CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



13 



expect the large number of people who participated in this luncheon. We had 

 provided for about 275. Last night when I arrived I was told there were 368 

 reservations. Today the number who were fed has been brought up to about 400. 

 I want to make it clear that the association is not responsible for this condition 

 of things. Notices were carefully sent out weeks in advance but there has been 

 a general neglect in notifying the secretary until the last moment when it was 

 impossible to rearrange and make everything as convenient as we should like to 

 have it. It was found necessary on short notice to use all three dining-rooms 

 of the hotel with a little consequent confusion in the seating, and then to adjourn 

 across the street to this larger room where we could all be together for the 

 speeches. In spite of these handicaps I think the arrangements have been 

 engineered very well. 



When you arrange an after-dinner program, the after-dmner speaker likes 

 to grab hold of the back of his chair, have his glass of water within reach and 

 speak in an informal way. When he stands out here in the open in this large 

 hall his speech takes on a different tone and you and I simply have to do our best 

 to create an after-dinner atmosphere. 



I don't know what we are going to do about the future meetings of this 

 association. It is becoming very difficult to find suitable accom.modations. It is 

 not easy to find a place at this season of the year to feed four hundred people 

 and get the kind of service we need. It is very difficult to get a hall free from 

 noise and confusion, well ventilated and well lighted and large enough to accom- 

 modate the people. It is something our directors will have to consider and study. 

 Each year we do the very best thing that the circumstances allow us to do. 



Before coming to the formal program I want to call your attention to this 

 book which has just been published by Mr. Wilson Popenoe — Manual of Trop- 

 ical and Sub-Tropical Fruits. We have tried as far as possible to keep adver- 

 tising out of the meetings of the California Avocado Association. I may say 

 to you that I have been suppressing a pocketful of advertisements today. But 

 I do not regard it as advertising to call to your attention a volume like this. I 

 regard it as a service to you and to our industry. I think all of you will agree 

 with me that there is no man whom we regard as a higher living authority on the 

 avocado in all its aspects than the Government explorer, Mr. Wilson Popenoe. 

 This wonderful book has just come from the press and it has the last word, 

 excepting the revised list of recomm.ended varieties, that has been said on the 

 avocado thus far. I don't know of any group of men and women in California 

 who would be more interested in a book like this than the members of the 

 California Avocado Association. I hope you will buy it and let your friends 

 know about it, and I hope we may be able to extend the circulation of this book. 

 It is a real treasure-house, not only for those who are interested in avocados but 

 also for those of us who are more widely interested in tropical and semi-tropical 

 fruits which we believe can be grown here in California. 



The distinguishing feature of this gathering is that for the first time we 

 have attempted to serve a complete avocado meal. Those of you who were at 

 the San Diego gathering will recall that about six hundred people lined up and 

 were served with avocado sandwiches and salad. It was a most orderly pro- 

 ceeding, created a very favorable impression, and up to that time was the best bit 

 of advertising done for our industry. At the Santa Barbara dinner there were 

 served avocado cocktail, avocado salad and avocado ice cream. This year we 

 have gone just about as far as it is possible to go by putting the avocado in some 

 form in all five courses of a meal. It v/ould be difficult to improve on the avocado 



