THE ^ (DUNT COPYRIGHT - c o A Map of the Perdido Country THE PERDIDO COUNTRY By H. E. STOCKBRIDGE, Ph. D. I. DESCRIPTIVE The territory that is here designated as the Perdido Country consists of the peninsula lying between Mobile Bay and the Escambia River. The eastern shore of the former is its western boundary and the river mentioned bounds the country on the east. These limits extend nearly north and south for some fifty miles, and are about forty miles apart east and west. Its southern limit lies on the Gulf of Mexico. Near its southern center the country is penetrated for some twelve miles by the beautiful Perdido Bay, on the west shore of which is Perdido Beach, one of the favorite summer resorts of the gulf coast. Into the head of the bay, diagonally across the country with a general trend from the north, flows the pretty Perdido River. The stream divides the entire length of the peninsula through the middle line and appropriately lends the name Perdido Country to the section it penetrates, which includes all of Escambia County, Florida, and most of Baldwin County, Alabama. The river and bay form the east and west boundary between the two states. The river flows through vast stretches of pine forest for which it supplies simple transportation to the great mills below. Besides the Perdido, there are numerous tributary streams and their innumerable branches. Several of these, particularly the Blackwater and Styx, are streams of considerable volume. Railroads and towns are sufficiently numerous to make local markets, supply social demands and place adequate transportation facilities within reach of the inhabitants. Pensacola is the county seat of Escambia County and is not only the chief town of the section, but is the metropolis of all west Florida and southeast Alabama. The city contains a population of about twenty-five thousand people, has paved streets, trolley lines, three railroads and good business houses of all kinds, many mills and factories, beautiful residences and good hotels, churches, libraries, clubs, schools and commercial and social advantages probably equalled by no community of its size in the south. Pensacola is the site of the United States Navy Yard, Life Saving Station and two military posts. The harbor is not only incomparably the finest on the gulf coast but surpasses any on the Atlantic seaboard south of New York. The main ship channel is two hundred and fifty feet wide and has a minimum depth of thirty-two and a half feet. The foreign export trade of Pensacola is large and increasing rapidly. There are regular lines of steamers to England, France, Germany, Italy and Mexico. Steamers and sailing vessels from all commercial countries of the world frequent her harbor. Her exports for the year I9CX> aggregated fifteen and one-half million dollars. She is the largest lumber exporting port in the world. Timber, cotton, phosphate, coal, grain, flour, tobacco and naval stores are the chief articles in her export trade. Muscogee is situated on the Florida side of the Perdido River, eighteen miles from Pensacola, and is connected with this city by two lines of railroads, viz.: the Louisville & Nashville Railroad and the Pensacola, Alabama & Tennessee Railroad. This is the site of one of the great saw mill plants of the Southern States Lumber Company. The planing and finishing mill here is one of the largest and most perfectly appointed in the south. The town possesses excellent stores, a comfortable hotel, and having a large mill population is an exceedingly good market for fruits, vegetables and agricultural products of all kinds. Gateswood is sixteen miles northwest from Muscogee and is the present terminus of the Mobile, Muscogee & Eastern Railroad, which runs from Can- tonment on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad through Muscogee to Gates- wood. This is the center of miles of beautiful farming lands recently opened for sale by the Southland Company. Already several thousand acres have been purchased and improved by people from northern states who have determined to avoid the rigor of northern winters by making homes for themselves on the productive lands of the Perdido Country. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad operates three lines to which the Perdido Country is tributary — the line east from Pensacola to River Junction and thence connecting with the Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Railway for Jacksonville and Savannah; the lines north to Flomaton, Montgomery, Selma and the north, and from Flomaton west to Mobile and New Orleans. The Mobile, Muscogee & Eastern Railroad now extends from Cantonment via Muscogee as far as Gateswood, and is surveyed to the main line of the Louisville & Nashville Rail- road and when completed will make a short line to Mobile. In addition to these transportation facilities, it must be remembered that the Perdido Country is directly contiguous to the best deep water harbor in the south, and its entire southern and western boundaries are navigable salt water, while Perdido Bay and River, Wolf Bay, Weeks Bay, and Fish River furnish water transporta- tion at all seasons of the year. Those interested in the climatic conditions of this section need not depend on hearsay or the statements of residents, who, however truthful, may naturally be biased in favor of the place in which they make their homes. Pensacola is one of the regular official stations of the U. S. Weather Service and the official records are open to all. There are no extremes of temperature, the average mean temperature being sixty-eight degrees. In the summer it rarely reaches ninety degrees, and in winter seldom below forty-five degrees. Common vege- tables grow without interruption all winter, while roses may be picked every day in the year. The annual rainfall is fifty-six inches. In connection with temperature it should be added that there is no greater error than the supposition that because this section is so far south it must needs sufifer from hot summer weather. Not only does the temperature never rise here to the mark reached annually in all northern cities by several degrees, but warm days in the Perdido Country are invariably tempered by the delight- ful gulf breezes which make work possible, leisure delightful and night slumbers refreshing. Health is the first consideration with any one seeking a location for a home. This section is as free from prevailing and epidemic diseases as any part of the Union. No case of yellow fever has existed here since 1883, and with present improved conditions in Cuba none need be feared in the future. The more dreaded diseases of children are so rare as to be practically unknown, pulmonary diseases are never indigenous, and cases coming from the north are often entirely cured by the balmy air and the balsamic fragrance of the heal- ing pines. The water too is pure, soft and sparkling and the entire Perdido Country is watered by beautiful streams of clear water; springs are common, gushing from the hillsides, wells are easily dug and good water is secured at depths averaging about 20 feet. Artesian water, as pure as the melted snows from .A.lpine summits, is everywhere accessible within from eighty to two hundred feet of the surface, and flows from the outlet with force sufficient for use as fire protection and for domestic purposes requiring limited power. The general features of this section are such as to impress the stranger who sees them for the first time. The country is not level to the resident of prairies, not hilly to the New Englander. It is gently undulating with a gen- eral slope towards the streams all of which have a southern trend. In isolated places there are rather abrupt, low hills. There are no marshes, no swamps, and one finds, as a consequence, little cypress timber. The streams are bor- dered by no wide valleys, but their margins outline narrow strips of bottomland, called hammock, where the predominating timber growth consists of hickory, gum, oak and poplar, interspersed with dark green foliage of the magnolia and bay and the crimson flecks of holly. The typical growth of the region, however, covering mile upon mile, is the stately '"long-leafed," or southern pine. The great trunks tower a hundred and more feet overhead, the air makes music through their myriad branches and becomes fragrant with its burden of balsamic odors. Everywhere underneath the trees grows the wire grass, rank and vigorous on lower stretches, short and stubby on thinner areas, green and succulent in spring and mid-summer; dry. sere, yellow and fibrous in autumn and winter; but always and ever, furnishing a surprising amount of feed to the native cattle roaming in small bands over the unrestrained ranges. Over vast stretches, however, man has set a devastating hand and the forest has disappeared, a sacrifice to the demands of an improvident system of lumber- ing. Hundreds of thousands of acres, recently covered by a wealth of trees now stretch their uncovered expanse beneath the southern sun and drink with greed the drenching waters of the summer showers. SOIL CONDITIONS The lumbering interests of this section must, from the very nature of things, decline and, at no very distant date, vanish as an industrial factor. The next and only immediate logical development must be agricultural, and agriculture in any and all forms is controlled more by character of soil than by any other single condition. What is the soil of the Perdido Country? This is a question in which every inquirer will be deeply interested. It belongs to the class of soils known from the Savannah to the Mississippi River as "piney woods" lands. To the Georgian no more specific description need be given or better recommendation offered. To those to whom the term conveys no definite meaning or possibly an ill founded idea of inferiority, more explicit information is needed. Close to Pensacola and in immediate proximity to the shore, the soil is distinctly sandy and there are occasionally sandy ridges marked by scrub or black-jack oaks. These soils are extremely light, and though responsive and easily worked, are inferior for farm purposes. With irrigation, which is every- where available, they respond quickly to fertilizing and become excellent garden lands. In