THE DAIRY QUESTION — OLD STYLE. 239 



winter season, that is from November to the end of Feb- 

 ruary, come back to the pens plump and in good condition, 

 when they come at all. 



For it is not to be supposed that this promiscuous '' turn- 

 ing-out " year after year is going to continue without occa- 

 sional losses. It not uufrequently happens that cows dis- 

 appear from their owners' ken, in spite of all searching for 

 them far and wide. Sometimes they die ; sometimes they 

 are killed and eaten by unscrupulous parties, usually of 

 the colored persuasion ; sometimes the}^ stray away of them- 

 selves, having quarreled perhaps v.ith the companions of 

 their accustomed haunts ; but all that their owners know 

 of a certainty is that they "are gone, but not forgotten." 

 As to the calves of the previous season, no surprise is felt 

 if they are missing; in fact, if a calf born one winter or 

 spring lives to be turned out with its dam in the fall, the 

 surprise comes in just there, and no after performance of 

 that calf need excite the least astonishment. 



For, be it known, that it is a comparatively rare thing for 

 a Florida calf to survive its first summer ; seldom does it 

 pass its sixth month. It is a more common thing than 

 otherwise for the cattle owner to lose eight out of ten 

 calves before the season is over. 



The reason for this great mortality is not far to seek. In 

 the first place generations of exposure, neglect, and ill- 

 treatment, combined with a constant "breeding in and in," 

 have weakened the Florida native stock, and, as a natural 

 consequence, the calves have but little stamina, and tlie 

 modicum they do possess is destroyed by the treatment 

 they receive, in nine cases out of ten, from the day of 

 their arrival in the cow-pen. This latter is the true cause 

 of the enormous mortality among Florida calves, and it is 

 full time that our people were wakened up to that fact. 



What Northern farmer would dream of shutting up his 



