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but only one produces fruit of really good quality- I am trying to
propagate it. The bud came from California and the fruit looks like
a large Fuerte. Some years ago a friend of mine who owned some
restaurants in New York saved avocado seeds and so gathered several
hundred which he turned over to me, and I in turn gave them
to the Botanical Garden here, but they did not have much luck with
them. I think they kept them too wet. In the meantime we put several
buds on an old unproductive tree and now it is producing fruit of
two varieties. Those who have tasted the fruit don't know (and therefore don't like) avocados and therefore it is difficult to develop
interest in avocado planting, even on an experimental scale. However,
I have given away trees, here and there, and some of them are beginning
to come into flower."

Mr. Fenzi's letter probably covers the situation pretty well.
Helen and I went down the coast beyond Naples, as far as Sorrento.
Seeing so many lemon trees in that region I was hopeful we might find
a few avocados; but we did not see a single one. Again, say, where
you can grow lemons I don't see why you can't grow avocados - if you
want to do so. The trouble is, nobody wants to! Incidentally, the
way they handle their lemons and oranges down below Naples is interesting. I couldn't figure it out at first. They set high posts through
the small orchards, stretch wires between them, and in winter run out
half-shade mats made of wild cane (which they keep rolled up during the
summer) to protect the trees from frost.

Apparently there is no particular reason to expect extensive development of avocado growing in Italy during what folks these like to call
the "foreseeable future". They just are interested. But if those
Italian horticulturists ever go in for avocados they will do a swell job. They are really great horticulturists.