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Book offers a rare glimpse into ranch life and wildlife

Reviewed by MIKE WALKER

A Florida Cattle Ranch
by Alto Adams, Jr. & Lee Gramling
Sarasota: Pineapple Press, 1998
$16.95

The label of "coffee-table book" has some poor stereotypes associated with it: we tend to think of such books as being long on glossy photos and high production values but short on serious reading or introspection into their subjects. Sometimes, such is true, though I have a variety of fine coffee-table books on various architects and architectural styles which are also serious academic works on the same, despite their ample amounts of photos and illustrations and their slick covers.

"A Florida Cattle Ranch" by Alto Adams, Jr. and Lee Gramling and published by the Pineapple Press is probably, to some eyes, a coffee-table book: of larger size than most standard books and filled with color photos of pristine landscapes and animals, it meets the criteria of a pretty book to leave laying about for guests to leaf through in a bored moment. However, this book is much more: it is the labor of love of two men who come from old Florida families and feel a deep connection to ranching, Florida, and nature. It is also a rare glimpse into the unique world of a working Florida cattle ranch and even more, a look into the variety of wildlife you may find in rural central Florida.

Alto Adams, Jr. isn't just a serious rancher and an able writer, but he's one of the finest nature/wildlife photographers capturing Florida whose work I've yet seen. In fact, as a photographer myself, I have to confess that I felt awe-struck when I first looked through "A Florida Cattle Ranch" as while I expected quality photos, I was totally surprised by the fine variety of pictures of deer, hawks, bobcats, and other animals. To capture such clear, moving, photos of wildlife it takes a rare combination of photographic skill and simply being in the right place at the right time. Adams' photos of deer are especially interesting and offer a rare glimpse into the lives of these animals, and his prose details the habits of herds of deer and their relationship to ranch-lands alongside cattle in a manner that only a man who had studied them for years in such a habitat would be able to provide. An accomplished rancher and also a man very concerned with the stewardship of Florida's natural area, Adams brings a sage view of the environment around him to his writing.

Both my parents grew up on cattle outfits, though not in Florida, and my uncle still owns and maintains the family farm in West Virginia where he and my mother were raised. In Alto Adams' descriptions of ranch life in Florida I can hear a lot of words of wisdom of my grandfathers and recall a lot of experiences from my childhood when I would spend my summers working on these family farms.

Of course, while some of these experiences are universal to cowhands, others are especial to Florida and Adams is good to point out differences between ranching in Florida and the broader, more typical, view of ranching many have of the American west. Even the white-tail deer, Adams notes, in Florida are different from their more northern counterparts in that they tend to be smaller and they have their fawns earlier in the spring than harsh northern winters would allow. The key deer (Odocoileus virginianus clavium) is an endangered subspecies of the common white-tail (Odocoileus virginianus) and the smallest of all white-tail deer, showing a consummate variant adaptation to its environment. Likewise, raising of cattle and calving takes on different nuances in Florida due to the climate and environmental factors.

When reviewing a book, like any good reviewer, I have to take into consideration whether a book only appeals to me because of specific interests or if it should hold a broader appeal to those who will read my review. After all, I am a photographer, I love animals and nature, and my family has been in the cattle business as long as I can remember: it almost seems as if Adams wrote this book just for me. However, anyone who lives in rural central or north-central Florida can probably relate to ranching somewhat and is aware of at least a friend or neighbor engaged either in beef or dairy production.

Florida is a major state for both areas of cattle ranching and much of central and north-central Florida's history is tired directly to the efforts of "cracker" ranchers and homesteaders. While "A Florida Cattle Ranch" is not heavy on text, it has ample description of a ranch through the eyes and pen of a man whose family has owned this land for generations and who knows the ranch like the proverbial back of his hand. This is, to an extent, a coffee-table book: the photos are splendid and the text is engaging but not overly dense. There were truly some places where I desired greater information than Adams offered on aspects of running the ranch or on the wildlife he photographed, but such was not his intent with this book. It seems that beyond sharing his ranch with the rest of the world, Adams wished to call attention to the delicate balance between agriculture, wildlife, and ecology and he knew that sometimes photos-especially ones as powerful as his own-really are worth a thousand words.

Had I the money, this is a book I would buy for a number of friends and family members-there are even some folks I only know in passing with whom I would love to share this book as I cannot think of another book to better showcase at once the legacy of Florida cattle ranching, the beauty of our natural environs, and the delights of our native wildlife. When I try to explain to friends in other states or nations what makes Florida special and implore them to look beyond Disney, theme-parks, and beaches when they visit us, this would be the ideal book to really bring that point home. Unlike most coffee-table books, Adam's volume is published as a paperback which both keeps the cost down to a very fair price and makes the book less bulky. Lower prices seems to be a goal of the Pineapple Press and they have overall done a masterful job of retaining high standards while offering some very impressive books in affordable paperback editions. With "A Florida Cattle Ranch", they have provided a most unique volume on a subject that should interest all who care about Florida's environment and its history.

MIKE WALKER is a Gainesville, Florida, writer and journalist. He mainly covers topics related to ecology, natural history, travel, and Floridiana for this and other regional papers and other news media. He may be reached at: cloudrace@prontomail.com