CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



25 



the street toward the railway station I noticed frost upon the roofs of the houses. 

 An overcoat and gloves, which had for months lain untouched in my trunk in 

 Veracruz, while I was in the hot lowlands, now felt very grateful. It was just 

 such a morning as we often experience in California at this season of the year. 



"The train started just as the sun was rising over the distant hills, and we 

 were soon rolling across the broad, level floor of the valley of Puebla. The 

 village of Cholula, with its immense pyramid built by the ancients, was reached 

 after half an hour. At the time of the Conquest this was an important city, with 

 commerce which extended as far south as Guatemala. Because of the religious 

 institutions which existed here, Cholula has been called the Mecca of the ancient 

 Mexicans. Nearby Atlixco, it seems to me, may well be termed the Mecca of 

 California avocado growers. Because of the important part which it has played 

 in the early development of our avocado industry it must always remain to us an 

 historic spot, and it will, I believe, be visited in future years by many Califomians. 



"We left Cholula, and traveled across a fertile plain directly toward the 

 volcano Popocatepetl, whose snow-covered summit, towering ten thousand feet 

 above us, glistened in the morning sun. On our right, stretching away to the hills, 

 were patches of scrub and other patches of unbroken grass land. On our left 

 were endless cornfields, in which the crop had been harvested and the fodder cut 

 and shocked. 



"Here and there we passed a house or two, with fruit trees scattered about — 

 apricots now dropping their leaves and peaches coming into bloom. Then we came 

 alongside the malpais or 'bad lands,' the extreme limit, it is said, of the last lava 

 flow from Popocatepetl. The dull gray rock is heaped up thirty feet or more 

 above the surface of the land, and its jagged surface furnishes innumerable hiding 

 places to Zapatistas, who are wont to fire from this stronghold upon passing 

 trains. 



"Up to this point we had traveled at the level of Puebla, 7, 1 00 feet. Once 

 past the malpais we began to descend. It was not a rapid drop, but rather an easy 

 descent across the sloping plain and alongside a barranca leading through the 

 Tentzo hills which separate the valleys of Atlixco and Puebla. 



"And as we began to descend I had my first glimpse of the valley of Adixco, 

 and could fix the situation of the town itself by the cerro de San Miguel, a conical 

 hill, beautifully symmetrical and of considerable height, which rises abruptly from 

 the plain. 



"I never go into a new region which holds something of interest without carry- 

 ing with me certain preconceived ideas of its appearance. And almost invariably 

 these ideas turn out to be erroneous. If I might have seen a few photographs of 

 the valley of Atlixco before I came here I would have had no occasion to be dis- 

 illusioned — desenganado, as the Spaniards say — in the rude manner which befell 

 me. I had pictured a small mountain valley, whose slopes were covered with the 

 pines and oaks characteristic of this elevation, and a town of picturesque houses 

 nestling among roses and fruit trees. Imagine my surprise, therefore, as we passed 

 around the western end of the Tentzo and I saw spread out before me, stretching 

 away into the dim and hazy distance, a broad, level plain, intensively cultivated, 

 almost devoid of trees, and broken here and there by a series of low, rolling hills, 

 as brown and barren as those of Southern California in September. 



"As we came alongside the station and climbed off the train, I noticed that 

 the towTi was not hidden from view by roses and fruit trees. At first I was dis- 

 appointed, and then I began to wonder where I would find the orchards which I 

 knew must exist close by. Here and there I could see a single tree rising above the 



