FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
23 
there are altogether 44,000 men, a little 
over 10,000 being engaged in non-tech¬ 
nical, non-agricultural work. There is 
a very large proportion, about 25 
per cent. who are not engaged 
in the strict lines of work for which 
these institutions were established. 
5,500 are engaged in some other course, 
now and then taking a course in animal 
husbandry or some such branch. 6,000 
are in the preparatory department, 21,000 
only are engaged in the practical agrfi 
cultural and mechanical pursuits for 
which the institutions are intended. Now, 
let us go a little further into the matter 
and take this 21,000 engaged in the prac¬ 
tical agricultural and mechanical pursuits. 
Out of this number we find less than 3,000 
engaged in the special work of agri¬ 
culture and horticulture at this time, after 
forty years of effort in that direction. I 
mention this to show the persistent tenac¬ 
ity of the old academic ideas, the per¬ 
sistence of the notion that the only edu¬ 
cation worth having involved the study 
of literature, especially the study of the 
classics. It is a very hard matter to con¬ 
vince the school men in the first place and 
the population at large, after the school 
men have been convinced, of the advis¬ 
ability of a change in any educational sys¬ 
tem. 
Now, as I said, the bulk of the popula¬ 
tion is engaged in agricultural and hor¬ 
ticultural pursuits. It seems to me that 
the educational system should be laid out 
upon those lines in which the bulk of the 
population is interested. Less than four 
per cent, are engaged in professional pur¬ 
suits, and yet our school system in the 
State of Florida, with the exception of 
the State University, is designed with 
reference to the four per cent., with al¬ 
most total disregard of the remaining 
population. In other words, in none of 
the schools of the State, except the State 
University, will you find any instruction 
in horticultural and agricultural pursuits. 
I wish to bring it to your attention that 
it is high time some action is taken with 
reference to changing this situation. The 
State University, your University, is the 
only institution offering instruction along 
these lines, but there should be many oth¬ 
ers. The main part of our current ex¬ 
penses is provided by the Federal Gov¬ 
ernment, and provided with reference to 
the practical instruction of the young 
men of the State, the vast forty-four 
per cent, of the young men of the 
State, who will be interested in agri¬ 
cultural pursuits. 
Our ideal out here is to serve the peo¬ 
ple according to the people’s needs; and 
these needs are not, as we understand it, 
to be found mainly in the realm of cul¬ 
ture, but the people’s needs begin with the 
need to eat. We begin with this funda¬ 
mental need, and go up, up with the needs 
of the people, up and up to the needs of the 
intellect and into the needs of the spirit 
manifested in right living. But first and 
foremost is the all-dominant need, the' 
need to eat. I hold that it is a proper- 
function of the schools to raise the stand¬ 
ard of living; and to do this, it is neces¬ 
sary to improve the workman. Your in¬ 
stitution is organized on that basis. The 
farmer must be equipped with knowledge 
of the whys and wherefores, he must 
know the principles of causes and effects 
and have a certain amount of scientific 
knowledge with which to combat the evils 
which are the enemies to successful agri¬ 
culture or horticulture. Of the 15 of 
this faculty, 11 are engaged under this 
general head; to equip the worker with 
the proper knowledge. I include the 
Professor of Physics, the Professor of 
Botany, and except only the Professors 
