FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
II5 
Legislative Help* 
Prof. Bartlett—I had not expected to 
bring* this matter up at the present time. 
It is a matter of so much importance that 
several of our people have desired me to 
bring it before you, possibly through a 
committee. I have spoken to some of the 
older members in regard tO' this, and have 
also spoken to some of the 3ADunger mem¬ 
bers. There are three things I wish you 
to consider. One of the things is in re¬ 
gard to the experiment station. VVe 
have an experiment station here, but we 
get very little benefit from it, compared 
with what we ought to get. We would 
like help along the line of irrigation, es¬ 
pecially the truck men and fruit growers, 
better than what we are getting now. 
We have to go up to the experiment sta¬ 
tion and bring the men down, paying 
their expenses, and then when they have 
j ust .opened’ a little vista to our eyes, they 
are gone. The people in the experiment 
station are dbing all they can, but they 
have a limited amount of money to do it 
with. $15,000 is all that they get. Flor¬ 
ida has never given them a dollar. Every 
state in the Union is allowed $15,000 
through the Hatch Bill for an experiment 
station. I suppose our state gets $15,000 
because every state is entitled to that. All 
through the west they are giving many 
dollars. In Illinois, in Wisconsin, in 
Nebraska, and in Kansas, they are doing 
great things for their agricultural experi¬ 
ment stations. Where they put out thou¬ 
sands of dollars, they have been taking 
in millions. We are doing very little, 
and I think a sentiment should be stirred 
up in the state so that the matter would 
be taken up by our Legislature anal that 
it would give us for this purpose at least 
as much as the Government gives. 
I understand there is a bill before the 
Legislature now to give $5,000 for the 
Farmers’ Institute and $30,000 for build¬ 
ings needed by the Experiment Station, 
and I think it is the duty of every agri¬ 
culturist to see that it does not fail. Our 
State has great prospects in agricultural 
and horticultural lines, and I think we 
should use every means in our power to 
realize these prospects. 
The Interstate Commerce Commission 
is doing a great deal for the whole coun¬ 
try. California has done a great dleal for 
itself because of its compact organization. 
We want to do the same. We want to 
go before the Interstate Commission and 
get themi to co-operate with us. We 
should have a comimittee appointed tO' go 
before them and see that we get what we 
want. We ought to have half the ship¬ 
ping rate we are getting now. 
We had an appropriation from Con¬ 
gress for $5,000 last year with which to 
fight the white fly, and $10,000 this year. 
The State has not been doing enough. 
Congressman Sibley has done all that one 
man could do and our Congressmen Mr. 
Sparkman and Mr. Clark, have co-oper¬ 
ated with him and they have been able to 
get this $10,000. The United! States 
Government comes in and helps us, and 
we do nothing. Now, our Legislature 
should d'o something to eradicate this 
curse of ‘orange culture. Let us show 
that we are interested ourselves and give 
