FLORIDA SUITED TO EXTENSIVE CATTLE RAISING.
Texas Ranchmen Declare Conditions Ideal for Cattle, Sheep and Goats.
The impression made upon a prominent Texas ranch owner who recently visited the great cattle ranges of Florida was that Nature has been too good to the cattle industry in this State to encourage improvement in the crude methods of breeding and handling stock which have been in vogue for years, for the cattle owners have made money without trying.
Among those who spent a week during the latter part of August inspecting range conditions were M. Sansom of Fort Worth, president of the Cassidy-Southwestern Commission Co., director of the Federal Reserve Bank and owner of large cattle ranch interests. * * *
Mr. Sansom expressed his impression of Florida's opportunity for raising cattle in these words:
"The only trouble you have in Florida, Nature has been too good to you. If it had done half as much for Texas the Government officials would not now be worrying about the future meat supply for the United States and our Allies. I have seen Texas when the cattle were no better than the grade I have seen on this trip. We started twenty-five years ago to improve our herds and stayed with it, until today we furnish some of the best breeding and feeding cattle for the Northern States.
"Florida now has very great advantage over pioneer Texas, as you can get some of our good breeding stock and make rapid progress breeding up your herds. The Osceola Cattle Co., in Osceola County, has started along right lines, and the manager gave me some figures on calf production which show that his herd are producing a larger percentage of calves than we get in Texas.
"But your luxuriant range grasses and abundance of stock water are almost unbelievable. Your range will carry from three to ten times as many cattle per section as the Texas land in a normal year. And when I say normal year I want you to remember that sometimes the rain clouds forget all about Texas for months at a time, and then our ranges suffer from drought, as large sections of them are doing at this time.