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Rancho California, Almuñécar (Granada)
8 Sept 1958

Dear Mario:

On returning here from the Islas Canarias three days ago
I found your letter of 25 August, and Luis Sarasola has shown me the
grafts he made with the scions you sent of Nabal, Booth 3 and Gottfried.
I think Nabal is especially important here, tho all three of these varie-
ties are interesting. We now have a total of about 30 varieties grafted
but cannot depend on keeping all them; the soil here does not drain well
and it is a constant struggle to keep the men from giving the trees too
much water.

Our stay in the Canarias was very interesting; ten days at Orotava,
where there is a wonderful little Jardín de Acclimatación established in
1788 - just full of interesting trees from all parts of the world. I did
not find as many avocados in the Canarias as I had expected, but there
are quite a few, practically all of them West Indian seedlings from Cuba
I suppose. We were only on the island of Tenerife, which is the largest
of the group; I calculated that there might be 2000 avocado trees on
the island, and with the exception of some 250 young grafted trees, mostly
Fuertes, they are all WI seedlings. We brought back here 300 seeds to
grow rootstocks. Our climate here is much more like that of southern
Florida than southern California, I feel sure; but it seems to me a com-
bination of the two, since the Mexicans do well here, and also the Guate-
malans and to a certain extent the West Indians. These latter will have
to be grown in the regions which are practically frost-free, like Almuñécar.

Many thanks for the pictures of the new mango orchard. It sure looks
good and it was pleasant to see Lippens in fruit. Next year you may get
a good crop from this orchard. Incidentally, Billy Krome writes me from
Homestead that he is sick of the mango business. This year he got nine
bushels of fruit from 30 acres of Hadens.

I am not surprised that you have not heard from Ticho about the
capulín scions; he is not a good correspondent, but he is a grand person
just the same. A lot of people are that way! Incidentally, I doubt that
the capulín will ever become important in Israel but I would like to see
them test it.

I have not heard from Mr Pansiot in Rome since we came back from
our trip to Israel, but I imagine they are expecting to give you a job
after the first of the year. If not, there is an interesting opportunity
in Venezuela about which they - the people of the Fundación Eugenio
Mendoza in Caracas - have been writing me. This Fundación has a lot of
money and has done some good work along several lines; they say that
have not been able to do much with fruits for lack of good personnel.
They have asked me to come there to make plans, but I can not do it
soon, in any case, as I am hoping to settle down here for the winter and
write a "Manual Práctico de Fruticultura Tropical" for Salvat Editores
of Barcelona. I think this work would have real value in tropical America
for many years to come. I have told the Fundación Mendoza that they
would be lucky if they could get you to organise and start their program
of fruit improvement, training two or three local men to carry on.
I wonder what happened to the program in Salvador? As far as I know, they
did not send you any boys to train; and until they have two or three
good propagators I don't see how they can expect very good results.

Mrs Popenoe joins me in good wishes to all of you