FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
19 
grow here from the standpoint of its 
possible utilization by the millions of peo¬ 
ple north of us. If it has a beautiful flow¬ 
er can it be grown here, shipped north 
and forced there, can its flowers be sent 
north and sold, has it a new perfume 
which might become popular? If a new 
vine, could young plants be sent north and 
used as porch vines during the summer or 
would it grow outdoors and form a win¬ 
dow decoration? If it is a fruit what sea¬ 
son would it be possible to get it into the 
hands of your friends in the north? Will 
it carry well? Has its juice new possi¬ 
bilities of utilization? Is it a better keep¬ 
er than those with which it will compete ? 
If it is a new vegetable what are its ad¬ 
vantages ? Some of its preparations may 
prove better than those of its competitors. 
It may have a pleasant flavor after 
being thrice cooked and be just the veg¬ 
etable that diabetics are looking for and 
which will prolong the lives of thousands 
by its introduction. Think how many 
men and women are now eating under 
doctors’ prescriptions a sea weed—agar 
agar. Supposing that it should be possi¬ 
ble to create a fashion for it which would 
make it supplant spinach and that it were 
a safer crop than spinach to grow here. 
The inhabitants of northern Celobes eat 
the leaves of the Papaya and throw the 
fruits to the hogs. Dr. Powers investi¬ 
gated these leaves and finds they contain 
carpaiin in large amounts but I have af¬ 
ter cooking the leaves until all bitterness 
is gone eaten them without injury. In 
Yucatan there is a tree which grows here 
luxuriantly and which there supplies del¬ 
icate greens throughout the summer. 
But I know men here in the audience 
who are saying, “Yes, but it’s such a slow 
business.” One real estate, man said to 
me “Let’s try something easier.” A friend 
of mine who made 8,000 limousines, after 
hearing my enthusiastic account how af¬ 
ter ten years we had gotten a new vege¬ 
table started, scornfully remarked, “Yes, 
but ten years is an awfully long time.” 
I admit all this. I see the difficulties 
which present themselves to the minds of 
those who would hurry through life, but 
I also have in mind the small amounts 
of money which are going into this ex¬ 
ploitation of new food plants. The gov¬ 
ernment has not spent on all of the work 
of this introduction of plants that has 
been carried on for nearly a quarter of a 
century as much as $2,000,000 for the 
whole period and yet last year those 
growing these introduced plants made 
$89,000,000 out of their culture. At 
the present time there are thousands of 
individual incomes which are greater than 
the $125,000 which is going into this 
work next year and of this sum only a 
small fraction can be used in the exploi¬ 
tation of new foods. The main expendi¬ 
ture must still go into the securing of new 
plants and their distribution to those who 
will bring them to a point where individ¬ 
ual initiative will exploit them. 
There is another side to this big prob¬ 
lem. It is intimately connected with cre¬ 
ating a demand, a taste for a new tropi¬ 
cal food. Supposing Captain Baker had 
taken a liking to the West Indian Mangos 
which are all seedlings and instead of the 
banana had brought that in. Is it imag¬ 
inable that he could have created a liking 
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