President's Annual Address. 
By Prof* P* H. Rolfs* 
Members of the Florida^ State Horticul¬ 
tural Society; Ladies and Gentlemen: 
Before presenting the address to the 
20th meeting of the Florida State Hor¬ 
ticultural Society, allow me to congrat¬ 
ulate the people of St. Petersburg on 
the splendid success they have attain¬ 
ed in building this beautiful city. It is 
only the periodic visitor to your city 
that notes the improvement and prog¬ 
ress. Those who call for the first time 
never knew it to be different, and those 
who are here always see the changes 
go on so gradually that it is rather a 
development than a metamorphosis. I 
wish also to congratulate the Pinellas 
Orange Growers’ Association on the 
frequent and instructive meetings they 
have held. This young Association 
will make its presence known and felt 
before the State Society adjourns. 
Amid all of these congratulations, 
we feel deep down in our hearts the 
absence of our late genial president, 
whose invaluable advice has guided us. 
Always ready as a peacemaker; fore¬ 
most among the progressive; just en¬ 
tering upon a wider and more useful 
life for his county and state. Personal¬ 
ly, it is a loss of a kind friend and an 
able counsellor. To the Society it is 
an irreparable loss. In this hour, 
when the shadow is over us, we cannot 
see the design. We can only bow our 
heads in meek submission, and meekly 
say, “Thy will be done.” I would urge 
every member of the Society to read 
again his masterly address, which came 
to us as a parting advice. Let me quote 
one paragraph from this address, which 
sums up the whole thought in a rounded 
expression: 
“I have felt strongly impelled at this 
meeting to press upon your attention 
these important matters. To give vent 
to the thought that has been growin®' 
in my mind for some years, that the 
most vital and far-reaching questions 
now calling for solution by Florida pro¬ 
ducers were not cultural questions, but 
commercial; not planting, but market¬ 
ing; not fertilizing, but transportation. 
Let us think about these things, talk 
about these, study them, conquer then 
If this thought, talk and study, take 
not the form of action, then have we 
labored in vain.” 
Those of the Florida Horticultural 
Society who are favored with informa¬ 
tion on the commercial side of horti¬ 
culture, especially with marketing and 
transportation, should come forward 
and discuss these problems, just as our 
chemists have come forward year by 
year and given us the best their labor¬ 
atories and brains afforded. The bota¬ 
nists, the entomologists, and the plant 
breeders, all have placed before us in¬ 
formation that required years of toil 
and untold disapjDointments, until our 
reports are quoted and looked up to a = 
standards, even in far-off India and New 
