Points to Look for in Selecting a 

 Variety of Avocado for 

 Commercial Planting 



By W. A. SPINKS, Duarte, California 



THE TREE ^^^^ ^^^^ ^® strong. There is a vast 



difference in varieties in this respect. It must 

 grow rapidly and erect, withstanding cold, wind and heat. Without 

 these essentials as a foundation, your planting will be a failure, no 

 matter what size and quantity of fruit you may expect to produce. 

 Many orchardists already realize the folly of planting weak and 

 invalid varieties, because they were supposed to bear fine, large 

 fruit. You must have a tree before you can have fruit. Nearly all 

 varieties grow strong and erect from seed, but many when budded 

 grow weak, limber and droopy. Some will live a year or two and 

 then die, others until they bear a few fruits, while still others will 

 live on from year to year, but make slow and unsatisfactory 

 growth. Some varieties grow many times as rapidly as others. 

 Select one which makes rapid growth and bears young. You 

 don't want to wait forever for results. 



Second. Your tree must be a true annual, bearing a full crop 

 each year. With the avocado as with other fruit trees, there are 

 varieties which bear a full crop only once in two, three or four 

 years. 



Third. Your tree must not only mature at least a portion of 

 its crop early, but must be able to hold it on the tree for months 

 after maturity, thus enabling you to select your own time for 

 marketing. Since there are varieties known to possess this very 

 valuable characteristic, why plant one which does not? 



Fourth. Your tree should have. beauty. Abundant foliage pro- 

 tects the fruit and branches from the sun, as well as other dangers, 

 while an ornamental grove adds to your own joy of living and the 

 value of your property. 



THE FRUIT ^^"^^ beautiful and striking in ex- 



ternal appearance. Any dealer will tell you this 

 is half the battle in marketing. 



Second. It should surely weigh no less than one pound, my 

 own investigation in the markets leading to the conclusion that one 

 and a half or two pounds would be none too large. 



Third. It must have quality; richness of flavor and abundance 

 of oil content. It must also be attractive to the eye when cut open, 

 free from fibre and with not too large a seed. No other fruit 

 varies so much in quality as the avocado, some of the varieties con- 

 taining as high as nearly 30 per cent of oil; others lower than 4 

 per cent, with corresponding variation in flavor. Consumers will 

 in time learn to know the poor kinds and reject them. 



Fourth. It must have a thick skin for convenience in serving 

 and protection in shipping. A thick skin also makes it resistant 

 to the aggressions of birds, squirrels, other animals and insects, 

 and protects it from injury by wind. 



We respectfully submit that the SPINKS is the only variety 

 so far known to embody all of the good points above mentioned 

 and none of the bad ones. 



