18 BULLETIN 743, U. S, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
avocados were the size of marbles, and many trees cast their fruit. 
It seems quite probable that irrigation at this time would have 
saved the crop. In another case a crop was lost through the attacks 
of some insect when the fruits were about one-third grown. In 
many instances trees are allowed to overbear one season, crop fail- 
ures the following year being the natural result. 
Doubtless much can be done in the United States to control this 
matter. The most important thing, however, is to plant a -variety 
which bears fairly regularly. There is certainly a wide range of 
variation in this respect. 
YIELD. 
Very large trees of the smaller varieties, whose fruits weigh 6 to 8 
ounces, produce as many as 3,000 fruits in a single crop. Larger 
varieties, whose fruits are 18 ounces in weight, may produce as many 
as 1,000 fruits provided the tree is of mature size. A few examples 
of good production may be cited to illustrate what can be expected 
of Guatemalan varieties. A young tree in Amatitlan, not over 20 
feet high, produced in 1916 a crop of 125 fruits, each weighing 16 
to 18 ounces. In 1917 this tree produced double the number. A 
young tree in Antigua, scarcely 20 feet high, very slender, and with 
little fruiting wood, produced 300 fruits weighing 8 to 12 ounces 
each. Another young tree in Antigua, about 25 feet high, produced 
100 fruits weighing 20 ounces each. This also was a very slender 
tree with little fruiting wood. Another, 35 feet high, with a broad 
well-branched crown, produced 300 fruits, each weighing 14 to 16 
ounces. 
These trees are not branched close to the ground, as they would be 
grown in the United States, and hence have much less fruiting wood 
than trees of similar height in a California or Florida orchard. 
They are commonly branched about 10 feet from the ground. A 
count of numerous trees ranging from 30 to 10 feet in height, which 
is about the average size for trees 15 to 25 years old, showed that 
they were producing from 50 to 500 fruits each (PL VII). The 
average was about 200 or 250 and the average size from 12 to 11 
ounces. This can be considered a very satisfactory yield, consider- 
ing the small amount of fruiting wood which these trees possess. 
Most of the Guatemalan avocados produce their fruits singly, but 
there are occasional trees which have clusters of two to five fruits. 
No very large varieties have been observed to fruit in clusters, but 
the small and medium-sized ones, whose fruits are from 6 to 15 
ounces in weight, occasionally do so. 
SEASON. 
It has been remarked by travelers that avocados are present in 
the markets of the city of Guatemala every month in the year (PL 
VIII). This observation, accurate enough in itself, has led to the 
