14 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
fruit in the Western Hemisphere. No 
market. 
What developed the. horticulture under 
glass, of Belgium, where one could travel 
for hours under acres of whitewashed 
panes? The London and other markets 
which were, willing to pay any prices al¬ 
most for Gros Colemans, Black Hamburg 
grapes or wall nectarines. No horticul¬ 
ture will develop unless those engaging 
in it can make a good living out of it, for 
those who can produce good fruit belong 
to the most intelligent people in any coun¬ 
try and they will not live on the ragged 
edge of society. They must have the ne¬ 
cessities and some of the luxuries of an 
intellectual life or they will drift into 
other occupations. This is why you find 
in the tropics generally such inferior 
fruits and vegetables. Nobody of intel¬ 
ligence wants to engage in their produc¬ 
tion. It does not pay. 
But there is still another reason. Peo¬ 
ple have to learn to like tropical fruits 
and vegetables. It is one of the strange 
phenomena of life—this acquiring of a 
taste for something new. When I first 
returned from a stay in the eastern trop¬ 
ics where I had formed a liking for many 
interesting tropical fruits I was annoyed 
to find on every side people, who had the 
idea that there was something mawkish 
and over sweet about the fruits of the 
tropics. The ridicule to which some of 
the very finest of them all were subjected 
was enough to discourage anyone; and 
had we not become so involved in their 
fate in this country by starting out to 
grow them, I sometimes wonder if we 
would have persisted in a study of them. 
It used to seem as though my friends 
were purposely antagonistic towards 
these beautiful fruits and many an un¬ 
happy hour did their jibes and ridicule 
cause me. 
But it was all unnecessary, for theirs 
was the perfectly natural reaction 
towards something new and time has 
taught me that even the lower animals 
and the insects at first refuse almost any 
new food to which they are not accus¬ 
tomed. But why then should this diffi¬ 
culty present an advantage to Florida. 
Because of all the peoples in the world 
the American is least fixed in his food 
habits. How this has come about I do 
not know. Whether it is a part of the 
general adaptability of this mixed race 
which is developing under this climate 
with its tremendous temperature changes 
would be important to know. That it is 
a fact I believe can be proven. 
If we take a look at the development 
of British horticulture or French horti¬ 
culture we get a picture of fashionable 
garden parties and flower and fruit 
shows; of royalty appearing at this one 
and awarding medals or at that taking 
prizes for their gardens. It is wealth and 
the rivalries of competing gardeners of 
great estates which have produced some 
of the finest varieties of flowers or fruit. 
Millions have gone into this horticulture 
of Great Britain—many millions. Think 
of the craze for hyacinths and mulberries, 
and orchids, and rhododendrons; or the 
costly fruit houses where, at one time even 
the mangosteen was fruited; or the fern¬ 
eries and now the rock gardens for whose 
crannies explorers would scale the crags 
of the Himalayas or brave the wild men 
of the land of the cross bow. 
