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314 CEIBA VOL. 4
1956 CURRENT METHODS 319

mercial plantings to such an extent that Florida now has
a Lychee Association devoted exclusively to the commercial
production and marketing of this excellent fruit.

Many other men took part in the early development
of tropical fruit growing in Florida. I call to mind at this
moment Dean H. Harold Hume of the College of Agriculture,
University of Florida, and Harold Mowry, Director
of Experiment Stations; T. Ralph Robinson of the U. S.
Department of Agriculture, who did valuable work on
avocados and papayas, as well as citrus; the Dorn Brothers
of Larkin, south of Miami, who were pioneers in the cultivation
of avocados and mangos; and J. L. Hickson of Miami
who had one of the early orchards. I mention all of these
because they are among those whom I knew personally;
others I have not omitted intentionally.

And now, to come nearer home, I should mention that
the work done in Florida in the early days naturally was
reflected in neighboring regions, of which I believe the most
important were Cuba and Puerto Rico. In a recent and
interesting booklet entitled "El Mango", H. A. Van
Herrmann, dean of tropical fruit specialists in Cuba, recounts
that George B. Cellon in 1906 supplied Roland R. Conklin
100 Mulgoba mangos for planting near Habana; at about
the same time others were sent to Mr. Runyon at Guanajay,
and to the Isle of Pines. These plantings were doomed to
failure because Mulgoba produced small and irregular
crops, but the work of propagating and testing varieties at
"Finca Mulgoba" was carried on by Mr. Van Herrmann
for many years. Slightly later than in Cuba, I believe,
plantings of grafted mangos were made in Puerto Rico, and
useful work in propagation and cultural practices was done
at the Agricultural Experiment Station in Mayagüez by
Hess and by Kinman.

So now I come back to my original question or a variation thereof: Just what bearing does all this have upon fruit
growing in tropical America generally? We owe to workers
in Florida, and to a less degree, those of other regions,
much of our present knowledge regarding the propagation
and care of tropical fruits in general. Captain Haden of
Coconut Grove, Florida, produced the Haden mango, a
seedling of Mulgoba, the most important grafted variety

Side grafting the avocado. On the right, the graft is completed and
tied with rubber grafting strip

The tree will be ready for setting in the field in five
to seven months from the time it is grafted. If these young
trees are kept another year in the original gallon container,
they become root-bound and are very unsatisfactory for
planting in the field. Should it be desirable to hold the trees
longer, they should be transferred to three — or five —
gallon containers at the end of the first year.

Veneer grafting in the nursery is sometimes practiced
if the young succulent reetstocks become too hard or too
old for the side graft. These stocks can be of pencil size or
even twice to three times that diameter. Where they have
attained considerable size transfer should be made to larger