LIVE-STOCK. 279

smoked, or salted.. And it must be considered that the
native hogs are descended from a common, Spanish scrub-
breed brought here centuries ago among the droves landed
here for the use of the soldiers of De Soto; that they
are never penned, carefully attended to, or well fed. In
fact, no care whatever is taken of them by their owners,
but they roam about, feeding themselves, which makes them
wild and lean. An ownor having, probably, as many as
two hundred hogs, rarely sees them, but hunts them up from
time to time, and shoots one for table-food. If he wishes
to sell a number for market, he untthem up, drives them
into a pen, and so disposes of them "in a unp."
 Hogs thrive excellently in all parts of the State, espe-
cially in thenorthern tier of counties; indeed, better hogs
can not be found in the United States than those raised in
Northern Florida. I have seen as fine, large, fat hogs there
as ever were raised out West, especially among the farmers
in Leon, Gadsden, Madison, and Jefferson Counties. But all
counties are equally good. And those farmers-they are
few, however, as yet-who have imported fine-blooded, im-
proved stock can always show as creditable porkers as can
be raised anywhere. It is said, too, that no disease has
ever appeared among swine in Florida. They are, in all
respects, a very profitable property, involving little care or
expense, and always sure of finding a good market. There
is probably no portion of the United States in which the'
food that hogs require can be obtained with less expense,
or raised with less labor, than in Florida.
 In regard to sheep, some of the largest and best flocks
in the country are found on the farms in the hilly, well-
watered, and grassy sections of Northern Florida. They do
best in. that part of the State, it being too warm in the
southern counties to make it desirable or humane to try to
raise them there. Jackson County is preeminent for sheep-
raising, but, in any of, the twenty-three fine, healthy coun-