CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



77 



The Florida avocados are usually shipped in tomato crates somewhat 

 similar to our orange boxes, but holding only about forty pounds. The fruit 

 is packed in excelsior and is not wrapped, as it was found that paper 

 wrappers tended to the ripening of the fruit in transit. The shipments are 

 made by express without ice and usually reach the Northern markets in 

 good condition. Some fruit is being shipped from Florida to this coast in 

 refrigerator packages and, I believe, netting fair returns. 



Regardless of what we may think of the superiority of our California 

 varieties, most of the fruit reaching the large centers of population, are of 

 the West Indian variety, and all shipments of Guatemalans into these mar- 

 kets should contain clear instructions about their ripening. The West Indian 

 ripens from the seed toward the skin, so that when the fruit shows the first 

 sign of softening it is ready to use. The Guatemalan varieties I have eaten, 

 ripen from the skin toward the seed ; and after spoiling several fine fruits by 

 cutting them before they were ripe, I have adopted the plan of keeping them 

 until they were fully ripe by West Indian standards, and then wait about 

 three days longer. For this very reason I believe the California avocado 

 will ship better than the West Indian varieties, but unless the Eastern buyer 

 is warned he will try to eat it too green and, of course, condemn it. Even 

 a good Californian of many years residence told me last fall that he had 

 just eaten a Taft avocado and that it was tough and tasteless. He said he 

 knew it was ripe because it was fully as large as the purple fruit he had 

 been getting. When I told him that the Taft when mature should have 

 been several times as large as the one he had eaten and should have weighed 

 a pound or more, he said he did not know any California avocados ever 

 got that large. He had eaten it all and was still living, so I suppose green 

 avocados are not fatal any way. 



It is said against the avocado, that it cannot be cooked. To me it 

 would appear to be an advantage that it can be eaten and is at its best 

 without cooking and without processing. 



The objection of some that it cannot be canned or preserved except 

 by refrigeration is met by the wide seasonal range of maturity. It is need- 

 less to preserve them if we can keep up a constant supply right from the 

 trees. 



While it is likely that for many years to come the price of avocados 

 will keep them in the luxury class, I feel sure that should the production 

 ever become large enough, they will take a firm place with the other nutri- 

 tious foods and will find a ready sale to the masses at prices several times 

 the cost of production. 



That the avocado is really a natural food is evidenced by the fact 

 that it is considerable of a question to protect the fruit on the trees from the 

 depredations of wild animals. The raccoons are specially fond of them 

 and even after a "coon" is caught in a steel trap while after his favored 

 food, he will continue contentedly eating away as long as there is a ripe 

 avocado within his reach, blissfully oblivious to the pain from the sharp 

 steel jaws of the trap. 



I have been asked why it is, that since Florida has been producing 

 avocados commercially for a dozen years or more, there are not as many 

 named varieties as there are in California? I answer that by stating that 

 if every individual seedling tree that bears good fruit of a slightly different 



