THE AVOCADO IN CALIFORNIA 325 



Aside from the excellent reports of the California Avocado 

 Association, the literature of the fruit in its California aspects is 

 considerable.* 



The current eager and pervading interest in the avocado in 

 California is rather an awakening than a discovery because the 

 adaptation of the tree to natural conditions has been amply demon- 

 strated by early introduction and trials. The first tree was grown 

 from a seed planted by Mr. Silas Bond in Santa Barbara in 1870, and 

 this tree was described in 1886 as about 20 feet in height, thrifty and 

 prolific, and having borne fruit for several years. Nearly as soon, 

 probably, avocados were planted for the distinctive beauty of the 

 tree in the home gardens of the citrus pioneers of the wide area 

 which was then Los Angeles County, and even as street trees in 

 front of the homes of the pioneer villagers. During the last twenty- 

 five years such scattered plantings have extended far more widely, 

 accompanying the modern extension of citrus interest along the 

 mesas on the east side of the San Joaquin and the Sacramento 

 valleys the oldest bearing tree north of Tehachapi known to the 

 writer being about 30 feet high in 1919 in a garden in Visalia. Along 

 the coast fruit production is noted as far north as Santa Cruz. The 

 geographical extension of the avocado may be expected to approx- 

 imate that of the orange providing varieties of the thin-skinned 

 Mexican ancestry are selected for trial. The thick-skinned Guate- 

 malan ancestry is much more tender, and may fail of thrifty growth 

 through lack of winter warmth even if actual touch of frost is 

 escaped. 



Propagation of Avocados. Seeds should be planted with pointed 

 ends upward and hardly projecting above the surface. Sandy loam 

 or the usual green house mixture of sand and fibrous loam should 

 be chosen and the seeds can be started in small boxes or cans or 

 flower pots in house-window or in hot bed, if the grower wishes but 

 a few trees for trial. On a larger scale seedlings may be grown in 

 the open by setting the seeds as described and mulching lightly with 

 sand or fine litter to prevent the surface from crusting or drying out. 

 In the latter case the seedlings should be taken from the seed-bed to 

 the nursery row when a few inches high. In growing in small 

 receptacles, the plants should be set out before the roots become 

 curled or cramped. 



Transplanting of avocados should generally be undertaken as 

 the soil becomes warmed in the spring, as will be commended for all 

 semi-tropical evergreens. 



Unless the amateur is very adventurous to see what he will get 

 from his seed or is a professional who thirsts for honors as a plant- 

 breeder, the seedling will be budded. Budding is with the "shield 



*The Avocado, by G. N. Collins. Bulletin 77, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. 

 of Agr., 1907. Consult also Yearbooks of the U. S. Dept. of Agr. for 1905 and 1906. The 

 Avocado in Southern California and the Development of the Avocado Industry by F. W. 

 Popenoe, Altadena, Los Angeles County. New varieties of the Avocado for California, by 

 K. A. Ryerson, University of California Journal f Agriculture, November, 1913. "The 

 Avocado in California," by I. J. Condit, Bulletin 254, California Experiment Station, Ber- 

 keley, May, 1915. "History of the Avocado and its Varieties in California," by I. J. Con- 

 dit, Monthly Bulletin of State Commission of Horticulture, January, 1917. "Manual of 

 Tropical and Subtropical Fruits," by Wilson Popenoe, Macmillan Co., N. Y., 1920. 



