28 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
wide-awake and progressive towns of 
the state eagerly compete for this priv¬ 
ilege. Palatka has entered the field re¬ 
peatedly; the first time, if my memory 
serves me correctly, at Ormond, in 
1892, Mr. W. H. Mann, of Manville, 
acting as her spokesman, and with a 
Palatka man as our first stenographer, 
but Pensacola won, so the next year 
we gathered in the extreme western 
part of the state. 
When I was fourteen years of age, 
one cold winter morning in my native 
town in New Hampshire, I listened to 
a schoolmate reading in the South Flor¬ 
ida Journal, a stray copy of which had 
in some way fluttered down in our 
midst, an account of Col. Hart's orange 
grove at Palatka, Fla., and the returns 
that his crop had that year brought 
him. 
There and then I decided, and an¬ 
nounced that I was going to Florida 
and raise oranges. Ten years later I 
arrived, having been in the state 39 
years this month and have grown 
oranges. 
All this time I have had a warm 
spot in my heart for this town, be¬ 
cause of its association with that de¬ 
cision. I have always desired that our 
society should gather here because I 
wished to meet her people and be known 
by .them, and have waited, rather im¬ 
patiently, for the invitation to become 
sufficiently urgent to bring this about. 
I am told that she “did herself proud” 
at DeLand, so we are here, are re¬ 
ceiving a warm, earnest and hearty 
welcome, which this society fully ap¬ 
preciates as coming from one of the 
oldest towns of the state, yet one which 
we have been assured here this even¬ 
ing, has renewed its youth and awak¬ 
ened to the new order of things. 
By noting her late improvements 
we see that she has a spirit of up-to- 
dateness to rival that of her younger 
sisters and only awaited the coming 
of the State Horticultural Society con¬ 
vention to prove this to the world. 
When we return to our homes I hope, 
and believe, that most of us will have 
given Palatka new prominence on our 
mental maps as one of Florida’s most 
beautiful and best located towns, one 
that has a future of great promise and 
a warm-hearted citizenship that we shall 
count it a privilege to have become 
more intimate with and in whose wel¬ 
fare we shall take a deeper personal 
interest. 
Gentlemen and ladies of Palatka, 
you have known some of us per¬ 
sonally for years, some only by name 
and others not at all. I think I express 
the sentiment of each member who has 
listened to your greeting tonight when 
I say it is our hope that from this 
meeting may grow up many warm and 
lasting friendships and that in the fu¬ 
ture the name “Florida State Horti¬ 
cultural Society,” either seen or heard, 
may remind you of a season of happy 
and improving experiences that will 
cause you as well as ourselves to wish 
that its next convention to be held in 
your city may be at an early date and 
that, if possible, an even more earnest 
and cordial greeting may welcome its 
arrival. 
