io6 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
to the more tropical portions of the State, 
there is a much greater area wherein the 
avocado may be safely planted for home 
and local use. Even the more tender 
varieties can be grown in sheltered door- 
yards as far north as Orange and Lake 
Counties if the young trees are protected 
and banked in winter while hardier varie¬ 
ties, like Harmon, can doubtless be grown 
in any section not too cold for oranges. 
A list of varieties can be selected for 
home planting which will supply fruit of 
highest .cjuality through a long season, 
beginning, for example, with Harmon in 
July ; following with Pollock and Butler 
for midsummer; Trapp and Webster for 
fall and Guatemalan variteies for winter 
and spring. It is now quite possible to 
pick fruit every month in the year from 
your own dooryards. 
This fruit is high in real food value and 
is considered a luxury on the finest tables 
in the country. There is no better way 
of reducing the Florida summer canned 
goods bill than to plant avocados in the 
home grove. These small mixed plant¬ 
ings will prove, moreover, valuable test 
plots where the commercial possibilities 
and the requirements of new varieties 
can be carefully studied for each locality. 
In many cases, old dooryard seedling 
trees, bearing inferior, scanty crops, have 
been successfully topworked to superior 
named varieties. 
The biggest problem in the avocado 
industry today is the selection from the 
great number of varieties now available, 
the half-dozen or so that in vigor, hardi¬ 
ness, yield, and quality are best suited to 
rank as standard Florida varieties. To 
this end there is no greater service that 
the grower can render than that of keep¬ 
ing careful and accurate records of each 
individual tree in his grove, especially of 
the new varieties. Such records will 
enable us to determine not only the com¬ 
parative value of varieties, but may very 
possibly result in the discovery of sup¬ 
erior strains and the elimination of in¬ 
ferior strains within the variety. When 
we stop to consider the wide range of 
hardiness, season, and quality of this new 
fruit, we must all agree that there is no 
more fascinating or more profitable ob¬ 
ject for careful horticultural study than 
the avocado. 
W. J. Krome 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen 
of the Horticultural Society: 
For a man who is usually most pro¬ 
gressive, our perfectly good president has 
some decidedly stand-pat tendencies. I 
believe I am correct in stating that dur¬ 
ing the past ten years he has made only 
one change or addition to the standing 
committees of this Society. That one 
exception was the appointment last year 
of a committee on avocados. 
I mention this, however, simply as a 
positive proof that the avocado has ob¬ 
tained a firm foot-hold and has become 
an established factor in the horticulture 
of the state. 
In appointing me as chairman of the 
Committee on Avocados, our president 
probably did not take into consideration 
that I have some quite pronounced ideas 
as to the duties of a chairman. Some 
