CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



39 



information available up to the present time, the committee proposes 

 to send to each member of this Association a communication containing 

 a list of the varieties that have been fruited and tested in California, 

 and request each individual, having the necessary information, to mark 

 after each variety their judgment as to its comparative value, rank 1st, 

 2d, 3d, 4th, etc. This judgment is to be based on the fruiting of the va- 

 riety in California. 



If the different members of the Association, having knowledge of 

 the value of varieties, will carefully fill these blanks, the compilation of 

 the varieties receiving the largest number of high ranking votes will 

 furnish the best judgment possible to obtain at this time, as to the 

 safest varieties for general planting. This list, with the results of the 

 vote, the committee proposes to insert in their report for publication 

 in the proceedings of the Association. Before carrying out this plan, 

 the committee desires the approval of the Association. 



An Official Variety Orchard. — As a second step toward the registra- 

 tion and classification of varieties, the committee recommends the adop- 

 tion of a plan involving a cooperation with the Citrus Experiment Sta- 

 tion of the University of California. This plan involves the require- 

 ment by the Association that any new variety presented for admission 

 to its accredited list shall be accompanied by a guarantee to furnish to 

 the Association at the proper season at least five good trees of the va- 

 riety concerned, budded on the stock approved by the Association. (This 

 stock, until otherwise designated, to be a seedling of the thin-skinned 

 Mexican type.) These trees would then be cultivated in the variety or- 

 chards of the Citrus Experiment Station where their performance records 

 can be kept through a series of years, and from time to time reported 

 by the officials of the Station to the Association, and where committees 

 of the Association may from time to time study the trees and fruit and 

 report their findings to the Association. 



Your committee recommends the approval of this plan, the details 

 of the arrangement to be fully worked out and approved by the Board 

 of Directors of this Association. 



Medals for Meritorious New Varieties. — Recognizing that the extent 

 of the success of the avocado industry in California must necessarily 

 depend upon the degree of perfection of the varieties available for cul- 

 tivation, your committee recommends that the Association each year 

 confer three medals, gold, silver, and bronze, — to the best and most 

 noteworthy new avocado productions brought to the attention of the 

 Association during the year, — these medals to be awarded only after a 

 careful study of each competing new variety, facilities for such study, 

 in the nature of fruit and information regarding the tree, to be fur- 

 nished by the owner of the variety. The Association should reserve 

 the privilege of withholding the conferring of any medals if there are 

 not a sufficient number of competing varieties to give a fair competition 

 or if in the absence of competition the new sort is thought, after study, to 

 be clearly inferior to well known old varieties. 



If the Association feels that the expense will not be too great, the 



