138 
SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 
Tobacco is another money crop where water is most useful. 
It is needed lor the vineyards on which so many hopes have 
been hung. It is a great help—if not a necessity—for the 
peach orchards, the guavas, the mangoes and the bananas. 
These all are valuable fruits, but twice valuable when their 
quantity and surety are guaranteed by the use of irrigation. 
Many other things might be mentioned, but let this suffice. 
Every man knows for himself the plants, or trees, or crops he 
would like to raise if he could. Let me assure him that his 
lack of water at command is his chief lack. I do not say the 
only lack—location is much. Soil is a great deal. A compost 
heap is a great factor, and be careful to select reliable and 
-standard fertilizers and apply with no stinted hand. Frost, at 
times and in some places, is as fatal as drouth. But water 
can be had by those who will have it. If a man has not the 
means to irrigate forty acres, in most places he had much bet¬ 
ter not try to occupy forty acres. We have been saying for 
yeais: Plant no more than you can thoroughly cultivate. We 
now go another step and say: Plant no more than you can 
thoroughly cultivate and irrigate. These, pre-eminently, are 
the two maxims for Florida—thorough cultivation and irriga¬ 
tion, irrigation and thorough cultivation. Put them in the 
order you please, practice them wisely, choose the right crops 
and prosperity will surely follow. 
Shall I tell you in conclusion of the vision that sometimes 
rises before my mind’s eye? As I ride through our fair state 
a lovely landscape often comes in view. I stand on a swell¬ 
ing slope, stretching away to a clear lake whose waters reflect 
the midday sun and shadow the winding shores. The tall 
pines murmur in the breeze. The sturdier hickories and oaks, 
in the little valleys which now and then lead toward the lake, 
are hung with streamers, whether of joy or mourning, who can 
say ? Is it joy ior the transformation soon to come, or mourn¬ 
ing for the peace and solitude of nature undisturbed ? 
Even as I look the scene seems to change. The tall pines, 
for the most part, have vanished or are only left in groups 
here and there. I see pleasant winding roads, bordered ev¬ 
erywhere by thrifty trees. The arrangement seems that of the 
landscape artist rather than of t he land surveyor. The natu¬ 
ral beauties of the situation are brought forth and developed. 
The grades have b?en considered, and the views and the 
streets seem to invite further progress, as one discovers some¬ 
thing alluring at every turn. I see attractive looking houses 
here and there, each standing on a lot of sufficient size to have 
its own pleasure grounds, garden, groves and fields, but not 
ao large as to make neighborly intercourse a burden. Nor are 
