FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
25 
the kindred subjects. This state of af¬ 
fairs ought not to be. 
It seems to me there are three reasons 
for this condition. In the first place, the 
farmers of the State do not realize the 
necessity for a technical education. They 
do not realize that agriculture is a science 
and that horticulture is a science. They 
think if their grandfather plowed with i 
rope line over a lop-eared mule they 
should not show disrespect to his mem¬ 
ory bv endeavoring to improve on his 
methods. His antiquated methods were 
agriculture, and agriculture is just simply 
agriculture. Another difficulty is that 
the rural population does not realize the 
possibility of technical education in those 
lines. It is a new idea. Agriculture used 
to be regarded as a business which did 
not need much, if any, apprenticeship. 
It was simply a matter of “being brung 
up to it.” The average farmer or fruit¬ 
grower thought the “book-farmer” a fool, 
—and perhaps they were sometimes right. 
There is a general prejudice against the 
“book treatment” of the subject. You 
have undoubtedly observed this in your 
own community. The average farmer 
will say, “Oh, he is just a book farmer 
and can’t teach me nothing.” Of course, 
“the book farmer” in the early stages of 
his career made mistakes, and is still mak¬ 
ing them, perhaps; but, as a whole, the 
fair-minded man is willing to concede 
that he has more than made good. The 
third difficulty that is observed is that 
there is no movement in the State except 
this one struggling enterprise looking to 
this end. There is no high school in the 
State representing this idea. There is no 
school in the State teaching these things. 
As a consequence, there is no stimulus 
towards the University, and it is really 
remarkable that we get- more than five 
or six to come up here to study. 
This Society, in my judgment, might 
be extremely effective in facilitating a 
general movement in the State for carry¬ 
ing horticultural and agricultural educa¬ 
tion down into the graded schools. I do 
not know anything more pitiful than to 
see a little country boy going up to read 
“Gallia est divisa in partes tres,” or some¬ 
thing like that, and learning nothing and 
caring nothing about the wonderful 
branch of industry which he is to make 
the work of his future life, knowing noth¬ 
ing and caring nothing about the planting 
and germinating and growth of a grain of 
corn or wheat,—devoting a quarter of 
his precious time to a study which will 
not do him the remotest good which had 
far better be spent in studying the science 
of plant and vegetable life. Now, he 
could at least learn that it is a science and 
that it is to his interest and is his bus¬ 
iness to study that science; and if he be¬ 
gins the study he will follow it up through 
the University. 
Now, as I have before said, tffi run¬ 
ning expenses of the University are met 
mainly through the Federal Government. 
In nearly sixty per cent, of the states in 
the Union, the State is appropriating 
more for its agricultural and mechanical 
colleges than the Federal Government. 
In some states they have practically as¬ 
sumed the entire support of these institu¬ 
tions. In our own State, the State gives 
about one-third of the current income. 
The institution could not be run three 
months on the State appropriation for 
current expenses. We are anxious to 
serve the farmer bov. We are convinced, 
and we want to convince the people and 
we trust that this meeting of the Horti- 
cultural Society may contribute to that 
end. We believe that sooner or later we 
will succeed; we know we must succeed, 
because practical training is the only 
