FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
25 
to the members of this Association the 
courtesy of the German-American Club. 
On behalf of Mr. A. L. Cuesta, President, 
I extend to the members of this Associa¬ 
tion the courtesy of the Centro Asturiano. 
On behalf of Mr. R. T. Joughlin, Exalted 
Ruler, I extend to the members of this 
Association the courtesy of the Elks Club. 
Just as we do today, so will we always 
welcome you, collectively and individually, 
with all the cordiality contained in that 
one word—welcome. 
RESPONSE 
A. P. Spencer, Gainesville, Fla. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
It gives me a great deal of pleasure to 
respond to the address of welcome. 
My first visit to this city was the time 
of the meeting of the Pomological Society 
here in 1911. I know that what Mr. Gil¬ 
lette has said comes from the bottom of 
his heart and that it is prompted by the 
Board of Trade of Tampa. I am pleased 
to note in his remarks that they have es¬ 
tablished in their Board of Trade what is 
called an agricultural bureau. This is a 
step in the right direction, and I should 
like to see Jacksonville and other cities 
doing the same thing. In our work at 
the University and in the extension work, 
we require the support of the horticultural 
and agricultural people of this state, and 
I am pleased tO' say that we are receiving 
that support, and receiving it in a most 
satisfactory way. I want to say some¬ 
thing especially good about Hillsborough 
County. We feel that the work is going 
along more smoothly because we have the 
backing of the agricultural bureau and 
its superintendent. This is very gratify¬ 
ing and encouraging indeed. 
Mr. Gillette has ^offered us a great 
many attractions. He spoke of the 4,500,- 
000 gallons of water per day we are in¬ 
vited to enjoy. It reminds me of the old 
lady who had not had very much to eat, 
and the preacher came along and told her 
she should pray for what she wanted, so 
she got down on her knees and said, “Oh, 
Lord, send me a barrel of flour, and a 
barrel of pork and a barrel of meal and a 
barrel of salt and a barrel of pepper—oh, 
no, Lord, that’s too much pepper.” So 
that 4.500,000 is more than we need. 
There is one thing that I regret; that 
is, that the President of the Society can¬ 
not be with us. There was another gen¬ 
tleman who promised to be with us and 
bring with him a membership of 1500. 
I don’t see him, either. 
I want to close my remarks about here. 
I predict for you a happy sojourn in this 
city of Tampa. I have been here many 
times since my first visit; I know some¬ 
thing of Tampa and something of her hos¬ 
pitality, and we will not regret that this 
meeting is held here. I hope we may see 
a great deal of each other in our meeting 
here. I believe our Horticultural Society 
will have one of the best and greatest 
meetings it has ever had, in view of the 
fact that we have some very important 
legislation now before the legislature in 
Tallahassee. I thank you. 
