34 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
children to hear the reminiscences and 
war stories told from grocery boxes, and 
call that history? The agriculture that 
is taught in the field while driving a mule 
or “cussing” a laborer bears about the 
same relation to agriculture that the gro¬ 
cery-box reminiscences do to history. It 
is not because the subject is too intricate 
or difficult, but no parent can afford to 
take the time from his busy day of labor 
to assume the role of a teacher, and give 
his son a systematic and rounded course 
in agriculture, any more than he can af¬ 
ford to give his son a course in arithme¬ 
tic or bookkeeping. It takes no longei 
to teach a dozen students in the same 
class than one; consequently, it is much 
cheaper to hire some one to teach a whole 
class than it is to spend all the time on one 
student. 
Probably the most potent reason why 
agriculture is at present so imperfectly 
developed in that adequate systematic 
effort for its advancement has not been 
made. Organized and concerted ef¬ 
forts for its advancement have been 
practically unknown until very re¬ 
cently ; and at present even higher edu¬ 
cation in agriculture cannot be said to 
be well organized, excepting in those 
states that are most advanced. 
We are entering a period where or¬ 
ganized and systematic effort will be re¬ 
quired to accomplish anything even of 
moderate proportion. Agriculture, the 
newest of the sciences, is being rounded 
out and brought into tangible shape. 
Our sister states, Georgia and Alabama, 
have made provision for district high 
schools in which are taught agriculture 
and domestic science. 
This is well enough so far as it goes, 
but it stops too high up. The very pu¬ 
pils who need the education most are the 
ones that are denied the privilege of at¬ 
tending the high schools. It is only a 
small percentage of our Florida boys and 
girls that receive any training above the 
eighth grade. These young people need 
to get some insight into the plants and an¬ 
imals they see and handle every day. 
Books have been, and are being, pub¬ 
lished bringing our knowledge into a 
concrete and teachable form. What if 
they don’t learn quite so much about the 
number of planets, or recite fewer defini¬ 
tions from a so-called grammar! 
It is not necessary to over-burden the 
course of study with agriculture in order 
that we may have pupils to study it. 
There are many thousands of children 
that do not receive any instruction at all, 
who would gladly avail themselves of a 
chance to learn something that appeals 
to them as being worth the while. 
Finally, ladies and gentlemen, I wish 
to say that we have left our homes and 
labors at no small sacrifice. We are here 
not for the mere pleasure we get out of 
the trip—that is a mere incident to the 
annual pilgrims; nor are we here that we 
may accumulate a few more dollars by 
some sordid method; but we expect to 
go back better men and better women; 
better equipped mentally and morally for 
the unceasing struggle of life. We ex¬ 
pect to return home with newer and bet¬ 
ter ideas of how to equip and beautify 
the home; and above all, we expect to 
be better women and men for having 
met our distant friends and neighbors on 
common ground for argument and dis¬ 
cussion. 
As your presiding officer, I hope that 
the arguments will be strong and force¬ 
ful, and the discussions vigorous and to 
the point, sparing neither colleague nor 
adversary; for it is the heated furnace 
that separates the g'old from the dross. 
