Recent Development in Sub-Tropical 
Horticulture 
W. J. Krome, Homestead 
The Committee on Avocados and Sub¬ 
tropical Fruits, in arranging its portion of 
the program for this session, has endeav¬ 
ored to present to you information show¬ 
ing the development which has been made 
in the culture of sub-tropical fruits in 
various sections of our State in a com¬ 
mercial way, as well as the most recent 
technical data relative to the propagation 
of such fruits and the control of the dis¬ 
eases and pests which may infest them. 
Our program deals largely with the 
Avocado because its culture in Florida 
has become more general than that of any 
other sub-tropical fruit and information 
of both a commercial and technical na¬ 
ture regarding it is more sought after. 
During the past year there have been 
developments which are of great interest 
to the Avocado grower. A number of 
new and very promising varieties have 
been fruited and some of the older va¬ 
rieties have shown faults which were not 
fully anticipated. Seedling Avocados, 
erown from the seed of fruit of the Gua- 
temalan type produced in Florida, have 
begun to bear, and the fruit produced by 
these trees has given an entirely new 
trend to varietal propagation. 
Henceforth three distinct races of Avo¬ 
cados have been recognized. The Mex¬ 
ican, which is hardy and produces fruit 
of fine flavor but so small in size and of 
such poor shipping qualities as to be 
hardly worth consideration as a commer¬ 
cial proposition; the Guatemalan, a race 
which provides varieties fairly cold re¬ 
sistant, prolific and bearing fruit of fine 
eating and shipping qualities but in many 
cases of too small size to meet the require¬ 
ments of our Eastern markets; and the 
West Indian race, upon which the com¬ 
mercial culture of the Avocado in Flor¬ 
ida has been founded and which still fur¬ 
nishes practically all of the fruit which is 
shipped out of this State. Occasional 
natural hybrid varieties have been 
brought to the attention of propagators, 
but heretofore these have been crosses 
between the Mexican and Guatemalan 
types. In their natural environment there 
has not been much opportunity for cross¬ 
es of the Guatemalan and West Indian 
Avocados to occur, as the two races are 
seldom found in the same locality. But 
in Florida we now have West Indian and 
Guatemalan Avocados growing in close 
proximity, often blooming during the 
same period and, from the natural crosses 
which seem sure to result, we are quite 
likely to obtain, by selection, varieties 
combining the good qualities of both par- 
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