FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
27 
was worth having, is an education along 
practical lines, but to hear it from the 
President of a University is a surprise 
and a pleasure. 
I realize, as he realizes, that a techni¬ 
cal education along technical lines is far 
better, far more useful and far more ben¬ 
eficial in every way than a so-called clas¬ 
sical education. I think it was Oliver 
Wendell Holmes who wrote: 
“There is many a one, though highly skilled 
in hie, hac, hoc, 
In arts and knowledge still a block.” 
When my children had grown up and 
were in school, they laughed at this quo¬ 
tation, saying that my Latin pronuncia¬ 
tion was old style and wrong and that 
it should be heek, hyke, hoke.. I said, 
“Let it go at that even, and it will still 
be applicable as 
‘There is many a one though highly skilled in 
heek, hyke, hoke, 
In arts and knowledge still a bloke!’ 
I am delighted to know that we have 
this kind of an institution. I am delighted 
to know that we have this kind of men 
at its head. As has been said, “It is 
ours,” and I am glad that we have come 
to our own at last. 
Now, Mr. Mayor, I want to thank you 
for your courteous invitation to your hos¬ 
pitalities, for your courteous welcome to 
what you have here, and they are no 
small things. We appreciate this city 
with its paved streets, with its great Uni¬ 
versity, with its great men, and we es¬ 
teem it a privilege to be here. We are 
glad, and we realize that you understand 
that Horticulture is more and higher than 
a human institution. We may come up 
here with hard hands and hard beads, 
perhaps, as sons of toil, but nevertheless 
we are horticulturists, and horticulturists 
are men who have something to be proud 
of. The calling of horticulture is, as 
you have intimated, of Diyine origin. The 
first horticulturist was the Creator Him¬ 
self. He prepared the garden, put fruits 
and flowers into it, and finally put man 
into it. Man, in his usual manner, dis¬ 
tinguished himself by getting into trouble 
the first thing, and then blamed it onto the 
woman. Unfortunately for us, the Crea¬ 
tor did the same thing that we are doing. 
He put a tree of evil in there, and that 
caused the trouble. 
There was another reference made by 
your Honor, about anyone being a bene¬ 
factor who caused two blades of grass to 
grow where one grew before. I want to 
say that we are, on that proposition, mul¬ 
tiple benefactors. There isn’t one of us 
who has not beat that all to pieces. If 
you don’t believe it, try to dig up a blade 
of Bermuda grass and see what follows. 
These gentlemen who have preceded 
me have not taken up all the time allotted 
to them, and unlike the omnipresent poli¬ 
tician, I have been “elected,” for the 
evening at least, consequently I don’t 
have to quit. 
Isn't it a wonderful thing that the Bi¬ 
ble speaks so often of fruits and flowers? 
It refers to the rose, the lily, the pome¬ 
granate, the olive and the fig, but never 
a word about the grosser productions 
such as potatoes, carrots, cabbage, etc. 
The most wonderful thing that has ever 
happened, the greatest event that was 
ever enacted in the world’s history, took 
place in an olive grove ; I mean that won¬ 
derful scene that was enacted in the gar¬ 
den of Gethsamene. I was in that gar¬ 
den about two years ago, therefore it 
may not be amiss for me to say a word 
in regard to it. _I can understand why 
the people of Palestine take to horticul¬ 
ture instead of agriculture. They would 
not enjoy plowing with a lop-eared mule. 
