Proceedings of the Thirty-Fourth Annual 
Meeting of the Florida State 
Horticultural Society 
One of the most enjoyable and profit¬ 
able features of the Miami meeting was 
the presence of Dr. David Fairchild, Ag¬ 
ricultural Explorer in charge of the Of¬ 
fice of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduc¬ 
tion of the Bureau of Plant Industry of 
the United States Department of Agricul¬ 
ture, whose address during the evening 
of Wednesday, April 13th, and whose 
active participation in the discussions of 
the meeting was a source of much pleas¬ 
ure and inspiration to every member pres¬ 
ent. The average fruit grower in Florida 
has had little knowledge and appreciation 
of the great work which Dr. Fairchild and 
his co-workers have been carrying on for 
the benefit of Florida Horticulture. 
Traveling in the distant corners of the 
earth under great difficulties and at times 
at great hazards, they have brought back 
seeds and plants of great value to the 
farmers and fruit growers of America. 
His men are at the present time searching 
in tropical countries for hardy varieties 
of avocados and other fruits with which 
to build up a new fruit industry in Flor¬ 
ida. 
Unfortunately his work has not had the 
hearty support that it should have. It is 
only through great enthusiasm for their 
XXIX 
work and a vision of the wonderful fu¬ 
ture that lies in the development of tem¬ 
perate and tropical agriculture in Amer¬ 
ica, that they have been able to make such 
progress under the great odds of meager 
appropriations and lack of moral support. 
His address on the “Horticultural Pi¬ 
oneers of the Tropics/’ which is published 
in full in this Proceedings, will be of great 
inspiration to every Florida horticulturist 
and make him proud to be a Floridian. 
As usual the attendance at the annual 
meeting was not at all proportionate to the 
total membership which has, at time of 
going to press, reached the 2,000 mark. 
There was, however, an enthusiastic 
crowd in attendance and an enjoyable and 
profitable meeting. There were but few 
coming from the central and west coast 
sections who had realized the wonderful 
development that the cities of Miami and 
Miami Beach had made since the time of 
our annual meeting there nine years ago. 
The beautiful plantings about the many 
homes and on the large estates were an in¬ 
spiration that will doubtless lead to simi¬ 
lar developments in other parts of the 
State. 
So many individuals contributed to the 
success of the meeting, that it is difficult 
