CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



21 



home grown fruit, if equally good (and ours is), should not do the same, 

 especially as it has the advantage of always arriving in good condition, 

 while the foreign is liable to be more or less decayed. The chef or stew- 

 ard who uses considerable quantities at a time and regularly all the year 

 around, when he can get it, would much prefer to have the fruit hard, 

 so that he can do his own ripening and have an edible supply on hand 

 when needed. We have doubtless much to learn as to the keeping quali- 

 ties of the various varieties and the stage of maturity at which they 

 should be picked, whether for shipping long distances or for immediate 

 home consumption. 



There are people who "knock'* the avocado one way or another, of 

 course, but they are few. One young man in particular has given those 

 who received high prices for the best fruit, quite a scolding in an article 

 read before the Farmers Institute held at Stanford University last 

 August and afterwards published in the Monthly Bulletin of the state 

 Commission of Horticulture, and in that excellent magazine, the Citro- 

 graph. In it he states quite vigorously that the high prices of avocados 

 don't suit him at all and that by taking them the growers are guilty of 

 "shortsighted greediness" which will "strangle" the industry and that 

 ■*".he "greatest problem" of this Association is to put an end to such a 

 lamentable state of things and bring the fruit within the reach of the 

 "masses." Just how making money out of an industry is going to strangle 

 il is not very obvious. As to the greediness, — well, the best you can say 

 about that is that it is merely an impolite remark. The prices will adjust 

 themselves as the supply increases and the one object of this Association 

 is to see to it that the classes get this fruit at good prices as long as 

 they want it and are willing to pay for it, and the "masses" will have 

 to wait until there is enough for both. 



This is not a philanthropical organization, though there is nothing 

 to hinder its members individually from being as benevolent as they please. 

 I know a doctor who bought avocados on the open market at $1.25 each 

 for a poor patient whose stomach could retain nothing else and to whom 

 they were a great benefit. This was philanthropy on the part of the 

 doctor and business on the part of the dealer and both were satisfied. 



Really, it is no business of anyone's, what the prices are, except 

 those concerned in the transaction. No fruit is wasted in order to main- 

 tain the prices. No necessity of life is being cornered. No one is com- 

 pelled to buy. No one is any worse off, than if there were no avocados, 

 grown. No need of being scared over a situation which didn't exist and 

 never will! The real "greatest problem" is so to direct matters that 

 avocado growers will receive the full value of their products. 



There is also something to be claimed for the pioneers in this, as in 

 any industry. Usually they have tried many things unsuccessfully and 

 taken unusual risks and expense, so that when an opportunity arises for 

 abundant or even phenomenal returns they are certainly entitled to them. 

 We growers are all to a greater or less extent pioneers and this Associa- 

 tion is a pioneer association, and I do not think any attempt will ever be 

 made by it to induce its members to take less for their products than 

 the market warrants, but on the contrary one of its objects will be so to 



