62 



ANNUAL REPORT 1918 AND 1919 



The Linda top worked on Chappelow and Atlixco three year old stock in 

 1916 are fruiting nicely this year, and fruit weighing five to nine ounces 

 cut open shows an unusually small seed; fruit now hanging on the trees 

 weigh from twelve to twenty-eight ounces, seven months growth. Some 

 complain about the Linda drooping so badly that it is difficult to get a 

 tree out of them. My Lindas have made good growth and I am inclined 

 to think that if those having poor success had followed the instructions, 

 given by practically all experienced horticulturists, of digging a good sized 

 hole and filling it with top soil, it might have been different. Howard and 

 Smith, in sending out their Los Angeles rose, send printed instructions with 

 each shipment, directing that the hole should be two feet in depth by three 

 feet in diameter, and eight inches of cow manure well tamped in the bottom 

 of the hole, with eight inches of top soil on the manure, also well tamped. 

 You are then ready to plant the rose. What is good for a rose is also, 

 in my judgment, good for a tree. I have been using alfalfa in the bottom 

 of all holes dug the past two years, and find it works very nicely. If I 

 don't mistake my guess, the Linda will be wearing a blue ribbon before she 

 is much older. The Lyon with me seems to be healthy enough but a poor 

 grower. Buds put in last summer (1917) made a growth of three to 

 four inches, and instead of putting out a good growth this spring, did 

 nothing but blossom. Even since rubbing off the blossoms they have made 

 very little growth. 



Sharpless top worked on four year old stock last year are making 

 good growth. Have all of Mr. Knight's Guatamalan varieties, but was 

 not fortunate enough to get any of Mr. Wilson Popenoe's Guatemalan 

 budwood. I do not envy the man's position who made the distribution, 

 for it is simply out of the question to please everyone and those who did 

 not get the budwood no doubt think that they ought to have had it, instead 

 of some of those who received it. However, I think the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry of the Agricultural Department would have given better satisfac- 

 tion all around by allowing their men in the field to make the distribution, 

 as they know every grove and prominent avocado tree in the state and their 

 owners; they also know the location where the buds would do the best, 

 and that of course is what the Bureau wants. 



Dr. Coit, Farm Adviser for Los Angeles County, made some very 

 sensible suggestions in his article on bud selection, published in the Novem- 

 ber 1917 issue of the California Citrograph. I would add to those sug- 

 gestions, for the avocado, that the buyer, where he has sufficient knowledge 

 of budding, be permitted to cut his own budwood, as he then not only 

 knows that he is getting buds from a good bearing tree, but also good 

 bearing wood. The importance of selecting budwood from good bearing 

 trees, as taught by Messrs. Shamel and Scott, cannot be impressed upon 

 the buyer too strongly. Budwood has been cut from only twenty-five of 

 the fifty Fuerte trees I planted in 1 9 1 4 ; the other twenty-five, while bearing, 

 have not done nearly so well, and ten of them I presume should be classed 

 as drones. Practically all nurserymen are now cutting their budwood 

 from biearing trees, but there are some, especially those with little knowledge 

 of the business, getting their budwood wherever they can get it cheapest, 

 regardless of quality. Of course in the beginning all budwood had to be 

 taken from non-bearing trees, but judging from my own experience as 

 above stated, one half of such buds are liable to produce poor bearing 



