THE DAIRY QUESTION — THE COMING STYLE. 253 



a Stall for your thoroughbreds, with wire netting in the 

 doors and windows. Never mind if you are laughed at : 

 your poor cattle will bless and reward you. 



Kemember that the native grasses of Florida and other 

 plant foods are different from those they have been accus- 

 tomed to, and that they have this change to meet in addi- 

 tion to that of the climate. 



Feed hay ad libitum; you can make it yourself from 

 crab-grass, Bermuda, or other similar grasses; cured fod- 

 der of any sort can also be used, if sweet and good ; bran 

 also is good— any thing in fact that is not heat-producing. 



But still, even with constant care, the investment in im- 

 ported stock is apt to be a great risk. A breeder of many 

 years' experience assures us that, ' ' The most that can be 

 hoped for, when animals are subjected to great climatic 

 changes, is to keep them in sufficient health to bear off- 

 spring, from which stock may finally be obtained, not only 

 acclimated but naturalized." 



There are many who assert, and apparently with reason, 

 that the chief trouble and risk in bringing cattle into this 

 State from the West or North is, after all, not so much the 

 simple question of acclimatization, since the Florida cli- 

 mate is, during a large part of the year, quite cool enough 

 to be bracing, and during the remainder scarcely as warm 

 as the animals have been used to in the summer season in 

 their old homes. 



These observers assign another cause for the trouble. 



It is a well-known fact that in Texas, and other Gulf- 

 coast States, the cattle are subject to a fever, popularly 

 known as the "Texas fever," and Florida is one of these 

 States. The fever very rarely, Ave might say never, at- 

 tacks an animal "to the manor born;" but bring in a 

 stranger, and it is at once seized upon. Tlie older ones, 

 as we have noted, do not often survive the ordeal, bijt the 



