14 



ANNUAL REPORT 1920 AND 1921 



served as a cocktail when properly prepared and the avocado served as a salad 

 when not smothered with oils, mayonnaises, and heavy French dressings, and 

 the avocado crushed up in that delicious ice cream. 



This, it seems to me, is the most legitimate advertising we C2ui do. There 

 are many prejudiced against the fruit — people who received immature fruit. I 

 got hold of one today. It wasn't fit to eat because it was hard. I knew enough 

 to avoid it, but I can imagine somebody else getting a fruit like that, trying to eat 

 it and not relishing it at all. That is one of the reasons why there are people who 

 do not understand the use of this fruit. They haven't got hold of a fruit prop- 

 erly matured. There are those who get hold of over-ripe fruit. They don't 

 realize that that is not the normal avocado. There are those who for different 

 reasons have not yet learned the deliciousness of the taste of avocado when 

 properly prepared and served. I think the kind of demonstration we have given 

 today is a good way of acquainting people with the virtues of the fruit. I know 

 here and there in communities this thing has been done in a small way. I think 

 of one community where in a grocery store a lady served the avocado all day 

 to customers, giving small slices and serving the crushed fruit on crackers and in 

 that way advertising. The sales in that community during that season were 

 phenomenal. In such ways as these we can introduce the fruit effectively to the 

 people. 



We come now to the formal program prepared by the committee. When 

 I saw the first draft of this program the committee had suggested a limit of five 

 minutes. But the committee revised that, seeing that we have only four speakers, 

 and we decided to increase the limit to ten minutes. And it is well to have a 

 limit. The story goes that the preacher of the day at the chapel in Yale 

 University leaned over to President Hadley and inquired whether there was a 

 time limit on the sermon. "Well," replied the President, "we don't know of 

 any souls having been saved here after the first twenty minutes!" I don't know 

 that our salvation depends entirely on holding down to this ten-minute rule. 

 I promise as chairman to be fair to the speakers and to the audience. 



The first speaker is a representative of the State University. Among the 

 most helpful men who have spoken to us from time to time, and advanced our 

 knowledge of this fruit, have been the men who have come to us from that seat 

 of learning. Today we are to hear a new voice in the person of the head of 

 the Department of Agricultural Education, Professor F. L. Griffin, who has 

 charge of the Correspondence Courses, including the course of ten lessons on 

 avocado culture. 



THE UNIVERSITY AND THE AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



PROFESSOR F. L. GRIFFIN 

 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 



It is my privilege to represent the College of Agriculture in your State 

 University. I shall endeavor to tell you very briefly some ways in which the 

 College of Agriculture hopes to be of service to the members of this association. 



As many of you know, the work of the College of Agriculture is divided 

 into three great branches: research, teaching and extension. The research, or 

 Experiment Station work is the basis of all the activities of the College of Agri- 

 culture. Without the discovery of new knowledge and of more efficient ways 



