FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
133 
adverse conditions, is it any wonder that he is often over¬ 
burdened and gives up the light? 
On the other hand, the wonder is that he so generally keeps 
on, with gritty resolution, and conquers a half-way victory in 
spite of fate. Nor is it strange that one who has seen the 
transformation wrought by irrigation should adopt the epi¬ 
gram of the Western wit who ssid: “Irrigation is not a substi¬ 
tute for rain. Rain is a substitute for irrigation, and a very 
poor substitute at that.” 
We may as well admit that, for all practical purposes, Flor¬ 
ida is a semiarid couutry. It is not perhaps in such desperate 
need of moisture as the state of Texas, which was nevertheless 
defended by a native as lacking in nothing except water and 
good society. “Indeed,” remarked a listener, “that is ait 
h—11 needs.” But we are not now studying the society ques¬ 
tion. That is not a question for this body of horticulturists. 
Yet the need of water, I claim, is fundamental. We must 
have it at easy command as a prime factor to general and con¬ 
tinuous success in a great portion of our agricultural and hor¬ 
ticultural operations. 
This leads me to the point of calling your attention to the 
fact that all the work of the cultivator of the soil, in these 
later years, has been becoming more exact and scientific. 
What has come to be known as intensive farming is now the 
practice of the most progressive and successful men. The aim 
is to ascertain the best methods and then to carry them out to 
their logical extent. When, for instance, I see my neighbor’s 
grove produces heavy crops of choice fruit, and does it regu¬ 
larly every year, and that he is prosperous in consequence of 
it; when I see that this does not come by chance, but as 
the well earned result of insight and skillful calculation, by 
adoption of means to ends, by thoroughness, by promptness 
—in short, by knowledge and industry—especially when I 
see such men formed into a society like this for mutual en¬ 
couragement and assistance, I see the best possible proof of 
a rapid horticultural progress and knowledge. I see men 
who practice this intensive, this thorough and skillful method 
of cultivation. If I ask you what are the great primary 
essentials of plant life, you will say that they are four: 
earth, air, moisture and plant food. T wo of these, earth and. 
air, we take for granted. They are everywhere. The other 
two are often more or less absent, and have to be supplied. 
Just here is where the knowledge and skill come into play. 
The earliest cultivator took conditions as he found them, 
and raised a crop or not as it happened. He learned after 
awhile that it was wise to fertilize. In the totally arid 
