_Address by W. N. Waddell of Fort Worth, Texas, before the
Florida State Live Stock Association, January 9, 1918._
_Mr. Waddell started to working cattle on the Texas ranges in 1875, and
has been in the cattle business for himself since 1881._
_He was chairman of the Live Stock Sanitary Commission of Texas for four
years, and for a number of years has been the Texas representative of
the Live Stock Exchange National Bank of Chicago, and of the Chicago
Cattle Loan Company._
_After spending a week in Florida during August of 1917, Mr. Waddell
returned to the State in November and spent considerable time
investigating the opportunities for raising cattle. This address gives
his views on the advantages Florida possesses as a cattle-producing
state._
In order to understand or to be able to appreciate a proposition of
almost any character it is necessary to approach it by comparison, and
in making comparisons touching Florida I wish to state that I have
traveled over the range of the five northern states of old Mexico; I
have traveled over the southern part of the range belt of Arizona; I
have traveled over about half of the state of New Mexico and virtually
all of Texas, and I find in Florida conditions favorable to the
production of live stock that do not exist in any of the states I have
named, which constitute the great range belt of the Southwest. In Mexico
there is very little water, and water is very hard to get by digging,
the wells averaging from 150 to 1,000 feet deep, and in a great many
instances no water at all. In Mexico they also have a great many animals
that prey on the live stock, such as panthers, lobo wolves, bears, as
well as the common, ordinary coyote. None of these have to be contended
with here.
In Arizona and New Mexico about the same conditions prevail as do in
northern Old Mexico. In Texas we have bears and sundry pests to prey on
our live stock. The prairie dog infests a great many of our ranches,
destroying the grass, digging holes in the ground, and making it
dangerous for the cowboy to ride over in the pursuit of his range
endeavors. We have wolves of all species. In Texas we have also the
screw worms that are a tax on the live stock producer to the extent of
from two to five per cent of the calves born on his ranch, and I am
sorry to say that worst of all we have periodical droughts. None of
these adverse conditions I find prevail in Florida.
Here I find the country covered with a thick, heavy coat of grass,
streams running with plenty of water and I understand where natural
water is not available that it is only about from twenty to one hundred
feet to an abundant supply of water under the ground, making the
proposition of watering the ranches in Florida, where artificial water
is necessary, a very simple matter. The climate in Florida is temperate
and mild, rainfall is regular and abundant, and, so far as the
production of forage for live stock on the range is concerned, your
rainfall and your soils all seem to combine in favor of the producer of
live stock.
I never was more amazed in my life than I was last summer, when, in
company with a committee of other cattle men from Texas, I visited this
state. At that time I was shown over the southern middle part of
Florida; was shown a great domain of country lying out of doors, as it
were and as we term it in Texas, furnishing free range for hundreds of
thousands of cattle. I did not believe my ears when I was told those
conditions existed here, and I can't understand yet why a state as old
as Florida, with as many surface indications of possibilities for the
production of live stock, should remain unfenced, unoccupied, and
non-revenue producing to the men who own the land.
Another surprise that met us when we came to Florida in the summer was
the absolute lack of any improvement in the live stock that we found
here. In fact, it is my judgment that the cattle in Florida today, from
what I have read of the history of Florida, are not as good as they were
thirty years ago, and I am surprised, when I think of the facilities
furnished the cattle men of Florida by the land owners for the grazing
of their cattle, that they haven't taken any more interest in their
cattle than they have and tried to improve them.
Florida today, as never before, is attracting national attention as a
possible beef-producing state. The eyes of the investing public are
turned toward Florida, and it is my judgment that within the next five
years Florida will make greater strides in the development of the live
stock industry than it has ever made before. And I want here and now to
issue a warning to you gentlemen who are running your cattle on the open
ranges of Florida that you had better get busy and get control of what
land you expect to use as a cattle ranch, for if I mistake not,
outsiders are coming into this state who will buy or lease these lands,
put them under fence and inaugurate a system of live stock production on
an improved basis as compared to the present methods being pursued in
this state.
