CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



95 



causes, so that the varieties of this type which we have, and which at the 

 same time bear good fruits and bear them early and proHfically, are truly 

 the ones to select and plant. This goes without saying; yet the oft re- 

 peated truth is the one that impresses us, and we sometimes need to have 

 our attention called to the most patent fact. 



Therefore, wise man, do this: 



Plant the strong, good tree; 



Shield it from the sun during the first summer ; 



Give it a generous mulch of straw; 



Attend promptly to your irrigation; 



Be ready with a water supply for immediate application when a hot 

 spell comes. 



Doing these things, fear not the heat, and look forward in confidence 

 to the season when a plenteous harvest will be yours. 



G. W. Beck: La Habra does not get as much heat as inland. A 

 few days before the hot spell the trees were whitewashed with whitewash 

 containing linseed oil and salt. The limbs and trunks were whitewashed, 

 and there was very little sunburning; only in cases where the whitewash 

 was not quite to the ground on the trunks was there any sunburning. The 

 leaf injury was very slight, though nearly all the fruit dropped. 



The variety in the nursery which suffered most was the Taft. This 

 was because, at the time when the heat came, the Taft trees had more new 

 grcfw^h than any of the others. Just the leaves were injured; the limbs 

 and trunks were no worse than the others. These trees had not been 

 watered for nearly a month. Other varieties than the Taft are: Sharpless, 

 Lyon and Sinaloa in the nursery; and in the field were the larger trees: 

 Ganter, Taft, Lyon, Chili, Scin Sebastian, Walker, and Northrop; also 

 about a dozen unnamed varieties from Atlixco, Mexico, of the thick- 

 skinned type. 



Mrs. B. H. Sharpless: We can arrive at a more definite con- 

 clusion in regard to the heat resistant qualities of the avocado by comparing 

 the avocado damage with that of the citrus trees in the same orchard. 



A short time after the heat wave in June, tons of our mature lemons 

 as well as all the young lemons, were on the ground under the trees, and 

 most of the fruit left on the trees was so badly burned that it was worthless. 

 No mature avocados dropped from our Sharpless trees growing in the 

 same orchard with the lemons. We lost nearly all of our young fruit, hav- 

 ing perhaps enough left for an exhibit next year. The original Sharpless 

 tree showed no damage except the curling of leaves on the tenderest growth. 



We have Sharpless trees set out in orchard form including one, two 

 and three-year-old trees. These were apparently untouched by the heat. 



Two buds set out this spring among the big orange trees were burned 

 because they were dry. 



In our home nursery, we had Sharpless buds in all stages of growth 

 up to 3 feet in height. We discovered no sunburn among them. 



We had 25 Sharpless trees balled from our nursery about the time 

 the heat wave reached us. They were placed in the shade of the big tree 

 with no other protection except a canvas stretched on the sunny side. We 

 sprinkled them frequently during the hottest day and lost none of them. 

 Only a few of them dropped their leaves. 



