The Mexican Avocado 



While the avocado is grown extensively in South America, 

 the West Indies, Hawaii, and other tropical countries, it has 

 been grown in Mexico for centuries in vast numbers and at all 

 altitudes from sea-level up to 8000 feet, and this Republic may 

 well be called the great avocado country. Like other fruit trees 

 grown from seed, the avocado comes true in only a small per- 

 centage of cases. Sometimes a seedling will be more valuable, 

 sometimes less valuable, than the parent. 



This natural variation from seed has led to the existence 

 of innumerable varieties, embracing all seasons of fruiting and 

 all sizes and characters of fruit. Wliile the majority of avocados 

 are good, and worth growing, some are so much more to be de- 

 sired than others that it is well worth while to go to great trouble 

 to secure the best; and some of these Mexican varieties are of 

 such superior quality and value as to leave almost nothing to be 

 desired. 



To the search for the ideal fruit we have given much 

 time and have invested a considerable sum of money. Our own 

 explorers have visited the principal avocado districts, search- 

 ing the markets for superior fruits, and tracing them back to the 

 place of growth, often a most difficult matter. When found, 

 the qualifications of the "ideal avocado" are applied, and if 

 the tree seems up to the requirements, samples of the fruit are 

 forwarded and the tree marked. Subsequently budwood is sent 

 us, if we decide to propagate that particular variety. 



Thus Mexico may be considered a great experimental gar- 

 den, in which have originated the choicest varieties of this most 

 valuable fruit, and we are enabled by resorting to it to produce 

 at once budded trees of the finest varieties, fruits whose de- 

 velopment, by the usual processes of plant breeding or selection, 

 would take many years of time and the expenditure of a very 

 large sum of money to secure. 



The ahuacate (avocado) is a great favorite in all tropical 

 countries and does remarkably well in Southern California. Dr. 

 Franceschi. 



