CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



69 



the coming commercial planter, probe the question to the core. He 

 can do that safely and the time is coming for him to do it." 



STATION WORK FOR THE AVOCADO 

 By H. J. Webber, Director Citrus Experiment Station 



The avocado has interested me so much and I see such great 

 possibilities in its future development in California that it is scarcely 

 safe for me to express myself freely in a public way. I am inter- 

 ested in the avocado as a commercial fruit, but am far more inter- 

 ested in it as a food fruit for home use. The food value of the 

 avocado is probably as high or higher than any other fruit culti- 

 vated. One fruit is said to be a fair meal for an ordinary individual. 

 We may expect to see the time when this fruit will form an impor- 

 tant part of our everyday diet, and we certainly need to grow more 

 of our own staple foods. 



My only excuse for appearing on this program is to assure you 

 of my interest and the interest of the Citrus Experiment Station 

 in the development of the avocado industry. It is our desire to aid 

 so far as we can in the upbuilding of the industry. I have person- 

 ally known considerable of the development of avocado growing 

 that has taken place in Florida, and since coming to California I 

 have been following more or less closely the trial plantings that 

 have been made here. I think we have reached a point in these 

 first experimental trials where we may say that the first stage in the 

 development of the industry has passed. We are, I believe, able 

 now to conclude safely that avocado growing in Southern Califor- 

 nia is destined to become an important industry. This is a great 

 step in advance and is the first milestone passed. 



Meanwhile, rapid progress has been made in the direction of 

 solving several other of the primary problems. As I conceive it, 

 the next stage in the development of the industry will be the deter- 

 mination roughly of the safe regions for its first general develop- 

 ment. In the solution of this problem the University and 

 Station will naturally be of minor service, as the final deter- 

 mination of the most favorable regions will be by the success 

 of experimental plantings of growers in the various sections. For- 

 tunately many plantings of sufficient size to give fair judgment 

 have already been made in many widely different sections, and the 



