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THE POMELO IN CALIFORNIA AND THE PHILIPPINES.
Written for the California Cultivator by Prof. C. F. Baker, University of the Philippines.
The matter of the pome洛 in the Philippines which I find to be common here is one of the poorest fruits of this class I have ever seen in any subtropical region—thick-skinned, abundantly seeded, and extraordinarily dry, tasteless, and unpalatable. I believe, however, that it will make a good stock for these regions. I had not been here long when Mr. Cuzner of the college of agriculture called my attention to a pome洛 he had received from Hongkong, apparently originally from the region about Canton. It is a large fruit and one of the most uniquely valuable fruits I have ever seen or heard of, even after many years of experience with pome洛s in many countries. The skin is not very thick and may readily be stripped from the fruit, although not loose as in a tangerine or mandarin. The sections are large and few-seeded, the pulp sacs very juicy and tender. The fruit is very slightly acid at the stem end, where it is also slightly fleshy. Most remarkable of all, the skin of the sections can easily be stripped off as is the outer skin, thus rendering the ne plus ultra of pome洛s for table use. Its flavor is exquisite, very sweet, slightly aromatic, and with the bitterness confined to the dissepiments.
This remarkable pome洛, which I am naming the "Cuzner Pome洛," we are planting in seed only, and I have sent several seed to Southern California, to Mr. Popeno and to Mr. Corneil. This is, of course, to a large extent a futile operation, though it is still a very interesting one. We hope to get buds. Every year our work is replete with just such hopes—perennial hopes. But here is the vital point! Why in the world has not Southern California long since ransacked Southern China, Indo-China, Burma, India, the Malay states and islands, and Ceylon, where citrus fruits have been grown for countless centuries and where extensive seed planting with a certain natural selection has now prepared the way for a possible scientific selection that will out-Burbank any operation of the sort ever undertaken by even Burbank—to bring together in her most favored localities for extensive trials all these most valuable varieties unknown to pomology, but many of which promise most certainly to add to and enhance in great degree her most possible and practicable assets. Similar things have been done for the alfalfa, the wheat and oats, and other industries with marvellous results.
Every year is deferred means another year of possible development and advancement lost. Private planters cannot undertake it. The state or the federal government, or privately endowed pomological gardens, should certainly do this at once—the wonder is why they have not done it long ago.
In a recent letter from Mr. Jeffrey, the State Commissioner of Horticulture to the Department of Biology of Pomona College, he says:
"The loyalty of your department is not questioned, and it is being appreciated all over the South in the assistance you give to the fruit and kindred interests. For a college recognized as a center from which emanates a most practical influence in horticulture, I could give numerous examples in which steady influences originating in your department have been felt. You have much to rescue the cause of horticultural commissioner from politics and other baneful perils; you have done much to enlighten the fruit growers upon the benefits of pest controlling; your department has enlivened its surroundings with a corps of young assistants, whose achievements in a cooperative way are known to all; it has given its support to every forward movement whether originating with you or with some one else."
The avocado is one of our most recent fruits and, while still rarely unknown in the North, the demand for this fruit is increasing steadily as the people become accustomed to its peculiarities. It is placed in the vegetable department. Until the last five or six years it was thought that the avocado came true to seed, and attempts to propagate good varieties successively were scuttled or had failed. Great credit is due Prof. P. H. Rolfe, now of Lake City, and Mr. George B. Cohen, of Miami, Fla., who did the pioneer work in budding the avocado.
As in the early days of the orange industry the budding of citrus fruits was at first considered a complicated operation, but the difficulties are rapidly being cleared away as experience is accumulated, and in our experiments at the Subtropical Laboratory, I have frequently succeeded in getting an average of 75 per cent. of buds to develop into trees. The general impression is that the best material for transplanting and budding trees being expensive, parties buying trees prefer to purchase them established in boxes or pots. To meet this demand the seed is placed in the pot and allowed to remain until it is ready to bud the next spring; or it is planted in a nursery in rows three and one-half feet apart, four and one-half feet apart, six to eight inches apart in the row, where the trees grow until they are budded and ready for the market when they are taken out of the nursery and planted in pots or boxes and allowed to remain until they are well established, which will take from four to six weeks. Boxes 5x5x12, or 6x6x12 are more suitable than pots, being less liable to breakage in transit; also because plants grown in pots are not so well braced against the winds after being set out.
The method of budding is the same as that employed in the budding of citrus fruits. Many complaints have come to my notice that the buds do not take or that they do not start readily. This is due either to an inherent difficulty in the avocado to be budded, but rather to the inexperience of the performer, either in budding or more frequently in the selection of bud-wood. Only well-developed buds should be inserted, and rather larger fine cut buds—certainly not less than three-fourths of an inch in length and preferably one inch, as small buds are frequently
