48 



1917 ANNUAL REPORT 



sure about the variety you want. Those who have strong growing trees 

 need have no misgivings as to the future. Only two years will be lost in 

 making them over to any desired variety. Those who contemplate plant- 

 ing should have always in mind one idea. Be sure your trees are of the 

 sturdy kind. Don't plant weak, tender varieties under any circumstances, 

 no matter what kind of fruit they may promise to bear. Consider the tree 

 first and the fruit next. If you can find a sturdy tree and fine fruit com- 

 bined in one variety, so much the better, but be sure you get the sturdy tree. 

 This has been my hobby for some time and is still the best advice I can 

 give you. 



Returning to the subject of interplanting, there are some who say it 

 is good for the nurseryman. I believe it is. I most earnestly hope so, for 

 whatever is good for the nurseryman is good for the business as a whole, 

 and if there is anyone on earth who needs and deserves to have something 

 happen that is good for him, it is the avocado nurseryman. He has been 

 on the job all the time that this industry has been developing from a mole- 

 cule to a good healthy infant, and his lot has not always been a happy one. 

 Ignorance of varieties and correct methods of propagation have fallen 

 heavily on the nurseryman. Time and again he has seen his labor of 

 months come to naught, because of one misfortune or another, — frost, 

 wrong methods of propagation, or over-confidence in the value of certain 

 varieties. Some have weathered the storm and are still ready to serve you ; 

 others have dropped out of the race and gone to work. 



This industry has needed the nurseryman; it has been exceedingly 

 fortunate in having its cause espoused, and its trials in a measure shared, 

 by such men as our distinguished President, Dr. Webber, Mr. Sallmon, 

 Mr. Adams, Judge Silent and others. These men exercise a restraining 

 influence. They make for moderation, conservatism, sanity, dignity and 

 poise. Their services have been indispensable in placing this Association 

 on the firm foundation where it stands today. They are the safety valve 

 which keeps us from getting up too much steam. The nurseryman is the 

 one who keeps throwing coal under the boiler. 



When the seed, which is destined to become a great tree, lying in 

 Mother Earth, feels the impulse to grow and begins its long hard fight 

 for life, it needs something more than conservatism and sanity and dignity 

 and poise; it needs fire and enthusiasm and optimism and courage and 

 aggressiveness, and the help of God to carry it through. The nurseryman 

 supplies the ''p^p" which this business must have to be a success, and surely 

 he is performing a genuine service to you, to California and to posterity. 

 He has scraped the earth with a fine-tooth comb for varieties, and brought 

 them to your door. He has hustled, investigated, dreamed, schemed and 

 labored, all to the end that you might have the best. "He who has planted 

 a good tree has not lived in vain." Likewise he who has introduced and 

 propagated a good tree has not lived in vain, especially if he is able to sell 

 the tree at a good price, and it is well for you and for the good of this 

 industry that he sees or thinks he sees a little profit in it for himself, how- 

 ever much he may be disillusioned later. Headway in human affairs is not 

 made without incentive. It is your business man in this and every line, in 

 this and every age, who is the constructive genius, who forever builds and 

 never tears down, who pushes aside obstacles, fights his way to the fron^ 

 and blazes the way for others. 



