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SI.

THr PRESENT NEED OF FLORIDA HOTICULTUHE.

Mr. President, Ladies and GentleMf-"--

It is now-two years since I have appeared on

the program of the Florida State Horticultural Society.

I :n glad to be before you this morning and to meet again

so many of my friends. This is the twenty-ninth annual

meeting of the Horticultural Society. I have been a

rather regular attendant on the program since the fifth

meeting. I believe I have missed only three meetings

since the one that I attended at Ormond. IT this is

correct, this will make my twenty-first annual meeting

with the many men and women whose first interest is the

Florida State Horticultural Society. Two years ago I

gave a quarter- century review of the progress of hortl-

culture in Florida. The progress that we have made

during these twenty-five years is such as we may well be











proud of. But with all of the great progress we have

made there are still many things left undone. Many of

these things we could accomplish if the united efforts

we resolve to make at the annual meetings were carried

out during the entire year.

Progress In Scientific Workers

In 1891 the citrus industry of Florida was a

lusty infant industry. The Horticultural Society was

at that time reckoned as one of the leading societies of

this hind in the U Zled States. I am glad to say that

its prestige at the present time is fully equal to that

of twenty-five years ago. ery th .s~ w a pn

t.tw ei as3e at that time there were only three

Esclentific workers in the citrus field who were being re-

tained for that special purpose. These were our departed

friend, Henry G.- IHbbard, Walter T. Single, and myself.











Just how much money was at the disposal of these three

workers ail am unable to say, but certainly not more than

six or seven thousand dollars, including their salaries.

when we compare these three young men tyros,

amateurs, or whatever you wish to call them with the

fore of today, we are likely to look upon their efforts

as almost worthless. As a matter of fact that many men

of equal ability and the money at their command might be

taken out of the State today and the vacancy w6uld hardly

be noticeable..

At the Experiment Station alone we have at

the present time Professors Floyd, Watson, Stevens,

Collison and Walker giving nearly all of their time to

investigations connected with the health, and diseases of

citrus trees.' In addition to these men who have done

so much for us in the way of discovering new agencies










we have a considerable number of workers directly from

the United States Department of Agriculture, who are giv-

ing much, or all, or their tirne to the investigation of

citrus problems. The Plant Introduction Garden at

Miami has been directing much attention in this channel.

The Plant Introduction Garden at Brooksville has done

more or less In this sphere. Mr. Samuel Hood has given

special attention to the essential oile, to some extent
1-
$by-produot of the cftrus industry. Mr. Hood has made

some splendid additions to our knowledge on this question.

iX4 connection with citrus insects and disease my mind'

.turns at once to Mr. Others, located at Orlando. M

Others has done a large amount of good work and will con-

tinue to give us the benefit of his experience, Quite

recently Dr. Fulton has been sent to the State as an -in-

vestigator in citrus diseases. I 'have mentioned five










different lines of work that are being carried out by

the United States Department of Agriculture in the State,

that bear directly s=&.#4,z=an ty upon the citrus industry.

In addition to the workers I have already men-

tioned, who are essentially investigators, we have a

force of County Agents who are located in fifteen of the

citrus producing Counties. The special duty of the

County Agent is to bring the truths discovered by the in-

vestigator to the attention of the horticulturist and the

agriculturist ..

The office of the State Chemist has now work-

ing in it four specially trained men, whose services are

at the disposal of the citrus growers at any tiire. These

men are invaluable to the State and I am pleased to know

that the horticulturists of the State regard their services

so highly as to make it.well nigh impossible for any of










-them to get a day off.

The latest organization that has come to the as-

siteance of the citrus industry in Florida is the Plant

Board.. The immediate occasion for the establishment of

the Plant Board was, the outbreak of citrus canker. Had

the legislature of Plorida listened to the advice received

from the Horticultural Society no such outbreak of citrus
A.

canker in the State would have been possible. It seemed,

however, that some dire calamity had to make itself felt

before the entire people of the State could be aroused

to the danger under which we were living. The Plant

Board, in operation with the United States Department

of Agriculture, has now in'the field a force of about two

hundred men. These are trained specialists with but-one

object in view, that of ringdItnig ^I tir '
n-, -H. j..';<.










I have now given you a brief review, showing in

the shortest possible time the morst imfrrtant factors

that are aiding the citrus. growers from an official stand-

point..

In addition to the official wonrk that ia being

done in the State we have some private organizations that

are making for the advancement of th- citrus industry.

