14 BULLETIN 743, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
lished, the Indian is loath to destroy it; hence, many new trees are 
started each year. It appears that comparatively few avocados are 
intentionally planted by the Indians, most of the trees being volun- 
teers. 
SOILS. 
The principal avocado districts of the highlands differ consid- 
erably in their soil types. Clays, alluvial loams, and loose soils of 
volcanic origin are most common. 
Alta Vera Paz is a limestone region in which most of the soils 
are clays or clay loams of reddish, tawny, or blackish color. When 
wet many of these soils have an almost greasy consistency. They 
are usually of considerable depth. In the Valley of San Cristobal, 
the most important avocado center in northern Guatemala, blackish 
clays predominate. In many spots there is a surface deposit of rich 
loam washed off the hillsides. 
The clay soils of Vera Paz seem to produce a large and long- 
lived tree (PI. IV). In no other part of Guatemala were larger 
avocados seen than in the vicinity of Coban and San Cristobal. If 
not well drained these soils would be objectionable, but Vera Paz 
is of such rough, rugged contour that it is rare to find an avocado 
standing on level ground. 
Typical alluvial loam occurs at Panajachel, on the border of Lake 
Atitlan. This town lies at the mouth of a small valley, scarcely 
more than half a mile broad, with the mountains rising abruptly on 
both sides. When viewed from above, it can plainly be seen that 
the sediment carried down this valley is gradually building a dejta 
in the lake. Most of the gardens which contain avocado trees are 
situated about half a mile up the valley from the present shore of 
the lake. The valley floor at this point is level, the soil varying from 
a fine black alluvium to gravelly loam, most of the cultivated area 
possessing rich black loam, easily worked and well adapted to the 
growing of truck crops and coffee, for which it is used. The 
avocado succeeds excellently here. 
At Momostenango, north of the city of Quezaltenango, a curious 
mixture of red clay and volcanic tufa is encountered. Large masses 
of tufa, many feet in depth, are frequently exposed by erosion. 
In the Antigua district the soil is more uniform in character than 
in many other sections of Guatemala. It is a loose, black, sandy loam 
of volcanic origin, mixed with alluvium and becoming a true loam on 
the valley floor, while on the slopes it is often so loose and coarse in 
texture as to suggest cinders. In most of the coffee plantations the 
soil seems to be of uniform character to a considerable depth. It is 
easily worked, fertile, and from several points of view an admirable 
avocado soil. Even at the end of the long dry season it is found to 
be moist a short distance below the surface, and it never becomes hard 