the Pensacola markets may be found all through the winter and spring, cabbage, potatoes, beets, lettuce and other vegetables grown with large yields on what a few years ago were designated as worthless sandy soils. The predominating lands of the Perdido Country are sandy loams resting upon a subsoil of red gravelly clay from six to eighteen inches below the sur- face. The loam in its upper four inches or more is dark colored, denoting an accumulation of vegetable matter, showing fertility and water-holding power. The fine red gravel, which to the Georgia cotton planter means strength, bottom and lasting power, is a frequent admixture with the better quality of loams. Rarely, in small areas, the clay subsoil is nearly white, approaching pipe clay in character. Here the brick kilns and potteries of the future will be located. All experienced farmers know that the crop range of sandy loam soils is greater than any other single class of lands, and that the range and productive- ness, as well as the lasting properties of these lands is increased by the pres- ence of clay subsoil. Wherever a clearing can be found, or a farm has sup- planted the forest, the fertility and responsiveness of these lands is easily ap- parent. With no cultivated fields, however, it would be self evident that soil that could produce the giant trees whose towering tops, massive trunks or thick stumps are so all abounding, must possess crop producing power in no mean degree. II. CROP ADAPTATIONS The importance of understanding the crop adaptations of any section is the first indispensable requisite of the successful use of its soil. The range of crops adapted to the soils and conditions of the Perdido Country is very great and offers a selection ample for meeting the tastes and qualifications of any normal demand. It is not possible here, or anywhere else, to successiully produce every crop which vagary may suggest, or familiarity with radically different conditions elsewhere might call to mind. We have known men from the northwest to complain because wheat was not a profitable crop in Florida, who would have admitted the unreasonableness of expecting to grow pineapples in Wisconsin, yet who failed to appreciate the equal foolish- ness of the demand. y If you are interested in the Perdido Country because of its cheap lands and delightful climate, but still insist upon growing apples in competition with New York, or wheat in competition with Minnesota, you are doomed to disappoint- ment; and we trust you will be reasonable enough to lay the blame upon your own obduracy rather than endeavor to malign the country whose natural adapta- tions you attempted to pervert. It is the duty of every settler, in a region whose conditions are unknown from personal practical experiences, duty both to himself and the country with which he becomes identified, to study the crop adaptations of the soil he pro- poses to cultivate, that the selection of crops and products may be intelligently made. This is the prerequisite to success, and failure following such action will be the result cither of conditions beyond control, or improper or insufficient care of the crops themselves. It is our intention to present the more important conditions and treatment of the crops adapted to the Perdido Country, that persons interested may pos- sess the information needed for intelligent selection and production of a satis- factory range of crops. In this article only such crops are considered as actual experience has fully demonstrated as worthy of consideration. Crops, the pro- duction of which in the Perdido Country though possible, could only be con- sidered as curiosities, are carefully omitted. FORAGE CROPS One of the most important forage crops of this section is the Bermuda grass. This is the standard perennial grass and hay crop of the south. It makes superb pastures and good permanent mowing. It is propagated by both seed and root cuttings. It furnishes food from early spring until frost kills it and is easily eradicated when no longer desired. In food value it is equal to Kentucky blue grass. It may be put out either in spring or late summer. The cow pea is to the whole south what red clover is to the north. It is a legume and secures nitrogen from the air, being thus a true soil renovator. The vine is a superior green food, or is cured into the best of hay. The pea is food for both man and beast, being a concentrated flesh former. It is generally grown in drills about z^/i feet apart. For hay it may be sown broadcast. There are two distinct classes of the plant, the bunch varieties maturing very quickly and the running varieties requiring longer seasons. The former easily produce two crops a year. Both are commonly grown as second crops after other crops are removed. Planting peas between corn rows at time of laying by, is a very common and commendable practice. Two and a half tons of hay and 20 bushels of peas per acre is a reasonable crop. Desmodium, commonly called "beggar weed," is one of the most remark- able and valuable crops to be found anywhere. It is a true legume and one of the best soil renovators. It is no way related to the so-called "beggar weed" or "beggar lice" of the north. It is an annual, so profuse of seed that after being once introduced, it comes up as a volunteer crop in all cultivated fields when crops are laid by, and, in this way. produces a full crop of the best of hay with- out care, except to harvest. It grows four to six feet high, but is best if made to grow thick and cut young. It may easily be mown three times per season. It cuts from one to two tons of hay per cutting, fully equal to red clover. It is difficult to decide whether the velvet bean is most worthy of considera- tion as a forage crop or as a soil renovator. It possesses remarkable properties and adaptations in both capacities. As a forage crop its chief recommendations are as follows: Its adaptation to the very poorest of soils and ability to make heavy crops thereon with little or no fertilization. Its heavy yield of both green forage and hay. Its yield of both forage and grain. Its high protein content, making it the cheapest concentrate in making balanced rations. And particu- larly the fact that when the vines are allowed to die on the land, and thus act as a winter covering and soil renovator, the beans themselves, protected by their tough pods, remain on the ground all winter and are greedily eaten by all classes of stock, which thrive and quickly fatten. Stock may thus be pastured all winter, dairy cows doing remarkably well and cattle and hogs fattening at the very minimum possible expense. Johnson grass, or sorghum grass, is a perennial, making fine hay. It is easily cut three times in a season and makes from 1I/2 to 2 tons per cutting. It will not stand close pasturing, and is easily killed out in this way. It spreads rapidly when allowed to seed, and in the cotton country is looked on as a nui- sance, because it so easily takes possession of cultivated fields. It does this only by seed propagation, so that if not allowed to seed, it is easily controlled. It is one of the best of forage plants, and perfectly adapted to the Perdido Country. The velvet bean easily chokes out this grass when grown on its broken sod. Paspalum, or carpet grass, is a native of the Perdido Country and is prob- ably its best pasture grass. It is propagated both by seed and roots. It is best adapted to the better grade of lands. It is a perennial and forms a perfect sod which seems to thrive best when most closely pastured. It cuts a good crop of hay, but is best for permanent pasture. Oats, rye and vetch are all valuable for winter pasture and mature a crop in early May. These all grow well in this region. GRAIN CROPS Corn will grow everywhere in the Perdido Country except on the lightest sand ridges. A yield of 20 to 30 bushels of corn is easily obtained, per acre, with very little fertilizer. Early corn is preferable. The crop should be followed by a second crop; peas planted between the rows, or beggar weed, which after once introduced comes in as a volunteer when the corn is laid by, are favorites and help to keep up and improve the fertility of the soil. Shredding the fodder for hay greatly increases the value of the crop. Oats should be grown in this latitude as a winter or early spring crop. They may be sown from October ist to March ist. For early seeding the Texas Rust Proof is the standard variety. For late sowing, the Burt is to be recom- mended. They may be pastured during the winter and then allowed to seed. May is the harvest month. Cutting in the milk and feeding without threshing has been found the most desirable method of utilizing the crop. Oats will grow anywhere in all this section. The upland or Honduras rice has been thoroughly tested in this locality, and will produce as an average crop, thirty bushels per acre, the present value of which is from $i.oo to $1.25 per bushel. The rice straw furnishes a very im- portant lood for stock and is manufactured into a high grade of paper. ROOT CROPS Cassava is the distinctive root crop which gives the Perdido Country great advantage over sections unable to produce it. This plant is a beautiful annual shrub growing from six to ten feet high. It is propagated by cuttings from the stem. The valuable part of the plant is its tuber, of which crop ten tons per acre may be reasonably expected as the average. The crop on the "Magnolia Hill Ranch" for 1902, went, in places, as high as sixteen tons per acre, while many hills weighed twenty-six pounds each. The stem or stalk is bedded for seed, like sugar cane. It is cut into sec- tions, three inches long, which are dropped into the furrow or hill like Irish potatoes, two pieces being preferable. It is best grown in checks, four feet each way. It requires shallow cultivation, and is perfectly adapted to dry lands, standing drought better than any other staple crop. It is chiefly valuable as stock feed and for this purpose it easily exceeds the value of corn by five or six times. It is eaten greedily by all classes of stock, is the best and most economical fattening material known, and both work ani- mals and dairy cows thrive on it better than on most of the common grain rations. Cassava is the raw