FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
181 
opment, being on a parity with other 
subjects. 
Florida has organized its educational 
efforts in these subjects, maintaining at 
public expense instruction and investiga¬ 
tion. You have studied the situation 
broadly and have arrived at a state pro¬ 
gram. I congratulate you on the success 
that you are attaining. The maintenance 
of popular education by means of public 
funds has vast democratic results; All 
arts, occupations, professions and crafts 
are of value to the State and worthy of 
public encouragement. All people are 
really equal before the law and before so¬ 
ciety so far as they have ability. It is 
increasingly our responsibility to allow 
them freedom to partake politically and 
socially and to express themselves to their 
best. Thus shall we have no peasantry in 
the United States. 
This effort of the States to educate the 
farmer by means of his own business and 
affairs gives him standing. It makes his 
occupation more worth the while. He is 
recognized. The better it is supported, 
other things being equal, the more far- 
reaching will be the political results. 
Not only is it an obligation of the State 
to support educational institutions and to 
disseminate information, but also to dis¬ 
cover the causes and the reasons why. 
We must have knowledge before we 
can act wisely. Now, it is not necessary 
that all this knowledge should be immedi¬ 
ately applicable. No one really knows 
what knowledge will be most useful in 
time to come; and a good body of knowl¬ 
edge must be secured before practical ap¬ 
plications can be made here and there as 
necessities arise. All investigation ought 
to look toward a solution, but this solu¬ 
tion may* not be immediate, and it may 
not all turn directly into so-called practi¬ 
cal results. You could not have arrived 
so quickly at the cause of citrus canker if 
there had been no investigation along this 
and similar lines until the canker ap¬ 
peared. It would have taken years to 
have produced the specialists, to have de¬ 
veloped the methods and arrived at an un¬ 
derstanding of all the physiological ques¬ 
tions involved. 
We must have as a reserve not only 
the knowledge of facts but also a body of 
trained workers so that when the prob¬ 
lems arise we shall be ready at once to 
attack them. These problems cannot be 
attacked by public speaking, by legislative 
enactment, or by any kind of popular 
propaganda. They can be attacked only 
by highly trained persons who have full 
knowledge of the subject in hand. 
I do not state that all educational and 
investigational work shall be maintained 
by the State. There is need of the private 
endowment not only because there is work 
enough for all, but because we need the 
check of one type of organization on an¬ 
other. But the State on its own account 
cannot afford to lose primacy in these 
matters. 
IV. THE QUESTION OF INDIVIDUALITY. 
Thus far I have been speaking of the 
great importance of developing co-opera¬ 
tive action, but I wish also to emphasize 
the other side of the question; and this is 
the importance of maintaining the indi¬ 
viduality and the independence of the man 
on the land. 
