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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. II. ALFORD, State Demortratlon Agent, Maryland.) S. H. Galtsklll, Mcintosh, Fla., came to the state in 1884 and began growing oranges, but did not se'l 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. Gaitskfll 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 littls 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 ot crops and has good grazing crops for his llva stock 12 months In the year. He usen 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 growinff 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 turns under large quantities of vegetable matter tc 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- Gaitskill Home Shotfhorn Heifers in Foreground. 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 so"ia cabbage and watermelons, but he dc)s 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 minous crops, large plows and strong reams tell the story of Mr. Gaitskill's success on the farm. MILK IS GOOD FOR CHICKENS One of Most Valuable Poultry Feeds Available on Farm Encourages Hens to Lay. The most valuable poultry food aral'iable on most farms is milk. Many tarmers feed all their surplus milk to the hogs. Milk, when fed to the hogs, makes flesh that sells for seven or eight cents a pound When fed to poultry, especially during the winter montl a, it makes eggs that Bell for 25 cents a pound, and flesh that brings twice the price ordinarily offered for hogs. And besides, in discriminating markets, milk-fed poultry always sells for a premium. Given all the milk they will consume, con-sume, hens will lay well In season and out of season. One cannot overfeed of milk. It is sate to keep It before the hens always. The vessels in which the milk is fed should be washed and scalded daily. Earthenware crocks are the best for the feeding of milk since they are eas- i - vi;v? , . . I? - j Cattle on Gaitskill Farm, Near Mcintosh, Fla. after filling the silo breaks the land from which the silage corn was cut and sows cow peas. The corn ripens in August and he gathers it in September, Sep-tember, and turns the hogs in. He uses the hogs to clean up crops that would otherwise go to waste. He puts the hogs in the velvet bean field in which he plants corn and the hogs fatten rapidly on the beans and corn. He plants large fields of corn and velvet beans in alternate rows. He says he can make more corn by planting plant-ing in five-foot rows with a row of beans down each middle than he can get in three and a half or four-foot rows. The corn is gathered and the beans grazed by all kinds of live stock. The grazing season is long and the cattle do well on native grasses until about December 1. The cattle are then turned en a field of velvet beans and fatten very rapidly. The velvet beans make beef of a very fine quality. Large QUiTibers of his cattle usually go ily cleaned. If wooden troughs or vessels ves-sels are used, they will, in a very short time, become so fouled that thorough cleaning is almost impossible. If only a limited quantity of milk is available for the hens, the better way of feeding it is to use It in moistening the mash. When used for this purpose pur-pose the milk will be evenly distributed distrib-uted to the flock. SECURE GOOD YIELD OF CORN Selection, Curing and Testing Are Three of Most Important Factors to Be Considered. A good yield cf corn depends upon a number of factors, of which three of the most Important are the selection, selec-tion, the curing and the testing of the seed. Under average farm conditions, the proper amount of care taken In securing se-curing the best seed will be more than ref aid. , - Knew Something. Schoolchildren know a great deal more than they used to do. In fact,i some of them, in their own opinions, at least, are quite capable of tutoring their tutors. "Those kiddles I teach are as knowing know-ing as an encyclopedia," said a teacher a week or two ago. "In what way?" asked his friend. "Well," replied the scholastic per. son, "the other day I set a problem In arithmetic 'A rich man dies and leaves a million pounds. One-fifth Is tq' go to the wife, one-iifth to his son, one-eighth one-eighth to his brother, and the rest to the hospitals. What does each on1 get?'" "Yes?" queried the friend, not very. Interested. "Back came' the reply from the, smallest boy in the class : 'A lawyer,, sir.' " |