232 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



second mode of milking is the only one practicable, be- 

 cause it is not every Florida cow that will permit herself 

 to be milked, unless the calf is actually milking her at the 

 same time. 



Three pints of milk to each cow at a milking is a fair 

 yield, and where there are five or six at least, as is usually 

 the case, even this counts up and adds no little to the com- 

 fort and economy of the household, giving an abundant 

 supply of milk and cream, "cottage cheese," and butter. 



No doubt it seems very much like "much ado about 

 nothing" to the Northern farmer, with his fifteen and 

 twenty-quart cows; but it must be considered that these 

 Florida cows cost their owners nothing to keep them, little 

 to buy, and that while they give him milk and butter they 

 are at the same time doing what is more important, enrich- 

 ing the land by their droppings when shut in for the night. 

 Many Floridians, as we have said, keep cattle for this pur- 

 pose alone, and were this their only value they would be a 

 good investment as commercial fertilizers. 



The high pine lands of Florida are not, as a rule, very 

 rich lands ; but they are what is better, healthy. The low 

 hammock lauds are rich, but they are unhealthy as a rule, 

 and their life-long denizens will usually be found putty- 

 colored of face and languid of manner, caring little for 

 progress and still less for personal exertion, because all the 

 spirit and energy are sapped out of them by the subtle ma- 

 laria that haunts the beautiful hammocks and renders re- 

 pulsive what else would be most charming. Understand, 

 however, that this does not apply to the less frequent high 

 hammocks. 



Perhaps it is just as well that this is so, too, because 

 human nature is apt to be unreasonable and pugnacious. 

 Hammock lands are limited in area, and if they were very 

 desirable in all respects as places of residence every one 