And in this connection I wish to state that I have discussed this open
range proposition with some of the largest land owners in Florida. They
tell me that they want to see Florida developed; they tell me they are
in line to lend their energies, their time and their money to anything
that will develop the State of Florida. After listening to them talk
this line of earnest progressiveness, I have put the proposition to them
just like it was put to us in Texas, and that is, formulate an equitable
leasing proposition, one that will safeguard the interests of the land
owner, and at the same time lend protection to the vested rights of the
lessee, and advertise that to the world. Let the people not only of
Florida, but the people outside of the State of Florida, know that they
can come to Florida and at a small rental cost, lease as many acres of
good grazing land as they have money to get cattle with which to stock
it, assuring the prospective lessee that they will fence the land
according to his desires and will build him a ranch house to live in;
that they will fence him a horse pasture to keep his saddle horses in;
will build him a dipping vat on the land, and where necessary will bore
wells and equip them with windmill and pump sufficient to furnish plenty
of water for the live stock on the land so leased.
There was never any marked development or marked improvement in the live
stock industry in the State of Texas as long as the cattle ranged on the
free grass, but in 1884 the Legislature passed what was known as a Lease
Law. Then it was, gentlemen, that the fencing up of the State of Texas
began in earnest. No man was willing to pay lease on land and let
somebody else's cattle graze on it. And that is the first step needed to
be taken in the evolution of better cattle in Florida. The land owners
should fence up their lands, cut them up in pastures to suit the men who
want to run their cattle on them, making the lands of Florida
revenue-producing, instead of being a liability, and put the cattle of
Florida under fence and under control wherein individual effort may
develop in a desire to excel. I can not stress this proposition too
strongly. I haven't the language to express the importance of putting
the lands of Florida under fence and the cattle under control in order
that better cattle and more cattle may be raised. The most important
step looking to better cattle in Florida has already been taken in the
creation of a Live Stock Sanitary Board and the work incident thereto of
tick eradication. This work and the efforts of the Florida State Live
Stock Sanitary Board will be much more effective and easier of
accomplishment when you get the ranges of Florida fenced and the cattle
under control.
It seems to me that Florida has been overlooked. I am led to the belief
that the Florida cowmen have been lulled to sleep, as it were, by the
fact that they haven't been bothered by any outside influences. In
discussing the breeding up or improving of the cattle with a good many
breeders whom I have met in this State, I find that all voice the
sentiment that they would like to raise better cattle; that the State
ought to produce better cattle; and that it is a good cattle country.
Florida is wasting approximately enough good pasture to produce a meat
supply sufficient to feed several states by confining the quality of the
herds to the little native cattle we saw on the ranges. True, we saw
lots of cattle, more than I supposed existed in the entire State, but
the opportunity before the cattle men is to breed up the quality and
size. That this can be done was demonstrated by some herds we visited,
and the reports on those herds show that this is a better cattle
breeding country than Texas, for your owners are branding a larger
proportion of calves to breeding cows in herds than we are able to get.
I am sure that good cattle can be raised in Florida because I have seen
them. I am sure that good hogs can be raised in Florida because I have
seen them, and on the question of the hog, I wish to state that on the
open range country of Florida, especially the southern part in the
prairie country, where there are hard wood and cabbage hammocks, is the
ideal country in which to grow hogs. I made the statement when I was
here in the summer that I believed a man could fence up a range of ten
or twenty or thirty thousand acres in Florida, stock it with cattle and
stock it with hogs, and that I believed the hogs would pay the overhead
charges of running the ranch, and my observations here for the past
thirty days traveling over the State have convinced me that that
statement was not very much exaggerated.
There is no reason why cattle men should not make dividends on
investments while breeding up the quality of their herds, for this is a
great cattle country.
I am very much surprised to find that sheep are not more generally
handled on the ranges with the cattle. The absence of coyotes make sheep
raising particularly attractive, and they will not injure the cattle
pasturage if properly proportioned. There ought to be several hundred
thousand sheep on the Kissimmee River Valley ranges. We handle large
numbers of sheep and cattle together, although our ranges are not nearly
so good as those in Florida.
* * * * *
In conclusion, I will state that I think Florida offers the best field
for live stock production along improved lines of any State in America.
That is, cattle can be raised here cheaper and with less uncertainty
than any place I know.