In Arizona and New Mexico about the same conditions prevail as do in northern Old Mexico. In Texas we have bears and sundry pests to prey on our live stock. The prairie dog infests a great many of our ranches, destroying the grass, digging holes in the ground, and making it dangerous for the cowboy to ride over in the pursuit of his range endeavors. We have wolves of all species. In Texas we have also the screw worms that are a tax on the live stock producer to the extent of from two to five per cent of the calves born on his ranch, and I am sorry to say that worst of all we have periodical droughts. None of these adverse conditions I find prevail in Florida. Here I find the country covered with a thick, heavy coat of grass, streams running with plenty of water and I understand where natural water is not available that it is only about from twenty to one hundred feet to an abundant supply of water under the ground, making the proposition of watering the ranches in Florida, where artificial water is necessary, a very simple matter. The climate in Florida is temperate and mild, rainfall is regular and abundant, and, so far as the production of forage for live stock on the range is concerned, your rainfall and your soils all seem to combine in favor of the producer of live stock. I never was more amazed in my life than I was last summer, when, in company with a committee of other cattle men from Texas, I visited this state. At that time I was shown over the southern middle part of Florida; was shown a great domain of country lying out of doors, as it were and as we term it in Texas, furnishing free range for hundreds of thousands of cattle. I did not believe my ears when I was told those conditions existed here, and I can't understand yet why a state as old as Florida, with as many surface indications of possibilities for the production of live stock, should remain unfenced, unoccupied, and non-revenue producing to the men who own the land. Another surprise that met us when we came to Florida in the summer was the absolute lack of any improvement in the live stock that we found here. In fact, it is my judgment that the cattle in Florida today, from what I have read of the history of Florida, are not as good as they were thirty years ago, and I am surprised, when I think of the facilities furnished the cattle men of Florida by the land owners for the grazing of their cattle, that they haven't taken any more interest in their cattle than they have and tried to improve them.