President’s Annual Address 
H. Harold Hume 
Members of the Florida State Horticul¬ 
tural Society , Ladies and Gentlemen : 
Geography is an interesting study, a 
study of lands and seas and what grows 
thereon and therein, of tides and waves 
and winds, and sun and moon, of vege¬ 
tation zones and isothermal lines, of peo¬ 
ples, manners, customs, of commerce and 
its ways. But most of us passed our ge¬ 
ography examinations long ago, and 
promptly proceeded to forget most of it, 
as is the way with children, young and 
old. Though we have all dreamed 
dreams of people and things remote, our 
ideas of how these are related to us, of 
how they do or may touch us intimately 
is still too frequently a hazy dream. 
Now, with me tonight, I want you to go 
back to the desk in the little country 
school house, or to the box or shelf 
where the old and worn school books are 
carefully packed away. We will get out 
that well-thumbed, dog-eared school at¬ 
las, very carefully and very reverently, 
that we may not disturb the dreams that 
still linger between its musty pages, and 
we'll open it where you and I first open¬ 
ed it perchance, at the map of the world. 
Over on the western side of the West¬ 
ern Hemisphere we will begin our lesson, 
and locate Seattle, Portland, San Fran¬ 
cisco, Los Angeles, then southward along 
the coast of Mexico, but we shall not 
stop there, southward still and across the 
narrow neck of land called Panama. 
Then northward along the eastern coast 
and again we pass by Mexico, for we 
shall not stop there. A pall overhangs 
the land, the pall of internal strife, so 
northward still and around the coast of 
our own land again and we note Galves¬ 
ton, Houston, Port Arthur, New Or¬ 
leans, Mobile, Pensacola, Tampa, Key 
West, Jacksonville and Savannah. Along 
trip! Why have we made it? Have you 
not noticed that in all these coast cities 
and towns, that channels are being deep¬ 
ened, obstructions removed, basins en- 
larged, docks increased in size and num¬ 
ber, terminal facilities improved, rail¬ 
roads constructed, and that there are ac¬ 
tivities of all sorts connected with the 
commerce of the sea? Money has been, 
or will be, spent like the very water that 
washes their water fronts, millions upon 
millions of it. And again why? 
The why is the Panama Canal. And 
this canal, our canal, though other ships 
will use it more than ours, is the cause 
of many movements in our present 
changing order of things. The eyes of 
the world are on it, the nations of the ut¬ 
termost parts are preparing to use it. The 
dream of America's discoverers is about 
