FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
161 
leave it to our county commissioners to 
put into effect we would be just where 
California is as that is their law and they 
have cautioned us not to make that mis¬ 
take because very few of our county com¬ 
missioners are plant men. Now, I am 
going to read this bill as tentatively 
drawn by Judge Hunter, the Florida Cit¬ 
rus Exchange attorney, who is interested 
in this kind of work, and then submitted 
to the Plant Board. They have made 
their corrections and again returned it to 
Judge Hunter for the final touches. This 
bill that I will read you here is the tenta¬ 
tive draft which has not the corrections 
of the Plant Board. However, the Plant 
Board drew the; original. (Reads bill.) 
Growers, the time has arrived in the 
growing of our fruit when the quality of 
the fruit we are growing and are going 
to grow must be improved. This year 
there will be shipped thirteen million 
boxes of fruit and the crop for next year 
is estimated at twenty million. You can 
all certainly see the, necessity of growing 
good fruit or going out of business. Un¬ 
less we properly cultivate, fertilize and 
spray our fruit, keeping it clean and 
bright, we are certainly going to have to 
go out of business. It has been coming 
to that point and it is right on us—it is 
here now. We have seen during this 
year of cheap prices, that good desirable 
fruit has brought only fair prices. How¬ 
ever, considering the reconstruction pe¬ 
riod we have not fared nearly so poorly 
as some other lines of business. 
If I did not spray my grove and you 
across the road did, it means that you 
have got to do more spraying and more 
cleaning up of your grove to bring it in a 
proper sanitary condition than you would 
if I kept mine clean. So we want to see 
to the man who will not properly spray 
his grove. If he has insects or diseases 
sufficient to become a menace, which will 
be decided upon by the Plant Board, and 
that can be eradicated, or controlled, if 
he won’t do it, the authorities will go in 
and do it for him and charge it to his 
property. I would like to see this Society 
go on record as favoring this law. It will 
help us some. It gives each county the 
opportunity to vote on it. You, in a 
county, can have it or not, as you wish. 
We of Polk County believe, we want it 
and if given the opportunity we will have 
it. We believe if it is ever tried out the 
rest of you will have it. I am called away 
this morning and will have to leave now, 
but I want to leave this in your hands. 
I hope you will pass a resolution endors¬ 
ing the. passage of this bill. I thank you. 
Hume: What is your pleasure in re¬ 
gard to this matter? Shall we leave it 
now and take it up later? 
Mr. -: I move that we en¬ 
dorse the bill as read. 
Mr. L. B. Skinner: This may not be 
called “compulsory spraying” but that is 
its name. I am in favor of a bill of this 
kind. I am in favor of spraying—there 
are many people who are not, and who 
are, in fact, absolutely opposed to it. It 
is a question to which there, are a good 
many sides. This Society is made up of 
all these different people. This Society 
has certain work to do and I don’t think 
that endorsing bills of this kind is the 
business of this Society. I think it is a 
great mistake, I think it is aside from 
the order of its business and it is an un- 
