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1916 ANNUAL REPORT 



EXPERIENCES WITH AVOCADO VARIETIES 

 By Charles D. Adams, Upland, Cal. 



It is desired by our president to have presented at this meeting re- 

 ports of the results so far obtained with avocado varieties by growers in 

 different localities, and with different soil conditions. My report is that 

 of an orange grower, located in the midst of the citrus belt which sur- 

 rounds the San Bernardino valley, 38 miles east of Los Angeles, five 

 miles northwest of the railroad station at Upland, and at 2,000 feet 

 elevation above sea level. 



The soil is decomposed granite, with good humes content and was 

 also well supplied with boulders, which still remain below the plowing 

 level. 



It was 14 years ago when I planted my first avocado tree — a small 

 seedling, obtained from Dr. Franceschi of Santa Barbara. It was planted 

 in an orchard row, between two orange trees, where it stands today, 

 twice the size of the surrounding trees, and bearing abundantly purplish- 

 black, thin skin fruit, good to eat, but too small to be of value. Its 

 hardness is its interesting feature, as it has never been unfavorably 

 affected by adverse weather conditions and stood the remarkable cold 

 of 1912-13 without a particle of harm, which could not be said of ad- 

 joining orange and lemon trees. 



I have been planting experimentally, from time to time, during the 

 past three years, trees of some 30 different varieties, to test value for 

 a commercial product, very few of them being of the thin skin class. 

 This was not because of the belief that this class will have no future com- 

 mercial value. I believe it will, but not, I think, with the California 

 varieties so far obtained. Those of them, such as the Northrop, hardy, 

 vigorous, with abundant fruit of fine quality, have their place for house- 

 hold use, solely some think, but the fruit of our thin skin varieties is 

 certainly in most cases of too small an average size and will not 

 pay to market, when the sizes the public like better are to be had in 

 abundance. I believe the right commercial, thin skin kinds are still to 

 arrive, or, rather, are already here for us to discover among California 

 seedlings or imported buds. This claim is sustained by the prices of fruit 

 in the past and of that now on sale. Last week, in the street windows of 

 one of the largest groceries in Los Angeles, the Ganter fruit was for sale 

 under its variety name, tagged at 20 to 25 cents, though some very few, 

 extra large ones were tagged at 40 cents. On this same day, small purple 

 fruit was on sale at 5 cents, and good sized Florida fruit at 50 cents. 



The trees of this variety and of the Harman are exceptionally hardy, 

 vigorous and satisfactory, and the Ganter is one of the most prolific 

 varieties, but the fruit of both, in my opinion, has a fatal defect in 

 being so generally subject to cracks, scabs and soft decay spots, that it 

 seems hardly possible it can have any future market value when it 

 comes, in the near future, into competition with other varieties free from 

 these blemishes. I am budding over both varieties. 



