of good hay, and beans which are high in feeding
value. The beans may be left on the vines for pasturage, or gathered and
ground into bean meal, which is excellent for cattle feeding. Japanese
cane resembles our Texas ribbon cane. It makes good silage, keeps well
and is highly relished by cattle. The Florida beggar-weed grows as a
volunteer in old fields of a light sandy soil. If cut at the right time
it makes good hay, and, while it is rather bulky for silage alone, it is
said to add greatly to the fattening value of silage. Corn and cow peas
need no introduction to our readers.

The most common grasses are several varieties of paspalum or carpet
grass, switch grass, wire grass, little blue maiden cane and Bermuda.
Crab and Natal grass are volunteers which follow crops on sandy soils.
Both Guinea and Para grasses thrive in South Florida, where less liable
to injury by frost. Fort Thompson grass, which resembles giant Bermuda,
with larger joint, stem and leaf, is a native of Florida, which will
some day be recognized as one of their very best pasture grasses.

With their open range and native cattle--a poorer grade than our
old-time longhorn--the cattle business of Florida today may be compared
to that of Texas twenty years ago. What they need is more bulls and
experienced cattlemen who will apply the intelligence, energy and
persistence that know not failure.

Leaving Kenansville at 8:15, we were soon out on the Kissimmee prairie
of thousands and thousands of acres of open range. Here, where the grass
was very luxuriant, resembling a hay meadow, we saw several hundred more
of the small native cattle, followed by the common scrubby bulls. The
fat four-year-old steers weighed around 550 pounds, and are valued at
$30 per head. The cows weighed around 500 pounds. The range herds of
mixed ages and classes are valued at $20 per head. We soon left the
public highway, circling marshes and dodging palmettos. Our next stop
was on Gum Slough Ranch, where we were told that on a pasture of 10,000
acres there were 6,000 cattle. The ground was well covered with carpet
and a variety of other grasses, and did not show the effects of close
grazing. The cattle were in good condition and of better quality than
most of the others which we had inspected.--_From The Cattleman,
September, 1917._

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Florida: An Ideal Cattle State, by
Florida State Live Stock Association

*** END OF THIS PROJEC