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1917 ANNUAL REPORT 



trial in Florida and California, I went to the upper limit of cultivation, and 

 then worked downward until I encountered the first avocado trees, which 

 were at 8500 feet. Here I found a number of trees, most of them killed 

 back or severely injured by cold. One, however, had not been injured in the 

 slightest degree, and as it was a good fruit, — small seed and flesh of ex- 

 cellent quality, — I secured budwood which is now being propagated in 

 Washington. Whether this variety, which comes from Totonicapan and 

 which we have named Pankay ( Fig. 21), will prove to be much hardier 

 than the varieties already growing in the United States, I cannot say. It 

 seems to me it stands a reasonable chance of being distinctly hardier thsin 

 the average ; yet it is impossible to determine what external causes may have 

 been at work to produce the appearance of superior frost resistance. 



The avocado is cultivated in Guatemala about a thousand feet above 

 the zone in which citrus fruits are grown. One might assume from this 

 that the avocado is much hardier than the orange. Yet I do not know that 

 this is the case. There are so few trees of either the avocado or the orange 

 above 7500 feet that it is difficult to obtain trustworthy data regarding 

 their comparative hardiness. Both of them are commonly cultivated only 

 in regions free from injurious frosts. The Guatemalans have not carried 

 citrus culture into regions so cold that the trees require protection from 

 frost, and the number of avocado trees in the cold region, — above 7500 

 feet — is very small. 



We know from experience that it takes generations to acclimatize a 

 species so that it will stand a decidedly greater amount of cold. You can- 

 not plant a tree in a climate colder than that to which it has been accus- 

 tomed, and expect it, with protection for a few winters, to become more 

 hardy. Nature does not work that way. Many trees must be planted, 

 the hardiest ones selected and propagated; then the new generation thus 

 obtained must be selected for hardiness. Continuing this process for many 

 generations, a considerable increase in hardiness may be the result. But it 

 does not appear to me that such a process has been going on at high eleva- 

 tions in Guatemala. I would expect, therefore, that varieties from 8500 

 feet, such as our Pankay, might withstand a few degrees more frost than 

 the average Guatemalan variety, but I would not dare to hope for them 

 to prove as hardy as the Mexican race. Time only will tell. We must 

 wait and see. 



Avocado Regions 



The principal avocado growing regions of Guatemala are rather wide- 

 ly scattered throughout the highlands of the republic, thus possessing some 

 widely different soil types. Antigua, certainly the most important region 

 in all Guatemala if not one of the most important in the world, lies in a 

 beautiful valley surrounded by volcanoes and high hills. The valley floor 

 is about 5100 feet above sea level; it is planted to coffee, with some 

 patches of alfalfa here and there, and much maize and black beans around 

 the edges. The soil is a loose volcanic loam, almost sandy in texture, 

 black, deep and very fertile. It seems very retentive of moisture, and well 

 suited to the avocado, the trees in this valley being vigorous and healthy in 

 appearance, and producing much fruit. 



It is the custom in this valley to plant large trees to shade the coffee 

 bushes; for this purpose the tree called in California the Australian Silk 



