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70-21,834- KERR III, William Sterling, 1939- THE AVOCADO INDUSTRY IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, A STUDY OF LOCATION, PERCEPTION, AND PROSPECT. The University of Oklahoma, Ph.D., 1970 Geography University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA. GRADUATE COLLEGE THE AVOCADO INDUSTRY IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, A STUDY OF LOCATION, PERCEPTION, AND PROSPECT A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY WILLIAM STERLING KERR III Norman, Oklahoma 1970 THE AVOCADO INDUSTRY IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, A STUDY OF LOCATION, PERCEPTION, AND PROSPECT APPROVED BY DISSERTATION COMMITTEE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT % grateful appreciation goes to Dr. Harry E. Hoy for his constructive criticism of the manuscript and his able guidance and direction during the entire dissertation stage. My thanks are also due to the following scholars for their critical examination of the dissertation: Dr. Arthur H„ Doerr, Dr, Ralph E. Olson and Dr. Gary L, Thompson in geography, and Dr, Arthur J, % e r s in geology. Special thanks to my colleague, James A. Harrison, for his ideas on environmental perception. I also wish to express my thanks to California Agricultural Extension Service employees, especially county farm advisers C, D, Gustafson (San Diego), Robert Burns and B. ¥„ Lee (Ventura), and George Goodall (Santa Barbara), Moreover, I gratefully appreciate the assistance and friendship of Mid-County Calavo Field Representative, Paul Hansen, The field research could not have been completed without the assistance of these five able men. My grateful appreciation also goes to the Planning Section of the California Department of Water Resources, Southern Division, and the staffs of the Bio-Agricultural Library at the University of California at Riverside and the iii University of Oklahoma » I am indebted to the numerous grove owners, county and city planners, avocado processing plant owners and managers, and Calavo executives. Of particular note, I wish to give my deepest thanks to Richard Saunders and family of Fallbrook, California, for allowing me to maintain my research headquarters at their residence. My most appreciative acknowledgement should be made to Maria J. Kerr, my wife, who not only typed all reading drafts, but executed much of the cartography. Without her assistance this dissertation would have been a much more trying experience. Acknowledgements should also be made to Mrs., Frances Olney, typist, and Karen Wynn, cartographer. IV To my spouse, Maria Jesus Kerr, who stood by, guided, and assisted my graduate career while retaining her function as housewife and mother— Obrigado meu Maria- TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES . , X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xi Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ................................ 1 A Synthesis with a Three-Part Problem. >+ Field Approach to Data Collection........ Dissertation Design....................... 6 Objectives and Dissertation Direction. 11 II. GENERALIZED OVERVIEW OF THE AVOCADO INDUSTRY 13 Location of the Southern California Industry .................................. l4 Avocado Tree and Fruit Characteristics . 18 Origin of the Fruit....................... 20 Horticultural Botany and Avocado Varieties.................................. 2h Brief Synthesis of Horticultural, Harvesting, and Marketing Procedures . 28 Cultural Practices ..................... Irrigation Systems ..................... Harvesting and Processing............... i Marketing, Transportation, and Distribution..................... >+3 III. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE AVOCADO INDUSTRY .................................... 52 Introduction of the Avocado to California. The Birth of Calavo....................... 0 Early Commercial Development in San Diego County (1915 to ..................... 58 Mid-County and North County Avocado Acreage Trends (1915 to 19^5)............ 62 VI Chapter Page General Economic Trends During the 1920-19^5 Period........................... 6^- The Modern Commercial Era, 19^5 to the Present . ........................... 67 Avocado Acreage Shifts in the Mid- and North Counties....................... 68 San Diego County Acreage Increases. 70 Marketing Crisis and Reorganization of the 1960's.................................. 7*+ IV. PHYSICAL DETERMINANTS IN AVOCADO LOCATION . 77 Correlation of Physiography and Avocado Cluster Location........................... 78 Climate, A Determinant in Avocado Location. 85 Limitations of the Physical Location Analysis.................................. 85 Climate Controls......................... 88 Development of Microclimate Zones ........ 92 Coastal Margin (0-1 ,200+ feet)........... 9^ Interior Foothill and Valley Zone (1,200-2,000+ feet) ..................... 