CATJFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



29 



THE AVOCADO IN FLORIDA AND OTHER LANDS 



Mr. Wilson Popenoe, Agricultural Explorer, Office of Foreign Seed 

 and Plant Introduction, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, Washington 



To you who are growing the avocado here in California, a dis- 

 cussion of the culture and importance of this fruit in Florida and 

 other regions may not be entirely without interest. While local 

 conditions must largely control your methods and practices, the 

 experience gained in other regions, especially in Florida, where a 

 few men have been digging away at this problem for fifteen years, 

 cannot fail to throw some light on certain questions which are 

 arising in California. Naturally enough it will require the test of 

 time to determine how far you can go in applying the methods of 

 Florida and other more strictly tropical countries. 



The proximit}^ of this region to the avocado growing districts 

 of Mexico has enabled you to come in close contact with the va- 

 rieties, the cultural practices, and the superstitions of that coun- 

 try. It will probably be better for me, therefore, to limit my re- 

 marks to observations which I have made during the last three 

 years in other parts of tropical America, principally in the W est 

 Indies, and most important of all, in Florida. It is in Florida 

 only that there has been real development of aA^ocado culture along 

 modern lines, if one excepts the few budded orchards which have 

 been planted in Cuba and the Isle of Pines. One cannot marvel 

 at the lack of commercial avocado orchards in tropical America, 

 for it must be remembered that in the tropics generally there is an 

 astonishing lack of systematically cultivated groves of every kind, 

 with the exception of those few fruits, such as the banana, whose 

 culture has been undertaken on an extensive scale to supply the 

 ever increasing demand of northern markets. 



Recently we have been hearing a great deal regarding the 

 unusual food value of the avocado. We have always known that 

 it ranked high among food products, but when we see analyses, 

 such as some of those which have recently been made at Berkeley, 

 showing that in certain varieties the oil content is as high as 30 

 per cent, we are inclined to ask why was not the extraordinary 

 value of this fruit earlier recognized, and why were not orchards 

 planted years ago to supply the markets with it? To the first 



