The Florida agriculturist., 1908-01-01

sociation of Agricultural Commission
ers which was held at Columbia, S.
c. in November:
I esteem it a privilege to meet with
YOU in the capital of my native state
to participate in the deliberations Of
this convention and to add my mite
toward the development Of the agri-
cultural interests Of the south. TO
you and your predecessors, in large
measure, is due the proud position
and agricultural wealth of the south
today, which is but an earnest Of what
the future holds in store. TO you
and your Successors is given the priv
i1ege Of finding the key and unlocking
the storenorse Of nature and bringing
to light the hidden and udreamed of
wealth that a bountifu1 Providence has
stored rp in the agricultural lands OF
the sCrth.
Perhaps the chief difficulty in ex-
plotting new fields of agricultural en-
deavor is the great progress already
made, with its attendant prosperity
For mankind is prone to let well
enough alone We find adversely,
necessity, and even calamity, the
greatest developers. Your mission,
gentlemen, is in a smoother, easier
way, to lead into broader, richer and
more diverse, and therefore a safer
prosperity, by furnishing when you
find it in others, that essential ele-
ment of all progress initiative.
Without it, man treads in the tracks
of the man ahead One generation
plants the crops and cu1tivates it in
II.
calamity overwhelms. Such was the
condition on the peninsula OF Florida
when benehcent Providence took
practically, Our one source of wealth
and robbed us Of $Ioo, 100000 of or
ange groves in a night. The lesson
was hard one, but from it we learned
there were numerous other things be-
sides oranges which would make us
indeDendent, yea, wealthy, and their
development has given Florida a
broader foundation. because Of the
diversity of her agricultural interests.
I am permitted to tell you of one
line Of DEVELOPMENT, as vet practically
confined to the community where |
live-Sanford, on the St. Johns river,
125 miles south Of Jacksonville.
In 18o5 not a package of truck or
other AGRICULTURAL produce reached
the outside world to bring a dollar Of
income, and it is hard to say how we
lived But no crv went tip from
Florida for help, and no public charity
was extended; and know of no other
community so smitten that did not
ask for and receive the ready charity
Of the world The little town Of San
ford. situated on the co"+h cidn Of Lake
Monroe, through which the St. Johns
river runs, had near it some hundreds
of acres Of what we knew as flat
woods lands, on which stock ran at
1aroe. They were untitled and TN
drained During the rainv season thew
were almost entirely under water
During the dry springs, with the grass
burned off, thew were as drv AS powder.
AS late as 1900 most of these lands
had been sold for taxes, and thou
sand acres were sold for less than
$1,000 Today the same thousand
acres could hardly be bought for
$5oo,ooo and if they could it would be
a bargain, for one firm, Chase & Co.,
paid in cash $4,000 for celery grown
on those lands last spring they
did not handle all Of it by any means
And less than twenty per cent of this
land was under cultivation. After the
freeze we had these unDromising lands
and p few flowing wells making gush
ing fountains to our streets, but it
had not occurred to the mind Of anv
one that these till then worthless
lands, sometimes covered with water,
then parched with drouth, could be
welded to these gushing fountains
and that the offspring would be a
yield in truck crops and dollars which