The Florida agriculturist., 1907-10-23

Under this heading the HOmeSeeker
tells of the boom which the Avocado
is having on the East Coast. There
is considerable territory on the West
Coast which is as free from frost as
the East Coast, and we see no reason
why the growing Of the Avocado should
not be as profitable there, as anywhere
During the past several years there
has been much written reardlng this
most wonderful of all fruits, if fruit it
may be called. 1t is native OF the East
India Isles and other tropical countries
where it is used more as a food than q
delicacy; in fact, in some Of the wilder
provinces thu natives during its season
rely largely On this fruit for their sus-
tenance.
Years ago, long before the railroad
was ever Tilt into Dade county, the
country around Miami, Cocoanut
Grove and other places on the Bis
cayne Bay was sparcely settled by peo-
pie from Key West and in some cases
from Cuba. These people had been &C
customed to the avocado, and in cum-
ing to tn cir new possessions, seeds Of
this fruit were brought and planted
Around these old places avocado trees
Of immense size are found. The orig
inal settlers gave the trees no atten-
ton and they grew as the forest trees
grow, without care or fertilizer. The
natives were also satisfied with aRy
kind of fruit the tree might grow, tax
ing no pains to bud or graft the better
varieties. In a grove of large num-
Der of trees there would be no two
precisely alike. Some would resemble
the parent fruit while in other cases
there would be a marked difference ir
appearance, size and quality.
It was not until after the extension
of the Florida East Coast Railway
that the avocado became known in the
Northern markets. The people who
came and settled here about the time
of the extension of the road, and later
soon became as fond of the avocado
as the native settlers, and those who
purchased one of these old places be-
gan shipping the fruit to New York
and market was soon found for al
the avOcadoes that were grown here
then or since. The new settlers begar
planting the seed, and now the avocado
is found on every plantation and is one
of the staple foods Each year they
have advanced in price, and this year
the price has ranged from 65 cents tc
$I.5o per dozen. This was for the
product of the seeding trees; but bud
ded fruit, such as the Pollock, have sold
as high as $500 and over per dozen
Up to within the last three years all
the avOcadoes grown here were seed
lings. no two alike in shape, color OF
quality. The fruit had become sc
pupular and brought such prices that
experiments were made in budding anG
grating. which have proven successful
1t is claimed by some who are engaged
in propagating budded avocadoes that
they are difficult to bud or graft, and
this makes the trees expensive to pur-
chase; in fact, so much so that the
farmers have not generally commenced
nlanf1ng out large areas Of them
Professor Wester, of the United States
Tropical Gardens at Miami, has taken
great interest in the propagation of the
avocado and has demonstrated that the
trees can be budded with almost as
much certainty of success as the citrus
trees For the last two or three wears
Professor Wester has been budding
some of the best strains of the avocado
and these he has distributed among
tho growers, and now there are many
N''d'ed trees throughout this Southcr
sectiOn
The first to take up the propagation
OF the avocado on a large scale was
GEORGE B. Cellor who owns a place
little north Of Miami. The first to
nj nj lar0e1u Of The rfr..:4 Liza MILL.