CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



105 



HISTORY OF THE AVOCADO AND ITS VARIETIES IN CALIFORNIA 

 WITH A CHECK LIST OF ALL NAMED VARIETIES 



Ira J. Condit, College of Agriculture, Berkeley, California. 



The first reference to the introduction of avocado trees into Cali- 

 fornia which we have been able to find is in the Report of the Visiting 

 Committee of the California State Agricultural Society for 1856. The 

 committee visited the place of Dr. Thomas J. White near San Gabriel 

 on September 4, and reported as follows: "Dr. White has imported from 

 Nicaragua a variety of choice tropical fruits including the sapota. the 

 Aguacate or Butter Fruit, and the Mango." With what success these 

 plants were cultivated has not been learned. 



The early history of the avocado in California is so well described 

 by Dr. F. Franceschi that I wish to quote the following paragraphs 

 from his pen: 



"Just like the aboved named Mexican fruit trees, also the Ahuacate 

 was first planted at Santa Barbara, but many years later, that is in 1871, 

 when three plants were brought from Mexico by the late Judge R. B. 

 Ord, who brought also the first Cherimoyas. One of these trees died in 

 infancy; the other two were very large and thrifty when I came to Santa 

 Barbara twenty years ago. Both have unfortunately disappeared, the 

 tallest and finest ,bearing fruits of good quality, dying probably on 

 account of the ground being too shallow and dry at the place called 

 "Las Palmas," in the upper part of Montecito; the other, which was 

 branched low and much spreading, with very small and poor fruits, 

 located on De La Vina Street, in Santa Barbara, was cut down some 

 fourteen years ago to make room for a new building. 



"In 1892, when I lived in Los Angeles, there was only one good sized 

 Ahaucate in all that neighborhood, and precisely at the Jacob Miller 

 place, where stands now beautiful Hollywood. This had been brought 

 from Guatemala, towards 1880 I believe, together with many other 

 rare and interesting trees, and is still extant and thriving. Seedlings 

 from this tree are among the most promising of those which attract the 

 attention of Ahuacate growers in California. 



"At Los Angeles the first person to give an efficient impulse to the 

 growing of Ahuacates, as well as other kinds of tropical or semi-tropical 

 fruits in the early nineties, was Mr. J. C. Harvey, a Canadian by birth, 

 and during some years agent of the Standard Oil Company in Southern 

 California. It was Mr. Harvey who raised the very remarkable Ahuacate 

 trees now to be seen at Mrs. Buddington's place on College Street, and 

 in Elysian Park, together with a numberless host of choice and beautiful 

 plants scattered all over the country. 



"The first orchard of Ahuacates ever planted in California was started 

 by the late Kinton Stevens, along Palm Avenue in Montecito. Mr. 

 Stevens was an Englishman full of energy and enterprise, who had also 

 been the first in California to issue a catalogue of tropical and semi- 

 tropical plants. His orchard was set out in 1895 and comprised about 

 120 trees, all Mexican seedlings, which in a few years grew to consider- 