98 Pollination and Fruit Setting Phenomena . 102 Minimum and Maximum Temperature Tolerances.................................. 104- Summary of the Physical Location Variables.................................. 106 V. ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS AND GROWER PERCEPTION . 109 Short Term Environmental Hazards. ..... 110 Santa Ana Wind Condition................. 110 The Wildfire H a z a r d ..................... 115 Flood Devastation in Avocado Districts. 116 Frost Damage............................. 119 Smog, An Environmental Avocado Hazard . 123 Soils and Avocado Location as a Prelude to Root Rot Hazard......................... 125 Generalized Soil Geography of the Avocado Belt and the Root Rot Hazard............... 127 Perception of Environmental Hazards in the Avocado Industry....................... 13^ Vll Chapter Page VI. INTEGRATING ELEMENTS IN THE AVOCADO INDUSTRY, THEIR INFLUENCE AND FUNCTION................... 139 Calavo Growers of California................. 1*+1 Independent Handlers. ..................... 1*+5 California Avocado Advisory Board ........... 1^9 California Avocado Development Organization............................... 1 53 California Avocado Society................... 156 Influence of the California Agricultural Extension Service ......................... 161 VII. REGIONAL ATTITUDES AND TERRITORIAL OCCUPANCY, A PERCEPTUAL STUDY OF THE THREE AVOCADO REGIONS ....................... 165 Mid-County Regional Character ........ - . 166 San Diego County, God's Little One to Four Acres.................................. 173 North Counties, A Professional Farmer E l e m e n t .................................... 18^ VIII. FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE POTENTIAL DISINTEGRATION OF THE CALIFORNIA AVOCADO INDUSTRY...................................... 193 Labor Problems............................. 193 Root Rot Problem........................... 197 Impact of Urbanization on the Avocado Industry.................................... 20k The M.d-Counties, An Advanced Stage of Avocado Decline....................... 209 North County Avocado Future ............ 217 Shifting Spatial Pattern of the Southern District ....................... 221 Political Program for the Preservation of Avocado Land-Use ....................... 223 Avocado Boundary Expansion Potential. 228 Florida Avocado Acreage Potential .... 230 Mexican Avocado Expansion ............... 231 IX. SUMMARY AND REMARKS .......................... 237 S u m m a r y .................................... 237 Suggestions and Conclusions ............... 238 BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................... 2^-2 Vlll Page APPENDICES I. CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ACREAGE, PRODUCTION, YIELDS, AND GROWER RETURNS 19*+9 TO 1968. 259 II. 1969 AVOCADO PLANTINGS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA .................................. Pocket IX LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1 . California Avocado Acreage by Major Producing Counties, 19*+5, 19505 and I960 to Date. 19 2 . Characteristics of the Four Recommended Avocado Varieties ........................... 27 3. Survey of Food Stores Handling Avocados and the Number of California Shippers .......... ^9 If. Climatic Data for Selected South Coast Stations in the Coastal and Interior Zones ........................................ 96 5. Root Hazard Related to Soil Series............ 128 6. A Sampling of Avocado Groves Ownership in the Mid-Counties, San Diego, and Ventura Counties (Sampling Total 1,259) ............. 167 7. 1968 Costs to Establish a 10 Acre Fuerte Orchard in San Diego County ................. 175 8. 1968 Costs to Produce a 10 Acre Fuerte Avocado Crop in San Diego County............. 175 9. 1968 Costs of Establishing a 10 Acre Hass Avocado Grove in Ventura County ............ 186 10. 1968 Costs to Produce a 10 Acre Hass Avocado Crop in Ventura County ..................... 186 11. Avocado Root Rot Survey ....................... 202 12. Population Trend in the Seven South Coast Counties, 1930-1990 ......................... 206 13. Historic Relationships Between Population and Total Avocado Acreage in Seven South Coast Counties............................... 210 X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1 . Southern California Avocado Clusters , 2 2. Avocado Production and Imports in the United States....................... 15 3 . World Commercial Avocado Production. 16 1+. South Coast Avocado Districts, 19^5» • • • 65 5 . Physiography of the South Coast Region . 79 6. Summer Inversion Layer Aloft Over Southern California..................... 91 7. South Coast Micro-Climate Zones. 95 8. Southern California Valley Inversion . 100 9 . Generalized Soil Parent Material of California's South Coast ........ 130 10. Projection of Avocado Acreage in Los Angeles County ................... 212 11. Projected

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