The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-08-25
AVOCADO PEARS GROWING II
POPULARITY

Florida fruit growers, who have
planted hundreds of acres in alliga-
tor pear trees, are complaining,
through New York commission mer-
chants, about the almost prohibitive
prices placed upon the fruit by the
retail grocers and fruiterers who hau-
die it in the uptown market, says the
New York Evening Post. The result
of this policy, the growers declare,
is to give out the impression that alli-
gator pears are a luxury to be af-
forded only by those in affluence.
According to their statements, the
alligator or avocado pear is as COM
mon an article of consumption IN
Florida as the we'll known Baruett
pear is in this state, and costs as lit
tie to raise. Nevertheless, on Broad
way, Fifth and Sixth avenues, their
representatives. assert the early va
riety of the fruit now imported from
Porto Rico and Cuba, is offered and
sold for 35, 40. so and even as high
as IS cents. Last season the Florida
pears sold as high, and sometimes
higher, than the imported product.
Come High in Gotham
Il asked the price of an alligator
pear today on Broadway" said one
grower, who was in the city arrang-
ing for the sale of his fruit, land was
told that I could have it for rs cents.
The pear in question was not as good
as any stranger will be able to buy
for cents in Florida later in the sea-
son.
why, we pack and sell crate con-
tanning three dozen pears for $1.75,
and the freight northt is not worth
mentioning. Retailers here admit
that they are making 200 per cent.
profit, and, of course, if they can
keep up the fad by making the richer
classes believe that only they can af-
ford to buy the fruit, they will contin-
lie to make their 200 per cent. by
handing a minimum amount of pro-
duce.
Alligator pears can be bought
here for 81 a dozen, and retailed for
25 cents eacn. and still give the re-
taller so per cent. profit. They can
be sold for Is cents a piece. and net
good profit. In parts of Florida
children get them for nothing, and al
most every door yard has two or
more trees which bear plenty of fruit
each season.
A Product of India
The alligator pear originally came
from India, where it became I'M
mensely popular with the resident,
tourest and business classes of for
eigners. In shape it is both round
and "gooseneck." 1t has an oil taste,
is purple when ripe, looks unlike an
egg plant, and is commonly eaten
with spoon, after having been
spinkled with pepper and salt Many
prefer to eat it with sugar and cream,
as desert, although epicures say
it should be served as a salad.
Recognizing the many uses of the
fruit as an inexpensive dish for all
classes, Tie Florida fruit growers i'm
ported it for cultivation in the won
derful soil of that tropical state, and
the several hundred acres that
have been planted in it are beginning
to produce a heavy harvest Indica-
tons are for a big crop this summer,
and after the last of July the pears
will begin to come north in quantities.
Expense is Slight
Little or no exjense is attached to
the cultivation of an orchard of AMI
gator pear trees in Florida. They
grow rapidly and mature four years
after being set out. They put out
their blossoms first, then shed their
leaves and are clothed again with a
second growth. The fruit does not
have to be picked until it is fully ma
tured, and such is it's nature that an
extremely small percentage of ship
ments suffers by decay.
Now, however, with a big crop COM
ing on, the growers are confronted
with the problem of seeing it go to
waste. for the reason that the public
has been led to believe that the
pears are to be eaten only by the
enormously rich. What the Florida
growers want to know is how much
the New York retailers are going TO