22 BULLETIN 143, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



not ripen evenly, one end remaining hard after the other is soft and 

 ready for eating. Many growers will refuse to 'pick an avocado if 

 the moon is not in the right phase. 



Ripening is commonly effected by placing the fruits among straw, 

 litter, pine needles, or leaves in large wooden boxes, which are kept 

 in a warm place. Even when the fruits are from the same tree, 

 however, they do not all ripen at the same time; hence, the box is 

 gone over every day 1 or two and the ripe ones picked out. The time 

 required for ripening is 3 to 10 days, fully mature fruits commonly 

 requiring 5 or 6 days. Much depends on how warm the fruits are 

 kej)t. 



If ripened in a moist place the fruits often develop rot, fungous 

 spores probably getting a foothold through bruises or injuries to the 

 skin, the result of careless picking. If ripened in the sun, ! the fruits 

 commonly soften on one side while remaining hard on the other. 

 If ripened in a very cool place, they take a long time to soften. In 

 order to keep them warm, they are sometimes placed upon the rafters 

 in the Indian huts, directly over the fireplace. Here the smoke and 

 heat reach them very effectively. 



In the larger cities of Guatemala avocados are sold in the public 

 markets by all the fruit dealers, and throughout the city in the small 

 tiendas, or shops, which deal in foodstuffs. In the smaller villages 

 the Indian women bring in small baskets of avocados (PL IX) on 

 the regular market days, which are commonly Thursday and Sunday. 

 In the cities, where avocados are sometimes brought from great dis- 

 tances, single fruits bring from 2 to 4 reals each, or the equivalent 

 of five-eighths to. 1^ cents ; in the villages the price is rarely more than 

 2 reals. When avocados are sold in Guatemala at more than 1 cent 

 each they are considered very high in price. 



THE FRUIT. 



The character of the fruit is subject to nearly as much variation in 

 the Guatemalan race as it is in the West Indian and Mexican. It is 

 impossible, in fact, to find two seedlings whose fruits are identical 

 in every respect. In order to present in detail the range of variation 

 which has been found in Guatemala, it is well to consider each 

 of the important fruit characters separately. 



Form. — In the primitive or semiwild state, avocados of the Guate- 

 malan race seem to be nearly round in form. Under cultivation, 

 a variety of shapes are seen, ranging from oblate through 

 spherical, broadly oval, obovoid, elliptical, pyriform, and slender 

 pyriform to slender, almost oblong. Most of the small fruits are- 

 round, while among the large fruits oval and pyriform are the pre- 

 vailing shapes. The largest ones found were pyriform. 



