Florida: An Ideal Cattle State

by Florida State Live Stock Association

After spending a week in Florida during August of 1917, Mr. Waddell returned to the State in November and spent considerable time investigating the opportunities for raising cattle. This address gives his views on the advantages Florida possesses as a cattle-producing state.

In order to understand or to be able to appreciate a proposition of almost any character it is necessary to approach it by comparison, and in making comparisons touching Florida I wish to state that I have traveled over the range of the five northern states of old Mexico; I have traveled over the southern part of the range belt of Arizona; I have traveled over about half of the state of New Mexico and virtually all of Texas, and I find in Florida conditions favorable to the production of live stock that do not exist in any of the states I have named, which constitute the great range belt of the Southwest. In Mexico there is very little 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 found here. In fact, it is my judgment that the cattle in Florida today, from what I have read of the history of Florida, are not as good as they were thirty years ago, and I am surprised, when I think of the facilities furnished the cattle men of Florida by the land owners for the grazing of their cattle, that they haven't taken any more interest in their cattle than they have and tried to improve them.

Florida today, as never before, is attracting national attention as a possible beef-producing state. The eyes of the investing public are turned toward Florida, and it is my judgment that within the next five years Florida will make greater strides in the development of the live stock industry than it has ever made before. And I want here and now to issue a warning to you gentlemen who are running your cattle on the open ranges of Florida that you had better get busy and get control of what land you expect to use as a cattle ranch, for if I mistake not, outsiders are coming into this state who will buy or lease these lands, put them under fence and inaugurate a system of live stock production on an improved basis as compared to the present methods being pursued in this state.

And in this connection I wish to state that I have discussed this open range proposition with some of the largest land owners in Florida. They tell me that they want to see Florida developed; they tell me they are in line to lend their energies, their time and their money to anything that will develop the State of Florida. After listening to them talk this line of earnest progressiveness, I have put the proposition to them just like it was put to us in Texas, and that is, formulate an equitable leasing proposition, one that will safeguard the interests of the land owner, and at the same time lend protection to the vested rights of the lessee, and advertise that to the world. Let the people not only of Florida, but the people outside of the State of Florida, know that they can come to Florida and at a small rental cost, lease as many acres of good grazing land as they have money to get cattle with which to stock it, assuring the prospective lessee that they will fence the land according to his desires and will build him a ranch house to live in; that they will fence him a horse pasture to keep his saddle horses in; will build him a dipping vat on the land, and where necessary will bore wells and equip them with windmill and pump sufficient to furnish plenty of water for the live stock on the land so leased.

There was never any marked development or marked improvement in the live stock industry in the State of Texas as long as the cattle ranged on the free grass, but in 1884 the Legislature passed what was known as a Lease Law. Then it was, gentlemen, that the fencing up of the State of Texas began in earnest. No man was willing to pay lease on land and let somebody else's cattle graze on it. And that is the first step needed to be taken in the evolution of better cattle in Florida. The land owners should fence up their lands, cut them up in pastures to suit the men who want to run their cattle on them, making the lands of Florida revenue-producing, instead of being a liability, and put the cattle of Florida under fence and under control wherein individual effort may develop in a desire to excel. I can not stress this proposition too strongly. I haven't the language to express the importance of putting the lands of Florida under fence and the cattle under control in order that better cattle and more cattle may be raised. The most important step looking to better cattle in Florida has already been taken in the creation of a Live Stock Sanitary Board and the work incident thereto of tick eradication. This work and the efforts of the Florida State Live Stock Sanitary Board will be much more effective and easier of accomplishment when you get the ranges of Florida fenced and the cattle under control.

It seems to me that Florida has been overlooked. I am led to the belief that the Florida cowmen have been lulled to sleep, as it were, by the fact that they haven't been bothered by any outside influences. In discussing the breeding up or improving of the cattle with a good many breeders whom I have met in this State, I find that all voice the sentiment that they would like to raise better cattle; that the State ought to produce better cattle; and that it is a good cattle country.