What we need in Florida, in my judgment, as the very next step to be taken, is one or more strong cattle loan companies, such as flourish in the West, whose sole business it will be to provide the funds necessary for the developments which I have mentioned, so far as cattle are concerned. This is a matter which will occupy us during one entire session of this meeting, and I need not, therefore, deal with it further now, except to say that the present time seems especially propitious for the securing of such funds as we need for this business. Men are asking how they may make safe investment of their savings in these troubled times; the future of the railways, now under Government control, is uncertain; industrial enterprises have been largely thrown into abnormal condition by the war; stocks, bonds and other similar securities have in them today a considerable speculative element which gives pause to conservative investors. But amid all this flux and uncertainty, here lies the land, as from of old, unchanging, peaceful, fruitful, a mother's full breast, and upon the land feed and grow, enriching and renewing it forever even as they feed upon it, the friendly animals, whose flesh and milk support our life from the cradle to the grave. There is nothing speculative here, and I am confident that investors, perplexed now by the unheard of aspect of the world's affairs, will be disposed to put their funds more and more into the soil and its products, if they are shown the way; and the cattle-loan company, organized and administered by experienced and careful men, can show them the way and lead them safely in it. And now, gentlemen, we will proceed to the program our Executive Committee has provided. I hope that our meeting together, the messages which will be brought us from abroad, and the various discussions in which we ourselves shall engage, will serve to hearten us for our work and help us to feel, amid the toil and perplexities of our daily task, that in providing a more copious supply of food for the world, in causing two blades of grass to grow where one grew before, and in transforming these blades of grass by the mysterious and wonderful processes of nature into the thoughts and loves of men and women, the orator's speech, the poet's song, the statesman's wisdom, the soldier's fierce energy, the mother's brooding care, and the babe's new life, we are doing our part to support and render more rich and worthy this wondrous human drama and are partners with God in the work of his earthly kingdom. FLORIDA SUITED TO EXTENSIVE CATTLE RAISING. Texas Ranchmen Declare Conditions Ideal for Cattle, Sheep and Goats.