The Sturdy Avocado

Thirty years ago only the rich could afford the strange meaty taste of avocado pears. Now avocados cost around a dime apiece instead of $5. West Indian avocados are grown in Florida, and some 13,000,000 pounds were imported last season from Cuba (certain spectacular avocados weigh two pounds apiece). But most avocados eaten in the U. S. come from California. Californians look down their noses at the West Indian article; California avocados are Guatemalan or Mexican or a cross beween the two. The Fuerte, a hybrid, called "the sturdy" because it shivered through the Big Freeze of 1913, makes up 75% of California avocados.

In 1911 a young Californian named Carl Schmidt discovered the Fuerte in the patio of Senor Alejandro LeBlanc in Atlixco, Mexico. He sent a few buds back home, the middle classes of the U. S. began to hanker after avocados, and in 1934-35 there was a bumper crop of 20,000,000 pounds which brought in $600,000 to California avocado growers. But last year there was another Big Freeze, which went hard with avocados. Ordinarily, the avocado harvest lasts through the summer, but by last week this season's harvest was over.

This week avocado growers had nothing much to do. Combining sentiment with institutional advertising in good California fashion, 50 of them will start off on a 16-day pilgrimage promoted by the California Avocado Association, which carefully labels itself "a Cultural (non-marketing) Society." The pilgrims will go by train (price of upper berth: $205) to see Senor LeBlanc's parent avocado tree in Atlixco. There, on Easter, they will gather round the tree and listen to numerous complimentary speeches from U. S. Ambassador Josephus Daniels and Mexican dignitaries. They will present a gold medal to Senor LeBlanc, a gold medal to Mr. Schmidt. To the music of Mexican bands they will unveil a tablet, suitably inscribed.

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