Vegetables 
S. H. Gaitskill 
I had hoped Mr. McQuarrie would 
be here to make the report on vegeta¬ 
bles. I am simply a “fan,” and would 
rather listen to the other members 
of the committee make the report. 
The main thing about vegetables in 
Florida for the majority of the people 
who live in this State, is along the lines 
of mere family consumption. Every fam¬ 
ily should have vegetables; every man 
should have a garden with ordinary herbs 
and vegetables growing in it. It is as¬ 
tonishing how it will reduce the high cost 
of the grocery bill, and the amount of 
pleasure you can get and give, to the wo¬ 
man of the household if you keep her 
supplied with fresh vegetables. There 
should be a variety such as the members 
of the family prefer. Almost anyone can 
grow enough vegetables for family use, 
have a strawberry patch, and so forth. 
It will help very materially so far as cost 
is concerned, so far as health is concerned, 
and so far as peace in the family is con¬ 
cerned. 
As to grapefruit growing commercial¬ 
ly; I have lived all my life in Florida 
among the grapefruit growers; I have 
not been a very extensive grower myself. 
While we have some very nice orange 
groves, profitable ones, too, quite as suc¬ 
cessful as in any other part of the State, 
I would say that more money has been 
made among our people by growing vege¬ 
tables than has been made growing or¬ 
anges. I think the people coming to 
Florida today are stretching the orange 
proposition too much. An orange grove 
is an expensive thing; to get a start on 
vegetables, isn’t. There is no business in 
the State that I know of that has been 
carried on in the way that vegetable 
growing has, that has paid better results 
than vegetable growing. 
I am sorry to say that the majority of 
people who come to Florida are more or 
less gamblers. A few of them, like Mr. 
Gillette and Mr. Taber, came for their 
health. They both came here to die; so 
their physicians told them, and see what 
it did to them! (Laughter.) Most of 
the people come here with the idea of 
getting “rich quick” by the medium of 
the fruits or vegetables. 
Vegetable growing is a business, a con¬ 
servative, steady business, if you want 
to make a success of it and get all there 
is in it, out. Do not put too many po¬ 
tatoes into one hill, if you want to make 
a fortune out of it. Plant a few acres 
of this, and a few acres of that. Most 
men prefer to make a specialty of one 
thing. I think it better to put in a reas¬ 
onable acreage of several crops; when 
one or more of them don’t pay, you make 
it up on something else. Most people 
