Possibilities of Sub-Tropical Fruits in Florida 
H. E. Stevens, County Agent, Lee County, Fla. 
In a paper before this society last year, 
Mr. Krome brought to your attention 
some recent developments of sub-tropical 
horticulture in Florida. Today I would 
like to consider for a short time the fu¬ 
ture possibilities of some of our present 
known tropical fruits, omitting entirely 
the citrus group, which has long since be¬ 
come our leading fruit crop. We have 
made considerable progress during the last 
decade, especially with the avocado, and I 
believe the day is not far distant when the 
commercial production of avocados will 
assume proportions equalling that of cit¬ 
rus, in a good many sections of our State. 
There is a large area in Florida where the 
avocado may be grown and as soon as we 
can settle on the more desirable varieties 
to grow, which is rapidly coming about, 
there will be a great impetus to the plant¬ 
ing and production of the avocado. The 
food value of the avocado is a strong point 
in its favor. It is more than a luxury al¬ 
though it may be considered as such now, 
when we think of the prices some of these 
fruits bring, on the northern markets. 
The food value of the avocado will en¬ 
courage its greater production for local 
use, and, if properly distributed and ad¬ 
vertised, I do not believe there will be any 
danger of over production in commercial 
plantings, for years to come. Our prox¬ 
imity to the markets, our climate and the 
large area within the State that may be 
devoted to the growing of avocados pe¬ 
culiarly fits Florida to lead in the produc¬ 
tion of this commodity if the growers of 
the State wish to assume that lead. The 
industry is yet young, but interest is be¬ 
coming more manifest and unless I am 
badly mistaken, there will be a large acre¬ 
age planted to avocados during the next 
few years. There will be mistakes and 
some failures as is true in the building of 
any new industry, but we may expect 
these and we must overcome them. Mis¬ 
takes and failure are more apt to be due to 
the individual rather than the principles 
underlying the industry. 
The growing of fruit or other crops 
on a commercial scale is a business propo¬ 
sition, and business principles can no more 
be ignored in the production and market¬ 
ing of avocados than in any other busi¬ 
ness. 
In my own section of the State, Lee 
county, considerable interest has been 
awakened during the last year or so in 
planting avocados. There are several 
commercial plantings now under way and 
one small nursery that had 4,000 trees for 
sale this season sold out its entire produc¬ 
tion and could have sold twice or three 
times as many. This, to me, is a favor- 
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