22 



THE AVOCADO TN FLORIDA. 



selection and propagation, as is the case with many other orchard 

 fruits. Throughout Central America and the West Indies it grows in 

 a native state, and only half-hearted attempts are made to put it into 

 cultivation. So far as the writer is aware, no orchard of any consid- 

 erable size exists outside of Florida. In Cuba, Jamaica, Porto Rico, 

 and the Bahamas a few seedling trees are growing around nearly every 

 settler's place. The owner plants the seed and takes his chances as to 

 the character and fruitfulness of the tree. Under these conditions a 

 considerable quantity of fruit is being g-rown and marketed, but the 

 product is of an exceedingly variable nature. The two following illus- 

 trations prove the truth of this statement. 



DESCRIPTION OF VARIATIONS. 



Mr. G. L. Macdonald, of Cocoanutgrove, Fla., related his expe- 

 rience to the writer. In preparing for his orchard Mr. Macdonald 

 selected the seed from a tree that bore fruit of exceptionally fine 

 quality and in large quantity. At the time the selection was made it 

 was generally believed that avocados came true to seed. The parent 

 tree produces pear-shaped avocados of large size, fine flavor, and 

 purple color, ripening late. The seedling orchard from this tree has 

 now come into bearing and produces fruit of variable size and shape; 

 good, bad, and indifferent flavor; the color varying from green through 

 yellow to purple; and the fruits ripening at different times in the 

 season. 



The following census, taken near Buenavista, Fla., in an orchard 

 of about an acre in extent, shows how little foundation there is for the 

 belief that the avocado trees are unusually fruitful and that the tree 

 comes "true to seed." The impression that the tree is unusually 

 fruitful doubtless originated from the fact that occasional trees bear a 

 heavy crop (see PI. Ill), causing the observer to overlook the dozens 

 of trees that have less than ten fruits each or possibl}^ none at all. The 

 unfruitfulness and the variability of the product is not more than 

 should be expected from an orchard of seedlings. 



This orchard contains IGO trees, 110 of which are five or more years 

 of age and of a size to permit the smallest to bear 50 fruits, weigh- 

 ing from a pound to one and one-half pounds each. This number of 

 trees produced 1,1G1 fruits in 1903, a year during which the avocado 

 crop was unusually heav}^ This gave an average of approximately 

 10 fruits to the tree. Forty-seven trees bore no fruit at all; -11 trees 

 bore from 1 to 12 fruits; 22 bore a crop of more than 12 fruits, 1) of 

 these latter trees bearing 595 fruits, or slightly over half the crop. 

 The four most prolific trees bore 385 fruits — that is, one-twelfth of 

 the trees produced one-third of the fruit, or, stating the matter in 

 percentages, 43 per cent of the trees produced no fruit; 37 per cent 



