FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
207 
to the slide we will run in the moving: 
picture show, and the constant previous 
reference in the columns of our local 
paper. We will not trust to these agen¬ 
cies alone for publicity, however, but 
about ten days beforehand we will make 
another personal canvass in the interest 
of our Civic Three Days. Next Novem¬ 
ber we will have worked out another plan 
for awarding the cash we have for prizes, 
and this will probably be a good deal 
more ambitious, as 'we want to offer 
prizes for beautifying church and school 
grounds, and the parkways about stores 
and other public 'buildings. We wish 
also to work out some scheme to en¬ 
courage the householders in blocks to co¬ 
operative planting—no fences, and a cer¬ 
tain uniformity of effect that will mitigate 
in some measure the smallness of space 
between houses and streets. 
♦ 
One rather important requisite of a 
campaign of this kind is to have some one 
who has time and ability to answer a 
thousand questions about planting. Seed¬ 
ing time here is all topsy turvy to so many 
of the people who have come from the 
North, and while we can have all the 
flowers any heart could desire, there are 
some that it is useless for us to try to 
grow, and it is always discouraging to 
one who endeavours to have some New 
England favorite in her garden, see it 
pine and dwindle in Florida soil. 
Our little plan is now before you, just 
as it has evolved itself from time to time 
to fit our own particular circumstances. 
It has proceeded from a sincere desire to, 
help in making Florida as beautiful as 
any state in the Union, and there is no 
reason why this should not come to pass. 
We have the soil, and the climate, and 
certainly as up-and-doing a people as any 
one could desire. 
Sometimes, when we look at our hand¬ 
some depot building surrounded by unkept 
squares, at our parks still far from de¬ 
veloped, and the school grounds bare 
and scrubby, we are tempted to sigh that 
it is a long, long way to Tipperary. When 
we remember however, that more than 
half the joy of life lies in planning, and 
in working up to certain great objective 
points, we count ourselves happy in being 
thus in at the start. Those people who 
plant gardens, and who help others to 
plant them, are the ones to become per¬ 
manent citizens in a town, and who de¬ 
velop civic loyalty—a great asset in these 
days of shifting populations, so here's to 
a Florida made up of those who have 
learned for themselves the little rhyme: 
“The heart of a rose for sweetness, 
The song of a bird for mirth, 
I am nearer God’s heart in my garden, 
Than anywhere else on earth.” 