material from which starch and tapioca are made. Four large factories are engaged in this manufacture in Florida, paying the farmer $6.00 per ton for the root. For domestic use it is a delicacy, making the most delicious puddings, pies, fritters and hot cakes. Both the Irish and sweet potato are adapted to the Perdido Country. Of the former two crops may be grown in a single season. Nearly all the soils are adapted to this crop, but moist soils are preferable. One crop should be planted in September, the other in February. The harvest seasons are December and May. The yield should average one hundred bushels per acre, and the spring crop should bring $3.00 to $7.00 per barrel. The sweet potato is the universal crop of this entire section and one of the most certain and productive. It is adapted to nearly all classes of land. It is propagated from slips obtained from planting the tubers in seed beds, in March. Moderate quantities of fertilizer should be used. The yield should be about two hundred bushels per acre, on an average. The crop may be planted any time from April till August, and is, therefore, largely utilized as a second or follow crop, after melons, corn and similar early crops. Peanuts, known locally as pinders and groundpeas, are adapted to all arable soils free from excessive moisture. They thrive especially well on light, sandy soils. There are two kinds: the common and the Spanish. The latter matures two crops in a season, or can be grown as a crop following oats, corn and other early crops. Both varieties are grown in drills, and are chiefly valuable for hog pasture, the animal doing the harvesting. The tops may be mown for hay, yielding from Yz io I ton per acre of hay resembling clover. The crop is a legume, but not as marked a renovator as most other members of the family. VEGETABLES The raising of market vegetables for the northern and eastern markets can be made one of the most profitable industries of the Perdido Country. The season being ten days to two weeks earlier than other points, except southern Florida, gives this section the great advantage of early markets and consequently high profits. All varieties of garden truck find ready market, and almost any known vegetable can be grown in this section. Asparagus, beans, peas, radishes, lettuce, cauliflower, cabbages and tomatoes are all good money crops. FRUITS AND NUTS The Perdido Country has shown its adaptability for Iniit culture by the suc- cessful growth of many varieties. The climate and soil both favor the production of fruits of the finest form, flavor and color. The surety of crops, the earliness of ripening and the nearness of the great markets give this territory many advantages. Among the best fruits to plant is the peach, as it is the great commercial fruit of this section. The largest peach orchards in the world are in a section not far removed, and in climate and soil conditions resembling this. Trees come into bearing the second year, and yield a full crop three years from planting. Plums are indigenous and oft'er great inducements for commercial planting, particularly the Japanese type. The trees bear as early as peaches, and have proved themselves even more profitable. Figs are adapted to all the Perdido Country, particularly for domestic con- sumption. They grow easily and with little care. Grapes can be grown here in great profusion. The native grape, the musca- dine, grows wild and the vine attains a great size and age. What is said to be the largest grapevine in the world is in the Perdido Country and the excellence of the vintage is unsurpassed. Wine from Florida was awarded the highest gold medal at the Paris Exposition. This territory is not recommended for the growing of citrus fruits, yet the Satsuma orange is hardy and bears the second year. Every family should have a few oranges, pomegranates, quinces and Japanese persimmons, as well as wal- nuts and pecans, all of which are indigenous to this section. Strawberries, blackberries and dewberries are adapted to all these lands and are sure crops. Blackberries grow wild over the entire region. Strawberries are very prolific and are free from disease. They are shipped in great quantities in both refrigerator cars and express refrigerators. The plants are put out in Au- gust, September or October and begin bearing in March following. The crop has become one of the most profitable shipping fruits. MELONS The cantaloupe is perfectly adapted to the great mass of Perdido soils. The famous "Rocky Ford" variety has been a great and profitable crop in west Florida, and is to be recommended as one of the best adapted specialties of this section. June is the chief shipping month, so that the soil is easily made ready for a second crop of sweet potatoes, peas, millet or sorghum; if left uncultivated it comes into a volunteer crop of hay. Watermelons grow everywhere here. They are particularly adapted to dry soils, and stand drought better than most other crops. June and July are the shipping months. The crop is one of the standbys, and is shipped by trainload to northern markets, at good profits. MISCELLANEOUS The four great staples of this region are hay, sugar cane, rice and cotton, all of which are very productive, and give a much greater revenue per acre than the staples of the north. Sugar cane can be grown on all these lands. On the heavier lands the common purple and green canes make perfect crops, while on the high, dry soils the Japanese cane thrives splendidly. Both syrup and sugar are profitable crops, but, for the individual farmer, the former is preferable. A yield of from four hundred to six hundred gallons of syrup per acre is annually made, which is worth at wholesale from forty cents to sixty cents per gallon. The entire cost of growing does not exceed fifty dollars per acre, leaving for a net profit $150.00 to $300.00 per acre. The value of cane for either sugar or syrup making depends upon the sweet- ness and purity of the juice. As Louisiana is the recognized center of cane growing in this country, a comparison of the composition of the cane of the Per- dido Country and of Louisiana is important: Sucrose. Purity Perdido Country 17% 84.3% Louisiana 12% 80.5% Is is thus seen that the sugar cane of the Perdido Country, grown much Ic'ss expensively than in Louisiana, is more than one-half sweeter than that of Louis- iana and possesses at the same time greater purity and is consequently more easily worked. In sugar-content it falls but little short of the best Cuban and Hawaiian product. Every acre of land in the Perdido Country, back from a narrow strip along the Gulf coast, is adapted to the growth of "King Cotton." The lighter soils produce the sea island or "long staple" variety which commands the highest market price. RENOVATING CROPS Cow peas, velvet beans, desmodium and vetch are all perfectly adapted to the Perdido Country lands. All are legumes and, hence, air nitrogen feeders. By their use the fertility of soils may be cheaply maintained. The number of these crops available is greater than in any other sections, and they are, in every way, fully as useful as red clover, the standard renovator of the north. 111. LIVE STOCK Probably the greatest surprise manifested by those who visit the Perdido Country for the first time is the number and condition of the cattle seen. On the wire grass ranges under the pines, in the hammocks feeding on cane, and along the water courses luxuriating on carpet grass, are straggling bands of native cattle. Small, wirey, long-horned and narrow-hipped, unprepossessing to those accustomed to stall-fed steers of northern cattle yards, but always at all seasons of the year, even in the dead of winter, showing good condition and well-covered bones, proving conclusively that no season is so severe as to make shelter necessary or to deprive the stock of plenty of sustaining food. The natural question, therefore, is, if inferior cattle do so well with no care, and total dependence on nature for sustenance, what would be possible with good stock, intelligent care and breeding, and rational feeding? In the preceding paper it has doubtless not escaped the observation of the reader that we have given special attention to forage and feeding crops. This has been with a distinct purpose and because of thorough conviction. We believe and shall attempt to demonstrate, that whatever other advantages and adaptations the Perdido Country may possess, however successful fruit growing or any other agricultural industry may become with development of this country, stock husbandry is its great and surpassing adaptation; that for investment required, quickness, certainty and size of returns, no general industry, business or investment can compare with animal husbandry. We are prepared to assert and maintain by actual results that there is no section of our whole country possessing advantages for this business which can compare to-day with this section and other similar areas contiguous to the Gulf coast For several years past a series of experiments have been made on feeds and feeding by the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, and bulletins published showing the results. Since the publication of these bulletins the stock business in the Gulf states and south Georgia has undergone a stupendous development. Scores of large cattle enterprises have been inaugurated, and thousands of acres of previously supposed useless lands have been thus turned to account. Great stock ranges of from i,ooo to 600,000 acres in extent have been started, many of them entirely under fence. Most of these undertakings are still too new to admit of quoting actual results verbatim, but all have one objective point: tlie growing and fattening of improved cattle under favorable southern conditions and by the use of southern feed stuffs; the end in view being first-class young finished beef for northern and European markets. BREEDS The results of this business are so dependent on the character of the cattle used, and animals are so dependent on environment, that a few suggestions on this point based on actual experience may save newcomers from disastrous experiment. The native cow of the wire grass range should be accepted as the base of any herd. Immunity from Texas fever, hatdiness, adaptation