The Growers & Shippers League, headed by Mr. Ternny, is

doing splendid and aff eotive work. This organization

h1s had a place on the program of the Horticultural Society.

It has been welcomed.and been given all the assistance and

comfort possible.

T.fe Citrus Exchange, organized a little mbre

than six years ago, has had a profound effect upon the iim-,

provement of the marketing side of Florida citrus fruit

growing.










Things to be Done

The foregoing brief resume of the organizations

in the field of scientific workers and extension workers,

gives you a fair Idea as to what has been accomplished

anid, what is being done for the advancement of the citrus

Industry in the State. Taken from the standpoint of the

knowledge of twenty-five years ago It would seem that ey-

erything had been done that could possibly be needed.

There are, however, some very important lines of develop-

ment still awaiting the opportunity of a genius or a hard

worker to attack.

Probably one of the most notable and flagrant

omissions in this direction is the waste of our citrus by-

produots* I know a considerable amount of this wastb

citrus product is being Utilized, and for an American
S

people we are probably'doing quite well. There is,how-










ever enough citrus fruit being wasted every year to make

a very handsome profit on the undertaking &f saving it.

I will not worry you with statistics to show how moch

money we are losing annually by the importation of marma-

lade, citril acid, orange oil, and other materials of

that kind. Mr. Samtiel Hood haa presented these f figures

to us from time to time. The point I want to make, how-

ever, in my speech today is that there is a splendid op-

portunity for the broad gauge man or woman to take up this

work on a large scale. Methods have been perfected for

the extraction of the oil -methods have been perfected

for preserving the.juice and methods.aare beingpefeteed

for preserving the pectins. -Marmalade has been made for

a long time, but so far as I know no one in F1orita has

attempted to bring the asattered fragments of this in.-

dustry together and unite it in one whole, productive





10


organization. There ia at this moment a fine opportunity

for someone who can control the capital and at the same

time possesses organizing ability, to produce a splendid

lot f this an put it in such shape as the rar.

ket will prefer. Such a work could not be don6 in a

small way, nor could it be handled by commanding a few

thousand dollars. There is a lot or work still to be

done in perfecting the methods of preserving the juice,,

preparing the pectins and making; citrus jellies, citric

acid and all the other by-products. The foundation of

this work, however, is pretty well laid at this time.

The w.rk to be carried out successfully would need to

take into consideration all these various elements. No.

one of them in itself yields sufficient profit to enable

it to stand by itself,. -. -C i





-11


Cooperative Organizations

The only direction in which Florida horticulture

is notably weak is its cooperatiy.e organizations. This

became painfully evident to those of us who more than fif-

teen years ago attempted to have the legislature pass a

crop pest law. It was not until 1911 that a sufficient

amount of interest was taken in this work cooperatively
to enable as to pass even a weak'nursery Inspection law.

If it ita4 not been for the presence of this nursery in-

spection law upon our statute books, there would be no

question but citrus canker would now be present in every

a trust growing county in the State. It would halve been

so widely and thoroughly disseminated that it would be-

impossible to eradicate the pest at all.

S There is nothing inherently in the growing of

citrus to make a man-a strong individualist. There is no










no 'inor cooperative organization than the California Cit-

rus Exohawge. Thu Florida Citrus L~ohiai has also shown

that thia Floyri-a oitras rio.ro ca o wll mi together to a

certain point and for;I a onoperative organization. The

Grewers r Shippaer Laague has also shown that conpyration

to a certain extent i13 not Only possible bit profitable.

With all the progress we have made, however, in cropra-

tive rnrK in the fta e, we are still far behind the lead-

ing horticultural states in their cooperative work.

rs=P2 a established beyond question of doubt that

cooperative work in Florida is possible and als very prof-

itable. Starting out with the nucleus of less than five

thousand dlliara, I succeeded in getting th& cooperation

of the. United States Depf.irt. 't of Agriculturt in hiat was

Iknnov/ as the I)eionstratiorn ,'"orie. Ly proper handling of the

cooperation the ork '.as ext ended, many Count ies hi the





/ 13
* *


State. The sm3it iLever Agricultural Extension AM calls

directly for cooperation between the United States and the

various States.. We have established the cooperative denm

onat ration work lith not less than forty Counttes for men's

work$ and twanty-eight Coumties for woien's work. In all

of these Oases the counties or local communities bear their

proportional share or the expenses involved ive in this cop-

operation.








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