114 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



first from Kona in early April. Attention has been called 

 to the fact that if one has regard to the whole avocado crop 

 from Peru to Florida and including the Pacific Islands there 

 are avocados on the market for all seasons of the year. The 

 season during which fruit of good quality can be obtained in 

 any reasonable quantity, however, is limited to a few months. 



As a matter of fact, there cannot be said to be as yet any 

 commercial avocado industry. While this tree has been grown 

 in all localities throughout tropical countries, it has never been 

 planted in commercial orchards except perhaps in Florida. 

 We have, therefore, the curious condition of affairs that prob- 

 ably the largest avocado orchards in the world are now located 

 in Florida in a locality where until recently it was not known 

 whether avocados would thrive at all or not. 



The avocado in chemical composition is more like a nut than 

 like a fruit. The fresh fruit contains 1.5 to 2.5 per cent, pro- 

 tein and 13 to 22 per cent, oil depending upon variety and cli- 

 mate. There is practically no starch or sugar in the avocado 

 fruit at any stage of growth. The oil may be easily extracted 

 by pressure and is of a greenish color and excellent flavor. It 

 would be a superior salad oil but would necessarily be ex- 

 tremely expensive since the demand for the fresh fruits is so 

 active as to drive the price of the raw material far beyond the 

 point which would allow an economic production of oil. 



The avocado endures cold storage excellently well. At the 

 Hawaii Experiment Station avocados were held for a period of 

 60 days at a temperature of 32" F. and when removed from 

 the storage room were found to have retained their flavor 

 almost perfectly. This refrigerated fruit held its flavor for 

 a period of 6 days after removal from cold storage. 



MANGO 



The mango (Mangifera indica) is one of a group of about 

 30 species of trees native to tropical Asia. The mango is the 