to surroundings and cheapness are thus secured. Grade up by the use of thoroughbred bulls. Three breeds only should be considered for this purpose, Shorthorn, Hereford and Aberdeen Angus. These are the accepted standard beef breeds of the world. Each has its special adaptations. The Shorthorn is a typical farm animal, needs care and good feed. He is not a ranger or rustler; the Hereford is hardy, thrifty and a rustler. He is a range, rather than a farm animal. As a producer of the largest proportion of the highest-priced beef, he is not equal to the Shorthorn, but he will thrive and take care of himself under conditions which would put the latter out of the race. The Angus is a good range animal, but a better farm one. On the range he becomes wild. He is an especially early maturing animal, and is the typical "baby beef" producer. Other beef breeds, of course, possess good points, and all are better than the native, but none possess advantages over the three mentioned. Immunity from Texas fever, which is the only serious cattle disease of this section, is of the utmost importance. Native-bred cattle, whatever their origin, never suffer from this disease. Adult animals brought from the north are sub- jected to serious risk. For improved blood, therefore, only very young animals should be brought south. There is no better stock in the country, however, than can be secured in Texas, northern Alabama, Georgia and south Tennessee, which localities are below the danger line and should be resorted to for breeding bulls of the beef breeds. FEEDS AND FEEDING Feed is simply the raw material to be converted into a finished product. The animal is the intermediary used for this purpose. The profit of any business depends chiefly on economy in use of the raw material, the most marketable product for the least raw material. The cheapest feed, therefore, is, other things being equal, the road to success. Other advantages are simply contributory. The cost of food varies, and the most economical food stuffs of one locality may be out of reach in another. Corn is the criterion of fattening feeds in our western states; sugar beet pulp is the basis in Germany and barley with turnips is the ration in England. It does not, therefore, follow that because corn is cheaper in Kansas than in the Perdido Country the latter cannot successfully compete in the economical production of fat cattle. Animals can be successfully fattened with many different feeds, and the economy of use simply depends on the cost of the quantity of food required to produce a pound of increased weight on the animal. Of hay or roughage there is no stint. Desmodium, paspalum, Bermuda, Johnson grass, Mexican clover, corn fodder, cow pea vines, and velvet beans, besides native grasses such as wire grass and crab grass, are abundant and cheaply produced. Cotton seed meal and hulls, which are actually becoming standard feeds all over the north, are here at home; great fields which grow them and the mills producing them are close to the Perdido Country. Rice is one of the best feeds known for all classes of stock and is here a staple product. Besides, cotton seed meal, cow peas and velvet beans furnish cheap protein foods, while the hay from either of these crops, as well as desmodium, belong to the same order of plants as the red clover to which it is fully equal. There are two crops, however, especially adapted to the Perdido Country to which attention is particularly directed, since they are incomparably the best and cheapest known feed stuffs and beyond competition from other localities. Cassava and velvet beans are these two crops. The former is a tuber, the latter a true bean, richer in flesh-making material than any single farm product of the north. This combination supplies the animal with both classes of food required, and as the bean is a legume, or soil renovator, their rotation maintains soil fertility. RESULTS OF CATTLE FEEDING As to the results and profits in feeding we will cite the reader to several cases, one of which we quote from the report of the Florida Experiment Station for the year 1901 : "It Is necessary further to simply add that corn is a recognized profitable constituent of feeding rations, and is the recognized fattening material of America. When it is shown, as this experiment abundantly demonstrates, that by the use of cassava a ration corresponding in composition to that adopted with corn, can be supplied at less than one-half of the cost of the corn ration, and that the cassava ration, when thus fed to inferior native steers, increases their weight 32.4 per cent in 70 days, one-half of the time commonly required by the corn feeders of the west, there can hardly be a question raised as to the value of this crop. The profit available to cassava feeders, and the certainty of development of a great stock- feeding industry in the one state recognized as a cassava producer, seem to be demonstrated." At the Florida State Fair at Jacksonville, in November, 1901, the State Experiment Station exhibited a native steer which had been fed for sixty days on green velvet bean forage (pasture) and cassava. He gained eighteen per cent in weight in two months on this green feed and sold at a net profit of thirty-two per cent on the investment, made in sixty days. In the winter of 1902 a large cattle owner of Bartow, Florida, fattened 300 native steers on ninety acres of velvet bean pasture, with no other feed, and made a net profit of $12 per head, or $3,600 on his investment. We quote from the Tampa Tribune of January, 1903: "Mr. C. L. Knight of this city, at the end of the cropping season of last year, found himself with a field of 140 acres of velvet beans, grown upon land which he himself says is as poor as any farm in the country. It lies four or five miles north of town, and is known as the old Watrous place. In November, when the beans were fully ripe, he turned no head of all kinds of cattle upon the beans without restriction. He gave them access to an unlimited quantity of water, pumped fresh every day, and was surprised to find that the stock consumed a measured quantity of eight gallons per head. In the meantime they fed greedily upon the beans, which were left on the ground as grown, thus avoiding all the labor of hauling and spreading the feed. "At the end of forty days Mr. Knight found that with two exceptions every beast in the field was fat enough for market, and he sold the fatted steers to Worth and Brandon, who have been butchering them for the market. The car- casses are of remarkably fine quality and fill the most exacting wants of the consuming public. Mr. Knight gets a cent a pound above the usual price, and while he did not employ scales to determine the exact increase or gain on each steer, he is satisfied that it is not less than two hundred pounds, or five pounds per day. This makes a clean gain of ten dollars per head. Had Mr. Knight's cattle all been beeves his increased revenue from this field of beans would have exceeded one thousand dollars, and there is no doubt that the profit now in cows and calves which shared the pasture will remain in them. "This feeding has not exhausted the field, it has much improved the fertility and condition of the soil, and it is safe to say that this latter item alone offsets all the cost of the bean crop. In talking of the matter Mr. Knight lays much stress upon having an abundant supply of pure water where the cattle can get it at all hours. This showing is unquestionable, and it simply adds additional testimony to what the Tribune has frequently printed along the same line. These cattle were the common Florida scrub stock, and the success of this experiment can be dupli- cated in proportion by every man who has as much as one cow brute and one acre of land. There is no reason v/hy Hillsborough country farmers may not in five to ten years be disposing of fifty thousand head of fattened beeves every winter at prices which will bring a million and a half of dollars in cash into the country — perhaps double as much as every combined fruit and farm product now brings." In the Agriculturist of January 21, 1903, appeared a description of a different phase of stock husbandry which illustrates points we believe to be of sufficient importance to justify reproduction: "The opponents of the natives have insisted that before their traits could be overcome so much foreign blood must be infused that the native must entirely disappear and essentially a full blood take his place. The friends of the native among advocates of improved conditions have remained in some doubt as to exactly how close a cross would effect the objects sought, hardiness and thrift of the native with the early maturity and beef-making propensities of the full-blood. Actual experience on a considerable scale has heretofore been lacking in Florida. Here and there the results of various crosses have been apparent, but a herd has till recently not been available. "At present, however, several herds developed during the past two years are answering the queries of interested stockmen. One of these we recently carefully inspected and the result of the examination is laid before the readers of the Agriculturist. "These cattle belong to Mr. S. H. Gaitskill, and are on his 2,000-acre farm at Mcintosh, Marion County. The animals in question consist of about fifty last spring's calves, resulting from the cross of native cows with a thoroughbred Shorthorn bull. The cows are long-horned 'cat-hammed,' typical specimens of their race. Their average gross weight would not exceed 350 pounds. The bull is a fair representative of his breed, weighing in pasturage condition, probably, 1,200 pounds. The first apparent result of the combination of blood is that the Short- horn is the more prepotent. Not one of the progeny fails to show distinguishing features of the beef-blood infusion more pronounced than the native character- istics of the cows. Many of the calves still running beside their dams are nearly as heavy as the latter. All of them show marked traits of the Shorthorn. Several of them possess the rectangular bodies, broad hips, straight backs, square buttocks and proud heads to such a degree that they could easily pass for full-bloods should they be seen on