252 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



stock was left, enough to form the nucleus of the home- 

 bred pure-bloods that we find scattered here and there over 

 the State, a delight to their owners, and a boon to the en- 

 terprising settler who is wide awake enough to realize the 

 advantage of procuring good stock already acclimated. 



Never go outside the State to purchase stock if you can 

 possibly obtain it nearer home. 



The acclimation of animals is a more serious thing than 

 most people are aware of. If a domestic animal is taken 

 from a cold to a warm climate, or vice versa, it wdll almost 

 invariably lose its appetite and its health, and literally 

 pine to death. If it survives this ordeal, however, and 

 regains its usual health, it is henceforth acclimated and 

 has "crossed the Rubicon" so far as change of climate is 

 concerned. 



One of the most noticeable immediate effects of the re- 

 moval of cattle to a warmer climate than that they have 

 been accustomed to is an accelerated pulse, a gain of from 

 fifteen to thirty beats a minute ; in other w'ords, fever sets 

 in, and always more seriously with adults than wdth young 

 or half-grown cattle ; sometimes the latter are very slightly 

 affected; occasionally, where proper treatment from the 

 start has been given, they escape it entirely. 



'* What is proper treatment?" you ask. 



Provide sufficient and effective shelter from the sun ; do 

 not allow the cattle to be -excited, or driven, except at a 

 walk — and not even this w^hen it can be prevented. 



Do not feed them Indian corn, or any other heat-pro- 

 ducing food. Do not turn them out in the open w^oods to 

 graze : they can not bear the same treatment that is given 

 to the inured native stock. Keep them under shelter, ex- 

 cept perhaps in the early morning, or for an hour or two 

 toward sundown. Horse-flies and ticks are sorely trying 

 to the patience and flesh of even the native cattle. Have 



