FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
213 
section) would not give us che rates to 
which we were entitled. They had us 
by the neck, and they knew it. So when 
our Association came to the marketing- 
side of its usefulness it did not prove 
as successful as the purchasing side of 
it, and, to add to our calamities, our 
enemy, the San Jose Scale, came in 
among us to stay for good, and in a very 
few years we were as busy grubbing up 
dead trees as we had been planting, and 
the grubbing was the more laborious job 
of the two. 
For a- few years after that our Asso¬ 
ciation drifted along with a very small 
membership waiting to see how affairs 
would turn out. Brown-rot and crown- 
gall, and other enemies made themselves 
at home jimong the few remains of our 
orchards. We knew we had one of the 
best fruit sections in the country and our 
faith was strong that we could devise 
ways and means to overcome most of our 
difficulties. 
On July 4th, 1899, was formed the 
“West Florida Agricultural Society,” 
whose formation was the outcome of a 
general farmers’ picnic at Grand Ridge. 
This picnic was gotten up by Judge Por¬ 
ter so as to get West Florida farmers 
together in a social way and discuss mat¬ 
ters relating to their calling. 
The Society was launched at that meet¬ 
ing, but at a later one, at DeFuniak, the 
officers were appointed and a constitution 
and by-laws adopted. The Society has 
been very successful along purely agri¬ 
cultural lines. The president at that 
time, Judge Porter, called on the pres¬ 
ident of the L. & N. R. R. (Mr. Smith) 
and was successful in getting a one-cent 
rate for members to attend meetings. 
The territory covered by the Society ex¬ 
tends from River Junction to Pensacola, 
160 miles. In its earlier history meet¬ 
ings were held once a month in the sum¬ 
mer and every two weeks in the winter. 
At these meetings all subjects relative 
to farming interests were discussed. In 
fact, they were equal to Farmers’ Insti¬ 
tutes ; but as we had no funds at our dis¬ 
posal to pay expenses' of state lecturers, 
were confined to members for speakers. 
At each meeting the place for holding 
the next one was decided. The favorite 
places were Grand Ridge, Chipley and 
DeFuniak. 
Members attending from a distance 
had to deposit a certificate of membership 
with the ticket agent to get the one-cent 
rate for distance traveled. The condition 
to be observed in getting this reduced 
rate was to notify the division ticket 
agent a week ahead of any meeting to 
allow him time to notify the local agent. 
The membership of this Society at one 
time numbered nearly three hundred of 
the most progressive farmers of West 
Florida. 
In 1901 it was decided to try to ship 
canteloupes and other early farm pro¬ 
ducts in car lots, the railroad agreeing 
to give us certain facilities by placing 
pick-up cars at our disposal. This worked 
fairly well, but we found a great many 
obstacles in the way; the different soils 
and different modes of planting causing 
uncertainty in time of ripening; also the 
different fertilizers used and the different 
modes of culture. Every small thing 
had in the aggregate quite a decided in¬ 
fluence on the general success of any one 
crop, and the studying of results along 
these lines was a very valuable education 
to those interested, and as the writer hap¬ 
pened to be the secretary, the informa¬ 
tion he got and the means of observation 
at his command, were very valuable to 
