CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



13 



gives an opportunity for the thin-skinned and the thick-skinned growers to show 

 their wares at the respective seasons of ripening. 



I wish to submit for your consideration a change in the order of things. The 

 old order has served its purpose well. The two yearly meetings have brought us 

 together in a fraternal way and we have threshed out our problems pretty thor- 

 oughly. Our annual reports are widely considered as compendiums on the history 

 and culture of the avocado and we are dubbed as the most enthusiastic and pro- 

 gressive bunch of fruit growers in the state. But, ladies and gentlemen, I must 

 reveal to you the secret that the holding of two meetings a year with set subjects 

 and speeches is becoming a burden. We have studied and discussed the entire 

 range of operations from seed-time to harvest, and all that we know about the 

 business is in print. There is very little additional information to add each six 

 months and the selection of subjects and speakers to make two programs a year is 

 becoming increasingly difficult. I am giving you the experience of the leaders who 

 are on the inside. They are using their time and spending their money freely to 

 make this industry a success, but they realize that the range of discussion and the 

 constituency upon which we have to draw are necessarily limited. If the fruit 

 could be grown more widely the situation would be different, but since it is apparent 

 that avocados in this country can be produced in quantities in small and favored 

 sections of California and Florida only we must face the facts as they are and as 

 they are likely to remain. 



I wish to offer two suggestions, and the first is that the California Avocado 

 Association ally itself with the State Fruit Growers and meet with that body 

 in the fall. It seems to me that some of our difficulties would be solved by this 

 move, and that there is much to gain and nothing to lose by such an alliance. This 

 young organization would import strength and impart enthusiasm in that old body 

 which holds its fifty-second annual meeting next month. These fruit growers repre- 

 sent all the horticultural interests of the state, and bring together in their annual 

 meetings a large audience of growers and farmers, nurserymen and scientists, con- 

 tact with whom would be most advantageous for us. There could be no more 

 opportune field for our propaganda — using that word in its best and not its de- 

 graded meaning. Their published "Proceedings" shows that they give attention 

 to most of the subjects which concern us like the soil and its cultivation, planting, 

 budding, advertising, packing, shipping and control of diseases and pests. We 

 could attend such of their sessions as interest us and also hold an open meeting 

 with two or three addresses devoted to the avocado. In their proceedings for 1912 

 and 1914 1 find that such addresses were given by two of our charter members. 



My second suggestion is that we interest ourselves in other semi-tropical fruits 

 and vegetables, that we study them for the pleasure to be derived and the possible 

 profit and also that we may add to the food production of the country. We have 

 too many eggs in one basket in Southern California and they are chiefly oranges 

 and lemons. In my district it is largely lemons, though it was demonstrated before 

 the freeze that we could also grow good oranges and grape fruit. But there is 

 also the loquat, the cherimoya and the chayote, the passion fruit, the mango and 

 the feijoa, the date, the guava and the lime, some of which are already in a fair 

 way to become commercially profitable. We could enlarge the range of our 

 interest by dealing with these and other semi-tropicals at the fall meeting, while 

 reserving the spring meeting exclusively for the avocado. 



I would suggest that we be represented at the next convention of state fruit 

 growers, and that these ideas be studied by the directors, and, if approved by 

 them that they be presented to the members of our Association for discussion and 

 action. 



