232 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
A TRIBUTE TO THE LATE E. O. PAINTER. 
Capt. R. E. Rose 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
I deem it a privilege and an nonor to 
have been selected to pay a slight tribute 
to our late Secretary, my personal friend, 
one of the founders of this society, the 
late E. O. Painter, and to briefly state 
some of his many efforts to build up, from 
a comparatively small industry, the great 
horticultural industry of Florida, our now 
prosperous and growing citrus fruit in¬ 
dustry, and to particularly dwell upon his 
efforts and signal success in intelligently 
and successfully teaching the horticultur¬ 
al^ of Florida, how to properly fertilize, 
intelligently, economically and success¬ 
fully, our citrus groves and other crops 
of the State. 
While I can not hope to be able to so 
eloquently and feelingly portray the high 
character, great usefulness, sturdy man¬ 
hood and unselfish devotion to his state, 
as a man and a citizen, I shall endeavor 
to the best of my ability to pay tribute to 
one of the most loyal citizens of the 
State, a man who has done much to de¬ 
velop her latent industries, and upbuild 
her most important agricultural and man¬ 
ufacturing industries. 
My acquaintance with Mr. Painter be¬ 
gan in the early eighties, when he was 
owner and editor of the Florida Agricul¬ 
turalist. 
In those early days the art of fertilizing 
was purely empirical. Little, if anything, 
was known of what is now called com¬ 
mercial fertilizer, scientifically prepared 
and generally discredited. Those few 
who experimented with various chemicals 
were ridiculed as cranks, visionary en¬ 
thusiasts, and book farmers. 
Our friend, E. O. Painter, from ex¬ 
perience, practical demonstration, close 
observation and correct conclusions, dis¬ 
covered and applied many of the funda¬ 
mental principles and necessary materials 
to induce profitable and heavy growth on 
our citrus groves, thus securing profitable 
returns, sound handsome fruit, with good 
shipping qualities. 
In those early days it was well nigh 
impossible to obtain materials for manu¬ 
facturing commercial fertilizer, and much 
more difficult to obtain information as to 
the effect of the various materials, how 
to properly combine them to obtain the 
best results. 
Many serious and expensive mistakes 
were made by the growers of the State, 
many tons of inferior, and often injurious 
materials were sold to our people. 
E. O. Painter was the first man in 
Florida to intelligently and systemati¬ 
cally experiment with various so-called 
chemical plant foods, and certainly the 
first to establish a factory for their manu¬ 
facture in proper proportions to meet the 
different conditions of soil, climate, and 
the various classes of soil. 
He was studious, observant, and above 
all, industrious and persistent, having the 
peculiar mental capacity of a true sciem 
tist; that of close observation of facts 
