THE .MONTHLY BULLETIN. O 



The tree on the Jacob Miller place, Hollywood, to which reference is 

 made, is probably the Miller, but the year 1886 is now commonly 

 accepted as the date when the tree was planted. This seems to make 

 the Miller tree the oldest by several years of any avocado tree in Cali- 

 fornia. The Chappelow tree was planted in 1893, and the White 

 in 1895. 



In 1897 Dr. Francesehi wrote that the last two years had seen a con- 

 siderable increase in the plantings, several hundred trees having been 

 set out chiefly at Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Diego. Fruits 

 were not exactly marketed but many more people, residents and tourists, 

 had opportunity of tasting the delicious fruit. 



Mr. C. P. Taft of Orange planted the first avocado seed on his place 

 about 1899 from a specimen obtained on the market. The resulting 

 tree proved a poor bearer of almost worthless fruit. The next year 

 another seed obtained in the same way was planted and later the seed- 

 ling bore excellent fruits. In 1902-3 more seeds were planted; these 

 were partly from Los Angeles trees, but most were from Mexican fruit 

 sent to private parties in Los Angeles. From the seeds planted during 

 the four years, he had in 1912 thirty trees over eight years old in addi- 

 tion to over 300 younger trees. Twenty-four of the thirty trees had 

 borne fruit and only one or two seemed likely to prove unprofitable. 

 Eight were of the thin-skinned type, while the others were of the 

 thick-skinned. 



In the spring of 1908, Mr. E. S. Thacher planted his first avocado 

 trees at Nordhoff . Most of them were bought from the Exotic nurseries 

 of Santa Barbara, but some were obtained from Mr. Taft and Mr. Cam- 

 field of Orange. The same spring he bought some seed from the Ameri- 

 can Fruit and Produce Company of Mexico City, and it was from this 

 lot of seed that trees were sold to W. G. Davison of La Habra in 1910. 

 All of the first seeds planted by Mr. Thacher were of the Mexican 

 thin-skinned type. 



The trees planted by Mr. Davison grew thriftly in the location selected 

 at "Orchard Dale" near Whittier and La Habra, a region that had 

 always been practically frostless until the winter of 1912-13, when they 

 were' severely frosted. Mrs. Davison did not care to replace the trees 

 that were most damaged and sold the entire lot to D. E. Clower, who 

 moved them to his nurserv in Monrovia. Mr. Clower budded ten thou- 

 sand seedling avocado trees as early as 1909. In 1910 Mr. Clower 

 published what was probably the first descriptive nursery pamphlet of 

 budded trees in California. 



Mr. F. O. Popenoe of the West India Gardens, Altadena, began 

 propagating the avocado a number of years ago and, realizing the need 

 of good varieties, imported budwood from Mexico in 1911 and 1912. 

 The first lot of buds was sent by J. M. Goulding, now living at Paso 

 Robles. Afterwards Mr. C. B. Schmidt was sent down to collect bud- 

 wood, and more trees were propagated from the buds he secured than 

 from the others. Later, budwood was secured from parties in Mexico, 

 namely, Roberto Johnson of Jalisco and F. S. Furnival of Guadalajara. 

 Twenty-seven varieties in all were successfully established here from 

 these introductions. 



Mr. W. A. Spinks of Duarte began planting avocado trees about 1907 

 and produced budded trees in 1903. He has tested out a large number 

 of seedlings as well as budded trees of California and imported varieties. 



