Edible Products. 



118 



IFebruary, 1909. 



that are best adapted for the refri- 

 geration of* avocados has not been deter- 

 mined. We have carried them as low- 

 as between 40 and 45 and as high as 50. 

 Fifty degrees I am satisfied is too high. 

 Oar next hope is to try them between 

 45 and 50, and I think that somewhere 

 in there we will find the optimum tem- 

 perature. The temperature must be con- 

 stant, for variations intemperture, as I 

 have said, are deleterious to all fruits. 



HANDLING THE FRUIT IN THE MARKET. 



It is necessary when the fruit arrives 

 in the market, if there is not a sale for 

 it immediately, that it should be stored 

 in refrigeration. If it is exposed, even 

 in San Francisco where it is cool, the 

 ripening process begins, and, as I have 

 said before, once they get well 

 under way it is difficult to arrest them 

 and preserve the fruit. It is necessary, 

 therefore, for the fruit to go into cold 

 storage if there is not immediate sale 

 for it. As to the market demands for 

 avocados in San Francisco : As to 

 colour they prefer a green avocado. 

 I don't know why, and I don't think 

 they do, but they have been getting 

 green avocados from Tahiti, and pos- 

 sibly that may be the reason ; but that is 

 their preference at present. In other 

 parts of the United States, well, from 

 Pitsburg west they have no perference. 

 because they scarcely know the avocado 

 — it is an unkuown article — but in San 

 Francisco it is a known fruit and that 

 is what they are calling for— green fruit 

 —although they will take the red or 

 the brown. I think that that is a 

 matter, however, in which a change 

 could easily be brought about, provid- 

 ed our best avocados should turn out 

 to be the brown or the red. Some of 

 our best varieties may be these. The 

 market demands that the fruit be 

 firm as I have already told you. You 

 cannot put fruit beginning to soften on 

 the market. In the first place, it is a 

 high-priced fruit, and the buyers who 

 handle the fruit, will not take the risk 

 of buying fruit, at a high price which, if 

 it is not sold within a day or two is 

 going to be a dead loss ; but if the 

 fruit is firm, it will sell and sell at a 

 good price. 



We should be careful, in sending 

 avocados, to send only those of good 

 quality. That is important. We are 

 making our reputation, and we want to 

 make a good one. The prices which 

 this fruit receives in San Francisco 

 range from a dollar and a half to two 

 dollars and a half per dozen. Fruits 

 that are of good quality and firm will 

 sell for $2-50 per dozen, As to the sell- 

 selling agent, I think I will postpone 



a discussion of that question until we 

 come to a later part of the evening when 

 we are talkiug of the marketing of other 

 fruits since the problem is the same. 

 The Mango. 

 The marketing of' the mango is about 

 the same as that of the avocado with 

 the following exceptions : — The crates 

 while they must be small, need not be 

 so small as in the case of the avocado. 

 Two or three layers will be endured 

 a great deal better in the case of the 

 mango tnan in the case of the avocado, 

 but you must be careful not to pack 

 them in large packages. The refri- 

 geration can be more prolonged in the 

 case of the mango than in the case of 

 the avocados. The mango can be kept 

 for at least six weeks safely. The mar- 

 ket demands for mangoes are nil. There 

 are no demands. In San Francisco 

 where the fruit comes in spasmodically 

 from Tahiti and from Mexico, the sale 

 is a fairly ready one, rather slow, but 

 the supply is not constant ; and, the sup- 

 ply being incoustant. there is no con- 

 stant demand, for that is a principle in 

 fruit marketing ; a constant demand pre- 

 supposes a constant supply. The mango 

 weevil is perhaps our greatest enemy 

 at the present time, our greatest obsta- 

 cle in the way of a mango shipping 

 industry. We have the mangoes, 

 we have the varieties, and we know we 

 can grow them. We know also that 

 such fruit can be sold, though there is 

 no market now or a very limited one, 

 but a market for such fruit as the mango 

 can be created. But the mango weevil 

 is present here as you know. The 

 larvse hatches in the egg in the seed, and 

 because it is in the seed you cannot 

 examine the exterior of the fruit and 

 know whether you have the mango 

 weevil or not, and hence the inspectors 

 on the mainland feel that it is a very 

 important thing that they should see 

 tnat the mango weevil does not get into 

 California and thence into the whole 

 United States. It is not yet determined 

 whether the mango weevil will affect 

 other fruits than mango or not. I be- 

 lieve the entomologists tell us that it 

 has not been reported upon any other 

 fruit or plant than the mango. Yet 

 careful men wish to avoid all chances, 

 and we will have to expect that our 

 fruits will be carefully examined when 

 they reach San Francisco, and if they 

 are infested with the weevil they will 

 be turned down. 



The Papaia. 

 The picking of the papaia for the San 

 Francisco or for any shipping market 

 should be done when the faintest things 

 of yellow appear. As in the case of the 



