"To , , and in 1911 came the twenty-one year-old American, Carl Schmidt. Schmidt was employed by the West Indian Nursery in . His task was to search the Mexican marketplace for avocados of outstanding quality and to locate the trees from which they came. He cut budwood from the best trees, numbered each, and shipped them by to Altadena. Many buds refused to adapt to the soil and climate of California; but number 15, which Schmidt cut from a tree in the garden of Alejandro Le Blanc, flourished. When it survived the great freeze of 1913, its strength was officially recognized and it was given the name —Spanish for vigorous and strong. The 'Fuerte' tree that Schmidt found in Atlixco became the mother tree for California's avocado industry."