a blue grass pasture in Kentucky instead of under the moss drapery of a Florida hammock. "To any posted stockman they furnish conclusive proof that the first cross between the native and the thoroughbred will give the animal we seek. The sub- sequent crosses will doubtless increase some of the desirable qualities, and will certainly diminish the probability of individual reversion to the native type. The fact seems demonstrated that Florida stockmen need not wait several generations for the advent of animals which shall be in demand in the best markets. Neither need they undertake the expense or risk of producing full-bloods. The desirable qualities of the native are available without seriously interfering, with the estab- lished advantages of the full-blood." The visit here described was made the day before Christmas. The stock was all in pasture and had received no other feed, and this condition could continue for store stock all winter. Each of these citations is directly applicable to the Perdido Country; none of them is exceptional in character, but could be duplicated as a regular and con- tinuous business by any one with moderate means and average intelligence. One point in particular, however, demands explanation. It will be noticed that the results cited have all been secured in from sixty to ninety days of actual feeding. On the other hand from 120 to 150 days is the regular feeding period in the north. Why this difiference in favor of the south? Fattening food is utilized in the animal body for two purposes; to keep the animal warm and to make fat. The larger the part required for the former pur- pose, the less remains for the latter. Consequently the colder the climate the greater the waste of food and the longer the time required for securing a given result. In other words, the animal fed seventy days in the Perdido Country is as nearly ripe as after 120 days of feeding and expense in Iowa. Here is a saving and advantage of nearly one-half. This fact alone makes it commercially inevit- able that eventually the great beef producing section of our country must be centered in the region possessing this enormous advantage. DAIRYING All that has been said of fattening cattle applies with equal appropriateness to dairying. There is no section of the whole country where the conditions are better suited to successful dairy farming than the Perdido Country. A few com- parisons may be useful in the support of this statement. Milling by-products, such as wheat-bran and glucose-refuse, are the standard dairy feeds the country over Pensacola is as near and convenient to the center of their production as is New York, which is a great dairy state. Cotton seed meal by thousands of tons is fed to dairy cows annually. It can be obtained at from $2 to $4 per ton less in the Perdido Country than in any recognized dairy center in the north. Hay need only be used as a supplement to other feeds. Green pasture is available every month in the year; rye, oats, vetch, Italian rye grass and rescue grass furnish a succession of the very best green foods for either pas- turing or soiling through the entire winter. Velvet beans and cassava are as well adapted to milk and butter production as they are to fat forming. It may surprise the reader to learn that many of the finest dairy herds in the country are owned in Alabama and west Florida, the butter and milk from which sells readily at from twenty-five to fifty per cent above northern quotations, yet costs only a fraction as much to produce. OTHER LIVE STOCK It is neither necessary or possible to here go into details as to the possibil- ities of hog raising in the Pierdido Country. The south as a whole has long been knov.'n as a hog country, and it is a generally accepted fact that where- ever beef car be profitably made or a dairy economically conducted, there the hog finds his natural environment. The general conditions affecting econom- ical cattle feeding apply with equal force to hogs; and the latter animal is a necessary adjunct to any form of cattle husbandry. The diseases frequently devastating the swine of the west are comparatively unknown here. Range, pasture, water and cheap fattening materials are abundant. It is perfectly feas- ible to breed, grow and fatten hogs on a succession of crops which the animal shall harvest for itself, thus greatly reducing the cost of producing, and mul- tiplying the profits available. We will mention a single such succession of crops extending from March to December, covering the period of the profitable hog's entire existence. First, rye, vetch or turf oats. Second, sugar corn, sorghum or early cow peas. Third, field corn, millet, sorghum. Fourth, peanuts (pinders) late peas and sorghum. Fifth, millet, sorghum, sweet potatoes, velvet beans or late peas and cassava. Finishing with cassava makes pork, in every way, as sweet and hard as corn. One other fact is of importance. The lumber and cotton sections of the south are among the best markets for western packing-house products. The southern grown hog, therefore, finds the best market in the world at home. Sheep, goats and poultry should each receive consideration, as all these have special adaptations to the section under consideration. Diseases and pests are few, markets good and successful business a demonstrated fact by many very large enterprises surrounded by conditions identical to those we have enumerated. The reader should bear in mind that the Pcrdido Country is new, yet old. It is old, for it has been sparsely settled for a hundred years or more by people who owned large herds of cattle, or engaged in the cutting of timber, who are satisfied with their own environments. It is new, as it has just been opened up to agriculture, and it has only recently been demonstrated what products can be profitably grown here, and what industries can be successfully followed. Here then are to be found new opportunities, new homes, new hopes and new pleasures in the Perdido Country of the Gulf Coast. Cattle Raising in the Perdido Country By R. W. STORRS Florida, what magic there is in the name for those who seek health, or wish to escape from the rigors of the blizzards of the North! And what a mass of misinformation there is in reference to it. Nine out of ten men from the North and West you meet, if business opportunities are mentioned in connection with it, will at least turn up their noses with a contemptuous sneer, if they do not openly scofif at the possibility of raising anything or doing anything but veg- etate, or possibly, to put it a little more politely, luxuriate in its glorious sun- shine in the winter time, and run north at the first whistle of a blue bird or trill of a robin when the warmer winds of spring begin to blow. They will tell you that it is either all swamp or all sand, and that they would not give a penny for the entire state if compelled to live in it. The other one of the ten will tell you of some uncle, or cousin, several times removed, who had an orange grove down there and lost ever so many thousands of dollars in the freeze. At least seven of the ten will have the idea that mosquitoes are only excelled, if equaled, by those of the Jersey cpast, while they are sure that the flies in the summer time are just terrible, and that to stir out in one's own yard at any season is to subject one's self to being eaten alive by all sorts of venomous serpents, some varieties of which were never heard of save in their own fevered imagination, while to venture along the streams is take one's life in hand on account of the numberless alligators that lie in wait for unsus- pecting victims. I know that these ideas do exist in reference to the state that has more to commend it in every way than any other in the Union, because I have had questions in reference to these things asked me by letter and in person, until they have become absolutely ridiculous. How far they are from the truth it will be the purpose of this brief article to tell. Beginning with the climate, there is but little really necessary to say, for it is generally conceded that in this Florida has in the winter time at least, advantages claimed for but few if any other localities in the world, but of the summer climate not so much is known. Not many people are willing to believe that the summer weather is more pleasant here than in the North, and particularly in the middle West, where the thermometer marking upwards of a hundred in the shade, and a hot wind sweeping over the country make life a burden. While here, with the average maximum temperature of 83 degrees and always a cool refreshing breeze, with the absence of that humidity which is so oppressive in the northern portions of. the country, our summers are indeed very pleasant. It is true that the Everglades are in Florida, btit they are as far almost from what we consider the most favored portion of the state, that is that portion lying west of the Apalachicola River, as that portion is from the Ohio River, and it may be added that the physical characteristics of the two sections are almost as dissimilar as is West Florida and Southern Indiana, and in the section of which we write the people know as little of the swamps which so many think cover the state as do the people of Maine or the Dakotas. They have heard and read that they exist, but so far and no farther does their information go. There are portions of the state that are sandy. The same may be as truth- fully said of Michigan, of Massachusetts, and of every other state. But if we are seeking a home, or a new location let us not seek those loca- tions where these things are, but rather where they are not. Let us stop in Pensacola and going back for a few miles look over some of the lands in Es- cambia County, and what is practically a portion of the same state, Baldwin County, Alabama. Where now are the swamps that you thought existed? Where are the sand hills that will grow nothing? The barren waste of which }OU have read? Do the swamps cover these gently rolling hills that afford a perfect drainage in every direction without at the same time washing away the soil when placed in cultivation? Do the living limpid springs that start from every hillside, and run down the valleys to join themselves into larger brooks and