FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
139 
truck and crops, taxing themselves higher 
when they had apparently nothing to tax; 
taxing themselves to build roads, school 
houses and churches. That seems im¬ 
probable, but I would not dare to say it 
before this audience if it were not so, be¬ 
cause there are men and women here who 
went through that freeze and know I am 
speaking the truth. 
If you wanted to go into the details it 
would take two or three hours, but you 
will know from what I have told you that 
we have a fine recuperative power, and 
when it comes to the question of doing 
something else or getting something to 
do that will tide us over until the citrus 
comes back, I have shown you that it has 
been done in the past, and can be done 
again. (Applause.) 
Mr. Hume: I might further say at 
this moment for your information, Cap¬ 
tain Smith, that it was out of the freeze 
of ’94~’95 that the vegetable industry of 
Florida was born, and that industry prob¬ 
ably equals or is greater in its worth to 
the state than is the citrus industry. 
I am going to ask Mr. Skinner to con¬ 
tinue this discussion. 
For your information I might say that 
Mr. Skinner is a large orange grower, and 
large handler of oranges and a manu¬ 
facturer of packing-house machinery, con¬ 
sequently is pretty well posted on the 
several phases he will discuss. 
Mr. Skinner: I have been greatly in¬ 
terested in these talks. 
I have been in the state thirty-four 
years. When I came to the state I had 
$500.00. It seemed to me that every man 
I met was anxious to take it away from 
me—and they did, and a great deal more 
besides. 
But the year after I came to Florida, 
’86, I went out in the morning and my 
oranges were frozen, my trees were fro¬ 
zen and I was without much money. My 
neighbors were all in the same fix. But 
we all recovered. 
There is a phase that has not been 
touched on. There is no need of a man 
being frozen out. You can insure your 
grove by fire just as well as you can in¬ 
sure your house against fire. In most 
parts of the state, as Mr. Gillett says, 
every place must be judged on its own 
merits, there is no reason why any man 
should freeze in the greater part of the 
State of Florida, so far as citrus groves 
are concerned. 
The reason why more farm crops are 
not grown in Florida, is because citrus 
products are much more profitable. I 
would loan a great deal more money on 
good citrus land than I would loan on 
good farm land, and any man, any banker, 
in the State of Florida would do the same. 
A good citrus grove with a good growth 
of trees on it, and a good piece of land 
with a farm crop of some kind; ask these 
people which they would take. They will 
take the grove every time. It has estab¬ 
lished value. 
A great many of the wealthiest men in 
our state now, are men who took those 
frozen groves after the freeze of ’94-95, 
and brought them out. I say, groves have 
an established value, and it is a big value, 
too, not a small one. 
As this attorney says, the banks would 
loan money on grove property, but a safe 
