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AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
The man in search of interesting experience, whether he is a practical 
horticulturist or a scienitfie investigator cannot fail to find what he wants in 
the West Indies and the adjacent countries of Central and South America. 
President Goodman: Mr. Henricksen was connected with the National 
Pomological Society of Cuba for several years, and after the meeting of the 
American Pomological Society two years ago at Tampa we had occasion to 
go with him over into Cuba and see some of the fruits. We had a very de- 
lightful trip and time. There were several members of the American Pomo- 
logical Society on that trip and that journey through Cuba and vicinity under 
Ms direction. He is a student, a man who observes, as you can see now from 
this paper, and he has given us some outline of what we might take up 
in any part of our work at this time. 
Question: I would like to ask the gentleman if the avocado ripens in the 
winter time — in January or February instead of in August and September? 
Mr. Hendricksen: I can answer that question in this way: In the dif- 
ferent islands of the West Indies avocados ripen all the year through; in 
some islands they ripen at times when they do not on other islands. I 
remember several years ago, I had avocados in Guadalupe in January. Of 
course I cannot tell you varieties; we know nothing about varieties in the 
West Indies — but taking the whole West Indies we have avocados all the 
year around. 
TROPICAL FRUITS IN THE PHILIPPINES. 
P. J. Wester, Philippine Islands. 
This, I believe, is the first time in the history of the American Pomo- 
logical Society that the Philippines have been represented at any of its 
meetings. Under such circumstances nothing can be more fitting perhaps 
than a resume of fruit-growing in the Archipelago as it has been. A review 
of the past is particularly appropriate at this date considering that after a 
long sleep and indifference to matters pertaining to horticulture and allied 
sciences there seems now to be a new day breaking. This is, in fact, 
noticeable in all things agricultural. 
Few people at home realize the extent of the Philippine Archipelago or 
its capabilities of development. The average citizen thinks of it as a con- 
glomeration of small islands with which he associates intense heat inter- 
rupted by torrential rains accompanied by fever, malaria and cholera, and 
pestiferous mosquitoes in great swarms, now and then devastating typhoons, 
poisonous snakes and insects, not to speak of the “savages,” thanks to the 
thousands of postal-cards that are sent annually from Americans to friends 
and relatives at home. Not that these pictures of life primitive in the 
Philippines are nature fakes, but they portray the real Philippines just as 
