Probably the most important thing that I saw in Florida was the registered Hereford herd of Mr. Callison. I recall that he boasted that in eight years they had never been given any winter help, and there were no evidences on his property that the cattle were in any way pampered.
He had about thirty or forty of last spring's calves, which he was just weaning, and they were as good, on the average, as any bunch of calves I have ever seen in the great registered Hereford producing districts. I saw his yearlings and twos and his cows, and the entire herd shows in general development and quality a very favorable comparison with anything in the great breeding districts outside of distinct show herds.
If the climate of Florida can produce these registered cattle without help and have them make a favorable comparison with cattle in the great registered breeding grounds of other parts of America, there is no reason why beef cattle can not be produced which, in turn, will form a favorable comparison with those of the great pasture breeding grounds, which, in turn, are furnishing the feeder cattle for the corn belt.
On Mr. Jackson's place we found both graded Herefords and Shorthorns in the third generation, with splendid development and quality, and we found in his registered or pure-bred herd of Shorthorns good quality and development.
At the home of Mr. Gaitskill we found both pure breds and grades of good development, and a splendid object lesson in a half-bred cow known as "Old Blue," her dam one of the primitive Florida cows and her sire a pure-bred Shorthorn bull. She is what might be called a blue roan, with the blue almost black. Then we saw her daughters and their daughters, and I think we saw a fourth generation, but either in this third or fourth generation, I remarked to Mr. Gaitskill that he could lie a little about that heifer, as she had absolutely every appearance and all development of an absolutely pure-bred Shorthorn.
In this same district we learned from Mr. Jackson that graded cattle all the way from half-breeds up to seven-eighths and in the mixed threes and fours ages, all by registered bulls, weighed 900 pounds off grass last fall. As near as I can obtain information, the same ages in the native Florida steers and under most favorable conditions would probably not weigh to exceed 600 pounds.
On this same trip Mr. Edwards of McIntosh told me that he got about half the gain on the native steers that he does from three-quarter-bred grades, on the same feed.
The foregoing is a practical demonstration that as far as climate, general feeds and ordinary normal conditions are concerned, graded cattle thrive in Florida.
It is important that I should have seen them, because I am working on well defined and demonstrated general principles of breeding and beef production, and they respond in every way to the foregoing.
From this time on we must reckon with the world's supply of live stock. Without attempting to go into details, there has been a very material decrease in it during the past ten years. We know that Europe must be re-stocked after the war, and that the American supply is freer from disease than that of any other country.