FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
26 * 
SOME REMARKS 
B. L. Hamner, Secretary Board of Trade 
Mr. President , Ladies and Gentlemen : 
These men have been given weeks to 
prepare a speech; they give me half a 
minute to come up here and make an ad¬ 
dress. I take it they do this because they 
have run short on the program and the 
President, who was to deliver an annual 
address, has failed to deliver the goods. 
Now, I am not going to make the Presi¬ 
dent’s annual address. 
I remember the first meeting of the 
State Horticultural Society I attended, 
and I sat down in the audience and I won¬ 
dered what it took to become a member. 
Now, if there is anybody in this audience 
who does not know what it takes to be¬ 
come a member of the Horticultural So¬ 
ciety, let me inform you that it takes $1.00, 
and you sign your name, and you hear 
these fine addresses, and when the report 
is printed you get your copy. 
Mr. Skinner has said I am here to get 
the money; that is my place on the pro¬ 
gram on this occasion, and I will live up 
to it. I do not want anyone to lose the 
opportunity of becoming a part of this 
Society. This Society is made up of those 
who are interested in seeing our country 
prosperous, from a horticultural and agric¬ 
ultural standpoint. 
Now, if you want to know what you 
are going to get for your dollar, let me 
tell you; tomorrow, and the next day and 
the next day you will hear from those 
who know whereof they speak; men who 
are trained in horticultural and agricultu¬ 
ral lines. It is worth a dollar to hear any 
one of them talk upon the subject assigned 
to him. In addition to that, every word 
of the speeches and the discussions is ta¬ 
ken down and reduced to writing, and 
that is put into a bound volume that is de¬ 
livered to you about the month of August, 
and that book alone is worth from $5.00 
to $10.00; they are treatises upon the sub¬ 
jects of horticulture and agriculture, and 
I don’t want anybody to leave here with- 
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out becoming a member of the Society, 
and if you are once a member, you are 
always a member, provided they do not 
take the meetings so far away that you 
cannot get to them. 
Tampa will try to entertain you during 
the next three days, and tomorrow we will 
have 1500 people in attendance at the 
meetings. We promised that to you last 
year and we are going to deliver the 
goods, so you will appreciate that we can¬ 
not provide the usual form of entertain¬ 
ment ; it would be an impossibility to pro¬ 
vide enough automobiles to carry this 
large crowd about the country, so if you 
will be here, in this room, next Thurs- 
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day morning, you will see what we have 
provided for you. 
I don’t want any of you to overlook 
the exhibits we have put here for your en¬ 
tertainment. Immediately back of the 
Tampa Bay Hotel, in the ball ground, is 
what is known as the Woman’s Building. 
In that building is an exhibit of anything 
that was ever advertised in the Florida 
