida; was shown a great domain of country lying out of doors, as it
were and as we term it in Texas, furnishing free range for hundreds of
thousands of cattle. I did not believe my ears when I was told those
conditions existed here, and I can't understand yet why a state as old
as Florida, with as many surface indications of possibilities for the
production of live stock, should remain unfenced, unoccupied, and
non-revenue producing to the men who own the land.

Another surprise that met us when we came to Florida in the summer was
the absolute lack of any improvement in the live stock that we fou