153 



Edible Products. 



are a.s nearly full grown as possible, but hard. On no account should the 

 fruit be plucked from the tree, but clipped with pruning shears, leaving but 

 a very short portion of the stem— not over half an inch in length. On no 

 account must any leaves be packed with the fruit, or the horticultural quaran- 

 tine officers of the Pacific ports will demand the unpacking of such consign- 

 ments, as occasionally a few scales are found on the foliage, but not on the fruit. 



The following, taken from the Crop Reporter of the Department of 

 Agriculture, January, 1903, gives some indication of the prices in England:— 

 With regard to the newer fruits which are attracting attention in the English 

 markets, there are several which call for special reference. Among such are 

 the avocado pears. These pears are high priced, selling from Is. to Is. 3d. (24 

 to 30 cents) each, retail. 



.MARKET SEASON. 



The regular season for avocados is in the summer and the early autumn, 

 the bulk of the fruit being received during the months of August and Septem- 

 ber. This is the most unfavourable time for a tropical fruit of this kind to be 

 placed on the market, for not only does it come in competition with the fall 

 fruits, but at this time large numbers of the admirers of this fruit are away 

 from the cities at summer resorts, and in order to reach the best class of customers 

 the fruit must be reshipped. This feature of the trade is so important that 

 commission merchants can afford to hold the fruit in cold storage for this class 

 of customers until they return to the cities, and this in spite of the fact that 

 the fruit reaches them in such an advanced stage that but a very small per- 

 centage is saleable when taken from cold storage. In cities like New York the 

 Cuban and Spanish populations are always ready to pui chase avocados, but this 

 class Avill buy only at a comparatively low price, which under present conditions 

 serves merely to protect the merchants from total loss. Florida growers say that 

 for fruit that they can hold until the latter part of September or into October 

 they can ask their own price. It will thus be seen that it is of the greatest 

 importance to secure late-maturing sorts. 



With the improvement of transportation facilities and good ship- 

 ping varieties the northern markets can probably be supplied with avocados every 

 month in the year. In fact. February is probably the only month during which 

 no avocados are received in New York. Outside of the regular season, however, 

 the shipments consist of a few fruits brought in the ships' ice boxes. Of these, the 

 earliest are said to come from Colombia and the latest from Santo Domingo. A 

 possible schedule would be as follows : Florida, Porto Rico, and Cuba, June to 

 November ; Hawaii, September to December ; Mexico, December to March ; 

 Central America, March to June. To dealers familar only with the West Indian 

 type of fruit the shipping of avocados from such distant points as Central 

 America will seem entirely impracticable. The keeping qualities of the thick- 

 skinned forms of Central America make this, however, not at all impossible 

 provided the picking, packing, and shipping be handled in an intelligent 

 manner. Indeed, small shipments have already been made from the City of Mexico 

 to New York via Los Angeles, where the fruit was repacked, and this with a com- 

 paratively thin-skinned variety. Viewed from the standpoint of the producer, 

 however, the question is not how can the market be supplied throughout the entire 

 year, but how can avocados be produced in our own possessions at a time to com- 

 mand the best prices. Too great confidence should not be placed in the introduc- 

 tion of early or late fruting varieties from other countries, for the season of fruiting 

 is to a great extent the result of climatic conditions, and an early fruiting form 

 in Guatemala if transferred to Porto Rico might soon become no earlier than the 

 native kinds. In a general way the fruiting season is found to be about the 