then to swift running streams that carry thousands of logs to the mills on their banks, savor of the death dealing swamps you have feared? Do these tall pines on every hand, and the carpet of grass everywhere to be seen remind you of the barren wastes of sand for which you have been looking? Do these cattle, fat and sleek in the middle of January, gathering their feed in the woods the year round feed on nothing but sand? Seriously then some o' the ideas you have had of this section must be erroneous, and having gotten thus far let us make a more critical examination of soil, climate and water. Let us look at things as they are from an agricultural point of view, for as to manufacturing, mercantile and other like business ventures we would of course go to the cities or towns. Farming in the South as everywhere is profitable in proportion as the raising and feeding of live stock enters into its make-up. I am speaking of possibilities and natural advantages that here exist for the plain common farmer who wants to make as little change in the surroundings of his new home as is consistent with the change of latitude, and so I turn to live stock, cattle, hogs, sheep, and so on through the list, not forgetting poultry. There are several essentials to the profitable rearing of live stock. These may be summed up in pasturage, water, production of feed crops for winter feeding and fattening, and climate conditions. To these may be added one other not generally considered, but a very important point, the freedom from pests of various kinds, including diseases of animals that in some localities in- terfere very materially with the figures on the profit side of the ledger. Taking the last of these first, one of the greatest advantages that the section spoken of possesses over many others, is the comparative, indeed almost absolute freedom from diseases among domestic animals. That the purity of the air. and the abundance of clear water with which this country abounds has much to do with this, is not to be doubted, but whether it is entirely due to this or other causes the fact remains, that deaths from disease among domestic ani- nials are almost unknown. Ask the Florida man about the foot-rot or scab in sheep, those banes to profitable sheep husbandry in so many localities, and if his information goes no farther than his own experience he will gaze on you in open mouthed wonder, for he knows nothing of them. The same is true also of tuberculosis and black-leg in cattle. These, the Florida cattleman knows nothing of, except as he has read of them in the public prints. The popular idea is that the whole South, and particularly Florida is so infested with mosquitoes and flies of various kinds that human life is made a miserable existence, and that domestic animals are nearly eaten alive, but so far as this section is concerned nothing could be farther from the truth. I would not be understood as saying that there are no insects, or that we are entirely Iree from flies, but the "green-head." which so nearly drives both cattle and horses frantic in the middle west, is entirely unknown here, in fact the ex- emption is such that a ily-net on a horse at any season is a rarity, and gray- headed men can be found who never saw a horse so accoutercd. The one fly that is at all troublesome is the small black one known in different sections of the country as the horn-fly, buft'alo-flv, etc. This fly comes in the spring and for a few weeks troubles cattle to some extent, but about the first of June comes the "horse-guard" or "guard-fly" that soon makes an end of the other, either eating them, or driving them away, as does the dragon-fly the mosquito, and I may add that I believe that it is only the region say for fifty miles along the coast that is so protected. We are told that in portions of South Florida and in the coast country of Louisiana mosquitoes exist in such numbers as to make it impossible to rear cattle or horses successfully, but this is not true of the section of which I write, for these pests are never numerous enough here to trouble anyone. As is well known the same food elements that go to make fat in the ani- mal are required to make heat if the climatic conditions are such that there is any considerable drain on the animal economy for that purpose. Here this never occurs, and whatever of fat producing feed is given to an animal is used for the purpose intended, and is not wasted in combating weather con- ditions, against which warm barns must be provided in other sections, o* as has been done in some localities, fires maintained to conserve the corn by keep- ing up artificial warmth. If shelter is provided at all nothing more is re quired than mere sheds to keep off the winter rains, and while I believe that the,§e., are an advantage, even this plan is rarely adopted. ''WM' With such freedom from insects and favorable climatic conditions, if feeds can be produced of such character as to give satisfactory results in finishing the adult animal, there should be a satisfactory profit in the feeding. That such feeds can be produced, at a minimum of expense, has been--demonstrated time and again. In the cow-pea, velvet-bean, beggar-weed, sweet .potato and cassava we have crops indigenous to this soil and climate that will produce, acre for acre, and dollar for dollar, more feed than can be done in the corn belt. On my place the past year I had an acre and a quarter of velvet-beans, which cost for plowing and planting, seed included. $1.85. These were planted a month later than they should have been, and in the middle of the driest season we have ever experienced. The stand was so poor and the general prospect so unpromising that they were practically abandoned, and were not cultivated at all. No effort was made to gather them, but they were left in the field for pasture. December 4th I turned an eight-months old heifer calf in the field. January 3d I put an- other calf about the same age, and a very large cow in also. From that day to February 4th, none of these animals had a mouthful of any other feed than what they gathered in this field, and much of the time they had the assistance of seven shoats to aid them in eating the be;uis. All of them gained rapidly from tlie first, and yet on February 4th there was plenty of beans to carry them for from three weeks to a month longer. Is it possible under any conditions North or West to show like results? This land is not so fertile as that in the particular region of which I have been writing, and this account is simply given as a practical illus- tration of what may be done with this one feed. That a ration composed of cassava and velvet-beans will produce pork and beef at less expense than can be done on corn has been demonsirated by the Florida Experiment Station, the results ot these experiments being set forth in Bulletin No. 55, which may be had of the Director. But there still remains the decided advantage possible under the favorable climatic advantages here, of having winter pasturage for young stock and stock cattle of all ages. For this purpose any of the small grains are suited, turf oats possibly giving the best results, closely followed by rye, barley, wheat, oats, etc., and all of them are sure crops, aiid cheaply produced. I think if the question were asked me, what do you consider the greatest advantage this section possesses over others in the way of keeping live stock, my answer would probably be: "The excellence and abundance of water." Here from every hillside come springs, not mere wet weather seeps, but never-failing springs of the purest water. Indeed, I doubt if it would be possible to find a section of land in West Florida or South Alabama that does not have a stream of clear running water or one or more of these springs on it. Pure water is as essential to health in the lower animals as it is in human kind, and there can be no question but that many of the otherwise unexplained losses of live stock in the North and West are due to an insufficiency of this necessary element, or the fact that that which is drunk comes from stagnant ponds reeking with the accumulated filth of years. It is too much to expect that any animal will thrive under such conditions, and the wonder is rather that losses are not greater than they are. But here without money and without price, without expense or labor either to procure or to supply, is an abundance of this very necessary element in the economical rearing and keeping of live stock of any kind, and I say again, of all the advantages that this section possesses I think that this is one of the greatest. But water, in itself no matter how plentiful or how good, is not enough to make stock raising profitable. There must be pasturage, and the natural question to follow is, has this section the necessary grass to raise and feed live stock of different kinds? In this as in all things else one demonstrated fact is worth a dozen theories, and it is an indisputable fact that not one animal in a dozen, of either cattle, sheep or hogs raised in Florida and South Alabama ever knows anything of other feed from one year's end to the other, than that gathered on the range, and nowhere in my observation will so good a natural range be found as that in the section under consideration. In a recent trip (in February) over this territory I took particular notice of the condition of the animals seen on this range, both sheep and cattle, and all were in good condition, many of the former being as fat as much of the beef that finds its way into the butcher shops of the country towns, while the sheep and lambs were anything but poor. This it should be said was out in the woods, and on the native grass of the country. Still here, as elsewhere, there are grasses easy of production that excel the native growth. Among these are the various varieties of Paspalum, Japan-clover and last, but not least, Bermuda, a grass that so good an authority as Prof. A.M. Soule, of the Tennessee Experiment Station, places ahead of blue grass in those sections where it can be successfully grown. When I say that these grasses are easy of production I wish to place all the emphasis possible on that statement. Either of these need but to be given a start to spread over all adjacent