FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
21 
the rule has always been to put a premium 
upon eating sparingly. It must be the 
Daytona way. And this afternoon, I 
made note of a pair of horticulturists tres¬ 
passing perhaps, upon the property of one 
of your citizens. They had, judging from 
their actions, found something interest¬ 
ing and made themselves at home. They 
were not molested. Now, your Honor, 
I beg of you, should any of this body be 
brought before you for trespassing, deal 
leniently with them, they are harmless. 
We have seen many things worthy of 
note in your city. It is a city marked, 
and out of the ordinary, a city built in 
the woods, a city where the touch of na¬ 
ture in all its beauty has been left un¬ 
spoiled. Your Honor, you have here a 
city unique, a city with well paved and 
shady streets, restful in its simple natur¬ 
alness, a city of which you may well feel 
proud. 
And you may feel assured, your 
Honor, that you will find this society not 
at all backward in accepting of your kind 
hospitality. This body stands for the 
progress of horticulture in this state, if 
it stands for anything. It is interesting 
to note the way along which the way of 
progress has led. The parent horticul¬ 
tural industry of this state—orange 
growing—had its origin in hammocks on 
the banks of rivers, lakes and streams. 
The first problem confronting the grower 
of those earlier days was that of propa¬ 
gation—the task of bringing those wild 
sour groves into profitable producers of 
sweet, edible fruit. Then came an enor¬ 
mous amount of work with varieties, ac¬ 
companied by much costly introduction 
work. The problem of fertilizers became 
prominent and looking over the older 
volumes of our proceedings, you will find 
lengthy dissertations on muck and other 
harmless substances. Scale insects and 
fungous diseases claimed attention and 
the strife between sprayers and non- 
sprayers. The cold came and with it there 
came into being numerous other horti¬ 
cultural industries. Latent possibilities 
were developed and as a result our horti¬ 
culture became more diversified. More 
recently irrigation has become a question 
of importance, for we have learned, 
whether it rains or not, we must have 
water. The problems connected with 
the marketing of our products are now 
being agitated and out of the discussion 
good will come. And in all these years 
no old question has been or can be laid 
down for no problem connected with the 
growing plant can ever be permanently 
settled. Difficulties have been met as 
they arose, mastered in part and relegated 
to a place of secondary importance as 
some new one claimed attention. The 
path has not been an easy one, but it has 
been cheerfully traveled upward. You 
can feel certain, your Honor, that an as¬ 
sociation, with a history such as this, will 
not be backward in accepting your hos¬ 
pitality, for the way has not always fallen 
in such pleasant places. 
And when we leave, we trust that it 
will be with a feeling on your part that 
you are glad we came and we shall, I 
speak for the society, carry away with us 
pleasant remembrances of our brief so¬ 
journ with you. 
