IOO 
next hope is to try them between 45 and 50, and I think that 
somewhere in there we will find the optimum temperature. The 
temperature must be constant, for variations in temperature, 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 refrigera- 
tion. If it is exposed, even in San Francisco where it is cool, 
the ripening processes begin 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 stor 
age if there is not immediate sale for it. As to the market de- 
mands for avocados in San Francisco : As to color, 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 pres- 
ent. In other parts of the United States, well, from Pittsburg 
west, they have no preference, because they scarcely know the 
avocado — it is an unknown 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, provided 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 pi ice. 
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 a dozen. As to the 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 talking of the marketing 
of other fruits, since the problem is the same. 
THE MAX GO. 
The marketing of the mango is about the same as that of the 
avocido. with the following exceptions : The crates, while they 
must be small, need not be so small as in the case ot the Avocado. 
Two or three layers will be endured a great deal better in the case 
of the mango than in the case of the avocado, but you must be 
