FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
19 
understand how unprepared I am for this 
momentous occasion. 
I realize that we are before a body 
of representative people; people that I 
have learned to admire, and whose wis¬ 
dom I have been trying to drink in for 
a great many years. The splendid cour¬ 
age that has been manifested by the As¬ 
sociation during its twenty years of exist¬ 
ence (for this is its twentieth birthday we 
are gathered together tO' celebrate) is a 
remarkable thing. This organization has 
lived through all the disasters that have 
ever visited Florida since it has become 
a state of any importance—going back 
to the drought of 1890, the great freeze 
of 1894-95, the varieties of bugs and in¬ 
sects that have afflicted us, and everything 
you can think of to discourage an organ¬ 
ization devoted to this interest; but it is 
still in existence and doing business at 
the same old stand. 
The people who have done this are 
the class of people we meet here. I have 
lived in the West, in the states where 
they do not know the meaning of the 
word “fail,” some of the states standing 
high in the catalogue of industry and 
wealth, and a short time ago I read a 
statement in some journal that the peo¬ 
ple of South Dakota were making more 
money per capita than those of any other 
state in the Union. I was in that state 
at a time when contribution boxes were 
passed around in the city of Chicago to 
help the people of that state. I have 
known the troubles of other western 
states—Nebraska and others. They ap¬ 
pealed to the nation to help them out 
at their time of sorest need, but I have 
never known Florida to appeal to the 
nation or any organization to help her 
out in the time of great disasters. I think 
this is a credit to her and her people, and 
I am proud to claim a citizenship in the 
state. I am not recognized as a genuine 
“cracker,” but I hope to live long enough 
to be known as one; to be known as be¬ 
longing to their creed and their clan. 
The people forming this organization 
are the people who have been leaders in 
thought and action; they have, perhaps, 
represented the greatest industry in which 
Florida is engaged, and to them is due 
more than any other, perhaps, what we 
g'et out of the soil. They have done a 
splendid work. I mean by that, that the 
most important things we know about 
fruit culture, orange growing' and truck 
growing in this state, have been learned 
principally through this organization. 
This has been the leader, and has led the 
state, and as I see what things have been 
accomplished and see where we have been 
benefited, the more I see what is still to 
be done on these lines, and the more I 
feel the need of the people for an asso¬ 
ciation of this kind. 
I took out a life membership, because 
T was afraid that I might possibly not 
live long enough if I didn’t take out one, 
to be considered a member at all. I want 
to go-down on the records as a life mem¬ 
ber. 
x 4 s I think of the splendid work this 
Society has done, the more I am inclined 
to believe that we will overcome the great¬ 
er problems that are before us. It is a 
good thing for us to have these problems. 
If we were always fortunate in our deals, 
and sold our oranges and vegetables at 
a big price; if we had no trouble with 
the transportation companies, the white 
fly and other insects, we could come to¬ 
gether and have a “Hoorah,” but no¬ 
thing would come of it. It is in over- 
