FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
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better than these? for thou dost not in¬ 
quire wisely concerning this.” 
In the irrepressible and seemingly never 
ending conflict between capital and labor, 
we the independent producers always and 
invariably get the worst of it. 
In point of numbers, including all those 
who are not affiliated with either class, 
we are largely in the majority, yet by 
our supineness we see our rights ignored 
and ruthlessly trampled upon by both 
sides of these contending forces. 
We are crushed and ground between 
the upper and nether millstones of ag¬ 
gressive dictatorial labor and tyrannous, 
oppressive capital. It is not merely a 
Kilkenny cat affair in which the combat¬ 
ants injure only themselves, but it is a 
deplorable and disastrous wrangle that in¬ 
volves the entire public. 
The solution and termination of this 
vexatious problem and cruelly ruinous 
struggle can not be left to the demagog 
and walking delegate, but the injured and 
long suffering, unbiased people themselves 
will finally be compelled to rise up in 
their strength and put an equitable and 
fair finish to this cruelly pitiful combat. 
The question naturally arises how do 
these people who are relatively only a 
small part of our population get such a 
powerful influence: the answer is sim¬ 
ple, it is because both capital and labor 
have their strong combinations and per¬ 
fect organizations. We too must organ¬ 
ize and combine before we can ever hope 
to wield much influence. 
It may be said that this is not a horti- 
culturalist’s question, but it seems to me 
that as horticulturalists and members of 
the body politic we are vitally interested 
in all questions of political economy and 
social welfare. The horticultural and 
agricultural population of our country is 
the leaven that converts the whole mass 
of the populace into a beneficient and glo¬ 
rious nationality. 
I believe in Evolution and Develop¬ 
ment, though not altogether as expounded 
by Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall and others. 
The element of progress runs like a gold¬ 
en chain through all the Universe of God: 
and nowhere does it sparkle with more 
refulgency than in the physical and ma¬ 
terial world—a realm to which the whole 
school of speculative philosophers have 
not lifted their eyes. The pessimistic un¬ 
believer in men, natural law and natural 
selection, has seen only half the truth,, 
or rather he has not seen half the truth.. 
Like an insect, which must be examined 
microscopically, he has seen only the 
smallest objects. 
The epoch in which we live is essenti¬ 
ally and emphatically a utilitarian age. 
The study of abstract science and specu¬ 
lative philosophy as a part of man’s edu¬ 
cation have like many other kinds of men¬ 
tal gymnastics been relegated to the rear 
and the demands of modern requirements 
insist on that kind of science and philos¬ 
ophy which can be put to immediate prac¬ 
tical and beneficial uses. 
Throughout all the past ages natural 
selection has played an important part in 
the evolution and development of all 
those horticultural products requisite to 
the sustenance of human life. At first 
these variations and survivals of the best 
and most useful fruits, grains, etc., were 
the result of sectional environment and 
climatic influences but later as man in¬ 
creased in intelligence and experience, he 
took a hand in the matter and has so as- 
