248 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



except from the well-knoAvn fact that sitting still all the 

 day long and eating and drinking at pleasure, is very apt 

 to make a man fat? 



It is not often that a person who is in the habit of taking 

 constant exercise accumulates flesh ; he will become mus- 

 cular but not stout. 



And it is just the same with animals. The Florida hog, 

 roaming the wild woods for its living, is thin and scrawny ; 

 the cow is not thin, but neither is she fat, like her more 

 fortunate Northern sisters who have only to stand or lie 

 still at pleasure, and eat, eat, eat, drink, drink, drink, day 

 in and day out. 



In the one case the milk factory has to hunt up the ma- 

 terial to manufacture, and meanwhile the works are run- 

 ning on half time and power ; in the other an abundance 

 of material is supplied and the engines in the milk factory 

 have only to use up the raw material fed to them in suffi- 

 cient quantities to keep them running at full speed. 



In the one instance there is a constant waste of time, 

 power, and material, in the other they are all utilized to 

 their fullest extent. 



In an agricultural paper not long ago we saw this very 

 question ably discussed, and figures given to show the 

 amount of food that went to make up the loss in bones 

 and muscle, when cows were obliged to wander for miles 

 after their daily food, as compared with cows well fed and 

 kept in a stall or home pasture, and the difference was 

 startling. 



We have always believed that one great reason for the 

 paucity of milk yielded by the native Florida cow is the 

 amount of exercise she is compelled to take each day, in 

 the search for provender, and lately we have seen it proved 

 that such is really the case. 



A neighbor took a common native cow and calf off *'the 



