30 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
half a crate more than the market de¬ 
mands, that extra half crate will not 
bring ten cents. As it is, we have learn¬ 
ed not to over supply the avocado mar¬ 
ket, but keep the supply just even with 
the demand. 
The younger generation of us will have 
to compete strenuously with the fruit out¬ 
put of South America and Africa. Al¬ 
ready these countries are sending their 
product into the markets of Europe, and 
thereby curtailing the source of consump¬ 
tion for our products. The United States 
has already seriously felt the inroads in 
the European market made by the Aus¬ 
tralian meats and other animal products. 
Argentina now stands second in the acre¬ 
age of corn. The report for 1908 gives 
her nearly seven million acres. Capital 
from the United States is flowing in a 
torrent into Mexico. A few years ago the 
United States consul at Mexico City told 
me that there was upwards of $500,000,- 
000 of United States capital invested in 
Mexico. Most of this, however, was go¬ 
ing to develop the mines, though agricul¬ 
ture was following rapidly in the amount 
of United States capital that was being 
absorbed. Large areas in Mexico have 
been and are being planted to citrus fruits. 
By tariff legislation it may be possible to 
keep these fruits out of the markets of 
the United States, but such an artificial 
barrier cannot keep them from going into 
Canada and other places where our 
fruits now find a good market. In cer¬ 
tain sections of Central America large 
areas are being planted to citrus orchards, 
and it is purely a question of developing 
transportation facilities to bring these in¬ 
to active competition with our fruits. 
The transportation facilities are being 
rapidly developed, and will be greatly 
stimulated as the time for the opening of 
the Panama canal approaches. (Of 
course we raise a superior article, but to 
millions of consumers an orange is an or¬ 
ange and nothing more.) 
All of this brings us face to face with 
the fact that we are only a small part of 
the world movement. A moment ago I 
called your attention to the fact that in 
the past these upward movements took 
place in isolated centers. By means of 
our literature we have annihilated the 
past, and by means of electricity we are 
annihilating distance. Now, in the place 
of progressive movement being localized, 
it is present in all nations. Even static 
Turkey and Persia are being affected by 
the educational movement of today. The 
leaders in scientific thought today must 
know what the results are of the investi¬ 
gations in other laboratories, whether lo¬ 
cated at Ceylon, Tokyo, San Francisco, 
Chicago, New York, Edinburgh, Berlin, 
St. Petersburg, or any other place on the 
globe. Should Dr Koch make an impor¬ 
tant discovery in connection with the 
sleeping sickness of interior Africa, on 
the next day all the newspapers around 
the earth would announce the fact. While 
the earth is no smaller than it was ten 
thousand years ago, man’s power over 
matter has increased so immeasurably 
that he is in reality brought into daily 
and almost hourly connection with even 
the remotest portions of the world. 
At first it might seem as though this 
was a long distance from citrus growing. 
To understand our present situation, 
however, it is of the highest importance 
