CALIFORNIA VOCADO ASSOCIATION 



57 



are a detriment rather than an aid to the industry. Even the present 

 high prices of $5 to $10 per dozen, at which the best avocados sell, are 

 liable to be misleading. The industry must be able to develop successfully 



ana dispose of its products probably 

 at one half the present prices, if it is 

 to become a truly important industry 

 in the state. That this is possible I 

 am certain all of us are convinced. 

 We see in the avocado a fruit of the 

 highest food value, attractive, pala- 

 table, and easily grown. Under our 

 normal conditions it is exceedingly 

 productive and gives a very high 

 food value yield per acre. It ap- 

 peals to the writer to be just the 

 type of product California has need- 

 ed, as it will enable us to produce 

 a much larger percentage of our 

 own food, and its largest value for 

 a number of years will be for our 

 own home consumption. Indeed one 

 of its most valuable uses will be as 

 a home fruit. Every home yard 

 should contain two or three trees 

 of as many varieties, ripening at dif- 

 ferent seasons, in order to have a 

 continuous succession of fruits. Rap- 

 idly, however, the fruit will become 

 national in character as people learn 

 to use it, and thus the Association 

 will be confronted with all of the 

 problems of a great industry. 



Problems of the Industry 

 Varieties. — Nowhere in the his- 

 tory of horticulture, so far as I am 

 aware, has there taken place such wonderful advance in the development 

 of varieties in so short a space of time, as has occurred with the avo- 

 cado in California. A decade ago the avocado in California was known only 

 through a seedling here and there in yards, such seedlings having been 

 grown from imported seeds mainly from Mexico, Guatemala, Hawaii and 

 Florida, the Mexican and Guatemalan seedlings predominating. Fortunate- 

 ly, the natural desire of Californians to demonstrate the wide range of 

 tropical and semi tropical products that could be grown here as novelties 

 led to a considerable number of such seedlings being grown. Since the in- 

 terest in the commercial culture of the avocado became acute, every nook 

 and corner of the state has been searched for such seedling trees, and 

 every promising seedling has been subjected to careful scrutiny and study. 



Figure 2. — Parent tree of the Lyon avo- 

 ,cado. (Photo by H. J. Webber) 



