Address 
B. L. Hamner 
Mr. Hume: One of the fortunate 
things about this Society is that we always 
have something in reserve. 
I am going to ask Mr. B. L. Hamner 
to come up and talk to us a while. Mr. 
Hamner needs no introduction, I am 
sure. 
Mr. Hamner: In attending the Horti¬ 
cultural Society meetings from year to 
year, I have always noticed that Mr. 
Hume touches upon a very important and 
timely subject. I think his message this 
year should be greatly emphasized. 
If a person were to start the “wolf” 
cry at this time to alarm the public, it 
would be tantamount to treason, in that 
it might make the public more insensible 
to the real call. But it is no “wolf” cry 
to state that our grain crop last year was 
a billion bushels short of the year before, 
and it is no “wolf” cry to state that our 
wheat alone was fifty million bushels short 
of that disastrously short crop of the year 
before. It is no wolf cry to state that we 
are at war, nor is it a wolf cry that the 
people in Europe are engaged in a battle 
for civilization. Nor is the great amount 
of matter you see in the papers calling for 
increased production, a wolf cry. 
Coming down to Florida is rather re¬ 
freshing and restful. In all of the north¬ 
ern cities on street corners, there are 
army tents and recruiting soldiers. Every 
bridge we have is guarded day and night 
by soldiers against trouble from within, 
and in the very atmosphere in the north 
there is a military feeling, and we begin 
to appreciate that we are at war. 
But if I read history right, the battle 
line always waits on the bread line, and 
the farmer who increases the production 
of food products at this time is doing as 
much or more than he could do by shoul¬ 
dering a gun. 
This should come home to the people in 
Florida. We claim to the north and to 
the world that we have a country where 
we can produce crops the year around, 
and they are going to be needed. 
If I could show you the records of our 
road, and show you the food products 
you buy in Florida, and show you the 
great volume of food products imported 
from other states, you would not boast 
that you are a self-supporting people. 
All of the lines have been called upon 
to take care of increased traffic along the 
Atlantic seaboard. They are going to re¬ 
lease all vessels suitable for trans-Atlantic 
work from the coastwise trade, and the 
railroads in this country are being called 
upon, not only to handle the products 
they have been handling, but to handle 
this coastwise trade. 
Unfortunately, we have been going 
through for the last several years, a de- 
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