President’s Annual Address. 
BY C. T. MC CARTY. 
Members of the Florida State Horticul¬ 
tural Society, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
This audience will forgive me while 
I indulge in some retrospection. It is 
worth while sometimes to lift the veil of 
the past and behold the achievements of 
the then actors. That picture reveals to 
us lessons which suggest progress, hope 
and advancement. At the outset of this 
address, it is well for me to take my bear¬ 
ings and to see what is the duty I have as¬ 
signed myself. To see and to study the 
standards that have been set for me in 
the similar efforts of the past; to study 
the men and the times that have produced 
the annual addresses of the past eighteen 
years. 
Our Society came forth almost full- 
fledged from its birth. In response to 
the demands of the times, it immediately 
took its place among the great Horticult¬ 
ural Societies of the age. Fortunately, 
it had as its first president, one of those 
rugged, fearless and intrepid characters 
that were transplanted, decades ago, from 
the great prairies of the Northwest to the 
tropical and subtropical conditions of our 
state. With the accumulated wisdom and 
experience of a life-time, he led the van 
in the early years of the society’s history 
and led them with unvarying satisfaction 
and success. In its first decade it had be¬ 
come so prominent that it received and 
entertained with, success some of the fore^ 
most scientists of this and other lands. 
The energy and persistence, the skill and 
faith, the merit and the accomplishment 
of its first president, Dudley W. Adams, 
are now matters of history. After all it 
is acts not words, that count in the life 
impression one leaves upon his age and 
generation. Judge by this standard what 
a splendid life was his. It is my duty as 
well as my pleasure, to put on record the 
high appreciation this society feels today 
for its first president after he has for well 
nigh a decade, felt upon his face the 
breath of the Eternal morning. 
Good foundations, like good principles 
and good practices, never fail to bequeath 
to subsequent generations their manifold 
blessings. 
In studying the history of our Society 
during this period of eighteen years, I 
find impressed upon this latter half, the 
large-hearted, good-natured, genial per¬ 
sonality and natural ability of its last pres¬ 
ident, George L. Taber. 
How fortunate our Society was when 
called upon to bear a sudden vacancy in 
its Chief Executive, that one "so able, so 
thoroughly equipped for its duties, so 
willing to bear and forbear, should be 
ready trained at hand. The annual ad¬ 
dresses of President Taber always con¬ 
tained a message of importance to the So¬ 
ciety. In times of progress and prosperi¬ 
ty it brought congratulations and good- 
cheer. In times of adversity, it brought 
hope, courage and manhood, and faith 
in skill and science to overcome difficul¬ 
ties or adverse climatic conditions. His 
