20 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



SUBTROPICAL FRUITS FOR CALIFORNIA.* 



By David L. Crawford, Professor of Botany, Pomona College, Claremont, Cal. 



California is sufficiently subtropical to have been for many years 

 undisputed world leader in the production of citrus fruits, which dis- 

 tinctly are natives of the tropics and subtropics. And now our attention 

 is being drawn more and more forcibly toward the production here of 

 other subtropical and southern fruits. Many of our fruit growers are 

 sure that some of these newer introductions will, before long, prove to 

 be more lucrative than the oranges and lemons. The fact is that cer- 

 tain of these fruits have, during the past few years, been grown so suc- 

 cessfully in California that the problem is no longer the adaptation of 

 the crops to this climate and soil, but the marketing of the fruits on a 

 sufficiently large scale to warrant their being grown extensively. 



Of all the vast array of tropical and subtropical fruits which are being 

 produced in various parts of the world and heralded so widely in the 

 agricultural press of today, only a few w^ill be worth the effort to make 

 them a commercial success in this State. Some others can be, and per- 

 haps are being, grown to a limited extent in restricted areas, or under 

 special conditions of protection from cold and dryness ; and still others 

 may be successfully grown but will never command a market which will 

 pay for the production ; for we must remember that we have at present a 

 large number of good temperate fruits which supply our needs very 

 satisfactorily, and a new tropical fruit can not be established com- 

 mercially unless there is a distinct need for it — either to replace one of 

 the already established fruits or else to fill a demand never before met 

 by our northern fruits. A traveler goes through the tropics and eats 

 many delicious fruits which he never saw before, but he relishes them, 

 not because they are better than apples and peaches and grapes, but 

 because they are the only fruits he gets. He comes back to this country 

 all fired with enthusiasm for introducing these fruits here, but he soon 

 finds that as long as our people have their apples and peaches and 

 grapes they do not feel the need for additional southern fruits to replace 

 the familiar kinds. The converse of this also is true. How much more 

 does a Mexican relish a good mango or sapote than an imported peach 

 or pear ! 



However, there are certain fruits of the tropics which northern people 

 need. For ages past oranges and lemons have been in wide use by 

 almost all races of men. Therefore, when it was discovered that they 

 would grow well in California it was not necessary to create a demand 

 in the markets, for it already existed. Bananas, also, and pineapples 

 have for generations been as familiar as apples and melons, for they are 

 in demand both because they fill a certain need in our diet, and more yet 

 because they are cheap. Now, it is just so with a few other tropical 

 fruits, although the American people have not yet recognized this fact. 

 There are a few fruits, such as the Avocado, which ought to be used in 

 our diet regularly in addition to our present list of fruits, for they 

 sui)ply a need not filled adequately l)y our fruits; and there are a few 



♦Address before State Fruit Growers' Convention, Palo Alto, Cal., July, 1915. 



