8 
SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 
“We may possibly be able to shake off the idea that the or¬ 
ange grower has no future in sight. I have to admit that the 
view at present is not so rosy as it was ten years ago, but I 
have to inquire also, did we not expect too much ten years 
ago, just as some of us to-day are prone to expect too little 
and to become disheartened? Was it reasonable to expect 
that the owner of a five acre grove ten years of age would 
be in affluence? Perhaps it was not unreasonable, I confess 
that I believed it, but if we have come out of this dream, out 
oi this paradise, let us not fall into the other extreme and 
despair of our industry. This one thing we must learn, that 
the men that can raise the best fruit for the least money, are 
the ones destined to be successful, and that it is the special, 
I might say the only province of this Horticultural Society, 
to teach men how to grow the best fruit for the least money- 
The orange of Florida is peerless, it stands without a rival 
or a second, and when I speak of the orange of Florida, I do 
not mean the thousands of boxes sent out annually which 
should go to the refuse pile, but the orange that has no ri¬ 
val on the face of the earth, the orange which the State 
Horticultural Society has been largely instrumental in mak¬ 
ing what it is. We talk of the climate, soil, fertilizer and all 
the circumstances which fit together to make orange grow¬ 
ing in Florida, so far as the bulk of the fruit is concerned, as 
successful as it is, but I have no hesitaiion in saying for our 
society that in the last seven years we have improved the 
quality, appearance and texture, and thereby raised the stan¬ 
dard of the Florida orange more than 25 per cent. And 
the men who never attend our meetings, who scarcely ever 
hear of u-, you meet them everywhere, and if you ask them 
about fertilization and orange and fruit culture, you will find 
that almost every one of them has picked up some portion of 
the methods which we have shown to be best adapted to the 
raising of first class fruit on all kinds of Florida soils; and 
now, Mr. President, when the standard of every man who 
raises fruit in the state of Florida shall be the ideal which 
this society has created, then w T e shall have gone a long way 
towards solving the difficult problems before us. 
“To j^ou, Mr. Mayor, and to those whom you represent, I 
beg to convey the thanks of our president and the thanks of 
this society for your kindly welcome, and to assure you that 
we appreciate the welcome and the cordiality with which 
your city has thrown open her gates to us.” 
