Avocado Explorations in Tropical America 
Wilson Popenoe, Agricultural Explorer, United States Department of Agri¬ 
culture, Washington, D. C. 
The manifold problems which are faced 
by Florida avocado growers can only be 
solved by concerted effort on the part of 
all those interested in the development of 
this new industry. The United States De¬ 
partment of Agriculture, desirous of do¬ 
ing its share of this work, has, during the 
past five or six years, conducted a rather 
exhaustive survey of the principal avo¬ 
cado-growing regions in tropical America, 
where the avocado is native and has been 
cultivated since prehistoric times. The 
objects of this survey have been several: 
First, it was desired to bring to light and 
introduce into the United States, the most 
promising varieties which could be found; 
secondly, it was thought that a study of 
the avocado in its native home might yield 
knowledge concerning the requirements of 
the tree which would be useful in connec¬ 
tion with its proper cultivation in the 
United States; and thirdly, it was desired 
to find, if possible, the wild prototypes of 
the cultivated avocados, and to study the 
wild relatives of the avocado, with a view 
to utilizing such of them as seemed val¬ 
uable in the work of breeding new forms, 
or perhaps as stock-plants on which to 
graft the avocado itself. 
Not knowing exactly how far we would 
be able to carry this work, we thought it 
best to commence with the most promising 
field, rather than to pursue a geograph¬ 
ical sequence. Thus it was that in the late 
summer of 1916 I sailed for Guatemala, 
where I spent sixteen months, and whence 
I sent twenty-three selected varieties of 
avocados to the United States for trial. 
Some of these have already borne fruit in 
California and Florida; several are now 
offered by the nurserymen in both states. 
In addition to the introduction of these 
varieties, several wild relatives of the avo¬ 
cado were obtained and introduced for 
trial—notably the coyo, Persea schiede- 
ana, and the anay, Hufelandia anay; near¬ 
ly a thousand photographs and many ob¬ 
servations on avocado culture were se¬ 
cured; twenty-five thousand avocado 
seeds were packed and shipped to Wash¬ 
ington, for use in growing stock-plants 
on which to bud the superior varieties; 
and seeds or roots of a number of promis¬ 
ing economic plants, likely to be of value 
in the southern-most United States, were 
secured. 
The results of this first expedition have 
been made known through several publi¬ 
cations, notably Bulletin 743 of the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture, entitled “The 
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