334 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



The owner of these acrobatic creatures could not credit 

 our statement until he saw for himself, and then, knowing 

 that not even Florida law would punish the destruction 

 of such arrant blockade-runners, he drove them out of our 

 neighborhood — to torment some other unfortunates. 



These were the same chicken-eating razor-backs to which 

 we have referred elsewhere, and most thankful were we to 

 see them disappear. 



Then, as to making a fence " cattle-proof" (a rail fence 

 which, until very recently, was the almost universal fence 

 of Florida), that too was more easily said than done. 



Our neighbors had roving herds of cattle, and they were 

 always trespassing ; we observed, too, that it was always a 

 cow that led the rest of its companions into mischief, its 

 sex being, as we all know, more energetic, pei'severing, and 

 enterprising than the opposite. 



One would suppose that a fence ten rails high, though 

 not "staked and ridered," would be ample to prevent cows 

 from leaping over; but they find a way to get inside and 

 devastate fields of corn and cow-peas and vegetables, all 

 the same. Did you ever see them go to work to overcome 

 such triflino; difficulties as rail fences? 



*' No?" Well, this is how they do it. They have three 

 ways of accomplishing their praiseworthy designs; either 

 one is efiectual, and bespeaks an intelligence worthy of a 

 better cause. 



One is to stand by the fence, lower the head, thrust the 

 horns under the top rail and then to toss it to one side ; 

 then to serve the next, and the next, and the next in the 

 same manner, and by that time the fence is low enough to 

 jump over with ease, so the leader "rises equal to the oc- 

 casion," and " the herd follows." 



A second method is for one cow to retire to a distance 

 of twenty yards or so, then, head down, to run full tilt 



