4 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
but exhausted. There is no other way- 
out; why should it be longer delayed? 
Reforestration must be undertaken, not in 
a half-hearted way, but on a large scale, 
a scale commensurate with our former 
condition and in line with our direct and 
pressing needs. This work will have to 
be undertaken by the State both on its own 
initiative and in co-operation in many 
ways with individuals. There is no great¬ 
er problem before us than this. When it 
comes up for solution, as it must come be¬ 
fore many days, let me urge upon the 
membership of this society that they lend 
every possible assistance in carrying 
through a constructive program even as 
they have given assistance along other 
lines in the past. It is in line with our 
duty, our privilege and our avowed course 
of action. 
To restore Florida to its former beauty 
and the glory which it had when the white 
man named it Florida, is another work 
to which the members of this society 
should lend their every help. A broad 
state-wide movement should be inaugu¬ 
rated for a “more beautiful Florida.” To 
such an undertaking there are so many 
angles that to cover them all in a brief 
address is quite impossible. It is a work 
in which every inhabitant of the State, 
yea, every sojourner therein, may have a 
part. 
To clean the trash and refuse and un¬ 
sightly things from the surface of Florida 
would be an enormous undertaking. 
Cotild it be done? Yes, if every citizen 
did his part. This alone would make our 
State a more pleasant place in which to 
live. 
Old signs should be removed from our 
roadways. Some of them are poor testi¬ 
mony of the value of things that are long 
since out of use or out of fashion. New 
ones should be prohibited along our road¬ 
ways. Why decorate our landscape and 
road side views with the merits of some¬ 
body’s ketchup or the particular value of 
certain brands of cigarettes? 
Roadways should be planted both to 
add to their beautv and to the comfort of 
* 
travel. Trees and flowering shrubs placed 
there would replace those which in our 
haste to clear land have been destroyed. 
The planting along the Memorial Road 
leading from Tampa toward Pinellas 
county is a commendable piece of work. 
We should have more of it. Would it not 
be worth while for instance, if the road 
from Lakeland to Bartow were planted 
throughout its entire length on both sides 
with Oleanders, or the road leading from 
Lakeland to Tampa with Bauhinia Pur¬ 
purea? Why should not the roads of 
North Florida be lined with Magnolias, 
or Live Oaks, or Crape Myrtle? We can 
so plant our roadways as to make them 
never-to-be-forgotten stretches of beauty 
to him who travels over them. In our 
cities, towns and villages we need the same 
sort of planting, the carrying out of one 
predominating line of planting, whether 
in yard or street. Gainesville will be fa¬ 
mous within a few seasons for her palm- 
lined avenues. The Poinsettias of Bartow 
in their season of bloom are worth going 
far to see. They need more of them. 
Why shouldn’t Lakeland be famous for its 
Hibiscus and other towns for other lines 
of planting? If it is advertising that our 
