26 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
grove from becoming affected with die- 
back than to cure the disease. Many 
diseases and insects cannot be treated 
in a similar way economically, because 
we have not yet learned enough about 
them. The cottony cushion scale, 
which at one time seriously threatened 
the sub-peninsula, has been reduced to 
a negligible quantity by introducing the 
Ved'alia cardinalis, an Australian lady¬ 
bird. California spent thousands of 
dollars in attempting to subdue this 
pest by artificial means. 
CONCLUSION. 
It is our province as a Society to 
teach every member of this Association 
what to grow, and how to produce the 
best of everything. The old adage that, 
“There’s plenty of room on top”, was 
never more true than it is in horticul¬ 
ture today. The man who markets the 
best product never has to complain of 
poor prices. It takes brains to do this, 
and brains will count whenever they are 
correctly applied. Sometime ago we 
had a call from a gentleman from Michi¬ 
gan who controlled considerable capi¬ 
tal, according to his representations. 
He was in Florida with a view of in¬ 
vesting and had visited every vegeta¬ 
ble growing and fruit growing section, 
and closed his visit to the state by call¬ 
ing at the Experiment Station. We 
discussed the various crops. Citrus 
growing, in his opinion, was not desir¬ 
able, since it took a long time to get 
returns from the investment, and then 
he was also told that the whitefly at¬ 
tacked the trees. Peach growing was 
also discussed, but that was given up 
because peach trees had to be fertilized. 
One crop after another was passed in 
review, every one having some weak 
point. Celery growing he considered 
to be remunerative, but he had seen 
some fields destroyed by blight. Final¬ 
ly he said what he wanted was to learn 
of some crop that would not be frozen 
out; that did not need to be fertilized; 
that was free from insect attack and 
fungus infection. He was very confi¬ 
dent that this infoimation could be giv¬ 
en him at the Experiment Station, and 
so came to get it. The Director told 
him that this was a very easy propo¬ 
sition and advised the man to plant 
saw palmettoes. I do not want any 
vegetable or fruit that is not relished 
even by a bug, or one too tough to be 
attacked by fungus, or too hard to 
freeze. Give me the pineapple that has 
to be packed in excelsior to keep from 
being squashed in transit; give me the 
orange that has to be scraped with a 
wooden bladed knife to keep from in¬ 
juring the peel; give me the cauliflower 
that has to be wrapped in tissue paper. 
Horticulture is affected more or less 
by nearly every science, and by nearly 
every art. Every walk in life is affect¬ 
ed by the horticulture of the country, 
and in turn as we are able to take ad¬ 
vantage of the best of everything, will 
we be able to prosper. During some 
periods, our greatest needs lie in the 
direction of better methods for controll¬ 
ing insects. At other times, informa¬ 
tion on diseases is needed most urgent¬ 
ly. At one time we were in great need 
of information on fertilizers. It seems 
to me that what we are now needing 
most of all is information that will en¬ 
able us to put our crops into the hands 
of the consumer at the least possible 
cost. We need a sort of horticultural 
political economy. 
