FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
59 
business methods by the growetrs;? less 
waste and the obtaining by combination 
or otherwise, wholesale prices on needed 
supplies. We need a wider distribution 
and cheaper rates, particularly to near-by 
markets; and above all quicker transpor¬ 
tation and more careful handltng. Six 
days to New York, and eight to Boston, 
will never enable us to compete with 
Havana fruit should our seasons be iden¬ 
tical. 
The freeze of January 25 to 26 left our 
fields brown as stubble fields in Autumn. 
But the wonderful vitality and recupera¬ 
tive power of the pineapple plant has 
again been demonstrated and our fields 
are rapidly renewing thernselves. The 
yield from the older fields will be cut 
down 60 to 70 per cent but those coming 
into bearing for the first time will produce 
almost as many pines, but unless weather 
conditions are perfect, they will average 
much smaller than if they had not been 
frozen. A strange characteristic of this 
freeze was, that the newly planted fields 
were practically uninjured. A white frost 
has often done more damage to young 
plants than did those two nights of freez¬ 
ing w^eather. 
We have no sheds in Eldred so I cannot 
report upon their efficiency, but suppose 
that now, if ever, their owners will realize 
upon their investment. 
At your last meeting the question most 
persistently pressed was: “Do pineapples 
pay?” To which I answer, “If they do 
not, why do we grow them?” For pine¬ 
apple fields unlike an orange grove do not 
appeal to the sentimental side of one’s na¬ 
ture. When I look over their green slopes 
I involuntarily begin to figure on the 
number of crates and probable profits, but 
when I turn from: these and walk down 
through our small and not very produc¬ 
tive orange grove, which has cost much 
pains and money, and has never brought 
a dollar of profit, there is a fascination 
and a compensating satisfaction in the 
beauty of the trees alone, and a certain 
charm of mystery and expectancy, as well. 
The late Mr. Joseph Jefferson is reported 
to have remarked to a caller at his Palm 
Beach home that one of the disadvantages 
of old people was that they had nothing to 
expect, so this winter he has been gardenr¬ 
ing. In the spirit of this bit of philosophy 
I grow orange trees, that I may cherish 
expectation and so keep ever the enthusi¬ 
asm of youth, but I grow pineapples be¬ 
cause they are profitable. 
