26'2 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



August 25, 1906. 



WEST INDIAN FRUIT. 



AVOCADO PEAR. 



Considerable interest is being taken in the cultiva- 

 tion of this tropical fruit in Porto Rico, Hawaii, and 

 ■other parts for supplj'ing the United >States market. 

 A good account of botanical investigations in connexion 

 with the avocado and its cultivation is contained in 

 Bulletin No. 77 of the Bureau of Plant Industry 

 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, from which 

 the following extracts are taken : — 



The avocado has, since the time 

 of Columbus, sjiread from its home in 

 America entirely around the tropics 

 That such an important food plant was 

 confined to the American Continent 

 until the post-Columbian contact with 

 the old world, while numerous other 

 plants, such as the yam, tare, and 

 sweet potato, had already spread to 

 parts of the old world, was probably 

 due to the fact thut the avocado will 

 not easily survive long voyages, while 

 most of tlie tropical root crops have 

 much greater vitality. 



The fruit spread but slowly before 

 the last centur}', but in recent times 

 Its culture has rapidly increased, and 

 it is now cultivated in most of the 

 countries that are suited to its growth. 

 It has been cultivated in India since 

 about 1860, and has reached the 

 islands of Madagascar, Reunion, 

 Madeira, the Canaries, Samoa, and 

 Tahiti. In Natal and Australia it is 

 just gaining a foothold. 



The avocado tree is 20 to 60 feet 

 high, varying in habit from tall and 

 rather strict to short and spreading. 

 In favourable situations the top is 

 ■very dense. 



The flowers are perfect and are 

 borne on loose axillary racemes near 



the ends of the branches, usually at the base of the year's 

 growth. 



The fruit in some varieties is long and slender ; in 

 others, nearly globular, varying from 1 inch to 6 inches in 

 diameter. The outside covering in some forms is soft and 

 pliable, often less than J nun. in thickness, while in others 

 it is hard and granular, in some of the Central American 



forms reaching 3 mm. in thickness. The fleshy part of the 

 fruit between the skin and the seed varies greatly in thick- 

 ness, but it is always butyraceous in consistency, though in 

 some cases much firmer than in others. In the better 

 varieties the fibro-vascular system that enters the fruit from 

 the stem is discernible only in the thin flesh at the very 

 base of the fruit and at the base of the seed, which is toward 

 the apical end of the fruit. The seed thus appears to 

 receive its nourishment directly from the pulpby absorption, or 

 ceases to receive nourishment before the fruit is fully formed. 

 In the coarser forms, the bundles 

 can be traced from the stem through- 

 out the pulp to the point where 

 they enter the seed, and in some 

 cases they are so prominent that 

 the quality of the fruit is seriously 

 im[)aired. 



The points to be kept in mind 

 in any attempt to improve the 

 avocado are: (1) Shipping qualities, 

 (2) uniformity, (.3) e.xtension of 

 season, (4) seed reduction, (.5) tex- 

 ture, (6) flavour, (7) yield, (8) size, 

 (9) resistance to cold. 



Avocados have been subjected 

 to careful cultivation for such 

 a .short time that little is known 

 concerning the conditions that 

 influence yield. As with most 

 tropical plants, climate has probably 

 a greater influence than soil, and 

 judging from the fact that in nature 

 the trees frequently drop their 

 leaves before the fruit matures, it 

 may be e.xpected that a rather 

 decided alternation of wet and dry 

 seasons is an essential. 



In Hawaii it appears that 

 several fruits in the same cluster 

 mature. This has never been 

 observed in Central America or the 

 West Indies where large numbers 

 of the fruits set, but all but one of each cluster drop while 

 still young. 



If commercial fertilizers are ajiplied, it would seem that 



the projier time is inuuediately after the young fruit.s have set. 



If anything like the present prices can be maintained, the 



growing of avocados ought to become a very renuuierative 



industry. 



Fio. 16 The Avoi;ado Pe.\k 

 (From llir livok of Trinidad.) 



