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1916 ANNUAL REPORT 



same conditions under which the best fruit is grown there, in the 

 former place. 



I know that some of my methods of growing avocados are not yet 

 accepted by most growers; but we must each work along the lines that 

 we believe best, and ultimately out of all of our experience develop that 

 which gives the best results. 



Avocados grow over a far greater range of climate than most 

 avocado growers imagine; but like many other kinds of fruit, those with 

 the best flavor are always found in a cool climate. In the extremely 

 cold climates where the avocado grows, Nature has covered the fruit 

 with a thick and unyielding shell to protect it from the cold. This 

 makes it impossible to tell when such a fruit is ripe; therefore it is use- 

 less as a commercial proposition. But as the elevation drops and the 

 climate becomes warmer, the shell becomes less rigid and there are 

 found the best of the hard-shelled varieties which give promise of being 

 of great importance to the avocado industry in California. I have 

 never known a first class avocado to be produced in a hot, damp climate. 

 Whatever success Florida will have in growing the hard shell variety re- 

 mains to be seen. I have shipped a number of my hard-shelled va- 

 rieties there and am waiting the results. In Guatemala, the avocado 

 flourishes where the orange will not grow on account of frost. I be- 

 lieve avocado culture will ultimately extend over a much larger area 

 in California than is now believed possible. 



Seedlings. — All avocados in the tropics are seedlings; therefore each 

 tree produces a variety all its own. The avocado has more varieties 

 along all lines than almost any other fruit that I know. There are only 

 two qualities which are always reproduced in a seedling and these are 

 hardiness and type of skin. For instance, a seedling of a thick-skin 

 variety will always produce thick-skin fruit; a seedling of a thin-skin 

 variety will always bear thin-skin fruit; or a seedling of a hard-shell will 

 always bear hard-shell fruit. Other qualities, such as color, flavor, size, 

 etc. are never constant in the reproduction through seeds. It is a rare 

 exception, that a seedling is found to have all the qualities in fruit 

 and tree which tend to make it a desirable commercial proposition. This 

 is true even where the avocado trees are very numerous. The varieties 

 now found here in California average fully as well, if not better, than 

 the average trees do in the tropics. This, to me, is a proof that we 

 can grow as good avocados here as anywhere else in the world, when we 

 have eliminated the undesirable varieties and concentrated upon the 

 best ones. 



Varieties. — There is a misunderstanding in California concerning the 

 classification of varieties that ought to be rectified as soon as possible. 

 There are four general heads under which all avocados known in Cali- 

 fornia may be classified. These are: 1, thin-skin; 2, West Indian; 3, 

 thick-skin; 4, hard-shell. The first two classes seem to be fairly well 

 known, but the last two, the thick-skin and the hard-shell are constantly 

 confused or classed as one group. This error should be corrected at once, 

 for if it is allowed to grow, it will be almost impossible to rectify it later 

 on. It is as easy to distinguish a thick-skin from a hard-shell as it is 



