CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



83 



Mexico, where the finest native seedling avocados in the world are found, 

 it would be a very difficult task to gather together a finer exhibit of fruits 

 than has been shown at either of our last three conventions. Many of 

 these Atlixco trees are upward of one hundred years old; yet a yield of 

 more than 1000 to 1500 fruits per year from one of these very large and 

 ancient trees is the rare exception. Here we have trees less than twenty 

 years old that far exceed such production and yield a grade of fruit that 

 compares at least favorably with Atlixco' s very finest. 



There the rainy season lasts in normal years from early in June to 

 the last of October, the total precipitation varying from 60 to 1 00 inches. 

 The topography consists of rolling and sloping mesas giving always abund- 

 ant and rapid drainage. The natural growth of a multitudinous variety 

 of trees and plants is rapid and rank, and results in a continuous deposi- 

 tion of decaying vegetation which obviously enriches the soil and keeps it so 

 covered that the sun's rays rarely reach the bare ground. Thus, it will be 

 readily appreciated that under such conditions, the shiftless methods em- 

 ployed in those countries Ccinnot logically be cited as any dependable guide 

 to the treatment we should give the tree here where our conditions of soil 

 and climate are so radically different. 



It might be well for the gentlemen who advocate irrigation every ten 

 or fifteen days and no cultivation, to review the development of the citrus 

 industry during the past forty years and more. Remember that the orange, 

 lemon, and lime are growing prolifically in the tropics, side by side with 

 the avocado, and thriving and bearing in at least an equal ratio to the avo- 

 cado; yet in production or quality of fruit do not approach our groves here 

 in California. What would have been the results to our great citrus in- 

 dustry in California if the treatment advocated by these gentlemen for the 

 avocado had prevailed? Would you gentlemen recommend that we give 

 our citrus trees this same dose of water every ten days and no cultivation? 

 I submit that it is as logical a suggestion in one case as in the other, and in 

 conclusion I would like to predict that if some of our American energy 

 and intelligent methods of cultivation, pruning, and general care were in- 

 troduced into the avocado groves in their native homes, a vast improvement 

 both in quality and production of fruit would result. 



In a later discussion, Professor M. E. Jaffa stated that as a com- 

 parison, 25 per cent of oil was obtained from olives not over-irrigated, IB 

 per cent being obtained from olives which were over-irrigated. This he 

 thought might in some measure apply to avocados. 



UTILITY AND SENTIMENT APPLIED TO AVOCADO 

 By J. M. Elliott, Los Angeles 



It would be quite a natural question to ask a man who had been con- 

 fined by business to a desk for more than fifty years, why he had selected 

 the growing of avocado trees as somethmg to occupy his time and mind: 

 Granted that I am asked that question. I say first that it is really a recog- 

 nition on my part of what I owe to this section, for having given me health 

 and an opportunity to work, when I was sadly in need of both. 



Forty-seven years ago the largest orange orchard in Southern Califor- 

 nia occupied the ground on which the Southern Pacific depot, in Los An- 

 geles, now stands. The question at that time was how to market the prod- 



