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was on the lookout for avocados. What I have been 

 trying to ascertain Is, How high can the avocados be 

 grown in Guatemala? Previously I had never seen it 

 above 7000 feet, which is about the extreme limit of 

 the orange zone. But on this trip, I found avocados 

 at Tecpan (7500 ft.) and most remarkable of all, at 

 Totonicapan (8500 ft.) On looking carefully over the 

 town, I found that most of the trees in the gardens 

 were peaches, apples, the wild cherries which occur 

 in this part of Guatemala, and a few other hardy 

 things,- strictly temperate in character. The mata- 

 sano (Casimiroa edulis) was seen here and there. I found 

 three or four young avocado trees in protected sit- 

 uations which had escaped the frost and looked pretty 

 well and then found two large trees which had been 

 frozen badly. They had the limbs killed back to the 

 trunk, and scarcely a leaf on them. So far it did 

 not look very promising. But finally I ran across a 

 large tree growing in a patio (practically all of 

 them were in patios) which had escaped practically 

 uninjured, stood 40 feet high, and was carrying quite 

 a little fruit. On examination the fruit proved to be 

 of first-class quality. The idea of growing avocados 

 1000 feet or more above the zone in which oranges can 

 be grown strikes me as rather surprising. Aside from 

 the avocados, there was scarcely anything of interest 

 in Los Altos, as that region is called. The wild 

 cherry was in bloom and I will see it again in fruit, 

 probably, when I go back to Totonicapan. That is a 

 remarkable region, sure enough; wheat and oats, 

 principally wheat, with some apples and peaches in 

 the towns, but practically all seedlings, of course. 

 On the way back we spent a day at Mazatenango, and I 

 went out to look up the anay. I found that the tree 

 had bloomed recently and was full of young fruit; it 

 was also carrying a lot of ripe fruit which I did 

 not see when I was there before. It looks as though 

 it must bloom twice a year, as I was told it bloomed 

 in April and had not expected to find it in bloom as 

 yet. I obtained 150 fruits and am taking the seeds 

 down to Quirigua to plant. I plan to go down to Ama- 

 titlan in a couple of days and cut some more budwood 

 to put in this week's mail. When I said that one of 

 the varieties from San Cristobal was the best avocado 

 I had seen, I did it deliberately. It is really a 

 magnificent fruit. If course I cannot forecast its 

 behavior in the States, but as a fruit it is cer- 

 tainly splendid. As to the coyo, I did not intend you 



