CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



37 



Mr. Robertson: While it may be a little early in the industry to 

 bring up a discussion as to the best methods of packing, I have wondered 

 if the Association has made any investigations as to packing avocados, 

 whether they should be packed in paper or packed loosely. 



Chairman: We made some experiments last year, and the results 

 show that this fruit must not be wrapped. 



Question: What is the trouble? 



Answer: They sweat and rot when wrapped. 



Question: They were packed in paper, were they not? 



Answer: Yes. 



Mr. Robertson: The reason I mention this at this time is because 

 last fall at El Paso I happened to go into one of the grocery stores and 

 bought some avocados that came from Florida. I happened to get the first 

 fruit that came out of the package, which was a box about the size of 

 our ordinary orange boxes. When I put my hand inside the box after 

 the clerk had taken one fruit out for me, it was quite warm, in fact, hot. 

 This led me to believe that possibly they should not be packed or wrapped 

 in paper at all. 



Chairman: Growers have made some study of shipping, and the 

 best method to date seems to be to ship them in excelsior and not wrapped 

 in paper. Anything that prevents free ventilation is bad. 



Mr. Spinks: I have made some small investigation of this matter. 

 When in San Francisco last fall I visited several shippers of avocados 

 and they all seemed to agree that they wanted very little excelsior, just 

 as little as possible, and as open a grade as possible, no excelsior at all 

 if it could be avoided. 



Mr. Robertson: The box I saw in El Paso was not a well ventilated 

 box. It was an orange box, I judge. 



Question: Have the growers in Florida learned anything along this 

 line ? 



Answer: They pack about 40 fruits to the crate and in excelsior. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON THE CLASSIFICATION AND 

 REGISTRATION OF VARIETIES 



Your committee met at the Hotel Clark at 2 p. m. Friday afternoon, 

 April 27th, and spent the entire afternoon and evening in considering the 

 plans for the work of the Association in the naming and registration of 

 varieties, and the encouragement of variety production through the 

 recognition of meritorious new sorts by the awarding of medals and the 

 holding of competitive exhibits. Many matters of interest were con- 

 sidered by the committee, not the least interesting of which was the 

 dinner served the committee at the Athletic Club, through the courtesy 

 of one of the members, Mr. H. M. Haldeman, at which home grown and 

 imported avocados, probably from Tahiti, were tested comparatively. It 

 is unnecessary to record that the native grown fruit was unanimously 

 voted to be the superior of those tested. Another important action 

 of the committee, unanimously voted for its own guidance, was that 

 any member of the committing using the barbarism "alligator pear" in 

 any of the deliberations of the committee should be forthwith fined 500 



