1910.\ THE AVOCADO IN TRINIDAD d TOBAGO. 117 



because although it has been explained over and over again, so many 

 people apparently believe that the operation of budding or grafting in 

 itself improves the character of the fruit. This is of course an absolute 

 fallacy. It is just as easy and certain to propagate bad kinds of fruits 

 by grafting and budding as good kinds. Thus with the mango the common, 

 stringy, mango vert can be grafted on to a Julie mango stock and the 

 result will be a grafted tree bearing common mangos. In grafting or 

 budding you do not improve the fruit but you do ensure getting the 

 particular variety which you have selected as desirable to reproduce. 

 Whether it be good or bad depends on your selection. 



Now I have already shown that the avocado was very early intro- 

 duced into the West Indies. It has probably been cultivated in these 

 islands for the last two hundred years or so, and until within quite 

 recent times has been propagated exclusively by seed. The result is 

 that we have enormous numbers of trees here, in Barbados, Grenada, 

 St. Vincent, etc., of very variable characteristics ; some very good, 

 many of medium quality and a large number of a poor type. It is 

 reasonable to suppose that the tendency has been to take care of the 

 better kinds, and when trees had to be cut out, to get rid of those which 

 were inferior. In other words we have been practising for a couple 

 of centuries the preliminary work of seed selection, raising large 

 numbers of seedlings, but without proceeding to the next stage of fixing 

 the good types which have arisen. The position is exactly the same as 

 it was here with the orange up to about twenty years ago, when plants 

 were raised only from seed, with the result that there was no certainty 

 of securing any definite variety. Now by the use of budded plants any 

 one can establish an orchard of King, Jaffa, Washington Navel or any 

 other chosen variety with certainty of the plants coming true to type. 



SELECTION OF GOOD VARIETIES. 



In order to obtain an example of the variability which is to be found 

 amongst avocados, raised without any care in selection, I examined 

 average fruits of fourteen trees growing scattered through the cacao of 

 River Estate. There has been no definite planting of avocados on the 

 estate and most of the trees have presuniibly grown up casually in 

 cacao contracts, etc. Three fruits from each tree were weighed together 

 and the average weight of a single fruit obtained. The lowest was 7 oz. 

 and the highest 1 lb. 12 oz. The average of the whole fourteen trees 

 was 14 oz. per fruit. 



The weight of the stone in a single fruit varied from 1^ oz. to 4:^ oz. 

 The comparative size of the stone is however best shown by giving it as 

 a percentage of the total weight of the fruit. When worked out on 

 this basis the figures show a range of from 14-6 to 42-5 per cent., i.e. the 

 stone varies in different types from about one-seventh to nearly one-half 

 the total weight of the fruit. The average weight of the stone was 

 29-5 per cent, of the whole fruit. 



From the figures in the Table below it will be seen that one tree at 



River (No. 14) stands out markedly above the others. The differences 



may be summarized thus. 



Weiyht of Fruit Stone per cent. 



Average (of 14 trees) ... 14 oz. 29*5 



Worst tree ... ... 7 oz. (No. 13) 42-5 (No. 8) 



Best tree ... ...Hb. 12 oz. (No. 14) 14-6 (No. 14) 



