20 



ANNUAL REPORT 1920 AND 1921 



beginning the industry we have all planted many inferior varieties, but each year 

 Vie are gaining knowledge, and in planting nowadays we eliminate some of the 

 varieties that a few years ago seemed desirable. 



Truth 4. The fruit of the avocado is about the most tasteful and nour- 

 ishing food that grows out of the ground. I repeat what I said at the dinner at 

 the Maryland two years ago. I would persist in eating avocados if I knew they 

 were a litde less poisonous than arsenic, I like the taste so well ; and if they were 

 as bitter as quinine and in every way disagreeable to the palate I would continue 

 to eat them, knowing their beneficial effects as a food and medicine. I maintain 

 that the most delicate stomach can take the avocado when animal fat would 

 upset it. I have heard that if one about to embark on a sea voyage would eat 

 no other food than the avocado for the preceding 24 hours seasickness would be 

 unknown. 



Truth 5. Growing avocados has proved the most profitable of einy horti- 

 cultural experiment yet conducted in California. You all know for what this fruit 

 is selling. From $ 1 to $2 each for fruits weighing a pound or more. One of 

 our largest growers assured me that he had received as high as $14 per dozen 

 v/holesale for his fruits and that a great part of the crop was marketed at from 

 $7 to $9 per dozen. 



Now it doesn't seems to me that any such prices will be obtained when we 

 have thousands of acres of avocados where we now have a few thousand trees, 

 but I maintain that there can never be any serious overproduction because there 

 are only two small areas. Southern California and Southern Florida, where the 

 avocado can be grown, and when it is considered that perhaps only about 1 ,000 

 growers living in the two favored sections have to grow this valuable food product 

 for 100,000,000 people, I ask the question. How is it possible to overdo the 

 avocado business? Another point, when we consider the proportions that the 

 citrus product, merely a confection, has reached, what should we expect from 

 the avocado, an all around food that people will continue to buy because they 

 like its taste and because of its nourishing food value. The government experts 

 figure that a pound of avocado has as many food units as a pound of meat or 

 eggs, and should it ultimately sell on this basis, there is 25 to 30 cents each for 

 fruits weighing a pound. I really believe when the time comes that I can have 

 avocados for 366 days in the year, I will cut meat entirely out of my diet. 



Truth 6. One hundred years from now history will record that the highest 

 civilization will cluster around the sections where the avocado is grown. The 

 strongest i>eople physically and mentally, the happiest and most beautiful chil- 

 dren will be those who make the avocado, instead of meat, their daily diet. I 

 have often marveled how babies and very young children take to the avocado at 

 once. If I have a greater love for anything than the avocado, it is for ruddy, 

 happy children. 



I am one who has always believed in the human race, who has always 

 believed that man is constantly rising, and while I am not a strict vegetarian, I 

 have almost reached the point where I do not wish to be a participant in the 

 slaughter of beautiful animals simply for food. I am sure I could never content 

 myself on a diet of turnips or starchy vegetables alone — we must have fats; but 

 the avocado comes in to fill this need. I say, speed up avocado growing, hasten 

 the day when we can have a sufficient quantity of this fruit so that it may be 

 sold at a price that all can afford. 



