18 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
flowing from these half million acres of 
trees and a Dutch representative from 
Java has come to suggest that we make 
rubber carpets and rubber roofs out of 
the juice in order to utilize it. The trop¬ 
ical jungles of the Amazon were filled 
with that para rubber tree, but planta¬ 
tions of it in the Orient have made jun¬ 
gle rubber unprofitable. 
It is in these little beginnings that the 
government can and is helping you pio¬ 
neers of tropical horticulture. 
The Office, of Foreign Seed and Plant 
Introduction with which I have had the 
pleasure of being connected for twenty- 
three years is that branch of the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, which concerns it¬ 
self with these little beginnings. It hunts 
for plants in various parts of the world, 
sending out trained agricultural explor¬ 
ers and through its hundreds of corres¬ 
pondents getting in living material at the 
rate of about 2,000 things a year. I 
would like to present to you on the screen 
some of these agricultural explorers. 
They are not accustomed to appearing in 
public. The public does not yet accord 
them the honor which it gives to more 
spectacular explorers. A man who can 
dance a prettier dance or throw a swifter 
ball or kick a higher kick or punch hard¬ 
er will figure large in the newspapers; 
whereas the man who makes a new plant 
grow where none grew before or who 
even creates through hybridization an en¬ 
tirely new fruit is “just another plant 
crank” in the eyes of the so called public. 
I suppose the world will always be lured 
by the spectacular at least for many gen¬ 
erations to come. It is its way. 
But let me select a few of those lit¬ 
tle beginnings of tropical horticulture 
which would develop fast if the public 
were as quick to take up new things as 
those of us who are interested in the new 
things themselves could wish it were. And 
here is where the great mission of Flor¬ 
ida comes in. If the people of Florida 
could only see that by the cultivation of 
a spirit of progressiveness and open- 
mindedness they might have here more 
new and novel foods with which to inter¬ 
est those coming from the North than 
any other State in the Union. In my 
imagination I can hear this kind of a con¬ 
versation between a Florida business man 
and a stranger. “What, didn’t you taste a 
Papaya while you were in Florida ? Don’t 
you know the Sapodilla ? Or that new hy¬ 
brid fruit the Tangelo? Or the delicious 
drink made of the Rangpur Lime and 
the Persian Lime combined? Or have 
Dasheen crisps for breakfast? Or make 
your lunch of an Avocado? Or taste 
frosted cake with fresh shredded coco¬ 
nut on it? Or wait long enough to eat 
a White Sapote? You never even heard 
of pigeon peas and Hopping John and 
bonavist pea soup and fresh cassava pud¬ 
ding? Well, what is the use of going 
to a place where all sorts of new things to 
eat can be had and not tasting them? 
You must have lived in one of the, hotels 
which cater to the provincial northern 
taste with a French chef and a character¬ 
less menu.” The northerner might re¬ 
ply that he didn’t like new things anyhow 
but he would have a guilty feeling never¬ 
theless. 
No, the thing to do, it seems to me, 
is to look at every new plant which will 
