FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
211 
ject calculated to provoke heated dis¬ 
cussion, is permissible. 
Our Society always has a waiting 
list. There are two similar ones in the 
same country neighborhood, of forty 
members each; this speaks volumes 
for its usefulness. Your cousin, 
M. B. Thomas. 
Mr. President, this article is suffi¬ 
ciently lengthy to stop here, but I ask 
your indulgence for a single moment, 
to say that no place in our country of¬ 
fers a better field for local organiza¬ 
tions than Florida. We boast of the 
most cosmopolitan citizenship of any 
State in the Union. Local jealousies 
and petty personal differences are sap¬ 
ping the life of many communities; 
men antagonize progressive local 
measures because others advocate 
them, and I have yet to see the neigh¬ 
borhood unanimous even for good 
roads. One neighbor withholds the 
price obtained for a shipment, and 
makes a secret of the name of the 
house to which he consigns it. An¬ 
other will write your customer, whose 
name he has obtained at depot from 
your shipment, underselling you. 
These and similar local unpleasant¬ 
nesses are rendered void by local as¬ 
sociations, and the old but true state¬ 
ment is exemplified, that “There is a 
giving that does not empoverish and 
a withholding that doth not enrich.” 
If this be true, then go home and or¬ 
ganize, and let the first Society render 
us a synopsis of its year’s work, 
through its secretary, at our next an¬ 
nual meeting. 
ORGANIZATION OF LOCAL SOCIETIES. 
By H. B. Stevens. 
Mr. President , Ladies and Gentlemen: 
I said I did not have any paper; I 
might have said also that I did not 
have any speech. If you want to or¬ 
ganize a Society, go ahead and do it. 
If you succeed, you succeed; and if you 
fail, you fail. We organized a Society 
in DeLand to fight against insects, and 
the people, through that organization, 
have become more interested in horti¬ 
culture. If you organize a local soci¬ 
ety, you will find it is an easy way to 
get members into this Horticultural 
Society. The Fruit Growers’ Protec¬ 
tive Association will be a great help to 
us, and our society saw at once the 
advantage of taking hold of it and the 
great need of carrying on its work. 
When they made an appeal for money, 
$300.00 was raised with us in about 
fifteen minutes. If you have an or¬ 
ganization like this, it is an easy and 
quick way to bring matters of vital in¬ 
terest to you all, before them, and it 
is an advantage to have as many or¬ 
ganizations as you have neighbor¬ 
hoods. 
I think it well to get together locally 
and form other organizations and all 
join together against the things that 
are working against our interests; the 
railroad transportation, etc., and to 
work with the Horticultural Society. 
There is everything for us in co-opera¬ 
tion, and failure for a good many if 
we insist on standing as individuals. 
14 
