i6 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
We citrus growers of Florida must 
co-operate for the very life of our indus¬ 
try. The products of our labor have been 
exploited to an extent that few of us seem 
to realize. Consider for a moment the 
number of men that were in the state 
this year gambling and wild catting in 
oranges! And the grower who deals with 
these people for the sake of immediate 
profit is often undermining this business 
at its very foundation. Is it not by the 
advancement of this industry as a whole 
that you will reap the greatest individual 
profit ? 
The citrus crop of Florida brings into 
the state an enormous amount of money 
each year and if growers could realize the 
power that the disposal of such crops puts 
in their hands, they would not waste a 
day in combining. Imagine the combined 
purchasing power of an organization buy¬ 
ing all materials needed by the growers of 
this state; consider the saving in trans¬ 
portation alone of large quantities of sup¬ 
plies ! It is a matter of record of the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture that a co-opera¬ 
tive association saved one thousand dol¬ 
lars in the purchase of only thirty-four 
spraying machines. There is an instance 
of the benefits of co-operative buying. 
Do you realize that a co-operative or¬ 
ganization formed to handle the product 
of your grove has nothing in common 
with any independent company; that it is 
essentially a non-profit-making corpora¬ 
tion; that every cent that the fruit brings 
is returned to the growers, deduction be¬ 
ing made only for transportation and le¬ 
gitimate handling? Do you realize that 
it is your own business and that through 
the proper channel every one of you has a 
voice in its every operation? Do you re¬ 
alize that your troubles are the troubles of 
every other grower, that your problems 
are the same, that your interests are iden¬ 
tical and that you are in business solely 
for the purpose of making orange trees 
pay? I think you do. Then why not 
help each other, why not throw aside petty 
differences and by giving and taking a 
little, combine and intrench yourselves in 
a position attainable in no other way. 
The grove owners of Florida have been 
thinking of co-operation for a long time. 
There is hardly a man connected with the 
citrus industry who has not considered 
its feasibility, and many have promised 
themselves that some day they would co¬ 
operate with their fellow growers. And 
that reminds me of a story. 
An old negro living down south de¬ 
cided to get married. He went up and 
told his master about it, “Well, sah, Fse 
gwine to git married.” His master con¬ 
gratulated him on his decision, and 
thought no more about it. A month or 
two later, he saw the old colored man out 
in the field and remembered that he had 
recently become a benedict, and said, 
“Well, Lucium, how do you like married 
life?” “Well, sah, married life is all very 
well, but I don’t like dis heah all de time 
fifty cents.” 
“What do you mean, all the time fifty 
cents ?” 
“De fust t’ing when I gits up in de 
mawnin’, it’s ‘Lucium, gimme fifty cents’. 
Den at noon when my ’ooman bring my 
lunch to me in de fiel’, it’s ‘Lucium, gim¬ 
me fifty cents’. Den at night, when I 
goes home, de fust t’ing I hear is ‘Lucium, 
gimme fifty cents’.” 
