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1916 ANNUAL REPORT 



OUR EXPERIENCES IN GROWING THE AVOCADO 

 By W. G. Eraser, General Manager Riverside Orange Company, Riverside. 



We rather hesitated to prepare this brief paper on "Our Experience 

 in Growing the Avocado," to be read at the Third Semi-Annual meet- 

 ing of the California Avocado Association for the reason that we are 

 mere novices in this line of hor- 



ticulture; however, we are 

 to give what little experience we 

 have had so far in the growing 

 of the avocado tree. 



The location of our 5-acre 

 avocado grove is on Arlington 

 Heights about eight miles south 

 of the city of Riverside at an ele- 

 vation of about 1100 feet above 

 sea level. The soil is a mixture 

 of decomposed and disintegrated 

 granite and reddish clay of a 

 good depth. The drainage is good 

 as on the southerly and westerly 

 side of the avocado grove there is 

 a deep arroyo into which is drain- 

 ed the surplus irrigation and 

 storm water. 



The trees are planted 24x24 

 feet apart and are made up of 

 the following varieties, — Harman, 

 Northrop and Taft, about one- 

 third of each, and from one to 

 nine each of the following were 

 also planted as more or less of 

 an experiment, — Solano, Redondo, 

 Chappelow, Puebla, Walker Pro- 

 lific, Meserve, Ganter, Colorado, 

 Dickinson, Grande, Fowler and 

 Atlixco. 



We also planted about an 

 acre to the Dickey variety but 

 for some reason the trees did not 

 do well and practically all of the 

 trees of this variety have been 

 replaced with another variety. 



The trees that have made the most vigorous growth are those in 

 the following order, — Northrop, Harman, Taft. The land upon which these 

 trees are planted was thoroughly plowed to a good depth, then leveled, 

 so that the water would flow at a reasonable rate of speed while the 

 trees were being irrigated, thus assuring good drainage for all the trees. 



Fig-ure 31.— Avocado tree ready to be 

 planted; note roots protruding- throug-h 

 sacking-. 