territory, crowding out the native growths, and making their way the better for close grazing and tramping. Personally I know of one pasture of paspalum which furnishes each year from April to December grazing for one head of cattle for each two acres of pasturage, not scant nipping, but abundant grazing. I have made these statements before to men who have come from other sections and at the time were possibly gazing at some raw-boned, cat-hammed animal on the range, that at four years old was not as large at it should have been at half that age, and had the question asked me: "If what you say about these grasses is true, why do not the native animals grow larger?"' and doubtless others may have asked this same cjuestion. The answer is not far to seek. The native cattle are descendants of the old Spanish stock and for generations have been allowed to seek their own living on the ranges, and have bred and inbred without the least attention or direction, and on the other hand the larger animals of the North and West, with which comparisons are made, are the production of years of careful selection and breeding, and, of necessity, high feeding. Given the same attention and the native animal of the South will soon develop into the prototype of his Northern cousin and yield as large and even larger returns to their owners. The plain farmer, who wishes to escape the rigors of the Northern winter, or to procure a home on such terms as he can meet, where he can put to use the experience of his life in other sections, with the least change, who wants health, and a chance to make a living can find it here as he can nowhere else, and if he wil' come to see he will find it as I have written. Forage Crops in the Per dido Country By G. A. DANLEY Until recent years the principal forage for stock in the South was corn- fodder. The native grasses that grow so luxuriantly in the fields were never utilized. They were thought to be worthless and looked upon as pests, being always present in the cultivated fields and taking the ground after the crops were laid by. It is only in recent years that the value of our native grasses has been discovered and utilized for hay to any great extent. It is now generally conceded by those who use it that native hay is equal or superior to hay shipped here from the North. It is sweeter, and horses fed on it when idle will keep in good flesh with little else, and when at work require much less grain than when corn-fodder is the only forage used. The above applies to all kinds of stock usually kept on the farm. In the past, cattle and sheep have never had any special care. They run on lihe range the year round and live entirely on the wild grasses that are so plentiful in this section. Cattle thrive about seven or eight months, hold their own for two months and lose flesh for the remaining portion of the year. The days of open ranges here, as in the West, are numbered. Stockmen are beginning to realize that a change is coming and the demand will be for better beef than the open range can produce, and they are now looking for the best and cheapest methods of producing and improving their stock. The time has come when scrub stock must go and better cattle are going to take their place. The object of the writer is to speak of some of the forage crops best suited to our section. Of all the annual plants used for hay, cow-peas has been for many years considered one of the best. On fairly good land they yield abundant crops of good hay and leave the land in better condition for succeeding crops. There are both early and late varieties, which make it possible to plant any time during the season as circumstances may require, and no better catch crop has been found. They are to the South what red-clover is to the North. They can be planted after any crop, such as oats, wheat, barley or rye, giving two crops in one season. There are varieties that will mature in sixty days, while others will continue to grow for six months or more. They can be planted any time from May until August, either broadcast or in drills. It is a common practice to plant them in cornfields at the last working and they will make a fairly good yield without any injury to the corn. They may be saved for seed or hay, or used for pasture after the corn is gathered. There are several grasses that make a universal growth in the fields, but the principal ones are crab-grass, Mexican-clover and beggar-weed, and these are the best known for general forage crops. They require no resceding when once established. On well fertilized soil, crab-grass and Mexican-clover will yield two tons or more of hay per acre. The hay is good if properly cured and the feeding qualities are equal to timothy or clover; many who have fed all these prefer it to timothy or clover. I find that Mexican-clover enriches the soil if plowed down in the winter. The roots penetrate deep into the subsoil, making it porous and bringing up the minerals and fertilizing elements. For general purposes it has no equal. It will be with you wet or dry, does well on poor soil, but far better where land is good. It makes good hay and stock thrive on it. Prepare land after oats or rye are harvested and the hay is of more value than either. It is sure to come after crops are laid by. Turn it under well with a two-horse plow in winter or early spring and it will keep the land from running together, making a good fertilizer. It shades and protects the land from the sun and is one of the great blessings that is rarely appreciated by the farmer of the South. It is readily killed, by cultivation, but there are plenty of seed that will germinate after culti- vation ceases. It beats clover because it gives us a second crop for hay or pas- ture, or it can be turned under to improve the soil. What has been said of Mexican-clover will also apply to beggar-weed. It is classed among the legumes and like the cow-pea is a nitrogen gatherer. To make the best of hay it should be thick on the ground so that the stalks or stems will not be too coarse and woody. The second crop is better than the first, as after it has been cut it will succor and grow much thicker and finer. It is very sweet and stock will eat it in preference to any other hay. It makes good grazing until killed by frost. It flourishes on light, sandy soil and improves the land. It reseeds itself and when once established no more seeding is required. By way of illustration, to show the wonderful growth of beggar-weed, I will mention one instance: I had a two-acre patch of watermelons. It was cultivated level, and after gathering a thousand melons, I cut and put in the barn seven two-horse loads of hay, supposed to average a ton to the load. I had two cut- tings after oats and rye last season. It is not uncommon to get a good crop of beggar-weed cr Mexican-clover hay in cornfields after corn is gathered or shocked. The truth is, we have the hay for the cutting and if we do not want the hay it is there to be plowed under for fertilizer. To show its value as a fertilizer, I quote from an article in Ainslie's Magazine as follows: "The govern- ment has induced farmers to try the Florida beggar-weed. One experimenter reported that by planting it in his field and plowing under the annual crops for two successive years, the soil had been completely changed in texture and color. Another farmer discovered that a crop of beggar-weed turned under will, when decomposed, retain near the surface in ready reach of the roots of succeeding crops not only all the nitrogen that is took out of the atmosphere, but also much of the feitilizers that were subsequently applied. A third reported that all his fields produced more luxurious crops after having been given over one season to a rank growth of this weed. "To find out how mvich chemical value this plant really takes from the air and subsoil, the government planted a sandy field (bare of any of the qualities of which ordinary cereals and vegetables can thrive) with beggar-weed, and when the crop was at its height harvested it, root and all. The crop was then reduced to ashes and the result analyzed. It was found that every ton of beggar-weed ashes contained 508 pounds of lime, 230 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 482 pounds of potash. Twenty to twenty-five tons of beggar-weed hay were required to make a ton of ashes, but every acre yielded four tons of beggar-weed. It was figured out that at a four-ton yield per acre, which is an average, one acre of beggar-weed would yield 150 pounds of nitrogen, worth fifteen cents a pound, or $22.50 worth of nitrogen, and potash and phosphoric acid worth $5-25, making a total of $27.75 worth of fertilizing chemicals taken from an acre of soil worth nothing at all." We have another vine, the velvet-bean, that while comparatively a new dis- covery as a forage crop is rapidly coming into general use throughout this ter- litory. The velvet-bean is a legume and is the greatest soil renovator of any known plant. It is a rank grower and does well on poor soil, where the cow- pea would fail to grow. For that reason it has sometimes been called "the poor man's fertilizer." It will grow from spring till frost and will cover the ground from three to four feet deep, with a solid mass of vines forty to fifty feet in length. One point of excellence is that cattle, hogs and horses will eat the vines and beans in the field. They will do the harvesting, thereby saving labor and ex- pense. It is conceded that one acre of beans vvill fatten four head of steers. It makes good beef and at little expense, but it is economy to feed cassava with it, which makes a better balanced ration. There is nothing equal to the velvet-bean for building up old worn-out land and it will increase the crop 50 per cent the first year. The hay is nutritious and can be cut any time during the summer season. It withstands the severest drought or wettest weather. There is no crop that can be grown with less expense, and it supplies a forage crop in winter when it is needed for all kinds of stock. The Louisiana Experiment Station found that the crop of beans from an acre of ordinary old land contained 191 pounds nitrogen, 243 pounds of potash and 41 pounds phosphoric acid, which when turiitd under, had a fertilizing value of $40 per acre. The Alabama Station took a worn- out hillside that had been planted in velvet-beans and plowed under, and got over four times as much oats as where crab-grass had been turned under. Mr. Kline O. Varn of Fairview Farm who planted 400 acres of beans last year says: ■"The bean is rich in protein and of the same feeding value as cotlon-seed meal. The vines are rich in carbohydrates and supply the roughage, making a complete feed that cannot be excelled in clieaiiness. The vines make tlie finest feed for milch- cows and they are e(iually good for lu gs and horses." In making the crop, pre- p;;re the iand in the same manner as for corn. Plant wlicii danger of frost is over, in rows four ;eet apart, twenty inches in drill, with two or three beans in a hill. Cultivate once or twice or until the vines begin to run. The vines grow at a prodigious rate and cover the ground waist deep. The old leaves drop off and the new ones keep coming on, and I have seen the ground covered six inches deep with fallen leaves and not one could be missed on the vines. The vines keep green until frost and the cattle will eat the beans and dry vines until March, seemingly with great relish. To illustrate the value of velvet beans to pulverize hard soil, I will say that I know of a field planted in velvet-beans that had an old road running through it. That road broke up in chunks and many of them were as large as a bushel basket. The vines have laid there all winter, and this spring that old road is like an ash luap. There is one spot, however, in llie old road that the beans did not cover and the clods are yet there as hard apparently as bricks. Peanuts are extensively raised to fatten hogs. The vines make the best of hay, and should be cut about the time the nuts are matured. The usual yield of hay is about a ton to the acre. Sorghums, millets, kaffir-corn and teosinte yield repeated cuttings till frost. Cassava should be raised on every well-regulated farm in this section. I fattened this year 30 head of hogs on one and three-quarters acres. It makes solid pork and of the finest flavor. The lard is white and solid as corn-fed. An average yield is 8 to 10 tons per acre, and the feed value of a ton is equal to 20 bushels of corn. We feed it to all kinds of stock down to chickens. The cul- tivating cost about the same as corn. It keeps in the ground all winter, and is dug as needed. It delights in a light sandy soil and stands drought better than almost any other crop. We have yet much to learn about farming in this section. After taking into consideration the mildness of climate, the bountiful supply of pure water, the long season for grazing, the great varieties of cheap forage crops and the cheap beef and pork that can be made from cassava, cotton-seed meal and velvet-beans, I think it is safe to say that in the near future that our cheap lands will all be utilized and this section will do her part to furnish the best and cheapest beef to the great markets where the supply is far short of the demand. Pasture Grasses in thePerdido Country By L. W. PLANK Prof. S. M. Tracy of tlie Department of Agriculture tells us there are 165 species of grasses native to this region, and many of these furnish abundant hay and pasture. I have grown a number of species. The Paspalums, known as the "carpet grass" and "large water grass," do best with me. The panic grasses, red top, orchard grass, rescue grass, crimson clover and rye grasses do well on cul- tivated lands. The Japan clover, Bermuda and Paspalums make the best pas- tures of any I have tried. Two acres of Paspalums, Bermuda and Japan clover will keep a cow fat from March isth to December 15th. It will take four acres to keep her in good flesh from December 15th to March 15th. I generally sow turf oats and winter barley in September and October for winter pasture for cows that come in in the fall and winter and for late summer calves. I feed the range cattle some once a day on cut-corn-fodder, sugar cane, sorghum, velvet-beans, cassava or rice in the straw, from December ist to March iSth. It pays to feed if you expect to make good cattle and keep them growing. Some of the cheapest feeds that we can raise and at the same time increase the fertility of the soil are cow-peas, velvet-beans and beggar-weed. The question is asked a great many times by Northern farmers, why we do not raise alfalfa; I generally answer we don't have to, that we have beggar-weed that is equally as good and not near so expensive, and we have the velvet-bean that is much better. I have grown some alfalfa and it does quite well if you have good clear land and your soil is just right. But there is just where the mischief comes in; you have to fight Mexican clover, crab grass and crow-foot grass all summer to keep them from smothering out the alfalfa. Crab-grass and Mexican clover come in after we have laid our corn and other crops by, and make from one to two tons of good hay per acre. The velvet-bean we plant in the spring, plow once, but oftentimes do not plow at all; in fact, we encourage the growth of weeds and grass in the middle of the rows for the beans to run on. They will do better to have something to run on, as they are climbers; they will run to the top of a fifty-foot pole or tree; they are certainly a lazy man's crop. I have seen some very fine, well-fattened beef, that had been fed nothing else but velvet-beans. The Paspalum you might say is in its native home and soil, and is spreading over all this part of the country. I consider this a good stock country, and we can raise the feed for fattening. Lands are cheap, the very best of spring water, no such thing as having to make ponds or pools for stock water, as they have to do ill the North and West. The winters are short and mild, and the taxes are low. Cattle can have green feed all winter on our cultivated lands besides the outside range. I came to West Florida from Nebraska, where I ran a feed-yard and cattle ranch for a number of years. I know what it is to go through bliz- zards and northwesters and pay high taxes on high-priced lands, and oftentimes have poor stock water and that frozen over for weeks; no more of it for me. I have been in this country for a number of years and am in the stock-raising busi- ness and am well satisfied. o 00 00 o ^ ^ (/) u fH (U >^ ^ H g^ > CO :3 > o O a U •»-i ^ ^ cti fS ^3 o • l-H o O H fe o ed o o cd CO (U •-) fl, l-H S-l 04 4) o CJ 3 i^ » ^aawaAo^[ O -t O O CD CO CO ;o o 05 in CO • • r-l r-l O O O CO O rf o in o Haaoxoo o in CO in CO (m i- C- C- CO CO CO ^ --H o o o CO O O O O C( GO aaaivaxaas ■CO ^ o o CO in 05 I- CO 05 t- CO —1 ^ —( o o ^ O CO o 0-. ^ xsnonv CO CO CO J> CO • • .-H ^ in o o CO o o — o -* t~ A-inf — CO GO C5 C5 W £- CO CO CO GO i> CO • • " — in o o CO -^ c: :o aNnf Oir}coi>co in-* r^ CO CO 00 C- CO • • l-H T-H w o o in O O C5 O 05 ^ AVI\[ -* £- cs r-H ao N o I- c- CO t- CO 1-1 ^ COON O O IM -H ^ CO ^IH o m i^ HDHVJ^ o CO o in 00 CO CO CO CO CO in cxi • ■ .-1 r-H o c o in O O O O "O O AHvnnaaji CO CO CO in o in I-- m CO 00 -* CO • • 1—1 l-H o o — ■* O O O O CO C5 AHVriNVf (?* CO C3 CO 00 CI CO in CO 00 -* 00 • • r-( ,-H O O CO CO • s . • m • *-• ' .£ (D =i :> yT S o -d • CO O 1 ii S .J g J '^ °- age or mea age warmei of occurre age coldest of occurre age numbe rature over 95° ^ ni C o CO (Ua)ni >^ )-H w w ^ O u ^ ES t3 m m Advantages of Pensacola, the Metropolis of West Florida and South-East Alabama t has a $75,000 opera house. t has a paid fire department. t has 32/^ feet of water on the bar. t has a ^2oO,000 Federal building. t has a r)00,000-bushel grain elevator. t has a cotton compress of the best make. t has splendid opportunities for investment. t has a cotton seed oil mill of large capacity. t has the purest water to be found anywhere. t has good solid banks and mercantile firms. t has a marine railway and three iron foundries. t is the largest pitch pine port in the United States. t has gas, water, electric light and electric street cars. t has one of the largest fertilizer factories in the South. t has three ice factories capacity over 100 tons per day. t has become the leading naval stores port in the South. t has a 500,000 court house and a $30,000 armory building. t has a dummy line to the Navy Yard and Forts, 8 miles long. t has a five-story, up-to-date oflice building in a central location. t has splendid hotel accommodations and boarding house facilities. t has 11 miles of water mains and the Waring System of sewerage. t has a dry dock of 12,000 tons capacity, owned by the U. S. Government. t has a telephone exchange of the latest device and long distance connection. t is the winter rendezvous of the North Atlantic Squadron. t has the largest fish business in the South, employing 800 men and 50 or (50 vessels. t has the finest terminal facilities for loading cotton, grain, coal and general merchan- [t has lines of freight steamers to the principal ports of Europe, South Africa, West Indies, Mexico, and more to follow. [t has the finest climate in the world and the grandest sheet of water on this continent, perfectly land-locked. [t has three forts at the mouth of the harbor, which make it one of the best protected le whole country. It has a U. S. Navy Yard, fully equipped with up-to-date electrical machinery for repairing naval vessels of largest class. in th id Wr « 36 « 37 u m 39 40 Wistaria Cottage, Gateswood, in March 41 II Magnolia Tree at Magnolia Hill Ranch Oi I Fully Developed Velvet Beans 48 o to 50 .a.', — t^vtuar , 51 ftit-'^ s^'iM-' Cfl 54. Oi o .«C^ vEtCiMUl-1-T .J 56 o S4A Oi ANNOUNCEMENT A majority of the best lands of the PERDIDO COUNTRY are owned by the SOUTHERN STATES LUMBER COMPANY, of Pensacola, Florida, and are now offered for sale in LARGE TRACTS at attractive prices and on reasonable terms. 63 .. THE .. SOUTHLAND COMPANY This COMPANY owns a large tract of land in the best part of the PER- DIDO COUNTRY and has also se- cured the control of a large body of the most desirable of the lands of the SOUTHERN STATES LUMBER COMPANY and now offers them for sale in large or small quantities. Address: SOUTHLAND COMPANY 504 Theisen Bldg. 11 29 Stevenson Bldg. PENSACOLA, FLA. INDIANAPOLIS, IND. PESIGNED, ENGRAVED AND PRINTED BY BARNES-CROSBY CO. CHICAGO JUL 11 1903 LIBRARY OF CONrPircc- ■i