Part 2

We know that under normal conditions the beef production of America has not kept pace with the population, and that even without the influence of war values of beef, stock cattle values have shown a steady increase for the past ten years. There is, therefore, every reason to believe that for a very long period in the future, even taking into consideration reduced beef consumption as the result of substitutes or every other influence, there is a reasonable expectation for strong values and a profit on production under normal expense. I think that we may go beyond the favorable general market and say that there will be a better market in proportion for the intermediate grades of beef, for grass produced beef, than for the very extreme corn-fed finish, and that in the evolution of the Florida beef problem, the grades produced will at least be in as great demand, and probably greater demand, than the ultra finished class.

It is, therefore, fair to argue that the market is with the producer.

You are singularly fortunate in having a Legislature which seems in every way disposed toward doing everything in its power to help develop the resources of the State.

The Government believes that live stock production is its second greatest problem, and in every possible way that it can give co-operation is pledged to do so. In fact, I do not think that I would have been here at all unless a high official in the Bureau of Animal Industry had not urged me to come, in line with their work of general development throughout the South.

Another thing, I find that Florida is very much in the public eye, and that all the live stock journals are anxious to have anything which touches upon increased beef production anywhere, but in the South particularly.

With the knowledge that I might be here some time this winter, I talked to two of the great packers about the development of the beef industry in the South, and they both said that they thought the South was going to come to the front very rapidly, and that either they or some one else would undoubtedly keep pace with the development by enlarging their present facilities or building new packing houses.

In that connection a packer loves a hog country to work in conjunction with cattle. Without giving the topic any more than this general statement, I can see where hog production is going to be one of the great things in Florida, and that while in Texas we do not attempt to produce any hogs along with our cattle, that hogs will be to some extent a part of the great pasture problems.

In a general way, conditions are very similar in Florida now to those of some thirty-five years ago in Texas, at which time that State was an open range proposition. Today, with the exception of a very small strip along the Gulf Coast, the entire State of Texas is under fence, and in a general way has been under fence for nearly twenty years.

There has never been a time in the State of Texas in the past twenty years when practically all of the grazing area of the State has not been occupied, and as against the cattle carried on the open range with practically no water development, the pastures of Texas, which are known as the range (but the word range in Texas means large bodies of inclosed land), are carrying several hundred per cent more cattle than at that time.

The thing which in Texas led to great hardships alike to the large pasture owner and to the settler himself was the fact that so much of the land did not lie in solid bodies. I judge that in the main there is much less of this in Florida than in Texas, and that either by partition, or purchase, or auxiliary lease, the great bulk of that complication can be handled.

And that brings me to the principle of fencing, which I think may be covered under the general heading of Control. First, it means defined ownership, which is always recognized. It means fire control, because it eliminates the wantonness which we now find all over your open range, each man working out his problem and firing the range for various causes.

Fencing means that an area may be developed to its capacity. For instance, on your ranges fire kills the various varieties of the carpet or blanket grass and kills the little blue cane, as well as any number of other grasses, all of which, however, come back where an area is protected, and as they are among your very best feeds, the carrying capacity of a pasture is materially increased.

Water may be developed through the windmill process directly in proportion with the needs of the cattle and concentrated to them as against any water development on the open range.

It is a scientific fact that eradication of the tick may be accomplished by resting a pasture for a certain time. Fencing means the concentration of that area to the best bulls as against not only their mixture with the scrub bulls on the open range, but the fact that the old Spanish fighting blood in the scrub bull materially reduces the effectiveness of the higher class bull. Fencing means that if on any favorable areas you wish to introduce any of the wonderful grasses which the Department of Agriculture is showing can be spread very rapidly, it can be done concentrating to ownership.

Fencing means that lands which are now being occupied by some one else without revenue, but at an expense, may be made to either pay a fair interest on the investment of land, improvements and cattle, or at least a rental revenue which will take care of taxes, interest on improvements and become a net economy, as against the open range.

I believe, too, that the principle will stand that a property defined by fences immediately takes on increased value; that the buyer would pay more for it per acre defined than looking at it in the abstract as part of the open range.

