FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
95 
annual meeting to organize by electing 
its own president, two vice-presidents, 
and it shall also have the power to appoint 
some bank as treasurer of the league, 
and to employ a general manager, and to 
prescribe his powers and duties. The ma¬ 
chinery described above refers to the 
Central, State-wide Organization. 
LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS. 
The question of having local associa¬ 
tions of the league in various places over 
the state is left for you to decide, and 
your manager refers the matter to you 
without recommendations. If it were 
possible to have fifty active local associa¬ 
tions of the league in fifty places in the 
state, this would without doubt strength¬ 
en the league greatly, but my observation 
of Farmer’s Organizations in different 
parts of the country leads me to the con¬ 
clusion that in order to keep such associa¬ 
tions together, and in fact to have any¬ 
thing more than a mere name of an asso¬ 
ciation, it is necessary to have some very 
strong bond of common need among the 
farmers. I have ventured to express the 
idea several times that it would require 
the undivided attention of one good or¬ 
ganizer to keep fifty local associations 
alive in the state, when the problems were 
as distant as most of those on which the 
league is engaged. My idea has been to 
organize these local associations when¬ 
ever and wherever the interest seems to be 
sufficient to warrant such action. One 
great advantage of the local league is that 
it offers a means of collecting assessments 
for our work. I am convinced that the 
major portion of our finances must come, 
like the income tax, from the source of 
the revenue, or in other words, from the 
agency which markets the products of the 
individual. While the major portion will 
come from these larger marketing asso¬ 
ciations, yet it is true that there are many 
individuals, especially so in the vegetable 
business, who handle the sales end of their 
business either direct or through some 
regular commission house. The assess¬ 
ments for our league from these shippers 
must come to us in some other way than 
through the marketing agency. These 
sums must come either direct from the 
individual himself to the league, or the 
collections must be made by some neutral, 
disinterested person in the community, or 
through some local organization. In a 
few places I think it will be possible to es- 
. tablish real active local associations. In 
other places I believe it will be better for 
us to work through some organization 
which is already in existence, and which 
will continue in existence because it is 
organized for some special local purposes. 
We have in the State of Florida, in many 
towns and cities, active Boards of Trade, 
and I am finding in a good many instances 
that these Boards of Trade are interested 
in our work, and are willing to co-operate 
with us. We even have some Boards of 
Trade that have taken the initiative in ob¬ 
taining members for our league, and in 
making the collections from these mem¬ 
bers, and remitting to us these collections 
made. I cannot pass over this point 
without speaking a word of commenda¬ 
tion for the work that has been done at 
Lawtey by the Board of Trade through 
the efficient work of its secretary, Mr. 
Hill. We are receiving constantly mem¬ 
bers from this source, and each month 
