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Show DIVERSIFICATION TELLS STORY OF SUCCESS OF FLORIDA FARMER When Frost Killed His Orange Trees He Turned His Attention to Good Pastures, Live Stock, Leguminous Crops, Large Plows and Strong Teams Improved His Herd of Cattle by Purchase Pur-chase of Purebred Shorthorn Sire. (By G. H. A I. FORD, State Demonstration Agent, Maryland.) S. H. Galtsklll, Mcintosh, Fla., came to the state In 1884 and began growing oranges, but did not seU his Kentucky farm for some years after he came to Florida. He was quite well satisfied with his orange-growing venture ven-ture until the freeze of 1895 killed all of his trees. This freeze was a great shock and the orange grower did not know what to do. Mr. Gaitskill started to rebud and build up his grove, but did not feel that It was advisable to rely upon oranges for everything and began to grow corn, hay and other crops for man and beast. Prior to the freeze he made no effort to grow feed, but used some of his orange money to buy everything he needed. He soon learned that he could grow very fine crops of corn, hay, oats, peas and other general farm crops and finally decided to raise good live stock to consume the crops grown. Having decided de-cided to go Into the live-stock business he sold his Kentucky farm and bought an old sugar plantation adjoining his farm and proceeded to make the growing grow-ing of pork and beef his main work. Bought Purebred Shorthorns. Mr. Gaitskill was not satisfied to through the winter with very little feed, except what is obtained from the fields. Silo Is Useful. He built his silo for the cows and calves when the grass does not prove sufficient to keep them In good condition. con-dition. It Is not a winter or summer silo, but is used at any time during the year when the silage is needed. He grows a great variety of crops and has good grazing crops for his live stock 12 months in the year. He uses no fertilizer on his land. He grows leguminous crops to feed the live stock, and the live stock spreads the manure over the farm. The growing of leguminous crops fills the soil full of nitrogen, adds immense quantities of humus to the soil and furnishes the most valuable grazing for all kinds of live stock. Mr. Gaitskill uses large plows and strong teams and turn's under large quantities of vegetable matter to furnish fur-nish humus. He does not abuse his land by burning off the vegetable matter mat-ter and plowing with a one-horse plow. He is planning to get a tractor, plow deep, turn under vegetable matter and grow better crops each year. Good pastures, good live stock, legu- -t w Jl M Gaitskill Home Shorthorn Heifers in Foreground. "nlnous crops, large plows and strong teams tell the story of Mr. GaitsklU's success on the farm. work with the native stock, but went to Kentucky and bought some purebred pure-bred Shorthorn bulls and a few purebred pure-bred females and bred the native cows to the Shorthorn bulls. Improvement was very rapid and he now has a very fine lot of cattle, as the picture shows. In the meantime he continued the work of rebuilding his orange groves and now has big trees in his large orchards. He has indulged in some truck-growing for the northern markets mar-kets and has made quite a bit of money from his shipments. He grows soia cabbage and watermelons, but he dejs not advise the average farmer to attempt at-tempt truck on a large scale and do general farming at the same time. He says that vegetables must be given the best care and attention at the proper time. He is gradually quitting all truck crops except watermelons. He plants from 40 to 60 acres every year and plants velvet beans in the melon field at the last cultivation. The velvet bean is a fine crop for fattening all kinds of live stock and transfers large quantities of nitrogen to the soil. Peanuts for Hogs. He plants peanuts for the hogs to harvest after eating the small and bad-shaped bad-shaped melons. He plants corn and L V ' -WO 4 v. . ' 4 " V " y Cattle on Galtsklll Farm, Near Mcintosh, Fla. |