I do not think that in the whole State of Texas you will find a single land owner, who has fenced his ranches, who does not know that it has been done at a splendid profit.

You begin your problem with a tick-wide eradication law, which Texas has only had a very short time. You begin it at a time when the Government and most of the tick-infested states are releasing thousands of square miles every year, and at a time when both science and every practical observer understands it as an economic measure, which may be pursued with practically no detriment or danger to the cattle. I think that we probably dipped in the neighborhood of a million cattle, considering the number of times that they were dipped, and we did not lose a total of fifty head from all causes.

Eradication means larger cattle in better condition on the same feeds and a less mortality. It means that they can go anywhere in America without restriction; or, in other words, a broader market and no punishment just before shipment. I do not think that the perpetuity of the tick can be defended from any economic standpoint.

I want to take up the breeding section, first with reference to what your cattle represent and a comparison with primitive cattle in other countries. I am advised on reliable authority that forty years ago the only ready money in this country came from the cattle men who either topped their bulls and took them to Cuba, or the Cubans came here and topped them, taking the very best sires that you produced for sport and slaughter. You have, therefore, for forty years been grading down, as far as the sire is concerned.

In the matter of the cows, there has been no culling, added to which there has been in-breeding, and on both the sire and dam side following out the law that evil qualities intensify in posterity, the tendency has been down instead of up in the breeding of native cattle for forty years, to which the only relief has been a very limited introduction of the beef strains.

In addition to this, the cattle have been infested with ticks, and every evil influence that could arrest their development seems to have had a good chance at them, and yet in spite of all this I find them on the whole much better than I had expected.

I have been trying to make a comparison between them and the primitive cattle of Texas, which I have known for fifty years, as they were pastured next to my father's farm in great quantities when I was only seven years old and long before there was any process of improvement. I think the Texas cattle had greater scale, but from all I can learn I do not believe they had any greater vitality. I think, on the whole, though, that in evolving a race of cattle you have a little further to go than Texas had.

Mr. Alvin Sanders, Editor of the Breeders' Gazette, in his book, "The Story of the Herefords," traces very carefully the first introduction of blooded bulls to the Texas and Western ranges, and forty years, certainly forty-five, is as far back as that influence began. My own people began on primitive Texas cattle in 1882, but from that time used only full-blooded sires, about ninety per cent Hereford and about ten per cent Shorthorn, and only about three years after I went with them sixteen years ago, I took selected calves from their herd to Chicago and won grand sweepstakes for feeder cattle with them against all competition from all sections of the United States. When I went to the S. M. S. herd I found a wonderful lot of breeding cows, the bulk of them at least fifteen-sixteenths and only requiring a vigorous culling process to bring them to a remarkably high standard.

I was identified with Mr. Kirk Armour during the great progress in grading up Texas herds in the '90's, and it was noticeable in the stock yards that in a short space of about six years there was an absolute change in the general run of cattle from the ranges to the yards from primitive cattle to cattle showing very appreciable improvement, and in twelve years the longhorn had become a scarcity; he was practically extinct in 1900.

Argentina during the same period evolved from a primitive race of cattle one which will compare very favorably to that of America in its up-grading. The other South American Republics have been slower, but between Argentina and America two demonstrations have been given within my own lifetime of a race of cattle absolutely redeemed from the primitive to practically full-bloods, and that the first twelve years of that work has resulted in animals showing fifty per cent increase in weight under the same conditions, a much higher degree of meat in the rib and loin and round, with an immense improvement in their instinct for putting on weight on the same feed over the primitive cattle.

I am simply taking these generally demonstrated laws of breeding to apply to your conditions. I am sure that by using good sires you will find an immense improvement in three years; that in six years it will be a revelation, and that in twelve years you will have a race of cattle for which the world will make a path to your door.

To arrive at this process I must first disclaim any thought of urging any particular breed upon you. On the other hand, I could not be fair to the problem without calling your attention to the fact that the Hereford has been the redeemer of the great Western ranges. I am sure, however, that the greater the degree of purity that you use in him, up to at least a seven-eighths, will be shown in the result.