26 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
a glorious one with such men as Dud¬ 
ley W. Adams, Rev. Lyman Phelps, 
Jas. P. DePass, J. B. Anderson, Geo. 
L. Taber, Arthur Manville, Pliney W. 
Reasoner, O. P. Rooks and other 
strong men to give it birth, soon to be 
joined by E. O. Painter, E. S. Hub¬ 
bard, Professors Rolfs, Swingle, Web¬ 
ber, Heime, by F. G. Sampson, C. F. 
A. Bealby, Dr. Richardson, C. T. Mc¬ 
Carty, W. C. Temple, Mrs. Rolfs, Mrs. 
Prang, still later by Mrs. McAdow and 
scores of other earnest and able horti¬ 
culturists. It has in its twenty-seven 
years of strenuous life, faced a multi¬ 
tude of grave problems with fortitude 
and seldom failed to solve them, in a 
way to increase the sum of horticultur¬ 
al knowledge and benefit to its mem¬ 
bers, the state and others everywhere 
who are working along similar lines. 
In these labors it has always had 
the very able and valuable assistance 
of the Scientists of the Agricultural 
Department at Washington, and of 
those of our own Agricultural College 
and Experiment Station, they appre¬ 
ciating the advantages to themselves 
as students, that a membership and 
close association with this society 
would give, and at the same time, its 
value as a medium through which they, 
as scientific workers and teachers, 
might make the results of their labors 
immediately effective and valuable to 
those who were eager to receive and 
benefit by them. 
This society, outside of political and 
religious organizations, has been for 
much of this time, the strongest and 
most influential in the state. It has al¬ 
ways had the highest respect of her 
people and done more than any other 
to increase her wealth and build up her 
industries. Except for it, Florida would 
have been far behind where she is to- 
* 
day and many millions poorer. These 
are generally accepted facts, yet few 
realize anything like the full value of 
its work. 
As an illustration of this, I have in 
mind the great disaster of the winter 
of 1894-95, now but a tradition to many 
of you, when, in one night, property 
was destroyed that was paying good 
interest on eighty millions in value. 
The state had but a small population (I 
think something like a half million; all 
told). Every interest in it suffered se¬ 
vere hardship, we had no insurance 
money coming in to help rebuild our 
groves, we had little credit, few had 
means with which to hire help; we 
sent out no appeals for assistance, or 
received any contributions. It would 
take years to get our trees back to a 
profit-bearing condition; but many 
went bravely to the task, got vigorous, 
but tender, sprouts started on the old 
roots, only to have them cut down by 
cold again in two years. Again we 
made the attempt and again, in 1899, 
came a cold spell that destroyed all our 
work and killed more citrus trees out¬ 
right, than any previous cold spell. 
Some of our best meii were heartbrok¬ 
en, could stand the strain no longer, 
and dropped wearily into their graves. 
Others, by the hundreds, abandoned 
their groves and either went into other 
lines of business or left for other parts. 
A few sturdy, unconquerable souls ac- 
